Bikini Kill - Hanna and Her Sisters

Rock and social activism: a pairing that has always worked. From the anti-capitalist revolution of Rage Against The Machine to the civil rights struggles of U2; many have made this aspect their trademark, with varying degrees of success. There are, however, grey areas: in some cases protest is a shortcut to boosting one's own popularity, in others there are those who "preach one thing and do another" (one example above all: the controversial relationship between the Irish tax system and Bono Vox and co.). In short, taking a stand and fighting for an idea doesn't always equate to integrity and consistency. This isn't the case with Bikini Kill, champions of militant punk feminism and the Riot grrrl movement, who never compromised and were always on the front line defending women's rights. Despite a very brief career confined mostly to the underground scene – largely by their own choice, given their stubborn refusal to give interviews to mainstream media – their impact on the movement and its ideas was decisive, and a major inspiration, among others, for the Russian collective Pussy Riot, who in recent years have often found themselves at the center of world news.

Kathleen Hanna (vocals) and Tobi Vail (drums) founded Bikini Kill in 1990. They attended Evergreen State College, a public university in Olympia, the capital of Washington State. The two women already had some small musical experience: Hanna sang in Amy Carter and toured with Viva Knievel, while Vail played with The Go Team. Much of their activity revolved around the small art gallery "Reko Muse", which organized concerts and exhibitions. Several of Kathleen Hanna's works, who studied photography in college, were also shown there. To pay for her tuition and save money for her musical projects, Hanna worked for a time as a stripper. During the same period, she volunteered at a crisis center for abused women. Tobi Vail worked with the Evergreen State College radio station, KAOS FM, which in 1987 broadcast a live performance by Nirvana, in one of their very first public appearances. The band was rounded out by bassist Kathi Wilcox, a film studies student, and guitarist Billy Karren, a former member of The Go Team. The only man in the lineup, Karren almost always stayed in the background: he didn't take part in interviews and often wasn't even seen in the band's photos.

Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail and Kathi Wilcox took part in many initiatives organized by Olympia's feminist movements, contributing to various small amateur magazines. In a rather unique case, the band actually started out as a fanzine, also called "Bikini Kill". The idea of transferring their activism and the content of their articles into music was driven mainly by the desire to spread their message more effectively. For this same reason, at their concerts they handed out flyers presenting the principles of the Riot grrrl movement. The term, which refers to both a musical genre and a current of third-wave feminism, comes from the title of another self-published zine that Hanna and Vail contributed to, which in turn drew on the phrase Revolution Grrrl Style Now, often used in the fanzine "Jigsaw". Riot grrrl emerged as a phenomenon within the punk community, as a form of protest against a scene dominated by men, who often failed to take seriously the women trying to get involved in music. In the late 80s, feminism in the United States was still strong and alive, but often confined to academic debate. One of the main goals of Riot grrrl was instead the need to build a broad network of women, through conferences, meetings and alternative press, capable of raising awareness and drawing even younger girls into the fight for women's rights. Much of their activism focused on sensitive issues such as violence, harassment, sexuality, and discrimination based on weight or physical appearance. The key to it all was dialogue: every woman had to be able to speak about her own problems, discussing even uncomfortable topics like rape, which in the early 90s was still often considered a strictly personal matter, unfit to be addressed in public. Bikini Kill wanted to build a truly alternative female punk scene, awakening, through the energy of their music and lyrics, the revolutionary power of the girls in their audience. At their shows, Bikini Kill encouraged women in the crowd to take the spots at the front of the stage and pushed men to make room for them, both to interact and talk with the women present, and as a gesture of protest against the male violence that, between pogoing and moshing, often had no qualms about hurting and harming women at shows too.

This stance might seem sexist; in reality, Riot grrrl and Bikini Kill are nothing of the sort. Proof of this lies in the many male artists who support the movement and are fans of the band. Among them, the most famous are undoubtedly Nirvana.

The bond between Bikini Kill and Nirvana was strong: in 1990 Tobi Vail had a brief relationship with Kurt Cobain, and Dave Grohl dated Kathleen Hanna. It was Hanna herself who wrote, on the wall of Cobain's bedroom, the joking phrase "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit". Teen Spirit was the brand of deodorant Tobi Vail used at the time, but the Seattle band's singer and guitarist didn't know that. Not understanding the real reference, he read a deeper meaning into it, so much so that he decided to use it as the title for one of his new songs. Without meaning to, Hanna had given the title to one of the most famous songs in rock history.

Bikini Kill's first recording is an eight-track demo tape, "Revolution Girl Style Now!", made in 1991. In August of that year the band, alongside other major names such as L7, Melvins and Fugazi, took part in one of the most important events tied to the Riot Grrrl movement, the International Pop Underground Convention, held in Olympia. After signing with the independent label Kill Rock Stars, the band released their debut Ep, Bikini Kill, in 1992, produced by Ian MacKaye (Fugazi, Minor Threat) and made up largely of songs from the cassette recorded the previous year.

In March 1993 came a split album called "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" with the English feminist band Huggy Bear. In 1994, the songs from these first two releases were collected on The CD Version Of The First Two Records. The record perfectly captures all the hallmarks of Bikini Kill's style: rough, raw punk, tied to its roots and stripped to the essentials, with a lo-fi attitude. Kathleen Hanna's voice is shrill yet aggressive at the same time; at times she can recall a female version of John Lydon. The collection also reveals the band's melodic side, still very much in its infancy, on tracks like "Carnival" and "Feels Blind". Hanna's lyrics are steeped in feminism and the ideas of the Riot Grrrl movement: "Double Dare Ya" is a call for punk girls to unite and start a revolution; "Suck My Left One" and "White Boy" tackle difficult subjects like incest, harassment and rape. "Thurston Hearts The Who" – dedicated to Thurston Moore, singer and guitarist of Sonic Youth – is the longest song in the band's entire career (just under four minutes) and a strange one: a sort of spoken word piece over a noise backdrop, which sounds like it was recorded live. "Rebel Girl" is the album's standout track, Bikini Kill's great classic and a Riot Grrrl anthem. The "rebel girl" of the title is strong, outgoing and able to draw everyone's attention; the ideal model of the emancipated woman capable of standing up to adversity, though told with a heavy dose of sarcasm. "Rebel Girl" strongly recalls "Cherry Bomb" by the Runaways, the legendary all-female hard rock band of the '70s and one of the key reference points for Kathleen Hanna and co. "Outta Me", a power-pop song built on a clean guitar chord progression, closes out the collection.

Bikini Kill's true debut album, however, is Pussy Whipped, released in 1993. Produced by Stuart Hallerman, it shows a more mature band with greater confidence in their instruments, as well as noticeably better production quality than the two Eps gathered on the 1994 compilation. The style remains the same: simple, direct punk, rough and without frills, though this time also nodding to '80s American hardcore acts like Black Flag and Germs. More than the music, it's once again Kathleen Hanna's lyrics that are at the heart of the record: from the schizophrenic feminism of "Alien She" to the furious declaration of female emancipation in "Magnet", by way of the scathing critique of women reduced to sexual objects in "Sugar". "Speed Heart" opens as a kind of blues with "Seattle-ish" tones before erupting into the usual punk tirade, with the singer screaming at the top of her lungs.

The album closes with "For Tammy Rae", a love song – almost a ballad, more grunge than punk – dedicated to a friend of Kathleen Hanna's, photographer Tammy Rae Carland. The album also includes a new version of "Rebel Girl", which here sounds fuller and more defined, but lacks the raw energy and laid-back feel of the original recording.

To promote Pussy Whipped, Bikini Kill set off on a long, exhausting tour that took them to the UK alongside Huggy Bear. That experience is documented in the film "It Changed My Life: Bikini Kill In The Uk", which features plenty of footage of the American band's fiery performances. Around the same time, Hanna and her bandmates began working in the studio with the legendary Joan Jett, guitarist of Runaways fame and famous for her version of "I Love Rock'n'Roll" by the Arrows. Jett produced three songs for them: the single "New Radio", "Demirep" and a third version of "Rebel Girl". These tracks also appear on the compilation The Singles, released in 1998. In 1994 Kathleen Hanna returned the favor, co-writing as many as five songs on Joan Jett's album "Pure and Simple". That same year, the Riot Grrrl girls and Bikini Kill began drawing press attention, with features devoted to them in Seventeen and Newsweek, which mistakenly cast the band as leaders of the new punk-feminism phenomenon. The papers stopped at surface appearances, without ever considering the content of the songs or the messages of the movement, among them a harsh condemnation of violence against women and the desire to build a large, united, active community. The media, instead, seemed interested mainly in punk's more scandalous side and in the way the bands presented themselves onstage.

After false stories about her began circulating – one article claimed her father had sexually abused her as a child – Kathleen Hanna decided to stop giving interviews or statements to the press, except to punk or feminist fanzines. In 1995, however, the Bikini Kill frontwoman was involved in an ugly incident that once again drew the attention of the major US media. The singer was a guest at a concert by her friends Sonic Youth, on a stop of the Lollapalooza tour, and was watching their set from the side of the stage. Courtney Love's Hole were also part of that year's traveling festival lineup. Backstage, Cobain's widow and Kathleen Hanna met for the first time in their lives, and sparks flew immediately: Love accused Hanna of having been her husband's worst enemy and the cause of his ruin, attacking her without any reason and very violently, throwing a lit cigarette at her and punching her in the face. The incident was condemned by everyone, receiving wide coverage in newspapers and on television. Kurt Loder even put together a segment on it for Mtv News. Courtney Love, contrary to what one might think, had always been critical of Riot Grrrl, accusing it of being too rigid and self-serious a movement, lacking any sense of humor.

In 1996 Bikini Kill released their final record, Reject All American, distributed by Kill Rock Stars and produced by John Goodmanson. We're still in punk territory, but different influences and styles begin to emerge. It opens with the garage rock of the opening track "Statement Of Vindication", moving through the post-punk of "No Backrub" – which at times recalls Gang Of Four – and the pop of "False Start", which even features a xylophone in the verse and sounds like a tribute to Lush. There are also a couple of slower tracks: "R.I.P", a power-pop ballad dedicated to a friend who died of Aids, and "For Only", an almost surf-rock piece accompanied by a trumpet solo.

There's no shortage of politically charged lyrics and pointed jabs, as in "Tony Randall", a harsh critique of the media, blamed for having cast the band and the Riot Grrrl movement's feminism in the worst possible light. The album's closing track, fittingly titled "Finale", plays like a genuine farewell from Bikini Kill to the scene and its audience, with Kathleen Hanna repeating "Time to go" right up until the guitar solo that closes out the song. "Finale" is, among the tracks on this last record, the one that most closely resembles the songs from the first two Eps, collected in 1994 on The CD Version Of The First Two Records.

Reject All American failed to draw much attention from audiences or critics: it was probably released at the wrong time, just as interest in the band and in Riot Grrrl was fading fast. Even so, it's a good record; there are clear signs of maturity, a newfound willingness to experiment, and a more pop-leaning, "Ramones-esque" sound. Kathleen Hanna proves herself a superb performer: she still brings the same drive and energy, but this time leans more on melody than on her shrill screams. To promote the album, the band put together one last big tour, their first to go worldwide. They even made it to Italy, playing six shows in Turin, Padua, Bologna, Florence, Milan and Rome. All of it still marked by financial struggle: despite their modest success, Bikini Kill remained a purely underground phenomenon right to the end. The Olympia band's live career came to a close in May 1997, with three consecutive shows in Tokyo. After returning to the United States, Kathleen Hanna and her bandmates announced, without much fanfare, that they were calling it quits.

After Bikini Kill's end, Karren, Vail and Wilcox kept playing together as the Frumpies, a punk band active from 1992 to 2000. They were joined by Bratmobile drummer Molly Neuman. The Frumpies released three Eps and one album, "Frumpie One-Piece", put out in 1998. In 1997 Kathleen Hanna began a relationship with Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz of the Beastie Boys (they would marry nine years later) and moved to New York. There she began working on the debut of her solo project, called Julie Ruin. The self-titled album was released in 1998 by Kill Rock Stars: written and recorded entirely on her own, it marked a clear departure from her former band's punk sound, made up instead of lo-fi tracks with a strong electronic component.

The attitude and subject matter of the lyrics, still centered on women's role in society, remain the same as ever; the music, by contrast, is very different, though still rough around the edges. The reference points are no longer Ramones and Germs, but Beck, Prince, and the Beastie Boys of her partner Ad-Rock.

Out of this project, again in 1998, came Le Tigre. The group formed when Hanna joined forces with Johanna Fateman and Sadie Benning, the musicians who were meant to perform the Julie Ruin songs live with her. The sound on offer wasn't all that different: electronic rock, with dance and post-punk elements, and an often "radio-friendly" sound, no longer lo-fi and closer to the trends of the early 2000s (Peaches, Soulwax). The trio released three albums: Le Tigre (1999), Feminist Sweepstakes (2001) and This Island (2004). The latter was the first Kathleen Hanna made with a major label, Universal.

Also in 2004, Bikini Kill's former singer appeared on "Letterbomb", a track featured on Green Day's massive hit album "American Idiot".

In 2005 Kathleen Hanna was forced to put Le Tigre's activities on hold due to a mysterious illness, which wouldn't be correctly diagnosed until 2010. She suffers from Lyme disease, a rare condition that causes severe muscle and joint pain and seriously disrupted her career. In 2009, Le Tigre briefly reunited to produce Christina Aguilera's song "My Girls", in collaboration with Peaches. The following year, Hanna announced her return to the scene with a new band, The Julie Ruin, reviving the name of her solo project from the late '90s. On bass was Kathi Wilcox, also a former member of Bikini Kill.

Their first record, Run Fast, was released in 2013, and stands as a kind of summation of all of Kathleen Hanna's previous projects: there's still the electronics of the three Le Tigre albums, a return to the lo-fi vein of Julie Ruin, but also more rock-leaning moments, at times even verging on punk. The album was promoted with a new tour, cut short in 2014 due to the worsening of Kathleen's health. The missed dates were made up with new shows in the spring and summer of 2015.

Despite its underground nature and a success that was always limited – probably also sacrificed due to its granite-like consistency and refusal of any form of compromise – today Kathleen Hanna and Bikini Kill have earned well-deserved recognition. In 2012 the new label Bikini Kill Records was launched, reissuing the band's entire catalogue and reigniting interest in the Olympia quartet, who are now being discovered by a younger audience too.

Hanna is still an active, militant feminist, and often takes part in conferences and talks at major American colleges. Her musical and political career is celebrated in the wonderful documentary dedicated to her, “The Punk Singer” (2013) by Sini Anderson.

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