Bikini Kill: Bikini Kill (12"EP) [BIKINI KILL]

Why you'll love it

This 12" EP on the band's own label adds a lyric insert and a 34 x 21 inch fanzine poster with interviews with Ian MacKaye and Molly Neuman, liner notes by Layla Gibbon and pages from the band's zines. Bikini Kill pioneered the riot grrrl movement, and this was their first vinyl record.

This edition

• 12" EP
• Fanzine poster included
• Lyric insert

About the album

Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail and Kathi Wilcox met at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, added guitarist Billy Karren in October 1990, and started a band and a fanzine at the same time. At their shows they called women to the front and handed out lyric sheets, which is a pretty good summary of what this record set out to do. Hanna's fanzine, also called Bikini Kill, went along on their first tours in 1991.

Four of the six songs were recorded by Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and Fugazi at Inner Ear Studios in the summer of 1991. "Double Dare Ya" is a battle cry, "Liar" and "Feels Blind" are fierce and raw, and "Carnival" comes from the band's earlier demo tape, recorded by Pat Maley at Yo-Yo Studios. The closing "Thurston Hearts the Who" was taped live at The Sanctuary Theater in Washington, D.C., in April 1992.

The band split in 1997 and came back for good in 2019, and the songs sound as urgent as ever. Some records age; this one just keeps turning up the volume.

Also at Kops: more Bikini Kill on vinyl · browse Punk

Tracklist

Listen

On Bikini Kill Records (cat# BK002), a reissue of the 1992 EP.