Kill Rock Stars is an independent record label founded in 1991 by Slim Moon and Tinuviel Sampson, and based in both Olympia, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The label has released a variety of work in different genres, but was originally known for its commitment to underground punk rock bands and the Olympia area music scene.
Bikini Kill is an American punk rock band formed in Olympia, Washington, in October 1990. The group consists of singer and songwriter Kathleen Hanna, guitarist Billy Karren, bassist Kathi Wilcox, and drummer Tobi Vail. The band pioneered the riot grrrl movement, with radical feminist lyrics and fiery performances. Their music is characteristically abrasive and hardcore-influenced. After two full-length albums, several EPs and two compilations, they disbanded in 1997. The band reunited for tours in 2019 and 2020.
Huggy Bear were an English riot grrrl band, formed in 1991 and based in Brighton.
K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington founded in 1982. Artists on the label included early releases by Beck, Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. The record label has been called "key to the development of independent music" since the 1980s.
Kathleen Hanna is an American singer, musician, artist, feminist activist, pioneer of the feminist punk riot grrrl movement, and punk zine writer. In the early-to-mid-1990s she was the lead singer of feminist punk band Bikini Kill, before fronting Le Tigre in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Since 2010, she has recorded as The Julie Ruin.
Tobi Celeste Vail is an American independent musician, music critic and feminist activist from Olympia, Washington. She was a central figure in the riot grrl scene—she coined the spelling of "grrl"—and she started the zine Jigsaw. A drummer, guitarist and singer, she was a founding member of the band Bikini Kill. Vail has collaborated in several other bands figuring in the Olympia music scene. Vail writes for eMusic.
Le Tigre was an American electronic rock band formed by Kathleen Hanna, Johanna Fateman and Sadie Benning in 1998 in New York City. Benning left in 2001 and was replaced by JD Samson for the rest of the group's existence. Le Tigre are known for their left-wing sociopolitical lyrics that often dealt with issues of feminism and the LGBT community. They mixed punk's directness and politics with playful samples, eclectic pop, and lo-fi electronics. The group also added multimedia and performance art elements to their live shows, which often featured support from like-minded acts such as The Need.
Adam Keefe Horovitz, better known as Ad-Rock or King Ad-Rock, is an American rapper, guitarist and actor. He was a member of the hip hop group Beastie Boys. He is married to musician and feminist activist Kathleen Hanna.
Pussy Whipped is the debut studio album by American punk rock band Bikini Kill. It was released on Kill Rock Stars on October 26, 1993.
Christina Billotte is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, known for her involvement in the punk music scene in Washington DC, as a performer and organizer. She is included in Venus Zine's list The Greatest Female Guitarists of All Time.
Lucy Thane is a British documentary filmmaker, event producer and performer, living in Folkestone. Her films include It Changed My Life: Bikini Kill in the UK (1993) and She's Real (1997).
The C.D. Version of the First Two Records is a compilation by punk rock band Bikini Kill, collecting their 1992 eponymous EP and their half of the 1993 EP Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah, an album they shared with the band Huggy Bear. It was released in 1994 on Kill Rock Stars and was the first Bikini Kill release on CD. The album was re-released by Bikini Kill Records on June 23, 2015 as simply The First Two Records and featured additional tracks from the expanded re-release of Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah.
"Rebel Girl" is a song by American punk rock band Bikini Kill. The song was released in three different recorded versions in 1993 – on an EP, an LP, and a 7-inch single. The single version was produced by Joan Jett and features her on guitar and background vocals. Widely considered a classic example of punk music, the song remains emblematic of the riot grrrl movement of the 1990s.
Skinned Teen was a riot grrrl band from London, England, active in the early 1990s. They have been cited as an inspiration by Beth Ditto, Kathleen Hanna, Gina Birch and Josephine Olaussan of Love Is All.
Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in Olympia, Washington and the greater Pacific Northwest and has expanded to at least 26 other countries. Riot grrrl is a subcultural movement that combines feminism, punk music and politics. It is often associated with third-wave feminism, which is sometimes seen as having grown out of the riot grrrl movement and has recently been seen in fourth-wave feminist punk music that rose in the 2010s. The genre has also been described as coming out of indie rock, with the punk scene serving as an inspiration for a movement in which women could express themselves the same way men have been doing all along. To quote Liz Naylor, who would become the manager of riot grrrl band Huggy Bear:
There was a lot of anger and self-mutilation. In a symbolic sense, women were cutting and destroying the established image of femininity, aggressively tearing it down.
The discography of God Is an Astronaut, an Irish post-rock band from Wicklow, consists of eight studio albums, one extended play, and eleven singles.
Kevin Shields is an Irish musician, singer-songwriter, composer and producer who has released three studio albums with My Bloody Valentine and collaborated with 25 different artists. He began performing in the late 1970s and formed the Dublin-based punk rock band The Complex with drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig and guitarist Liam Ó Maonlaí. Following Ó Maonlaí's departure, Shields and Ó Cíosóig recruited vocalist David Conway and formed a new band, My Bloody Valentine, in 1983.
Women have made significant contributions to punk rock music and its subculture since its inception in the 1970s. In contrast to the rock music and heavy metal scenes of the 1970s, which were dominated by men, the anarchic, counter-cultural mindset of the punk scene in mid-and-late 1970s encouraged women to participate. This participation played a role in the historical development of punk music, especially in the US and UK at that time, and continues to influence and enable future generations. Women have participated in the punk scene as lead singers, instrumentalists, as all-female bands, zine contributors and fashion designers.
Our Troubled Youth is the Huggy Bear side of a split album they released with Bikini Kill. It was released on International Women's Day 1993 on Catcall Records in the United Kingdom, and on the Kill Rock Stars label in the United States.
