Bikini Kill… man, those girls were something else.
I first heard them around ’92 when a buddy played me “Rebel Girl”. Kathleen Hanna’s voice just came blasting out and I remember stopping whatever I was doing and going “who the hell is this?” She sounded loud, pissed off and like she didn’t give a damn if you liked it or not. From that moment I was done — I was a fan.
I’ve always had a real soft spot for Kathleen. She wasn’t just singing songs, she was saying stuff that needed to be said. Bikini Kill was a riot grrrl band through and through. Their crowd was mostly girls, punks and feminists, and Kathleen would always yell “Girls to the front!” at the beginning of every show. She made a lot of us feel like we could actually say what we really thought, even if the world didn’t want to hear it.
I got to see them live a few times once I was living here. One night at the Reko Muse in ’93 was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. The place was tiny, hot as hell, and full of people screaming every word. Kathleen was climbing on the monitors, yelling into the mic, and at one point she stopped the whole show because some guy up front was being a total asshole. She called him out right there on stage. It wasn’t just a concert — it felt like something was actually happening.
There’s this story I love about how “Smells Like Teen Spirit” got its name. Back in ’91 Kathleen and Tobi Vail were hanging out with Kurt. They’d been at the grocery store earlier and saw this deodorant called Teen Spirit. They thought the name was hilarious. Later that night, after a few drinks, Kathleen grabbed a Sharpie and wrote “Kurt smells like Teen Spirit” on his wall as a joke. Kurt didn’t know it was a deodorant — he thought it was some deep revolutionary thing. He ended up using it for the song title. I always thought that was so cool.
They put out some great records — Pussy Whipped, the split with Huggy Bear, all of it. They weren’t trying to sound nice or get on the radio. They were just doing their thing.
They broke up in ’98. It sucked, but I get it. Kathleen’s been doing Le Tigre for the last few years now — it’s a lot more electronic, kind of dance-punk — and I’ve heard their stuff. It’s pretty damn good. She’s still going strong.
These days in 2002 I still put those Bikini Kill records on sometimes. They make me remember what it felt like back then. Kathleen Hanna is one of my heroes. She made a lot of us feel like we could actually say what we really thought.
Bikini Kill weren’t just a band. They were a moment. And I feel lucky I got to live through it.