Revolution Girl Style Now

Audio Mixer: Guy Picciotto.
Bikini Kill would become the most visible and vocal group in the Riot Grrrl movement, a scene that would meld the independent, D.I.Y. spirit of punk rock with a new and fearless approach to feminism, both in music and in the larger culture. But in mid-1991, Bikini Kill weren't icons just yet; they were a scrappy young band looking to make a name for themselves, and they cut their first demo tape in one afternoon after playing a house party the night before. Bikini Kill sold self-dubbed cassette copies of the eight-song demo, titled Revolution Girl Style Now, at shows and through the mail, but it soon fell out of print, and several of its songs would be re-recorded for the group's self-titled EP released late the same year. In 2015, Bikini Kill vocalist and co-founder Kathleen Hanna gave the original Revolution Girl Style Now tape its first release on CD and vinyl on her own Bikini Kill Records label, in an expanded edition that added three outtakes from the original recording sessions (though the final song on the reissue, "Playground," cuts short due to the machine running out of tape during recording). ~ Mark Deming