Virtuosic? What are you smoking, man?

weed actually.

virtuosic was the wrong word, i mean, greg sage and kahleen hanna, in the scope of agressive punk rock music, are both ridiculously skilled players. i think the fact those bands could play thier instruments so well is why thier music sounded so ferocious; just tight and fast progressions and melodies played really loudly. not virtuosic, but surprisngly good.

i can't believe all the hate at the beginning of this thread. i'm sure everyone here knows what i think about bikini kill. they are one of my favorite bands. if you say you like punk and don't "get" or like bikini kill then you really don't like punk. plain and simple. that's just the true hard facts.

bratmobile only had one ep to my knowledge and it was amazing. their first album is my favorite riot grrl album (unless you count the frumpies collection). their stuff on lookout records was good, but not as good as their kill rock stars stuff. cold cold hearts is another great band and so is allison wolfe's newish band partyline.

"Ridiculously skilled" is still a gross overstatement, imo, but whatever. Does Kathleen even play guitar?

Bikini Kill never did much for me. I don't think it's anti-punk to express distaste for them. I kept trying to tell myself that it was good and edgy but I just found myself wanting to listen to X-Ray Spex, or Kleenex.

Haha.

Yeah, this thread was REAL hateful .I miss those days. Haha.

i'm glad i opened this thread, seeing bikini kill described as virtuosic is a once in a life time thing

i like bk

I must really not like punk then.

I don't think they really have much to do with "punk" (Maybe pussy punk)... they're certainly not an important punk band that one must "get" to truely be into the scene... throwing a rude 'tude with a few ideas about politics over some power chords doesn't make them any punker than the next feminazi supergroup. The only difference here, most punk bands haven't written a song as awesome as "R.I.P."

I honestly prefer Le Tigre.

*awaits to be pummeled by stones*

it's been many years since i last listened to my bikini kill CD but i would query any comparisons between greg sage and kathleen hanna's guitar playing.

A lot of times when I see my old posts in necro'd threads, I'll feel like I could have said something differently or not said anything at all.
Not this time. I'd pretty much say it again the same way. There are no "true hard facts" in subjective matters like musical taste, and statements like the above only serve to bolster arguments against the kind of super-uptight attitude in that scene that refuses to acknowledge that any criticism can be made about the musical shortcomings of a band perceived to be "important" to a small subculture.
I have punk rock records that I bought before you were ready for cloth underpants. Bikini Kill's actual music, to my ears, was unexceptional and "average" at the best of times. I loved punk growing up, immersed myself in that music for many years and drew my own conclusions as to which bands I found exceptional and unexceptional with a pretty broad frame of reference regarding The Punk Rock. I would argue exactly the opposite of your original slant: it was precisely because I did enjoy punk music for a long time and listened to a whole lot of it that I found Bikini Kill to be a giant snore. If the words are all that counts, you should really just write a book. The music has to count for something if you are in some kind of Musical Combo, for god's sake.

Personal taste.

Right on. Bikini Kill are about as punk as a non-bloody tampon. Decent tunes though.