At a glance
- Artist
- Bikini Kill
- Released
- 26 October 1993
- Label
- Kill Rock Stars
- Catalogue number
- KRS-218
- Format
- CD
- Country
- US
- Tracks
- 12, 24:48
In the issue
It gave the movement its most enduring anthem and became the central document of riot grrrl as an international story.
Bikini Kill's debut album gave the movement its most enduring anthem in "Rebel Girl." Hanna has said she has lost count of how many times someone has told her, "When I was 15 years old, Pussy Whipped saved my life," and that feeling like she was part of a 15-year-old's survival through high school means more to her than any record sale or magazine cover, as she told Dazed. The initial reviews from underground magazines were brutal, but by the time the band reached the UK in 1993, riot grrrl had become an international story, and Pussy Whipped was its central document.
How it was made
Bikini Kill recorded their debut full-length in summer 1993 at Yo-Yo Studios in Olympia with producer Stuart Hallerman. They worked fast. The goal, according to Kill Rock Stars founder Slim Moon, was production cleaner than Revolution Girl Style Now but rawer than the Ian MacKaye-produced EP—a middle ground that kept the aggression audible. "Rebel Girl," the album's centerpiece, came out of Hanna's friendship with Joan Jett. It became riot grrrl's most enduring anthem: a celebration of female friendship and queer desire that didn't ask for male approval. Other tracks addressed eating disorders ("Star Bellied Boy"), incest survival ("Sugar"), and the commodification of women's anger ("For Tammy Rae"). Released in October 1993, Pussy Whipped got enthusiastic coverage in underground punk zines. Mainstream critics didn't know what to do with its confrontational politics and deliberately abrasive sound. The album's title and cover—simple text on pink—reclaimed feminine aesthetics while refusing to be cute or palatable. It became the movement's defining document, the record people pointed to when explaining what riot grrrl actually sounded like.
Listen
Track list
- 1Blood One1:44
- 2Alien She1:41
- 3Magnet1:26
- 4Speed Heart1:47
- 5Lil’ Red2:13
- 6Tell Me So2:20
- 7Sugar2:23
- 8Star Bellied Boy1:34
- 9Hamster Baby2:20
- 10Rebel Girl2:43
- 11Star Fish1:04
- 12For Tammy Rae3:34
The label
Founded in Olympia in 1991 by Slim Moon and Tinuviel Sampson, Kill Rock Stars released the Bikini Kill EP in 1992, Bikini Kill's Pussy Whipped, Bratmobile's Pottymouth and Sleater-Kinney's Dig Me Out and All Hands on the Bad One. Its very first release was a spoken-word split single by Kathleen Hanna and Slim Moon.