Feminist punk rock pioneers Bikini Kill put out their first collection of work, Revolution Girl Style Now, as a cassette tape back in 1991. It was a fierce, loud, noise-littered album that saw all four members–Kathleen Hanna, Kathi Wilcox, Tobi Vail, and Billy Karren–stomping their way through songs like “Candy”, “Suck My Left One”, and “This Is Not a Test”, flipping off sexism while shredding their sound to bits. On September 22, Bikini Kill will reissue that very demo tape. What makes it so special, though, is that it comes with a clutch of unreleased tracks, many of which were, and are, could-be hits: “Playground”, “Ocean Song”, and “Just Once”.
They’ve shared audio of the first unreleased track, “Playground” and it’s already one of our instant favorites. A thick grunge bassline plucks its way out of a black fog of distortion before drums come crashing in. Kathleen Hanna’s vocals come snaking out, both sweet and bitter, taunting you to follow her somewhere far darker than you can imagine, before the whole song flips into double time. It’s disturbing in the best way possible.
Even better are the song’s lyrics: “You’re not invited to my party anymore/ my mom’s calling your mom/ to tell her I don’t like you.” You can practically hear Hanna spitting at her frenemy’s feet while she sings lines like, “I am rubber/ you are glue/ Is anybody talking?/ Because I don’t hear anything.” Oh, it feels so good to yell along. So, so, so good.
Give it a listen below and hop on their pre-order offer before they all sell out.