On The Raincoats
From Rob Sheffield in Spin Alternative Record Guide, 1995
London punk had never sounded like this before: feminist aggression channeled through the drony side of the Velvet Underground, with friendly voices yelling through the industrial clatter in a hint that the music mightspin out of control at any minute.
From Greil Marcus, Ranters and Crowd Pleasers : Punk in Pop Music 1977-92, 1993
It was a matter of demeanor, backed up by a new sound: without gestures, withouta trace of rhetoric, the Raincoats got it across that they had no interest in whatever images of the-woman-in-rock one might have brought to their show, and no interest in providing any...There's something wonderfully anonymous about these women and their music: as four women appearing as nothing but themselves, they demystify each other. The very idea of roles is done away with...I was amazed.
John Lydon, Trouser Press, June 1980
It's all over now...Rock 'n' Roll is shit. It's dismal. Grand-dad danced to it. I'm not interested in it...I think music has reached an all-time low -- except for the Raincoats.
From Ian Penman, N.M.E., January 27, 1979
This was a good place to start 1979; an evening of comedy, parody, high anti-fashion calm, fun, radical rockers and pop feminism a go-go. Present were members of Rough Trade, Slits, Scrits, prag VEC and nobody at all trendy until Mick Jones turned up. I can't remember anything about the Raincoats because I was hypnotised. It was so good, refreshing and challenging to have an all girl group up there, playing music and not male comforting roles."
From unknown source, emailed to me in the late 1990's
Ms. Birch writes three-chord rockers akin to T. Rex, with oddball lyrics to match her scratchy voice; the irresistible chorus of "57 Ways to End It All" is "Dying again." Ms. da Silva's songs are drones that seethe and sometimes erupt behind free-form lyrics: "Alarm clocks. The night. The light. It's dawn. Something's gone." The Raincoats no longer sound like amateurs, but they haven't joined any mainstream.
On The Slits
From Caroline Coon, 1988 -- the New Wave Punk Rock Explosion, 1977
Ari Up and the Slits are highly defined examples of an ideal type that is becoming more attractive to women all the time. What they represent is a revolutionary and basic shift of female ego from one which is biologically defined to one which is made strong by an assertive, mainstream role in society. Thus they are far more "threatening" than the male musicians they are touring with. At their most outrageous, the antics of male rock stars are only traditional expressions of male aggression and delinquency...The Slits however, without giving up their capacity to be warm, emotional people, are fighting for power, independence and recognition for their ideas and what they do.
From Myles Palmer, New Wave Explosion, "New York Notes : The Slits at the Ritz", 1981
The audience is scruffier than I imagined. There are a few urchin punk and Slits lookalikes...most of them are expecting some kind of rasta-feminist freak show..."
From Glen A. Baker and Stuart Coupe, The New Music, 1981
They were obvious targets for the sensationalist British press who began running headlines like "All Girl Punk Horror".
On X-Ray Spex
From Rob Sheffield in Spin Alternative Record Guide, 1995
Styrene's screech and Lora Logic's saxophone baited each other through the careening guitars, both women sounding bored and ready to explode...
From Greil Marcus, Ranters and Crowd Pleasers : Punk in Pop Music 1977-92, 1993
...a screech to disinfect the Roxy toilet.
On The Adverts
On Essential Logic
On The Go-Go's
On Punk Rock
