The Raincoats
The Raincoats got together in 1978. The initial lineup featured Palmolive, who had just left The Slits on drums; guitarist Ana Da Silva; Gina Birch on bass; and second guitarist Vicky Aspinall, who also played a mean violin (no joke). Their sound was their own: a stuttering, often intentionally funny beat combined with the screeching abrasiveness of the violin and topped off by three high voices harmonizing over the resulting caterwaul.
Slightly older than other bands of their era -- Vicky and Gina were in their mid-twenties and Ana had already turned thirty -- The Raincoats were described by many as a feminist band, with their aggressive, rowdy songs about male-female relationships, female independence, even rape. "The basic theme in rock 'n' roll is what goes on between men and women, " said the Raincoats as they proceeded to trash every female stereotype in rock 'n' roll.
Shortly after the release of their first album The Raincoats in 1979, Palmolive left the band to seek enlightenment in India. She was replaced by Ingrid Weiss.
The group's subsequent albums included Odyshape, which has a reputation as some sort of mystical transcendence of rockdom into New Age textures; The Kitchen Tapes, a live recording from December 1982; and Moving. Shortly after the release of this supposedly last album in 1984, the band finally broke up.
But true legends never die; and in 1993, at the urging of none other than Kurt Cobain, an ardent Raincoats fan, DGC reissued all three studio albums, repackaged with bonus singles and liner notes (by Kurt Cobain and Kim Gordon).
Then, in 1994, Ana da Silva and Gina Birch revived the Raincoats (yup, sans Palmolive, too bad!) for a tour. Anne Wood was featured on violin and Heather Dunn took over on drums. Their first release after the reunion was the EP entitled simply the Extended Play EP. Their latest offering Looking in the Shadows, released in 1995, is a new album of songs about love, beauty, motherhood, star worship and death.
A must see! Great site dedicated to drummerPalmolive...especially for those who are dying to know what she's doing now...
Where I slept after seeing the Raincoats...check this one out, it's a scream!
