The Raincoats
- Author: Pelly, Jenn
The book is a seamless hybrid of criticism and reportage; Pelly spent time with the band and visited their old haunts. But what's extraordinary is that she doesn't seem to be recounting the...
The Raincoats
- Author: Pelly, Jenn
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The book is a seamless hybrid of criticism and reportage; Pelly spent time with the band and visited their old haunts. But what's extraordinary is that she doesn't seem to be recounting the...
About
In 1979, from the basement of a London squat, the Raincoats reinvented what punk could be. They had a violin player. They came from Portugal, Spain, and England. Their anarchy was poetic. Working with the iconic Rough Trade Records at its radical beginnings, they were the first group of punk women to actively call themselves feminists.
In this short book – the first on the Raincoats – author Jenn Pelly tells the story of the group’s audacious debut album, which Kurt Cobain once called “wonderfully classic scripture.” Pelly builds on rare archival materials and extensive interviews with members of the Raincoats, Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, Hole, Scritti Politti, Gang of Four, and more. She draws formal inspiration from the collage-like The Raincoats itself to explore this album’s magic, vulnerability, and strength.
Contents
- The Raincoats
Awards and reviews
The book is a seamless hybrid of criticism and reportage; Pelly spent time with the band and visited their old haunts. But what's extraordinary is that she doesn't seem to be recounting the Raincoats' early years so much as time-traveling back to the squats of late-'70s London and mind-melding with each of the four very different women who came together to make this strange, enchanting music. Over the years, The Raincoats has become a sort of talisman for feminist punks, a document that is somehow challenging and comforting at once. Pelly doesn't just describe that effect-her writing recreates it
Recent years have seen some excellent additions to the [33 1/3] series ... Joining this list is Jenn Pelly's study of The Raincoats' self-titled debut album
