Bikini Kill – Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

I’ve got a serious problem – my “new acquisitions” shelf is overflowing. In the old days, it was a selection of maybe 30 records that I had recently acquired and was listening to in regular rotation until I felt like it was time for them to go live in their normal alphabetical place on the shelves. But since I started this project (um, how many years ago now?) to write about each and every one of my albums – in alphabetical order, a questionable decision – I’ve had this problem. I buy new records that come earlier in the alphabet, and eventually I have to do a catch-up post here. Until I do that, so that I don’t forget them, they live on the new acquisitions shelf, which has ballooned. As has my collection. I added 109 records in 2022, 90 last year, and 51 so far this year.

And I’ve been so busy with other projects that those catch-up posts are barely happening.

Something has to give, people. I have simply got to power through a couple dozen new acquisitions just so I can get them put away!

Anyway, here’s another Bikini Kill record. I already wrote about how I’m decades late to Bikini Kill, but better late than never. Kathleen Hanna’s “Rebel Girl” is required reading, by the way. It doesn’t matter whether you like Bikini Kill or not – that’s hardly what it’s about. Just read it.

This is a 2014 expanded version of a 1993 release, just as energetic as their previous records, with some great live tracks on the B side. I’m thankful for the lyrics inserts, as it’s hard to catch them on casual listening and they’re hard-hitting. “We know there’s not one way / One light / One stupid truth!” I love the energy of “Fuck Twin Peaks,” a reaction to the romanticization of the area they were living in. The whole thing is great, start to finish.

And now it can join the other records in the B section!