Raincoats

Producers: The Raincoats, Geoff Travis, Mayo Thompson.
Includes liner notes by Kurt Cobain (Nirvana).
This is part of the Geffen Goldline Series.
A scrappy blast of ramshackle D.I.Y. pop, the Raincoats' debut self-titled LP was a revelation upon its release in 1979, and it's just as inspiring today. The lineup consisted of Gina Birch, Alan da Silva, Slits drummer Palmolive, and secret weapon Vicky Aspinall on violin, and resulted in one of the most unusual sounds in the post-Sex Pistols U.K. punk scene. Though tracks such as "Fairytale in a Supermarket" and "Life On the Line"--built on gleefully amateurish guitar-bass riffs, off-kilter rhythms, and frenetic violin swells--brim with the energy of punk, they are their own utterly unique creations. Other tracks such as "In Love" and "The Void" distance themselves even further from the slam dancers, and come-off as Velvet Underground-inspired drone-pop pieces with a touching, bittersweet core.
One of the very first all-female punk bands, the Raincoats triumphed on their debut, placing heart and guts above proficiency, and personal vision ahead of genre orthodoxy. So inspiring to so many were the Raincoats, that Universal reissued all three of the band's long out-of-print albums in the 1990s at the behest of one of their biggest superstars, Kurt Cobain.