In 1991, feminist punks Bikini Kill published their second eponymous zine, and inside it the manifesto that defined riot grrrl.
It made their mouthpiece, Kathleen Hanna, into the movement’s leader – a position she tried to refuse because, she learned, the problem with spelling out your beliefs means the second you change your mind you’re dismissed as a traitor, a phony. After Bikini Kill ended in 1997, Hanna formed Le Tigre, who went on hiatus in 2007. After finding out that she had debilitating Lyme disease, Hanna founded The Julie Ruin in 2010 with the intention of making music for herself, rather than living up to anyone’s expectations. Run Fast, their debut, contains songs about art, activism and survival – Hanna’s former calling cards – alongside songs that explore marital love, hedonism and feminist myths; there’s no single agenda. Most of Hanna’s lyrics are bawled with a lusty disregard for making herself immediately understood, buzzing within the bright, ragged recording of the band’s mind‐destroyingly catchy B‐52s‐style surf‐punk.
Review:
Pioneering Riot Grrrl, Bikini Kill founder, and noted feminist musician
Kathleen Hanna first unveiled the Julie Ruin moniker in the late '90s. The
project served as an alter ego of sorts, and featured Hanna's first experiments
with sampling and electronic instruments, which led to her long-running work
with the much more developed Le Tigre shortly thereafter. Years later, Hanna
revived the Julie Ruin name, returning with a full band for Run Fast, a shouty
web of punk, politics, and attitude that draws more on her organic basement rock
brashness, but also nods to other phases of her storied career. Tunes like the
chunky opener “Oh Come On” and the bouncy “Stop Stop” are screaming
slabs of spirited punk pop, but snaky synthesizers and dance beats pop up
throughout the album. “Ha Ha Ha” is all groove, marrying buzzy synth lines
to a steady surf punk beat and not skimping on handclaps, and “Kids in NY”
offers a critique of D.I.Y. culture and gentrification in the hipster circles of
New York City over a breezy (but distorted) backbeat that initially gives way to
groovy bongos and echo-drenched synthesizers. Regardless of what type of musical
accompaniment she's singing over, however, Kathleen Hanna is the star of the
show on every track. Her persona – sometimes performance artist in the role
of the rock star and sometimes the other way around – is as loud, brazen,
bratty, and bold as ever here, if not more so. Run Fast shows a constantly
challenging and self-aware artist who has just as much to say as ever, and now
approaches her craft with more nuance and experience. As inspirational as Bikini
Kill's life-affirming blasts of punk could be, they were never as accessible
and simply fun as the '80s synth pop modes of Run Fast, which somehow manage to
be equal parts poetic, provocative, moving and enjoyable.
Rovi Staff, AllMusic.com