Bratmobile

Bratmobile


Genre:Punk Rock,Surf Punk,Riot Grrrl



Bratmobile was an American punk band. Bratmobile was a first-generation Riot Grrrl band that grew from the Northwest and Washington DC underground. It was influenced by indie pop in the United States as well as Britpop, girl groups, surf, and punk rock.





Bratmobile formed when University of Oregon students Allison Wolfe and Molly Neuman collaborated on an influential feminist fanzine, Girl Germs. The band played its first show as a two-woman act at Olympia's North Shore Surf Club on February 14, 1991, with Molly and Allison sharing duties on guitar, drums, and vocals.

During spring break 1991, Allison and Molly went to Washington, DC to follow Beat Happening and Nation of Ulysses on tour and try to work on a new form of Bratmobile that, at that time, included artist Jen Smith and Christina Billotte, of Slant 6 and Autoclave, in the line-up. Together, they recorded and released a cassette tape entitled Bratmobile DC. Beat Happening's Calvin Johnson had previously introduced Molly to nascent guitarist Erin Smith from Bethesda, Maryland during the Christmas holiday in December, 1990 at a Nation of Ulysses show in Washington, DC. Smith was co-author, with her brother, of the much-revered TV pop culture fanzine Teenage Gang Debs when Allison and Molly asked her to jam with them. It clicked, and in July 1991 the trio played their first show as a 3-piece with Molly Neuman on drums, Erin Smith on guitar, and Allison Wolfe on vocals. They were just in time to play at the historic International Pop Underground Convention in Olympia, Washington, becoming the only band to appear twice.