30 DAYS TIL BIKINI KILL IN L.A.: The Weather Girls

Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes-Armstead met as young girls, when they were attending churches across the alley from each other. Izora was the lead vocalist and pianist for the San Francisco Inspirational Choir. They both landed in the gospel group N.O.W. (News of the World), working there part-time while Martha was a full time secretary […]

31 DAYS TIL BIKINI KILL IN L.A.: Sheila E

Sheila Cecelia Escovedo was born in Oakland, California in 1957. Her Creole mother worked in a dairy factory and her Mexican-American father is also a very famous percussionist! Indeed, a lot of the people in her family are professional musicians: her father, her two brothers, FIVE of her uncles (including Javier Escovedo, who was […]

32 DAYS TIL BIKINI KILL IN L.A.: Lorna Doom

Lorna Doom was born Teresa Marie Ryan in Dallas, Texas in 1958. She grew up in Thousand Oaks, California. That is where her and Belinda Carlisle first met when they responded to an ad seeking “two untalented girls.” Lorna was brought on as their bassist and Belinda was brought on as their drummer, but ended […]

33 DAYS TIL BIKINI KILL IN L.A.: Poison Ivy

Poison Ivy was born Kristy Wallace and raised near Sacramento, following her birth in San Bernardino, California in 1953. She met Lux Interior while attending Sacramento State College, and they became partners in life and music for thirty-seven years, until his death in 2009. They continued touring and releasing new music until 2006! In 1976, […]

34 DAYS TIL BIKINI KILL IN L.A.: Fay Fife

The Rezillos got together in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1976. Their influences mirrored other bands of time such as The Cramps, X, and The B-52s: fifties rock, English beat music, seventies glam, science fiction, and B movies. Unlike many bands of the punk and new wave era, they were not nihilistic or serious, but rather light-hearted […]

35 DAYS TIL BIKINI KILL IN L.A.: Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson

The B-52’s pulled their influences from fifties and sixties pop sources, trash culture, and rock and roll, utilizing call and response vocals, being guitar and keyboard-driven, and having a “thrift store aesthetic.” Their first single was “Rock Lobster” in 1978, which became an underground hit and led to them getting booked at CBGB and Max’s […]

36 DAYS TIL BIKINI KILL IN L.A.: Cosey Fanni Tutti

Born Christine Carol Newby in 1951 in Hull, England, she began her career in COUM Transmissions, which she was a founding member of. COUM was a music and performance art collective, based in ideas pulled from the Fluxus movement, as well as Dadaism. They were openly confrontational and subversive–challenging aspects of Britain’s society. Cosey worked […]

37 DAYS TIL BIKINI KILL IN L.A.: Ikue Mori

Born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1953, Mori came to NYC in 1977 and never left. She had little interest in music before she encountered punk rock. Soon, however, she began drumming for the seminal no wave band, DNA, alongside Robin Crutchfield, Arto Lindsay, and Tim Wright. She had little command of English and no experience […]

38 DAYS TIL BIKINI KILL IN L.A.: Lydia Lunch

Lydia Lunch was born Lydia Anne Koch in Rochester, New York in 1959. She moved to NYC at sixteen, where she lived in communal households of artists and musicians. Known for noise music and an anti-commercial ethos, she has released her music independently. Lydia formed the band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks with saxophonist, James […]

39 DAYS TIL BIKINI KILL IN L.A.: Siouxsie Sioux

Siouxsie Sioux was born Susan Janet Ballion in Southwark, England in 1957. She served as frontwoman for Siouxsie and the Banshees (1976-1996), who made eleven albums with thirty singles, as well as The Creatures (1981-2005). She grew up very isolated, being ten years younger than her other siblings. She was sexually assaulted with her friend […]