Skinned Teen were three teenage girls from london, who formed after a Huggy Bear / Bikini Kill all-girl show where skinned teen’s flossie had approached Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna and told her they were in a band. They weren’t, but Kathleen offered them a show, so they had to make a band really fast. Two of them could just barely play one-finger guitar and bass, but they wrote to their strengths, schoolyard jeers as punk rants.
Influenced by The Shaggs and Huggy Bear, Skinned Teen played ultra-minimal garage music that messed with hardcore formulas in different ways, and released a handful of records on Soul Static Sound, Wiiija and the Super8 labels, and there is a cassette of ‘early’ skinned teen material released on the spazoom label.
Their first release was a six track 7” in 1993 on Soul Static Sound called ‘Karate Hairdresser’. Skinned Teen/Raooul made a split album in 1994 called Bazooka Smooth!/ Jail-bait Core on Lookout! Records.
Layla has played with Petty Crime (slampt) and now lives in San Francisco and plays in Modern Reveries, while esme plays with members of Headshoppe. ‘Pillow Case Kisser’ is Thurston Moore’s selection for the Rough Trade 30th anniversary compilation. The flip is a short but sweet 8 track set by the east bay’s fave teen punk girls - Raooul. It’s messy and chaotic punk rock grrrl style.| |
