The Raincoats follow Bikini Kill in crowdsourcing archive

Influential post-punk outfit The Raincoats have taken inspiration from Bikini Kill’s recently opened archive blog and are calling for fans to contribute their own personal stories and reflections of the band.

In case you need a reminder (!), The Raincoats were formed thirty years ago by Ana da Silva and Gina Birch who met as students at Hornsey College of Art, London. An evolving list of band members has included Palm Olive and Kate Korus from The Slits (and later The Mo-dettes), drummer Ingrid Weiss, Vicky Aspinall on violin and photographer/manager Shirley O’Loughlin.

The band released five LPs, and went on to become much lauded inspirations for Kurt Cobain, Kim Gordon and the riot grrrl movement as a whole, beaming a blindingly great path through music’s wider, male-dominated annals. They’ve hived off with a number of interesting solo works over the years, but continue to tour and are confirmed to play the Matt Groening-curated ATP at Butlins, Minehead in May.

No formal site has been set up yet, but thoughts, photos and memory lane adventures are all being encouraged on their official blog’s comments section, so scoot on over and tell the world about your Odyshape crush or how you cut your first Mohawk to the sounds of Looking In The Shadows.

Tagged gina birch, the raincoats