Run Fast

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 Track Listing: Disc 1: Oh Come On Ha Ha Ha Just My Kind Party City Cookie City Look Out Right Home Kids in NY Goodbye Goodbye South Coast Plaza Girls Like Us Stop Stop