Slits Cut Coats im not
reading
that

before The Dead Kennedys.... before Black Flag.... not really before The Pistols....

Punk happened simultaneously across the globe in many different little pockets, the first punk rock band is something people can debate into the sun. As if getting hammered and playing some instruments loud and poorly is something to be "discovered". The punk sound is an ever evolving beast and something that is hard to pin down to one definition, true to the genre's anti-establishment sentiments. Today punk is mainly pulled by its hardcore component, people crave that hard and fast sound with the guitars wailing in distortion and the drums jackhammering the speakers. But punk can also offer more than a heart racing and blood pressure raising assault on the ear drums, looking within the genre and poking further back into the culture and history, one can find unique gems such as two groups that came about within the cesspool of London.

The Slits and The Raincoats, often mentioned together for their similar sound on debut and their sharing of band-members as happens in small scenes. The Slits formed in 1976, as the legend goes, drummer Paloma Romero (Palmolive) and prospective guitarist Kate Korus were outside a concert when Ari Up began yelling and swearing at her mother. Palmolive turned to Kate and said "that's our lead singer", and from then on it was Ari's band.

Every member of this band lived a very full and interesting life that I don't have the space to cover here, I recommend looking into them if you like kooky celebrities.

Palmolive specifically protested against fascism in her home country of Spain and bounced around the London punk scene in her teens and early 20s. She ended up sharing a squat with Joe Strummer before he joined The Clash and formed a romantic relationship with him for a number of years.

The Slits made their first debut in the news in January of 1977 performing alongside other all-girl punk acts, who they would later end up absorbing members from. Their raw and fierce sound grabbed attention immediately and they became a sensation. They are credited for inspiring many other local women to pick up instruments and form bands and lifelong bonds themselves. That year they toured with The Clash for their White Riot tour and rotated out the line up, replacing Kate Korus with Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollitt stepping in as their bassist.

Tessa joined the band not knowing how to play bass and learned her songs as she learned her instrument. This unconventional method of learning detached from traditional structures leads to a more free form and untethered sound, as most members of the band joined not having had traditional training in their instruments and also learned along the road. The Slits gained this raw and crude reputation early on and adopted it as part of their image, taking on an animalistic style as a means of shocking their audience.

Part of this uninhibited reputation was due to their drummer Palmolive, who is highlighted in reviews of the band's early live performances as a key feature. Her passionate and frenzied drumming is not available on the debut album Cut as shortly before cutting a major deal with Island Records, Paloma left the band due to mounting tensions. You can still hear her on the John Peel sessions featured on the 2009 deluxe edition and several live performances were taped and uploaded to YouTube.

This wouldn't mark the end of Paloma's music career as she would soon join her friend Gina Birch's band The Raincoats, another all girl outfit. The Raincoats formed in 1977 and were inspired to do so after seeing The Slits perform live. Gina Birch had been invited by Palmolive and described it as the most delicious sound.

Paloma acquired The Raincoats a violinist in the form of Vicky Aspinall by posting an ad asking for strength not style. In January of 1979 this version of The Raincoats made their live debut and by May they had their first single Fairytale In The Supermarket out and a tour with another great girl band Kleenex or otherwise known as LiliPut after some legal trouble. (You can find a taping of their recording process for Fairytale In The Supermarket online as part of a piece on their record label, I recommend poking around for it.)

Palmolive would yet again leave the band shortly before the release of their full length self titled album in November of 1979, this time because she was ready to settle down. Her drumming can still be heard on The Raincoats' initial EP as well as their self titled album.

After Paloma's exit, the band continued rocking on and rotated out their drummers as well as various other studio artists for their albums Odyshape in 1981 and Moving in 1984 to critical acclaim and underground stardom.

After a short break to focus on their solo careers Gina and Ana would reunite in the early 90's as part of the culture revival brought on by Kurt Cobain and the grunge swarm as he and many other influential figures were major fans of both The Raincoats and The Slits. This renewed interest in The Raincoats led to a reissue of their albums featuring new liner notes as well as, in the case of Moving, new cover art and adjusted track listing. Kim Gordon featured on the liner notes for Odyshape saying I loved The Slits because of their boldness and that they actually had commercial songs, but it was the Raincoats I related to most. They seemed like ordinary people playing extraordinary music. They had enough confidence to be vulnerable and to be themselves.

There would come a fourth studio album in 1996 titled Looking in the Shadows to solid critical praise except for John Perry at NME who wrote Grandma, you're evil and you smell like wee. Which... evil old lady is a solid way to describe the album, I'm just one to disagree with it being a bad thing.

So how is the music?????

The Slits - Cut

An addictive earworm start to finish the jungly school-yard-chorus style of The Slits sets the tone of the niche they are carving on the first track Instant Hit, a bold claim if it just wasn't so damn catchy. This interesting scratching back and forth on the strings of Viv's guitar, then the metronomic ticking of the drums sets the pace for the instrumentals to float in and out in a circular motion, nearer and further again. The backing flutes give an airy floating quality that contrasts the girls' voices when they are being rougher and gives them something to aspire to when they begin their mournful crying. The aggressive hollow drumming is provided by Peter Clark, otherwise known as Budgie from Siouxsie and the Banshees. This begins the blend of dub and punk ideals that will continue through this album and bleed into The Raincoats as well. The track ebbs and flows, dancing around the listener in a fluidity that calls you to dance as well. The song comes to an abrupt end and you're left on the edge for the next track. The whispering pulsing intro with a rainy little percussion cracks open with the snap of a hollow dub snare, the vocals crying in just the perfect wailing dissonance of passionate untrained voices. This chorus carries Ari as she calls and responds in a condescending manner, as if a pack of bullies egging on their leader and it is so easy to imagine her slouching around the stage mocking the listener. The layered and flowing sound encircles the listener in an immersive environment that again calls one to dance, a fun and gripping first two tracks. The sound is so raw and bare and yet an overwhelming racket with so many layers and vocalists going rogue at the perfect moments, the occasional whistle tone or squeal shoots out of the chorus like a firework store on fire.

Our next track Spend, Spend, Spend is a slower more sedated track that feels so relatable in today's modern age of dopamine burnout and overstimulation. The reggae influence comes to the forefront with a more skanky style guitar leading the melody and the backing vocals sitting back in a contemplative whisper or a pushing nag still buried within the beat at the chorus. Ari begins the song with the line I am trapped in a flood, but it isn't raining describing feeling an emotion perhaps not entirely justified by her surroundings. The line after I am stuck with someone, we're not communicating shows a relationship she can not express her feelings properly in, suggesting that maybe it is raining after all. Often when people feel that they can not express being dissatisfied in their relationship they will begin to belittle their emotions, as if what they are experiencing is not proportionate to the reaction it incites. Ari then turns to shopping to fill the gap left by her loveless relationship and the connection she is missing with other humans, as shown when she sings about looking into various kitchen windows and dreaming she was inside. The song criticizing or rather more lamenting how we are urged to seek happiness in unobtainable material wealth rather than our connections and relationships with each other. Today the feeling of alienation with the internet has been more and more overwhelming along with the fast commodification of identities leads to the feeling of lacking genuine connection in the current generation than ever.

The next track suggests a different solution with Shoplifting. They forego the now typical quiet to loud intro and get straight to it with Ari encouraging the listener to put things in their pocket and the chorus coming in with do a runner. The song is a cheeky anticapitalist banger where Ari giggles about feeding her family with stolen goods, being sold at ridiculous prices. The beat is set to a breakneck mosh pit frenzied pace akin to that of the ska revival on their heels, I almost expect Ari to bark out a pickitupickitup. We get this delightful haircurling squeal instead that would rival a pissed off lynx. With FM next we are back to our push pull dynamic of fast and slow with a slow and subdued track to balance the last rager. Another thumping introduction and a dance-y beat with skanky but melodic guitars, they remain hypnotic and repetitive throughout the song gaining a droning velvety quality. Our choir returns with haunting vocals now tranquilized and dreadful; they chant out frequent mu-til-atioon as if a pack of brain hungry zombies. Newtown is my personal favorite off the album, the whole song is very vivid and animated and they develop this almost showtune angle while bringing back their jazzy edge. Immediately we hear this striking whining and breathy guitar unlike anything across the rest of the album and then Ari comes in with an angelic howl that shows off her range. Her vocals are unmatched on this track, Ari Up swings from breathy and desperate to clear and crisp to wavering and birdlike. She is urged on by her rhythmic chorus chanting behind her around a stimulating beat using various abstract sounds such as coins clinking and matches striking. This jazzy smoky atmosphere is not too far from that of the beat jazz movement, it's not too hard to imagine them wearing all back crooning into microphones on a dimly lit stage. With Ping Pong Affair, another personal favorite, next we are again thrown into a jaunty skanky tune, throwing off the depressive cloak put on in the last track. A ringing cowbell and clanging guitar clamors into the introduction of the track and we are off to another two stepping beat, viv's bass humming along in a simple and warm melody. Ari's crooning so I listen to the radiooo down to the harsh cough smoking a cigarette as a music lover and nicotine addict, melts the heart.