Shouting Out Loud: Lives Of The Raincoats by Audrey Golden

It would be fair to say that I gorged on this book.

And I really do mean that as a compliment.

There are some music books that take weeks to read, regardless of how many pages they have, and then there are those that are so interesting and, ultimately, readable that they just get devoured in a matter of days.

This is one of those books. 

Golden's hymn to The Raincoats, their birth, death, rebirth, death, rebirth again lays bare not only how much there is still to say about punk, it's music, it's influences, its afterlife, but also how much there is still to say about The Raincoats, a band whose story has only ever been partially told at best. 

What I love about this book is that it does effectively, vividly and evocatively tell the story of The Raincoats but that it does so in a way that is neither straight, conventional biography nor straightforward polemical music book: It's not either, it's its own thing. The result is a passionate, enthusiastic, highly readable page turner of a book that just happens to tell the story of possibly the most exciting band to come out of the UK punk scene of the 1970s while also telling the story of their astonishing international cultural legacy, as well as their triumphant repeated return.  

Golden has been given a tremendous amount of access to The Raincoats, to their archives, diaries, and correspondence. She's also spoken to those around the band such as Rough Trade's Geoff Travis, writers and activists such as Vivian Goldman and Lucy Whitman, as well as fans who became friends such as Kim Gordon, Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail and Kathi Wilcox. She has used this impressive amount of access, long list of interviews and frankly impeccable research to weave a story that is as remarkable as it is compelling.

One of the contradictions of The Raincoats is that they are ordinary people making extraordinary music and, at times, I've often wondered if this is partly why they are so repeatedly downplayed in histories of punk and alternative music: Journalists and writers do love a 'Character' after all - it makes our lives so much easier when writing about a bands music, and it tends to be 'characters' who get remembered, albeit not always fondly. The Raincoats were more subtle and insidious than that, their music didn't so much scream in your face and hit you over the head head as gently worm it's way into your soul and bone marrow, changing you gradually and permanently. 

With this in mind, one of the books many strengths is its ability to demonstrate to an unarguable degree the extent to which The Raincoats had a long lasting impact on music fans around the world. Not only in the UK and US, where their influence is known if not always properly acknowledged, but with music starved fans in Cold War era Warsaw, with prisoners in the Maze prison in Belfast, German artists, and with fellow travellers Kleenex/LiLiPUT.

They were, and are, a remarkable cultural phenomenon. One that has touched many across multiple continents and multiple spheres from music to politics and activism to art.

Long may they continue. 

The Raincoats - The Void, Live at the MOMA.

This is The Raincoats performing 'The Void' live at MOMA in 2009. You can watch a full set of the band performing as part of Dan Graham's Stage Set for Music at the Lisson Gallery in London in 2018 here.

Fantasy Festival number 20: The Lineup

Penfriend: The new project of Bristol based Laura Kidd, previously known as She Makes War, Penfriend had the bad luck to launch just prior to Covid-19 really taking hold, as lockdowns began to be imposed around the world. The initial two tracks Laura let loose into the world before all of this happened sounded promising though and, as She Makes War, she was a force to be reckoned with live. You can find out more here.

Gaptooth: Bristol based Hannah Lucy has been making music as Gaptooth since 2005. Since then, she's released two albums of increasingly slick agit prop synth pop, most notably the song 'Ladykillers' and her collaboration with Sisters Uncut, 'They Cut We Bleed'. She is as much an activist as a musician, and has both performed and acted as steward at the annual Loud Women fest in London. You can find out more here.

Ms Mohammed: London based Dana Mohammed has been making ferocious garage punk with queer feminist edges as Ms Mohammed since 2017 but, as this interview will show, her impressive music and activist backstory extends much further back than that. Her music has been praised by Iggy Pop on his BBC 6Music show, and last year she did a talk for TEDX London on the theme of authenticity over assimilation, which you can watch here. She's also on Bandcamp.

Liines: Manchester's tightest "alternative post-punk band", Liines, have been slowly building up their fanbase over the past five years. They released their debut album, Stop-Start, in 2018 and supported Sleaford Mods on their UK tour last year. You can find them on Bandcamp.

Dream Nails: This band of London punk feminists formed in 2015, and have been making catchy but angry punk pop tunes ever since. Their hotly awaited digital album is imminent. You can find them on Bandcamp.

Big Joanie: "We're like The Ronettes filtered through 80s DIY and riot grrrl with a sprinkling of dashikis" says their Bandcamp biog. Musicians, writers, and activists all, the London based Big Joanie supported Sleater-Kinney on a number of their UK dates earlier this year. Their debut album, Sistah's, was released in 2018. Their Bandcamp is here.

The Raincoats: London punk legends The Raincoats have been writing idiosyncratic masterpieces since 1977. Their first three albums were all re-released in the 1990s thanks to interest from Kurt Cobain (who was responsible for the bands reformation in 1993) and Sonic Youth, and they have continued to record and perform, on and off, ever since. You can find out more here.

Bikini Kill: The return of Bikini Kill (along with Gossip) was one of the more unexpected but highly exciting reformations and live reunions of 2019. This iconoclastic punk band originally formed in 1990 in Olympia, Washington, and were key players in the riot grrrl scene in Olympia when it began in 1991. They split up in 1997, but clearly felt they were needed in 2019. You can find out more here.

The Raincoats "No One's Little Girl"

This was the second Raincoats song I ever heard, again, on the Peel show. He played it following Kurt Cobain's OD in Rome in 1994, in a sort of 'get well soon Kurt' kind of way. It does seem a very odd choice in that context but, given Cobain's avowed appreciation of the Raincoats, perhaps not as odd as you might think.

This is probably my favourite Raincoats song.