The Raincoats

The all-female British band The Raincoats—championed by Kurt Cobain in the early ‘90s—released three studio albums between 1979 and 1984. Their self-titled debut had a fiercely independent flavor that didn’t quite fit the post-punk mold of the time. With scratchy violin, spare guitar/bass, and polyrhythmic layers of clattering percussion, The Raincoats mined the sort of tribal, off-kilter territory that The Slits were also exploring then. (In fact, in 1979 Slits drummer Palmolive left her band of three years for The Raincoats.) Songs alternate between primitive folk and gutsy punk—with art-school flair—as the vocals veer from sweetly flat and off-key to shouty choruses and sour mewling. Gems not to miss are the first single, “Fairytale in the Supermarket” (not on the original album), “No Side to Fall In,” a cover of The Kinks’ “Lola,” and the bittersweet “In Love.” The Raincoats is a priceless piece of rock history. Cool notes: Mayo Thompson of The Red Krayola was a producer here, and Lora Logic of X-Ray Spex contributed sax work. Palmolive left the band shortly after this release, embraced Christianity, and moved to the U.S.