Bangs (often erroneously referred to as ''the'' Bangs) was an American punk rock and

riot grrrl Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in Olympia, Washington and the greater Pacific Northwest and has expanded to at least 26 other countries. Riot grrrl is a subcultur ...

band from Olympia, Washington.

Formation

The band was formed in 1997 by the

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

Sarah Utter, after recruiting her high-school friend Jesse Fox on

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

and Maggie Vail. Vail had to learn how to play bass guitar to be in the band, as the only instruments she played before were drums, guitar, cello and

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

Tours

Bangs toured with and/or played shows with bands including Sleater-Kinney, the Gossip, Unwound, Blonde Redhead, The Makers, The Donnas, Shannon Wright, Murder City Devils and Karp. Vail also played bass guitar in Frenchie and the German Girls, and sang backing vocals in the famous party-band Gene Defcon. Utter played in one of the last incarnations of Witchypoo, as well as Plastique. Fox left the band after a long U.S. tour, and Bangs went through a succession of drummers (Heather Dunn, Kyle Ermatinger) before settling with Olympia's Peter David Connelly. They recorded their last EP, ''Call and Response'', in a frigidly cold farmhouse basement with the engineer Justin Trosper of Unwound. Although the band had associations with the

movement (Vail's sister is Bikini Kill's Tobi Vail), Bangs did not regard itself as a riot grrrl band and preferred the term "rock band", crediting The Go-Go's, The Ramones, and Cheap Trick as inspirations. All of the band's releases were on Kill Rock Stars except for one single, released on Olympia label Ten-In-One Records. They toured the United States extensively, and also played shows in England, Scotland,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and New Zealand, where they were featured on the country's national news.

Break up

Bangs broke up in September 2004 after Utter moved to Los Angeles. Their last show was at Olympia's Eagles Hall as part of Kill Rock Stars' 'Yeah! Fest!'. Vail has since relocated to Portland, Oregon, where she plays in the bands Romancing and Leti Angel. Peter David still lives in Olympia and plays in The Mona Reels as well as other groups such as The November Witch, Tumwater Video and The Devon Williams Band. Utter has since moved back to the northwest and spends her time painting and playing bass guitar with Craig Extine and Kris Cunningham in the band Western Hymn.

2010 reunion

In July 2010, the band reunited for four shows. One warm up gig in Olympia was followed by three shows (Portland, Olympia, and Seattle) benefiting their friend, Natalie Cox's, cancer fund.

Discography

Studio albums

*''Tiger Beat'' (''1''998 *''Sweet Revenge'' (2000)

Singles and EPS

*''Maggie the Cat'', 7", 1998, Ten in One *''Mailorder Freaks Singles Club'' 7", 1999, Kill Rock Stars *''Call and Response'', EP, 2002

Compilation appearances

*''Turbo's Tunes'' *'' Fields And Streams'', 2 CD compilation, (Kill Rock Stars 2002) *''Mollie's Mix''

References

External links

KRS band page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bangs Kill Rock Stars Punk rock groups from Washington (state) Riot grrrl bands Musical groups from Olympia, Washington Indie rock musical groups from Washington (state)