Our final interview of the LA shoot was with Allison Wolfe, an original riot grrrl and member of a laundry list of bands, including Bratmobile and Cold Cold Hearts. Her experience starting an all-girl punk band in the Pacific Northwest was an entirely new perspective to explore, and our interview touched on a host of interesting topics. Throughout the conversation, the importance of college radio’s support of Allison’s DIY aesthetic was very clear
Thanks to her mother, Allison grew up with strong feminist music influences like Joan Baez but not much else until discovering college radio and expanding her musical tastes. While attending the University of Oregon, she began her journey into the DIY punk scene by co-founding a punk fanzine, Girl Germs. That was just the beginning. Her story of basically willing a band into existence which then became a foundation of the riot grrrl movement is pretty amazing. It was clear that mainstream radio would never have played Bratmobile’s music, so college radio was instrumental in introducing the band to people outside of their core audience in Olympia, WA. The scene there, which also included bands like Bikini Kill and later, Sleater-Kinney, was ground-zero for the riot grrrl movement.
Allison has continued to play in a number of bands over the years (Deep Lust, Partyline, Cool Moms, Sex Stains and Ex-Stains, to name a few) and has continued to enjoy college radio as a listener. She also has a podcast, does public speaking, performs as a DJ and is working on an oral history of the riot grrrl movement.