Tobi Vail

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Tobi Vail
Background information
Also known as Tobi Celeste
Tabitha
Chopped Liver
Born 20 July 1969
US flag Olympia, Washington, United States
Occupation(s) musician, zinester
Instrument(s) drums, guitar, bass
Years active mid-80s-Present
Label(s) K Records
Kill Rock Stars
Bumpidee
Associated
acts		 Bikini Kill
The Go Team

Tobi Vail (b. July 20, 1969) is a musician, somewhat legendary DIY zinester, rock critic and feminist theorist from Olympia, Washington. She formed her first band as the drummer for The Go Team when she was 15[1], later collaborating in several other bands like Bikini Kill, as well as being involved over the years with an exceptionally prolific assortment of side projects, figuring prominently in the Olympia music scene. Currently she fronts the psychedelic-garage-punk band Spider and the Webs, plays drums in The Old Haunts, as well as running her own indie cassette label and the Kill Rock Stars mail order department.

Contents

[edit] Life and Work

[edit] The Go Team and Doris

Vail was born on the day of the first moon landing and named after Toby Tyler, who ran away to join the circus.[2] Growing up in a very musical family, she started playing music early.

“ my dad and grandad were drummers. there are a lot of hillbilly musicians on my dad's side I started playing instruments and making up songs in junior high, played in bands in high school, started touring at 18[3] ”

Her first band was The Go Team with Calvin Johnson. The group released 9 singles and several cassettes on the independent label K Records. Billy "Boredom" Karren was one of the rotating musicians who played with The Go Team, and it was in this band that he and Vail played together for the first time, later collaborating in several other bands like Bikini Kill, The Frumpies, the upallnighters, and Spray Painted Love. Other guest musicians included Rich Jenson, David Nichols, and Donna Dresch. They toured the West Coast as a two piece, adding Billy Karren for two U.S. tours. Vail was also in an all-teenage girl band called Doris with Cheryl Hooper at this time (1986-1988), which played shows around the northwest with Beat Happening, Spook and the Zombies, Rich Jensen, Oklahoma Scramble and Snake Pit. They made a demo tape, which was recorded by Steve Ross (Cactus Love, the Briefs), but never released. After the demise of The Go Team, Vail played in various project bands and made a record as the drummer for Some Velvet Sidewalk.

[edit] Bikini Kill

Vail is best known as the drummer of Bikini Kill, which lasted from 1990 to 1997. The band was often met with resistance and misunderstanding from an inarguably male-dominated rock scene due to their chaotic live performances, as well as their controversial lyrics, which dealt with issues such as rape, incest, domestic violence, abortion, sexuality, body image, stalking, discrimination, racism, vegetarianism, and sexism in general. They persevered and today are largely credited, along with Bratmobile, with starting Riot Grrrl, a movement that merged Do It Yourself punk culture with feminism, encouraging girls to start bands, zines, make their own culture and create their own self-produced media, with a strong emphatic advocacy for the DIY indie-philosophies of amateurism, much like her influences Billy Childish[3] and Moe Tucker.[4]

“ In a music scene and era turned professional it is important to demonstrate allegiance and respect for the realm of the unprofessional musical endeavors. This means we are trying to rebel against the idea that everything must last, must be a record, must have a promo sheet. Sometimes things are just what they are and then later they are something else. The professionals of the world will try and argue for bands that should break up to stay together and go on tour but sometimes the spontaneous approach is much more than this could ever be: START YOUR OWN BAND AND DO WHAT YOU WANNA DO[3] ”

The band itself released several classic LPs and singles on their friend Slim's then-new label Kill Rock Stars, of which Vail is now a chief editor, and toured extensively across the US, Europe, Japan, and Australia, which helped spread the word further.

Vail recalls:

“ When Bikini Kill first started people reacted to what we did very strongly - either they really loved it or they really hated it, and a lot of times that was kinda hard to deal with, especially just starting out. A lot of times I thought we would just be asking questions, and people saw us as really dogmatic or whatever... Maybe our presentation was sort of dogmatic cos every show we played was like a war, cos like guys would try to beat us up and stuff, it was really violent, and we were really - we had a lot of fans and we didn't have any crowd control, we didn't have a manager, we'd just play these crazy places like bowling alleys and then cram like 600 people in there, you know, no security.[5] ”

Riot grrrl as a cultural movement was hugely fueled by the early 90's explosion of indie-punk fanzine ethos: Vail, with bandmates Kathleen Hanna and Kathi Wilcox, together produced the zines Revolution Girl Style Now and Bikini Kill, and along with Bratmobile's Girl Germs, these zines are credited as the first manifestos of the riot grrrl movement. The actual word 'grrl' was coined in Vail's seminal journal, Jigsaw (1988-present), one of the first Northwestern punk zines to address gender issues explicitly.

[edit] The Frumpies

In 1992 Tobi started The Frumpies with bandmates Kathi Wilcox and Billy Karren, Molly Neuman of Bratmobile and The PeeChees, and later Michelle Mae. They wrote and recorded several 7" singles, most of which are compiled on the Kill Rock Stars release Frumpie One Piece. Distinctly less overtly political in nature than either BK or Bratmobile, and refining a much different sound (no bass player, 3 guitar players), they toured the U.S. with Huggy Bear in 1993 and Italy with Dada Swing in 2000.

[edit] Bumpidee and other projects

Vail has played in quite a few bands before and after the friendly break-up of Bikini Kill in 97, including:

  • Chopped Liver
  • The Feebles
  • Frenchie and the German Girls
  • Gene Defcon
  • My New Boyfriend
  • Severed Lethargy
  • Spray Painted Love
  • Upallnighters
  • Listen to the Elephants
  • Panic in the Square
  • The Retirement Band
  • Spider and The Webs - her current band with James Maeda and Chris Sutton of Hornet Leg and Dub Narcotic Sound System.

In addition to her own projects, she's appeared as a guest with

In 1994, Vail started her own cassette label called Bumpidee (named after the Portland-based Sunday morning children's show and eponymous character Bumpity) and released music by Worst Case Scenario, the Corrections, the Bonnot Gang, and the Slatternlies. Recent releases include demos by Spider and the Webs and Marissa Magic and a compilation called "Spider Friends". Each tape comes with a newsletter called The Bumpidee Times which contextualizes each release. Currently there is also a web site, bumpidee.com, of the same name.

She is also one of the founders of Bands Against Bush, Ladyfest and FAB (Feminist Action Brigade). Her current publications are Spider Magic, Feminists Against Bush and Pogo for Peace.

[edit] Personal life with Kurt Cobain

From 1990 to 1991, Vail dated Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, with whom she had collaborated during her tenure in The Go Team. They played music together for the duration of their relationship and were on good terms until fame, drug addiction and depression obscured many of Cobain's connections with old friends, including Vail. The end of their relationship occurred during the period when Cobain was writing material for Nirvana's seminal album Nevermind and some of the songs seem to contain veiled references to Tobi, including

  • Lounge Act - the lyric "wear a shield" refers to the K Records logo, which Kurt got tattooed on his arm to impress Tobi and prove his indie-punk credibility
  • Smells Like Teen Spirit - Teen Spirit was Tobi's choice of deodorant at the time, and Kathleen Hanna had spray-painted "Kurt smells like teen spirit" on his wall to playfully taunt the emotionally clingy Cobain
  • Aneurysm - Cross' biography of Cobain claimed that this song was written in an attempt to win Vail back, the line "love you so much it makes me sick" referring to the fact that she made Cobain so nervous that it once made him vomit[6]

Vail herself, when asked about it all by the rampant deluge of Nirvana-be's in late 2005 said, "I don't remember, it was a long time ago. When you read those books, rest assured they are mostly fiction. Until this year, I had never done an interview, or been approached by any of the writers, so keep it in mind. It's like the telephone game on a large scale."[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ She's a Rebel: The Histroy of Women in Rock and Roll (Live Girls) by Gillian G. Gaar
  2. ^ a b [1]
  3. ^ a b c [2]
  4. ^ [3]
  5. ^ [4]
  6. ^ Heavier Than Heaven by Charles Cross
  7. ^ Kill Rock Stars Q&A on the Frumpies
  • Cinderella's Big Score: Women of the Punk and Indie Underground by Maria Raha
  • Girls Make Media by Mary Celeste Kearney (Routledge, 2006)
  • Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Pop and Rap Ed. by Evelyn McDonnell and Ann Powers

[edit] External links

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