The 10 best punk albums from the 1980s

# 6: Frightwig – Faster, Frightwig, Kill! Kill! (1986)

It wasn’t until the early 1990s that the likes of Bikini Kill and Bratmobile ushered in the long-awaited age of Riot Grrrl liberation, but the roots of that scene was in records like Faster, Frightwig, Kill! Kill! from back in 1986. Spearheaded by the infallible duo of Deanna Mitchell and Mia d’Bruzzi, the album was Frightwig’s second full-length offering – arguably their defining record – and it took its name from Russ Meyer’s legendary 1965 exploitation flick.

Through kitsch parodies of femininity – or, rather, 1980s-era expectations of femininity – the record blows away the masculine domination of punk through one of the most energetic, fearless, and criminally underrated albums of the entire decade. It is virtually impossible, when listening to the record, not to hear the core sound of Bikini Kill being carved out in the process, yet Faster, Frightwig, Kill! Kill! is rarely on the receiving end of the attention it so richly deserves.

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