I'm in the Band podcast, Season 3, Episode 1:  VIV ALBERTINE / THE SLITS

Viv Albertine, guitarist and lyricist for the Slits, along with her iconoclastic bandmates, came of age in the mid-late ‘70s original, London punk scene. Unconventional and irreverent in sight and sound, the band, which included singer Ari Up, bassist Tessa Pollitt, and drummer Palmolive, challenged traditional expectations of women, even within their own subculture. With almost no musical experience or role models, the Slits innovated with sound, structure and performance by “listening to the rhythms inside themselves.” They expressed themselves freely and provocatively at a time when being punk was dangerous, and their transgressions were often met with gloves-off misogyny and violence. 

Raised to be fearless by her patriarchy-hating mother, Albertine not only broke barriers in the musical arena, she has also reinvented herself many times, pursuing careers in film, art, aerobics, and writing. Living through childhood domestic violence, marriage, intensive fertility treatments, motherhood, cancer, divorce, and family loss, she has survived and thrived. Albertine details her evolution through a dynamic, creative life in her first memoir, Clothes Clothes Clothes, Music Music Music, Boys Boys Boys. In her follow-up book, To Throw Away Unopened, Albertine examines her own familial relationships and what led her to who she has become—a driven, independent, creative rebel who is unapologetically herself.

"I feel like anyone could do it," said Albertine about the do-it-yourself aspect of punk. "I had not got the talent to do any of it, and yet I've done it. That's what they brought, punks — that sort of attitude of saying it doesn't matter how technically good you are. One,  if you’ve got something to say, and two, are you passionate about it, ‘cause technique means nothing. And that is punk attitude."

In this inaugural episode of Season Three of I’m in the Band, Albertine discusses growing up working class in patriarchal, post-war London, channeling anger into creative expression, and writing (and graffitiing!) women back into punk music history.

I'm in the Band, Season 3, Episode 1:  VIV ALBERTINE / THE SLITS

Pig Bag – Sunny Day
Shabazz Palaces – Binoculars ft Royce the Choice 
Magazine – Shot By Both Sides 
Albert King – Born Under A Bad Sign 
Slow Pulp – Broadview 
Flaming Lips – The W.A.N.D. 
KG&LW – Chang'e – The Silver Chord 2023
Siouxsie & the Banshees – The Passenger (Iggy Pop) – Through the Looking Glass 1987
The Slits – Typical Girls – Cut 1979
Galaxie 500 – Parking Lot – Today 1988
P.I.L. - Public Image – Public Image 1979
Shuggie Otis – Purple – Freedom Flight 1971

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New tracks tagged #theslits