Allison Wolfe

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Allison Wolfe

| image = Allison Wolfe 01.jpg

| caption = Wolfe attending the EMP Pop Conference in Los Angeles, 2011.

| birth_name =

| alias = Baby Donut

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1969|11|9|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.

| death_date =

| origin =

| instrument = Vocals

| genre =

| occupation = Singer, songwriter

| years_active = 1991–present

| label = Kill Rock Stars
Lookout! Records
Retard Disco
Don Giovanni Records

| associated_acts = Bratmobile
Cold Cold Hearts
Hawnay Troof
Partyline
Sex Stains

| website = [https://www.allisoncwolfe.com/ allisoncwolfe.com]

}}

Allison Wolfe (born November 9, 1969) is a Los Angeles–based singer, songwriter, writer, and podcaster. As a founding member and lead singer of the punk rock band Bratmobile, she became one of the leading voices of the riot grrl movement.

Wolfe has also fronted other bands, including Sex Stains, Partyline, and Cold Cold Hearts. She was one of the principal creators of the original Ladyfest music festival in 2000. She has more recently been the creator and host of the punk rock interview podcast I'm In The Band.

Background

Allison Wolfe and her sister Cindy were born identical twins in Memphis, Tennessee, on November 9, 1969. Together with their sister Molly, they grew up in Olympia, Washington. Their parents divorced when they were all still young children, and they were raised by their mother, Pat Shively. A radical feminist and self-described lesbian,{{Cite episode |title=Allison Wolfe interview |url=http://dissonance.libsyn.com/webpage/10_10_06_allison_wolfe_bratmobile |series= Dissonance |network=Radio CPR |station=97.5 FM |location=Washington, DC |airdate=10 October 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190227132127/http://dissonance.libsyn.com/webpage/10_10_06_allison_wolfe_bratmobile |archive-date=February 27, 2019 |url-status=live }} Shively founded Olympia's Eastside Women's Health Clinic in 1981.{{Cite news |title=Feds Lead Investigation Because of Abortion Issue |newspaper=The Olympian |date=11 January 2005 |location=Olympia, WA |url=http://www.covenantnews.com/newswire/archives/009165.html |access-date=5 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071027021126/http://www.covenantnews.com/newswire/archives/009165.html |archive-date=October 27, 2007 |url-status=usurped }} It was the first women's clinic in Thurston County, and throughout Shively's two decades of work it was the target of relentless anti-abortion demonstrations. The protests could be harrowing: Wolfe's mother endured verbal and physical abuse, and death threats forced her to go to the clinic armed and wearing a bulletproof vest. (The EWHC was razed in a fire in 2005, set by a still-unidentified arsonist.) Pat Shively died of ovarian cancer in February, 2000, and Wolfe credits her as being a lifelong influence, a feminist role model "almost too big to live up to."

In 1988, Wolfe spent time as an exchange student in Thailand's Krathum Baen District. She returned to attend Evergreen State College in Olympia,{{cite magazine |last=Wolfe |first=Allison |date=26 June 2017 |title=Riot Grrrls Raise Awareness |url=https://www.evergreen.edu/magazine/spring-2017/music-and-social-activism |magazine=Evergreen |location=United States |access-date=18 January 2022}} and later the University of Oregon at Eugene.{{cite web |title=A Brief Visual History of Riot Grrrl Zines |url=https://www.flavorwire.com/128822/a-brief-visual-history-of-riot-grrrl-zines |website=Flavorwire |date=8 November 2010 |access-date=18 January 2022 |language=en}}

Music career

= Bratmobile =

Wolfe and Molly Neuman wrote about rock music's pervasive sexism in their influential punkzines, Girl Germs and Riot Grrrl. They took those themes to music when they joined with Washington, DC guitarist Erin Smith to form their own band, Bratmobile, in 1991.{{Cite book |last1=Butler |first1=Cornelia H. |last2=Schwartz |first2=Alexandra |last3=Adler |first3=Esther |title=Modern Women: Women Artists at the Museum of Modern Art |year=2010 |publisher=The Museum of Modern Art |location=New York |isbn=978-0-87070-771-1|page=228 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WTvfzdpTyuUC&pg=PT228 |access-date=5 January 2012 }} Bratmobile performed at the International Pop Underground Convention in Olympia, Washington in August 1991.{{Cite web |title=Riot Grrrl get noticed |last=Hopper |first=Jessica |work=The Guardian |date=June 13, 2011 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/14/riot-grrrl-get-noticed }}{{Cite web |title=WATCH: Riot Grrrl Retrospectives - 'Girl Night' at the 1991 International Pop Underground Convention|url=https://www.mopop.org/about-mopop/the-mopop-blog/posts/2020/may/watch-riot-grrrl-retrospectives-girl-night-at-the-1991-international-pop-underground-convention/ |publisher=Museum of Pop Culture |date= May 28, 2020 }} Maura Johnston later wrote in Rolling Stone that Wolfe's distinctive "disaffected drawl" became "one of the most prominent voices of the early-Nineties riot grrrl movement".{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/bratmobiles-allison-wolfe-on-riot-grrrl-history-new-wave-of-feminist-punk-105492/ |title=Bratmobile's Allison Wolfe on Riot Grrrl History, New Wave of Feminist Punk |author=Johnston, Maura |author-link=Maura Johnston |date=October 12, 2016 |magazine=Rolling Stone |access-date=June 8, 2019 }}

Bratmobile recorded for Kill Rock Stars, an Olympia-based independent label, and released their first full-length album, Pottymouth, in 1992. The band ended in a rancorous onstage breakup in New York City in 1994.

= Cold Cold Hearts =

Wolfe and Smith eventually reunited to form Cold Cold Hearts with an expanded rhythm section provided by drummer Katherine Brown and bassist Natalie Mencinsky ("Nattles"). The band toured extensively and released one self-titled album in 1997.{{Cite web |url=https://dcist.com/story/11/11/03/secret-history-cold-cold-hearts-st/ |title=Secret History: Cold Cold Hearts' S/T |author=Gentry, Brandon |date=November 3, 2011 |website=DCist.com |access-date=July 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504024738/https://dcist.com/story/11/11/03/secret-history-cold-cold-hearts-st/ |archive-date=May 4, 2019 |url-status=live }}

= Deep Lust =

Wolfe later sang with Deep Lust, her first band with male musicians which she lightheartedly describes as "my boy band". Deep Lust formed in early 1999;{{Cite web |url=http://www.mtv.com/news/151565/deep-lust-of-cold-hearted-wolfe/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190531220920/http://www.mtv.com/news/151565/deep-lust-of-cold-hearted-wolfe/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 31, 2019 |title=Deep Lust of Cold-Hearted Wolfe |author=Staff |date=April 20, 1999 |website=MTV.com |access-date=May 31, 2019 }} they toured and released one self-titled album on Kill Rock Stars in February 2000.{{Cite web |url=https://www.killrockstars.com/artists/deep-lust |title=Deep Lust |date=2019 |website=Killrockstars.com |access-date=May 31, 2019 |archive-date=May 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190531220930/https://www.killrockstars.com/artists/deep-lust |url-status=dead }}

= Bratmobile reunion =

Bratmobile reformed in 1999 and went on tour with Sleater Kinney. The reunited band released two more albums, Ladies, Women and Girls (2000) and Girls Get Busy (2002).

= Partyline =

Wolfe started a Washington D.C.–based band, Partyline, in 2004. The band released two full-length albums, Girls With Glasses (2005) and Zombie Terrorist (2006).

= Sex Stains =

Sex Stains formed in Los Angeles in 2014.{{cite news|last1=Reardon|first1=Tom|title=How a Choreographer and a Riot Grrrl Formed L.A.'s Most Exciting New Punk Band|url=http://www.laweekly.com/music/how-a-choreographer-and-a-riot-grrrl-formed-las-most-exciting-new-punk-band-7314020|access-date=June 15, 2019 |work=L.A. Weekly|date=September 2, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190910225431/https://www.laweekly.com/how-a-choreographer-and-a-riot-grrrl-formed-l-a-s-most-exciting-new-punk-band/ |archive-date=September 10, 2019 |url-status=live }} The five-person group was the largest outfit Wolfe had worked with yet, and the first in which she had a companion vocalist, Mecca Vazie Andrews. The band released their eponymous debut album on Don Giovanni Records in 2016.

After some personnel changes in 2017, the group was recast as Ex Stains, which performed shows with Wolfe on lead vocals until disbanding in mid-2018.[https://www.facebook.com/pg/exstains/about/ Ex Stains] "About" page on Facebook{{Cite web |url=https://rocknyc.live/cat-scan-with-justus-proffit-ex-stains-at-the-echo-monday-june-18th-2018.html |title=Cat Scan With Justus Proffit, Ex-Stains At The Echo, Monday June 18th 2018 |author=Camus, Alyson |date=June 20, 2018 |website=RockNYC.live |access-date=June 15, 2019 }}

= Other musical groups =

Wolfe has also performed and recorded with various other bands including Alice Bag, Cool Moms, Dig Yr Grave, Hawnay Troof and its offshoot, Baby Truth.

Other works

Wolfe was one of the primary architects behind the original Ladyfest music festival in Olympia, Washington, in 2000.{{Cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jul-29-et-angela29-story.html |title=Arts Feminism, Thy Newest Name Is Ladyfest |author=Watercutter, Angela |date=July 29, 2002 |website=LATimes.com |access-date=June 11, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190910230843/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jul-29-et-angela29-story.html |archive-date=September 10, 2019 |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/08/02/ladyfest-dc-grrrls-uninterrupted/6c66a619-e720-4901-bec9-fc062be36b1e/ |title=Ladyfest D.C.: Grrrls, Uninterrupted |author=Brace, Eric |date=August 2, 2002 |newspaper=Washington Post }} In later years, Ladyfest festivals have taken place throughout the world and Wolfe has appeared at many of them.

Wolfe holds a master's degree in arts journalism from the University of Southern California.{{Cite news |last=Kreuzer |first=Nikki |date=May 31, 2018 |title=Riot Grrl Allison Wolfe Gives Voice to the Voiceless |url=https://www.laweekly.com/arts/allison-wolfe-the-riot-grrrl-out-to-tell-womens-stories-9487800 |newspaper=LA Weekly |access-date=October 15, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181016015011/https://www.laweekly.com/arts/allison-wolfe-the-riot-grrrl-out-to-tell-womens-stories-9487800 |archive-date=October 16, 2018 |url-status=live }} In the 2000s she worked for The Washington Post,{{Cite web |url=http://www.spin.com/features/band_of_the_day/2005/06/050615_partyline/ |title=Artist of the Day: Partyline |date=June 15, 2005 |website=Spin.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070510053930/http://www1.spin.com/features/band_of_the_day/2005/06/050615_partyline/ |archive-date=May 10, 2007 |url-status=dead |access-date=July 16, 2007 |df=mdy-all }} and edited the punk rock-themed manga series Nana, refashioning its basic English translation into modern vernacular.{{Cite news |last=Ohanesian |first=Liz |date=April 30, 2009 |title=From Bratmobile to Manga Grrrl: Indie Icon Allison Wolfe on Nana |url=https://www.laweekly.com/music/from-bratmobile-to-manga-grrrl-indie-icon-allison-wolfe-on-nana-2401008 |newspaper=LA Weekly |location=Los Angeles, California |access-date=November 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171202213441/http://www.laweekly.com/music/from-bratmobile-to-manga-grrrl-indie-icon-allison-wolfe-on-nana-2401008 |archive-date=December 2, 2017 |url-status=live }} Since 2017 she has hosted I'm In The Band'', a podcast on Tidal in which she interviews artists from the punk and indie rock scenes.