In her new book, Shouting Out Loud: Lives of The Raincoats, author Audrey Golden traces how the band’s shapeshifting sound and uncompromising attitude have inspired generations of music and movements, from Sonic Youth to riot grrrl to queercore.

When Horsegirl returned with their second album earlier this year, they did so with a couple of fresh new touchstones – Young Marble Giants and The Raincoats, two of the post-punk era’s most quietly influential groups. The music released in the late 70s and early 80s by Ana da Silva and Gina Birch’s feminist DIY art-punks – taking in scratchy proto-indie, dub, folk and polyrhythmic world music – has only grown in stature through the years. Now, the godmothers of grunge, riot grrrl and DIY indie-rock activism are the subject of a new book that counts the reasons why The Raincoats still loom so large.

Here, author Audrey Golden selects snippets from Shouting Out Loud: Lives of The Raincoats (White Rabbit) – named after a song from The Raincoats’ shapeshifting 1981 masterpiece Odyshape – to show there’s much more to them than a Lola TikTok meme.

Starting a revolution behind the Iron Curtain

In early spring 1978, The Raincoats became the first punk band to play behind the Iron Curtain. They showed up ready to open eyes, ears and minds to a new way of being. By the second night, the audience was singing along – they’d taped the first show, gone home, obsessively listened, and learned the words phonemically. The Warsaw underground was starving for something revolutionary, and The Raincoats offered it to them in droves.

Soundtracking political imprisonment in Northern Ireland

In 1979, The Raincoats received a piece of fan mail from a writer named Jim Kyle. The return address at the top read “Compound 19, HMP Maze” – the H-blocks in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, which held political prisoners sentenced for acts of violence during the Troubles. Jim introduced the sounds of “alternative music” to others in his cell – music that was making a necessary political impact in the UK.

Rocking against sexism

On February 14 1980, The Raincoats headlined Rock Against Sexism gig The Valentine’s Day Massacre, a public expression of their feminist ethos. Co-founder Gina Birch says, “Men have thought for so long that they have a right to sexual assault, that if women don’t respond in a particular way, they can do what they want. There was a need to address it, and there’s still quite a bit of that same need now.”

Setting the stage for Sonic Youth

At NYC’s downtown club TR3, Thurston Moore saw The Raincoats play in 1980 and got inspired. “After seeing The Raincoats, I left The Coachmen and started Sonic Youth,” he says. Sonic Youth certainly don’t sound like The Raincoats. Yet, as Moore explains, “It’s about the approach to the instrument.” For The Raincoats and Sonic Youth, “it’s an emotional approach, as opposed to any sort of traditional technique”.

Giving rise to a new DIY culture in America

According to artist Lois Maffeo, the “ethos of the music and art scene” that bloomed in Olympia, Washington – where 90s superstars Nirvana began – arose from what The Raincoats revealed was possible: “Make do and make magic out of nothing.” The Raincoats’ songs became part of the fabric of the city and the culture it (re)produced.

Proving that punk is an idea, not a sound

“I was already open to the idea that punk wasn’t a genre – it’s an idea! – but listening to The Raincoats made me know that punk doesn’t have to be this in-your-face aggressive music. It can be this really complicated, nuanced thing,” says Kathleen Hanna. What she learned from The Raincoats “was that we could do whatever the fuck we wanted, and what felt important was making the kind of music we wanted to make.”

Becoming the godmothers of riot grrrl

Kathi Wilcox of Bikini Kill was intent on tracking down The Raincoats on her first UK tour in 1993. She sat down with co-founder Ana da Silva in her kitchen for a filmed interview. “I can’t wait to see in ten years all the crazy girl bands who are doing what they’re doing because of us, and we’re doing what we’re doing because of you,” Kathi tells Ana before the camera cuts out.

… and queercore

In J.D.s, the first-ever queercore fanzine created by Toronto artists GB Jones and Bruce LaBruce, The Raincoats’ song Only Loved at Night featured prominently and opened the world to queer musicians, filmmakers and visual artists in new ways through the 80s and 90s. Those subtle queer love songs have continued to serve an anthemic purpose for younger generations. “It’s really music that speaks to queer artists now,” says London filmmaker Honey Birch.

Empowering the next generation of feminists

There’s the massive impact The Raincoats’ cover of Lola has had on TikTok in the 2020s. Videos abound with queer and trans women dancing freely, in fashions of their own making, while singing along to the cover song. In some videos, teens come out while Lola plays in the background. Just as musicians in the 80s and 90s saw queer undertones in The Raincoats’ Lola, so, now, does the next generation.

Encouraging people generally

The Raincoats finally made it to Japan in 2010 after an original invitation to play in 1984. Ana remembers a girl approaching her and violinist Anne Wood, saying, “I want to be like The Raincoats!” Anne quickly replied: “But you become like The Raincoats by being yourself! That’s what The Raincoats is, it’s to just be yourself and not copy someone else!” The fan took that crucial directive with her as she left the show.