Petrol Girls

Petrol Girls emerged in London as a hardcore punk outfit whose intense sonic force and vocal commitment to feminist causes drew both widespread acclaim and a devoted following throughout the middle of the 2010s. The quartet issued two favorably received EPs before delivering their first album-length statement in 2016 and later moving to Hassle for the 2019 release Cut & Stitch.

Singer Ren Aldridge assembled the group to perform at a house party she organized in 2012 to mark International Women’s Day; the lineup was completed by bassist Liepa Kuraitė, guitarist Joe York, and drummer Zock Astpai. They adopted their name from the nineteenth-century French revolutionary collective known as the Pétroleuses, then issued a self-released, self-titled 7" in 2014 that helped generate underground attention in the capital through the band’s explosive performances. Their second EP, Some Thing, appeared in 2016 and was succeeded later the same year by the full-length Talk of Violence on Bomber Records. The 2018 single “Survivor” coincided with the announcement that Petrol Girls had joined the roster of U.K. punk specialists Hassle Records, which in turn issued the group’s second album, Cut & Stitch, in 2019.