Tobi Celeste Vail (born July 20, 1969) is an American independent musician, music critic and feminist activist from Olympia, Washington.
When she was young her parents moved the family to rural Naselle, Washington, where her father worked in a youth detention center.
[4][5] While still in high school, Vail volunteered at KAOS (FM), the campus radio station at The Evergreen State College.
Since the beginning of her teens, Vail had tried to form an all-female band to "rule the world and change how people view music and politics",[7] including a group named Doris.
[8][9] In October 1990, Vail and Evergreen State College classmates Kathi Wilcox and Kathleen Hanna determined to form a band, which they named Bikini Kill.
After trying out a lot of female lead guitar players, none of whom seemed to fit, the band finally asked Karren to join as he was already known to Vail and a familiar figure in the Olympia music scene.
[13][14] Despite frequent mainstream media misrepresentation[15] and serious violence at shows,[16] they continued for several years and today are largely credited (along with Bratmobile) with starting riot grrrl, a movement that merged do it yourself (DIY) punk culture with feminism.
[16][17] Largely because of Hanna's leadership, Bikini Kill encouraged girls to stand at the front of the stage for solidarity as well as for protection from male aggression.
The general idea that girls should create their own independent culture grew rapidly in popularity through a largely underground network of similar-feeling fans, artists, musicians and writers, and soon regular meetings started taking place, usually in punk houses like Positive Force.
In February 2016, Vail issued a YouTube takedown request after a pro-Hillary Clinton video utilizing the Bikini Kill song "Rebel Girl" began to go viral.
In 1993, Vail started Bumpidee, a low-cost method for unsigned bands to increase their listener base, using the distribution of cassette recordings of their songs.
In mid-2004, Vail founded the band Spider and the Webs,[23] with James Maeda on guitar and Chris Sutton on drums and bass.
[30] With her sister Maggie, Vail joined Allison Wolfe, Cat Power, and members of Sleater-Kinney to organize the first Ladyfest in 2000, a music, activism, and arts conference held in Olympia.
[35] While Kathleen Hanna was touring with Viva Knievel, she came upon a copy of Jigsaw #2, finding resonance in Vail's "Boxes", a five-page article about gender.
Janice Radway notes that her copy of Jigsaw #4, also published in 1991, has many instances of the printed word "grrrl", but each one has been crossed out, "presumably by Vail, as a protest against the popularity of the term.
[40] Vail used the Bumpidee site to publish Jigsaw #8 in the spring and summer of 2003, including writings by Alan Licht and Becca Albee.
Cobain, unaware of the deodorant brand, saw a deeper meaning in the phrase, and wrote the song "Smells Like Teen Spirit".