Kleenex/Liliput

Of all the female-dominated bands to record for England's Rough Trade Records in the post-punk early '80s, none seemed so much to be creating music from scratch as the Swiss misses in Kleenex. Coming from Zurich probably had something to do with it, as much for sheer distance as for the fact that, decades earlier, the city had been the center of the Dada movement. Dada certainly lived on the band's aesthetic -- if only because so much of their (mostly English, not that you could usually tell) vocal splatter had the feel of exuberant gibberish yelled above a goose-stepping herky-jerk by women learning their instruments as they went. After a few definitive 7-inch singles as Kleenex, the tissue company forced a name change; rechristened LiLiPUT, they continued to put out unfathomable but indelible 45s, and eventually two full-lengths, as their lineup morphed and their sound evolved into a slightly less chaotic, yet still mysterious, species of art-funk. Ultimately, their influence on bands as disparate as Book of Love (who covered "Die Matrosen") and Sleater-Kinney led to their rediscovery -- much of it orchestrated by riot-grrrl-identified label Kill Rock Stars.