Christina Billotte and
Melissa Berkoff initially began playing together in a Washington, D.C. band called Hazmat in 1989, but then joined up with
Nikki Chapman and
Mary Timony to form
Autoclave.
Autoclave released a 7" on the "DisKord" label, a joint effort between
Dischord and Olympia, Washington's K Records. The band's second release was a posthumous 10" released on Christina's label, Mira Records. After the band split up, the members went off in different directions. Nikki went to Olympia, Melissa headed to New Orleans, Mary went to Boston (where she would form Helium) and Christina stayed in D.C. and went on to form
Slant 6, Quix-o-tic and The Casual Dots.
Autoclave was a band that defied classification and context, and their music was unique and lasting enough that
Dischord decided to release a discography CD in 1997.
Photo:
Shawn Scallen
