Bikini Kill, the groundbreaking punk group that helped define the riot-grrrl subgenre in the early 1990s, have decided to call it quits after seven years.

The Olympia, Wash., band leaves as its legacy not only two albums and a bevy of singles, but numerous other groups such as Sleater-Kinney, who were inspired by Bikini Kill's exhilarating example of neo-feminist, grass-roots punk-rock.

The band -- singer Kathleen Hanna, bass player Kathi Wilcox, drummer Tobi Vail and guitarist Billy Boredom -- quietly decided to go their separate ways earlier this year, according to Maggie Vail, publicist for Kill Rock Stars Records.

"Kathleen and Kathi have moved to the East Coast," Maggie Vail said. "They're doing other stuff."

Hanna's upcoming projects include an album recorded for Kill Rock Stars under the pseudonym Julie Ruin. In addition, Kill Rock Stars will release a nine-song compilation of Bikini Kill's EP tracks called The Singles in June.

Soon after Bikini Kill formed in 1990, their incendiary live shows established the band as pioneers in the aesthetic known as riot-grrrl, which focused on confronting sexism wherever it lay and empowering women to take control of their own lives. Hanna regularly urged the females in the audience to claim the space in front of the stage as their own, and to rise above divisive issues such as jealousy and competition among women.

Sleater-Kinney, one the most respected groups in punk today, directly owe their existence to Bikini Kill's example. Singer and guitarist Corin Tucker told SonicNet Music News last year that she formed her first band, Heavens To Betsy, after seeing a Bikini Kill show on Valentine's Day in 1991.

"They made everyone in Olympia very uncomfortable, and that was extremely liberating to me," Tucker said, recalling the show. "They were so obviously only trying to please themselves. They were so inspired that their awkwardness and amateurism at playing their instruments ... didn't matter at all because of the force of their words, and their spirit, and what they were trying to accomplish. They inspired so many young women."

Bikini Kill's self-titled debut EP, co-recorded by Fugazi's Ian MacKaye and released in 1992, contains now classic tracks such as the amazingly touching "Feels Blind" (RealAudio excerpt), the socio-political "Carnival" and "Suck My Left One" (RealAudio excerpt), a punk-rock anthem whose fury rivaled that of the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy In The U.K." 15 years before.

"Daddy comes into her room at night, he's got more than talking on his mind," Hanna sings impatiently, as the band, still new to their instruments, digs with punk righteousness behind her. "My sister pulls the covers down, reaches over, flicks on the light -- and she says to him: 'Suck! My! Left! One!' "

Joan Jett, whose own example as a female rocker in the Runaways in the late 1970s and as a solo artist in the '80s inspired Bikini Kill, was so energized by an early BK performance that she in turn wrote the song "Activity Grrrl" as a tribute to Hanna and her bandmates. In 1993, Jett produced Bikini Kill's New Radio EP, which included the most fiery of several recordings they made of their signature song, "Rebel Girl."

In 1994, Kill Rock Stars reissued Bikini Kill and the band's 1993 split EP with Huggy Bear as a single collection called The CD Version of the First Two Records. Bikini Kill followed that with several singles as well as another album, 1996's Reject All American.