MUSIC
leater-Kinney’s seventh record, The
Woods, is loud.
S
Consider yourself warned.
In the most recent issue of music mag
Magnet, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder
blames the Portland trio for blowing out the
speakers of his home stereo. Even diehard fans
on Sleater-Kinney blogs are reporting an invol
untarily reflex to stuff cotton in their ears.
And this is a Pacific Northwest band who
(in the mid-1990s, no less) made grunge irrele
vant and left Kurt Cobain looking weak and
lame. Hell, Sleater-Kinney made a career
screaming their demons out and—maybe just
as importantly—creating a place for the audi
ence to scream theirs out, too.
So you’d expect Sleater-Kinney’s fans to be
prepared for this level of sonic disruption. But
how could you be? The volume is corporeal
and shocking. And, according to
guitarist/vocalist Carrie Brownstein, that’s
exactly how the band wants it.
“The distortion is intense,” she says, calling
from her Portland digs. “Live, it is going to be
unsettling. We didn’t want to do anything
safe.”
The Woods marks a turning point for S-K.
It’s not only the defining record label upgrade
(Sub Pop puts the band into first-class, heavy-
duty promotional overdrive, as it bids
Olympia’s Kill Rock Stars DIY aesthetic
farewell after eight years), it’s also the afore
mentioned production aesthetics of the record.
So why the dramatic push into the sonic
stratosphere?
Produced by Dave Fridmann, known to
some as the “fifth Flaming Lip” and to others as
the bass player for Mercury Re ', The Woods is a
48-minute assault on the status quo. But if sta
tus quo renders up images of George W. Bush
Babe in The Woods
Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein takes it to the limit
by
C ori T aratoot
and the other obvious right-wing tar
gets, don’t get too comfortable in your
seat. Yes, Sleater-Kinney is a “politi
cal” band. Their roots are and always
will be in riot-grrl radical feminism.
Yes, they have written—and will likely
continue to write—protest songs
pointing a finger at the Establishment.
But perhaps more disturbing is
this—the complacency and stasis
Sleater-Kinney is out to disassemble?
This time the finger is pointing at us.
“Dave is a sadist,” Brownstein says.
“He would say to us, ‘People won’t
notice if we don’t push this to the
max.’ This is our seventh album—we
want to take those chances. We want
to be in the moment.”
It’s a swirl of circumstance and tim
ing that brings Sleater-Kinney to this
moment. They are both comfortable
with their archetypal roles—career
rock musicians, torchbearers, hero
ines—and at a new level of technical
proficiency with their instruments and
gear. Add to that another Bush in the
White House, 9/11, the first Sleater-
Kinney baby—from Brownstein’s per
spective, returning to the immediacy
of loudness and improvisation is not
an option, it’s a necessity.
From left, Carrie Brownstein, Janet Weiss and Corin Tucker pump up the
“At shows we were giving ourselves volume on The Woods, which hits stores May 24.
Sleater-Kinney: A Primer
by
S arah B urgundy
and
C ori T aratoot
ou know who you are. During the past
Olympia, Wash., for their nom de plume. Both
10 or so years, various indie-rocker types
attended Evergreen State College in the early
have raved to you about a red-hot riot-
1990s.
grrl rock band in the Pacific Northwest
who sounded pissed and sexy and looked it,
The people
too. You saw the lesbians queued up for shows
wearing “Show Me Your Riffs” and “Sleater-
Carrie Brownstein, guitar and vocals. She’s
Kinney Is for Lovers” T-shirts. You never
the heartthrob who’s usually on the audience
bothered to listen to an S-K record, or maybe
left side of the stage, with short dark hair, red
red lips and a serious look on her face. Keep
you listened to a song or two and shrugged
an eye on her during the show—she usually
them off.
shows off a few well-executed rock ’n’ roll
And now look at you. On the eve of their
moves, circa Who's Next. That’s usually her
latest release, you’re finally thinking about
when the song features a lower, more matter-
hopping this train, but sigh: You’re so far
behind. So many albums to listen to, Web
of-fact voice or overlay. She’s a big reader and
the band’s youngest member, this year turning
sites to review, back issues of Spin and Rolling
the big 3-0.
Stone to peruse—how will you ever catch up?
Corin Tucker, guitar and vocals. You’re
Welcome, Just Out readers, to Sleater-
usually hearing her voice singing lead: It’s dis
Kinney 101.
tinctive, higher-pitched, powerful and some
times shaky. She usually stands audience-right.
The name
She has wavy, shoulder-length, copper hair and
big eyes and is the most femme of the three. In
Sleater-Kinney (pronounced SLAY-ter).
between 2000’s All Hands on the Bad One and
Mocked by the locals for naming themselves
after an Interstate 5 exit, band founders Carrie
2OO2’s One Beat, Corin and husband Lance
Brownstein and Corin Tucker picked a road in
Bangs had a baby boy.
Y
9LEATEM KINNEY o<a
mb out
the r<x)m to make things up and keep things
somewhat unstructured and free. We needed
that given everything that’s going on in the
world. We didn’t feel the same pressure in the
studio to present a structured song with form
intact. Some of those guitar moments are defi
nitely unscripted. For me, it does symbolize the
time we are living in and our
need to push things as far as
we can.”
When asked if she still
views Sleater-Kinney as a
vehicle for self-expression,
Brownstein is quick to reply:
“Oh god, yes. I think this
record shows that, even
more than [1996’s] Call the
Doctor. Sleater-Kinney
saved our lives, and we rec
ognize that. And it still
does.” JF!
Janet Weiss, drumming bad-ass and vocals.
She splits her time between Sleater-Kinney
and Quasi, a dynamic experimental rock proj
ect with ex-husband Sam Coomes. She joined
S-K in 1996, replacing drummer Lora McFar
lane. (The band has had a grand total of five
drummers in its lifetime.) Janet lives in Port
land—look for the dark, Cleopatra-style hair
cut walking the streets of Southeast. Prior to
her full-time music gigs, she worked for the
man at Willamette Week and Wieden +
Kennedy.
Which S-K girl are you? Find out here:
www.shemadethis.com/skquiz .
The
rumors
•
• Carrie and Corin once dated briefly. (True.)
• Carrie once ate food off of Nicole Kidman’s
stomach. (Maybe not true, but fun to think
about.)
• Corin named her son after The Marshall
Tucker Band. (True: Marshall Tucker Bangs.)
The songs
“Dig Me Out” from 1997’s Dig Me Out: So
much to love. There’s Carrie’s power riffs,
Janet’s big boom drumming, Corin’s vixrals,
which seem at first unable to keep up, but then
build in intensity for the rest of the song. Oh,
S leater -K inney is throwing a
record release autograph party
6 p.m. May 24 at Music
Millennium, 801 N.W. 23rd
Ave. The band performs with
Mary Timony of Helium
9 p.m. June 1 and 2 at
Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W.
Burnside St. Tickets are $15
from the box office or
Ticketmaster.
C ori T aratoot is a
Portland free-lance writer,
a PDX-POP Now! organizer,
a recovering Southerner and
a newly converted Fiery
Furnaces fangirl.
and for fun, they throw in a handful of hooks
that hint at three more great kick-ass songs.
“The End of You” from 1999’s The Hot
Rock: A quintessential S-K song. Carrie’s terse,
angular riffs start us off, Corin’s vocals launch,
there’s a pause, then Carrie joins in. The bridge
leads to Janet’s rapid-fire buildup on the drums.
Heaven.
“You’re No Rock ’n’ Roll Fun” from
2000’s All Hands on the Bad One: Any song
that references Christmas socks, whiskey
drinks, chocolate bars and girl bands gets my
vote. Plus, Carrie and Corin’s biting humor
makes ya wartna!
“Combat Rock” from 2OO2’s One Beat:
A Clash reference and a fair lyrical inquiry—
“Since when is skepticism un-American?” Our
heroes, one of the first bands to speak up post-
9/11. Here here.
“Rollercoaster” from 2OO5’s The Woods:
Oh, rhe distortion. Oh, the guitar h<x>ks. We
haven’t been this excited about an S-K song
since their 1995 self-titled debut on Chainsaw
Records.
Congratulations! You’ve made it this far,
so now you can pass yourself off as a longtime
S-K fan and buy the T-shirt and the rest of
it. Check out the official site,
www.sleater-kinney.com, and the fan site,
www.sleater-kinney.org. jH