By Gisell Calderón
By the time you read this, Sleater-Kinney will have already released their much anticipated album, No Cities to Love. On hiatus since 2006, the band’s quiet announcement (paired with the release of a deluxe-box set of the trio’s discography) have caused the biggest geek-out in the punk rock world. With the lightning-speed release of their energetic repertoire in the ‘90s and early 2000s, the band’s new album is long overdue. Of course, as with every instance of The Big Comeback, there are those who will question the efficacy of the album. However, fans and music critics are not the only ones questioning the band’s long-term intentions - the band members have admitted to treading equally uncertain grounds. For those unfamiliar with the band, let me acquaint you with these tell-tale furies: Sleater-Kinney formed in 1994 in the fertile Olympia, Washington music scene as the brainchild of Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein. With their foot already in the door from their riot grrl band, Heavens to Betsy, and Brownstein’s queercore project, Excuse 17, the duo refocused their energies into the promising Sleater-Kinney. Their first self-titled EP, released with then-drummer Lora McFarlane, acted as an echo of the final days of the riot grrl movement, with thrashing guitar riffs and monotone vocals angstily juxtaposed with Tucker’s wailing howls. The album displayed a raw energy punctuated by strange guitar riffs allowed by the set up of the band: both Tucker and Brownstein on conversing guitars, complemented by McFarlane’s drumming. This was continued and honed in 1996’s Call the Doctor. Their song “I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone” challenged the male-dominated mindset of the music world.
The toned and iron-willed Janet Weiss later joined the band as their final and permanent drummer. Having finally found someone to match their energy, Weiss acted as the solid backbone of the band, a nuance reflected in their fast-paced 1997 album Dig Me Out: “I definitely try to bridge a gap between them,” she said. “Look at their personalities — they play like that. Corin is so solid and steady, and she does have pretty good timing, and Carrie is all over the place, chomping at the bit. It’s not one of them by themselves, it’s the two of them together that’s making the spark. And I have to somehow find out how to accentuate that spark and make it a fire, to ignite it.” The trio churned out albums with incredible speed. The Hot Rock (1999), All Hands on the Bad One (2000), and One Beat (2002) witnessed an evolving frantic sound. In addition, their repertoire soon became peppered with more pensive meditations that interrogated sexism, politics and life as a punk rock dame (re: “Ballad of a Ladyman” and “Hot Rock”). Weiss says, “It’s hard to be a woman. You will see it’s very male-dominated, still. I mean, there’s just still not a lot of women in those top slots, even though they have earned it completely. It’s not like things are really that different, even though some of the best work is being made by women.” Sleater-Kinney’s willpower and desire for independence, rather than fame and money, elevated the three as iconic women in punk rock. After a few years of playing arena concerts, the group took to the woods and recorded their most commercially successful album (unsurprisingly), The Woods. Despite this success, the band suddenly announced an indefinite hiatus in 2006. 8
