“Sleater-Kinney Returns”...........................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.

The years saw various individual projects from Tucker, Brownstein and Weiss. The demure Brownstein surprised the world with her sense of humor as she wrote and starred in the IFC hit sketch show, Portlandia. Weiss became a go-to session drummer, working with Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, The Shins, Elliot Smith and many more. And Tucker went on to front The Corin Tucker Band as well as working with husband-filmmaker Lance Bangs. However, there was a screaming absence punctuated by a Sleater-Kinney-sized hole in the musical realm. Brownstein commented that, “after we stopped playing, I was more aware that we did not have clear predecessors or successors… there was

really no one like this band. It’s like a language that was going extinct.” And it’s true. There is no one really like Sleater-Kinney. The knotty interplay of wailing vocals and slicing guitar riffs cemented by Weiss’ energetic punk drumming were unmatched and more than well-received. Their confrontational sound, filled with Corin Tucker’s beautifully abrasive bellows, demands to be heard. This band is important. According to Ms. Brownstein, “it always sounds like you’re fighting against something. But if we’re doing it right, we’re fighting together against the same thing.” And thus, dear reader, here we are. It is 2015 and, as fast as their fiery disappearance in 2006, Sleater-Kinney returns. “It felt like we had a story to tell,” says Weiss in a Reddit AMA interview. “We felt compelled to explore how to tell that story.” It is clear that these three take their storytelling very seriously, as evident in their first move as a reunited band - the release of a remastered discography, appropriately titled Starting Together. As the songwriting process for No Cities to Love began, the three found themselves wanting to create something “that had a life force to it, and had blood and guts in it, and wasn’t enervated in any way, and didn’t feel dragging, and didn’t feel like a victory lap.” Brownstein says, “I didn’t want it to feel casual, I

didn’t want it to feel like a weekend expedition. The stakes had to feel high.” With such a large fanbase (one which includes Brownstein’s co-star Fred Armisen), the stakes are certainly high. After months of quiet songwriting and recording sessions, appearances on television shows, interviews, and general media build-up, No Cities To Love was released on Tuesday, Jan. 20 (you can read my review of it on page 4). Fans are sure to expect a reiteration of Sleater-Kinney in its days of glory. However, in the classic SK style, the three have absolutely no desire to blaze forward in familiar territory and I certainly look forward to hear what they have to say.