PRIMER
AN
ESSENTIALS PLAYLIST
Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker (left) and Carrie Brownstein.
KAREN MURPHY PHOTO
Before Sleater-Kinney plays Spokane with Wilco, binge the Northwest legends’ best tunes BY SETH SOMMERFELD
C
oming out of Olympia’s famed early-1990s riot grrrl movement, Sleater-Kinney helped the underground scene gain worldwide acclaim alongside groups like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile. But there’s no debating that Sleater-Kinney is the most enduring group of the lot. With Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein both handling singing and guitar duties, and Janet Weiss (who joined the group in 1996) serving as one of the best drummers in indie rock history, the group carved out its own niche. After breaking out with the touchstone 1997 album Dig Me Out, they continued making acclaimed records until going on hiatus in 2006. After 10 years between albums, Sleater-Kinney came back with a vengeance with 2015’s No Cities to Love. The band’s 2019 St. Vincent-produced album, The Center Won’t Hold, felt like a synthetic sonic departure, causing a rift resulting in Weiss unfortunately leaving the group. But Tucker and Brownstein soldiered on, releasing the 10th Sleater-Kinney record — Path of Wellness — in June. With Sleater-Kinney entering a new phase as a core duo — and with the band joining Wilco at the First Inter-
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state Center for the Arts on Aug. 5 — it felt like a good time to give newbies a taste of the best of Sleater-Kinney via a chronological playlist featuring at least one song from all 10 albums.
band’s best tune. The contrast between the untethered wildness of the verses and the coy chorus masterfully inverts the quiet-loud formula to maximize S-K’s rock and roll allure.
“A REAL MAN” On the band’s self-titled debut LP, the grrrls are at their most riotous. “A Real Man” best embodies this spirit via a two-minute burst of sly, screaming rejection of heteronormative female submission to male sexual wills (“I don’t wanna join your club! I don’t want that kind of love!”).
“ONE MORE HOUR” Consider this the ultimate testament to Tucker and Brownstein’s musical chemistry, as it’s a heart-wrenching tune Tucker wrote about the two of them breaking up after a brief romantic relationship.
“CALL THE DOCTOR” On the titular first track of SK’s second album, the band hits on what would begin its signature sound: Tucker belting out howling vocals that clash against the simultaneous delivery of Brownstein’s almost spoken-word delivery. It’s a sound that always feels urgent, propelling this tune about women being terrorized by the male-driven medical field. “DIG ME OUT” Dig Me Out is easily Sleater-Kinney’s most iconic album, and the titular opener might be the
“LITTLE BABIES” The bouncier, more fun counterpoint to the Rolling Stones’ “Mother’s Little Helper.” “GET UP” The Hot Rock’s best track also serves as one of the most unique in Sleater-Kinney’s entire discography. Essentially an up-tempo spoken-word musing on transcendentalism, “Get Up” is propelled by Weiss’s perfect drumming and arguably Brownstein and Tucker’s best combo guitar riff. “IRONCLAD” An essential from All Hands on the Bad One, “Ironclad” is the S-K song that sounds the most like
