Sleater-Kinney's lastest show (The "S" is the introduction. Audio
here.)
Corin Tucker was a member of the riot grrl band
Heavens To Betsy (
split 7" with Bratmobile, 1993/1994's
Calculated,
live at CBGB's).
Carrie Brownstein was a member of the riot grrl band
Excuse 17. (1993's
self-titled album, 1995's
Such Friends Are Dangerous,
live at CBGB's) Both were students at
Evergreen State College (ground zero for
American Twee in the 1980s), and both bands played shows together. Tucker and Brownstein began dating and formed a new band named after a
local road.
'[N]either of them took it very seriously. "In Olympia at the time, there was a very non-monogamous musical community[.]"' For example, Tucker was also briefly part of a group called Heartless Martin with Becca Albee of Excuse 17. (1993 cassette
Tonight - or is it
Tonigh?)
The band recorded four tracks in 1994, though I am uncertain which of the several temporary drummers the band used was playing.
Write Me Back, Fucker,
Surf Song,
You Ain't It, and
More Than A Feeling, all released on
Villa Villakula Records.
In 1995 the band went on
tour with
Laura Macfarlane on drums. They ended up in Australia and recorded
Sleater-Kinney (
Wikipedia article), which released on
Chainsaw Records.
In 1996 the group recorded a second album,
Call The Doctor (
Wikipedia article), again on Chainsaw Records and again with Laura Macfarlane. (In 2010, Rolling Stone would call this
the 49th-best album of the 1990s.)
They also kept touring.
Janet Weiss was a drummer who since 1993 had been playing in the band
Quasi with her ex-husband
Sam Coomes. In 1996 they had released the album
Early Recordings (
two tracks), and in 1997 they released a second album,
R&B Transmogrification. (
two tracks)
While remaining in Quasi, Weiss joined SK for the recording of
Dig Me Out (
Wikipedia article), their 1997 debut on
Kill Rock Stars, and became a permanent member of the band. (Someone who is more of a fan of Quasi might want to give them their own post...)
Dig Me Out brought SK to a wider audience than before, and also received
marked critical acclaim. In December, Rolling Stone considered it
the fifth best album released that year. It has subsequently been placed on a variety of semi-arbitrary critics' lists: In 2005, Spin ranked it as
the 74th best album between 1985 and 2005 based on a readers' poll. In 2008, Rolling Stone called the title track the
the 44th greatest guitar song of all time. In 2011, Pitchfork called it
the 83rd best song of the 1990s. (Random album trivia: the cover art is an homage to
The Kink Kontroversy.)
While the band released no albums in 1998, they did release a song on the
Free to Fight 7" on
Candy Ass records and they played a few shows. (
Rock Lobster in Olympia,
One More Hour in NYC with Laura Macfarlaine back on drums,
with Helium in Philly. Quasi released an
album, as did Tucker in her new side project, Cadallaca. (
Every track) Brownstein partnered up with
Lois Maffeo to record
one song as Tommy for a compilation on
K Records.
In 1999, SK released
The Hot Rock (
Wikipedia article). It was slower than its predecessors, and seen as a change of direction. The album also had an affilated
EP and a
music video, directed by
Miranda July. The band
toured in support of the album and even discussed it briefly with
Nardwuar, the human serviette. (Nardwuar
previously,
previouslier,
more previouslier.) Quasi released
another album, and Cadallaca released what has been their final
EP. Brownstein and Mafeo got together with
Peter Momtchiloff to record
The Touch 7" as The Tentacles.
The 2000 album
All Hands On The Bad One (
Wikipedia article) was poppier than the other albums, and critics tried to draw a line between it and the previous disc. Arion Berger
thought it was a step back, Joshua Klien
a step forward, and Howard Hampton
just a change in direction. Robert Christgau thought it was a step backwards, but with a shrug:
"They could no more make a bad album than the Rolling Stones in 1967." (In a later interview at the New Yorker Festival -see below- Tucker would refer to this praise as "ridiculous".) Pitchfork would call it
the 16th best album of 2000.
Carrie Brownstein also collaborated with
Mary Timony as The Spells and
recorded several songs, though they would go unreleased until 2008.
In 2001,
the September 11 attacks happened, and Tucker
gave birth to her son, Marshall. Also, Quasi
released another album.
In 2002, SK released
One Beat. (
Wikipedia article). The album was more overtly politcal than past work, with songs specifically criticizing the build up to the Iraq War, and Tucker's desire to protect her son. At Pitchfork, the album
won over a previously critical Rob Mitchum, and it was eventually considered
14th best album of the year. Later the website would call it
the 72nd best album of the aughts. Metacritic called it
the 12th best-reviewed album of 2002. Last year, Tom Breihan
fondly remembered SK one-upping a Belle and Sebastian show with a live performance of the whole thing.
I have nothing exciting to say about the year 2003, except that Quasi
released another album.
SK moved to
Sub Pop from KRS in 2004, and
began recording their next album that November. While they had worked with
John Goodmanson as their produced on most of their previous work, this time they were going to work with
Dave Fridmann, most famous as the producer of
The Flaming Lips and
Mercury Rev. Fridmann was not that keen on the band's old records. Quoting Brownstein,
'He was pretty critical of our old records and really reticent to say anything positive, actually, about anything we'd done - even the demos we'd sent him. The most positive thing he said before we got there was, "I'm excited to work on this record."'
In 2005, SK released
The Woods (
Wikipedia article). The album drew heavily from classic rock tropes such as guitar solos and large quantities of distortion, and culminated in an eleven-minute guitar jam.
Three music videos were produced, and the band came as close to true mainstream success as it may have ever done. (While not the best marker of success,
they did play on Letterman.) Metacritic ranked it as
the 5th best reviewed album of the year, Rolling Stone called it
the 12th best album of the year, and Pitchfork
the 19th best. Pitchfork would eventually rank it as
the 127th best album of the aughts, behind
One Beat. In the wake of the album the band was interviewed by James Surowiecki at the New Yorker Festival, a ten-minute excerpt of which can be heard
here.
In June of 2006, SK
announced that they were going on indefinite hiatus. Before doing so they toured, including stops at
Lollapalooza and
Coachella.
Their final show was at
the Crystal Ballroom in August, and the Thermals and Eddie Vedder opened for them. (See top of post.) Also, Quasi
released another album.
Thanks to their timely break-up and the strong critical appraisal of
All Hands On The Bad One,
One Beat, and
The Woods, Metacritic currently classifies SK as
the 4th best band of the aughts. All three women have kept busy.
Tucker formed
The Corin Tucker Band. They've released two albums: the underrated (my opinion)
1,000 Years, which Tucker described as a
"middle-aged mom record", and
Kill My Blues, which is more of a return to standard Sleater-Kinney form. You can see Sarah Lund, CTB's drummer, have a drum battle with Weiss
here.
Weiss has continued to produce albums with
Quasi, and joined Stephen Malkmus's band,
The Jicks. (
Two albums recorded so far.) She's also made a list of
10 ways to be a kick-ass drummer.
Brownstein
worked for an ad agency (for which Weiss had also once worked),
wrote a blog for NPR, and formed
Thunderant, a comedy duo with
Fred Armisen. The last of these would eventually enter the cultural mainsteam with the TV show
Portlandia. (
Corin made a guest appearance once.) She also teamed up with Timony, Weiss, and
Rebecca Cole to form the "riot grrl supergroup"
Wild Flag. They released a
self-titled debut in 2011, which Pitchfork ranked as
the 49th-best album of 2011.
posted by mochapickle at 7:52 AM on January 28