Sleater-Kinney

“Entertain”
from the album The Woods
2005
iTunes

Download a free MP3 of “Entertain” from Sub Pop Records (right-click/save-as).

If rock bands came with user manuals, chances are Sleater-Kinney long ago would have used theirs for kindling or, better yet, some cleverly crafted origami guitar stand.

Sleater-Kinney has always been the ultimate band of outsiders, a group whose guitar-heavy discs have challenged its members as much as its listeners. They’ve turned down major label scouts interested in signing them. They have routinely risked alienating fans by taking abrupt artistic detours. And they’ve done it all without a bassist.

Sleater-Kinney, the trio that moved beyond its riot grrrl beginnings of the early ’90s, just released its seventh album, The Woods, a dark, aggressive triple shot of improvisational rock ‘n’ roll that hints at much of the uncertainty that recently hovered over the band.

When the group set out to record what would become The Woods in 2004, it wasn’t with a game plan or agenda, says singer-guitarist Corin Tucker. Like other Sleater-Kinney discs, it grew out of the group’s burning need to push itself, to constantly try something new rather than fall back on the familiar.

Many changes were afoot for the band, both personally and professionally. Tucker had started a family and had a son, who’s now 4, with filmmaker Lance Bangs. Carrie Brownstein, the group’s other singer-guitarist, had left the band’s home in Portland, Ore., for Berkeley, Calif. Sleater-Kinney’s publicist and manager both retired, while the group left its long-time label, Kill Rock Stars, for its current home, Sub Pop.

“There was a lot of stuff in question about the future of Sleater-Kinney,” Tucker, 32, says in a phone interview from her home in Portland. “We all have different things pulling and tugging at us. We have things that we want to do, but we all have a really intense love for this band. That definitely comes into play in this record.”

Since Sleater-Kinney formed in 1994 as a side project for Tucker and Brownstein, it has grown from being an upstart riot grrrl act inspired by Bikini Kill to one of the most prominent all-female rock acts that didn’t use its gender as currency.

The group’s first two discs, Sleater-Kinney (1995) and Call the Doctor (1996), established the band with its ultra-catchy, two-guitar caterwaul. The unconventional sound of Tucker’s banshee wail, Janet Weiss’ Keith Moon-inspired drumming and the infectious guitar interplay by Tucker and Brownstein made the group indie rock idols.

With 1997’s Dig Me Out, the group became one of the most acclaimed in America. When Greil Marcus of Newsweek called them the world’s greatest rock band, their fate as rock icons was sealed.

Sleater-Kinney has always been about the music, which made them appeal to everyone from middle-schoolers to college students, from indie-rock geeks to a politicized lesbian demographic. They suddenly became role models for both up-and-coming female acts and groups aiming to stay true to an artistic vision.

The Donnas were still an underage quartet when they opened for Sleater-Kinney in the late ’90s. Drummer Torry Castellano says memories of a show at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco still inspire her group.

“It’s always really awesome to see an all-girl band be together for so long, continue to make great music and tour,” Castellano says. “They definitely have really strong opinions and they never compromise or soften them to please anyone.” ~ Mark de la Vina, San Jose Mercury News

Sleater-Kinney