the woods

Sleater-Kinney came through the emotional wilderness pitting truth against truth with timing and tiger strength on this ferocious tilt-a-whirl.    After two albums on Chainsaw Records (Sleater-Kinney in 1995 and Call the Doctor in 1996) and four on Kill Rock Stars (Dig Me Out in 1997, The Hot Rock in 1999, All Hands on the Bad One in 2000, and One Beat in 2002),  the trio signed with another independent label Sub Pop for 'The Woods'.  The album was produced by Dave Fridmann and recorded at Tarbox Road Studios in Cassadaga, New York with Carrie Brownstein on guitar and vocals;   Corin Tucker on vocals and guitar;   and Janet Weiss on drums and backing vocals.  

Brownstein:   "[Dave Fridmann] 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." But he thought all of our other records sounded the same. When we got there, he said that they never captured the emotional intensity of our band...It's all live. Everything but the vocals and some guitar overdubs...I felt like so much of the emotional tenor in this record is implicit in the music itself. The vocals were just sort of commenting on it or helping to accelerate it. Parts of the record that I think are really emotional come from through a sonic expression or through a guitar/drum expression. The vocals are just steering it, marking time or place. That's why the lyric writing was so difficult, trying to figure out how to make it congruent with what the music was saying without sabotaging or taking away from the music. It's such an album. One song comments on another or completes another song in a way, showing the other side of that story." 

Weiss:    "We knew we wanted something really intense, heavy and aggressive. We pushed ourselves so hard, almost to the point of irritation... With each other. A lot of times when we write, it's not pleasant. It's hard...The main performances are live. There's two guitars and drums on every song...I think that's what's so beautiful about the power trio. When the guitar player - usually it's a bass player, we have Corin in this case - goes to single notes or something high or jagged, there's that rhythm space that just drops. Like when Hendrix takes a solo, there's not someone playing rhythm guitar; I love that space. It's kind of unsettling and it's kind of scary, like the bottom dropped out...It's like, we know what Corin is capable of. We know what each of us is capable of, and we hope for even more than that. So if someone's having a bad day or if someone's not in the mood to bare their soul, we get on it. But Corin especially, when she gets emotional, all these amazing things start coming out of her. It's one of the more incredible things I've ever witnessed. So I feel kind of bad for pushing her and making her upset, but then something amazing happens and I don't feel so bad anymore." 

Tucker:    "There's definitely a negative creative process that happens that's really uncomfortable...I think this whole record kept pushing in this territory of doing something so different and so outside of ourselves...Part of it is keeping up with these two. On this record, they're going off. And I had to go off, too. I had to keep up with them." 

'The Woods' went to number eighty on the US pop album chart and number two on the US independent album chart.   Sleater-Kinney would go on an eight year hiatus the next year.  

http://www.sleater-kinney.com/








"Jumpers"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZA_7FtttRY




"Entertain"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbxRu7fwR24




"Modern Girl"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOM107PIxV8




"Let's Call It Love"  and "Night Light" was recorded in one take.  

Tucker: "We wanted to incorporate the kind of improvisation we'd been doing at our shows onto the record somehow, and "Let's Call It Love" had that improv vibe. But we didn't know how to get from that song into another song until after we'd played with "Night Light" for a while and Carrie realized it was in the same key." 

Brownstein: "We knew at some point it would disintegrate and Janet would go into the drumbeat for the next part, but there were no rules or markers, so it does feel out of control a little bit. There's that element of surprise and not really knowing, because we didn't really know. We just knew we had to stay in the moment the whole time and not anticipate it. So much of this record was letting go of the mental process. The writing was deliberate and frustrating and cerebal. But the performance was emotional. Just to be in an emotional sphere was really hard. [Fridmann] always pushed us to get there. 'I'll think about it. You guys play it.'" 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9aR7Tyzibc

'The Woods'
full album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXuw2iC5Ino







1.The Fox - 0:00
2.Wilderness - 3:25
3.What's Mine Is Yours - 7:05
4.Jumpers - 12:03
5.Modern Girl - 16:29
6.Entertain - 19:42
7.Rollercoaster - 24:38
8.Steep Air - 29:30
9.Let's Call It Love - 33:35
10.Night Light - 44:37

all hands on the bad one

Sleater-Kinney broke the spell and smoothed out the feelings of being used to get to heaven with a three chord song. They had followed up the fury of 'Dig Me Out' with the complex introspection of 'The Hot Rock', leading to criticism from fans that they had sold out. For their next album, they decided to take a more spontaneous approach. 'All Hands on the Bad One' was produced by John Goodmanson and engineered by Larry Crane at Jackpot! Studio in Portland, Oregon and at John and Stu's Place in Seattle, Washington with Carrie Brownstein on guitar and vocals; Corin Tucker on vocals and guitar; and Janet Weiss on drums and percussion; with Sam Coomes adding mellotron on "Milkshake n' Honey"; and Sarah Dougher contributing organ on "All Hands on the Bad One" and "The Swimmer".


Carrie Brownstein: "I think "The Hot Rock" was the most conversational in terms of vocal style. There was a lot of inter-twining vocal melodies and a sense of conscious/sub-conscious interplay. I think on that record we were interested in exploring dualities. When we do approach a song like that it is actually more haphazard than one might think. It just ends up that we both want to sing over a part and then we try to find a way to make it work...I see the previous records as documents of various times in our lives. I don't see it as strictly a linear progress though I do see us pushing ourselves to go further with each record. But I don't feel like we fear or reject the past and so we allow it to pop up in our current songwriting; but we make sure to expand on it. One thing I am proud of is that all of our records sound different from one another. Some of my favorite songs from past records are: Hubcap, Get Up, Hot Rock, Start Together, One More Hour, and The Day I Went Away...The new record came together out of a new renewed sense of enjoyment in relation to playing music. There was not one over-riding concept behind the album ... I think a lot of the way we've been treated is like, politics is something you grow out of. Like, 'Oh, when you get older, you grow up and away from politics and this sort of righteousness.' I think that we tried to reiterate it and make it more holistic in a way that it's integrated in our music. That's just not something that we've left behind. It's part of who we are. So, I think that this record sort of proclaims that most eloquently. We felt like in the past we were being labeled as having arisen from the riot grrrl ghetto, or out of this political yet immature sort of hub of politics that didn't make any sense. Like the only way we could be accepted was to leave that at the door. So, I think this is just saying, 'Well, that's not really true.' We're a great rock band. Our songs aren't just political but some of them are very political. Some of them are fun. Some of them are nonsensical and some of them are personal. But it's all these things at once and it's really important that these things are integrated into us as people. I mean, obviously those live within us and they can live within our band without us having to choose and access them or pick one in order to move on. I mean, we can move forward with all these things with us and not have to leave anything behind in order to be successful."

Weiss: "Usually Carrie or Corin have a skeleton for a song to start. They sometimes work together first, crafting the guitar parts, and then bring it to me to add drums and whatever else. Sometimes we jam in the basement and come up with tasty riffs on the spot. It's all quite organic and spontaneous, although this album consists of more songs which had more structure prior to all of us playing together. Youth Decay is an example...John Goodmanson has the incredible ability of capturing our live sound and heightening it, so we sound better. Plus, he's such an awesome guy an has lot's of great studio stories...There are tons of advantages to being on an independent label, the obvious being total artistic freedom. We really have control and a say in all aspects of business that pertain to this band. We work together with KRS, not in opposition, and think of them as our partners. Having a large corporation, such as a major label, controling our music would be destructive for us."

Tucker: "I think that there were some things that happened last year that really made me feel a sense of urgency about making music and writing. I felt like it was a really nasty year. Nineteen-ninety-nine was a really nasty year and a lot of really sexist things happened in rock and that's the area where we work. The most popular bands have really misogynistic lyrics and a lot of women were raped at the Woodstock concerts. So, to me, it was a reminder that you can't ... even if we're older and we're successful and we've made this niche for ourselves as musicians, we can't give up. We can't say there's not these really sexist things happening because they are affecting women, young women...The songs just came out. It was so spontaneous with this record. The songs just kept popping up one after another. We didn't really talk about anything. It just kind of happened. We did have one conversation that was before we even started writing that was like, 'We need to be able to write really freely.' We had been writing much more sophisticated melodies with The Hot Rock, doing stuff that was really intricate. And we just decided for this record that we were going to let go and whatever came out was just going to be something we would work on. So after that it was like the songs just popped up, I guess....My writing process hasn't changed. I still write songs very spontaneously, without any kind of self-sensorship. I feel this is essential to the artistic process. If I worried about what other people thought, I wouldn't be in this band."

'All Hands on the Bad One' charted at number one hundred and seventy seven on the US Billboard 200 album chart and number twelve on the US heatseekers album chart. Weiss reveals: "[The cover] photo is of Carrie being hauled off a dance floor. She worked herself into a frenzy and passed out. People are laughing in the background because she's wearing a bunny suit."





http://www.sleater-kinney.com/








"You're No Rock n' Roll Fun"



"Leave You Behind"




"All Hands on the Bad One"



"Ironclad"







 'All Hands on the Bad One' 
full album:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6qJvOvlHJBiriZ3Qj3GDlp7jZWyexLIJ



All music composed by Sleater-Kinney.


1. "The Ballad of a Ladyman"   3:11
2. "Ironclad"   2:34
3. "All Hands on the Bad One"   2:57
4. "Youth Decay"   2:30
5. "You're No Rock n' Roll Fun"   2:38
6. "#1 Must Have"   3:04
7. "The Professional"   1:31
8. "Was It a Lie?"   3:16
9. "Male Model"   2:33
10. "Leave You Behind"   3:27
11. "Milkshake n' Honey"   2:55
12. "Pompeii"   2:43
13. "The Swimmer"   3:46

live through this

Hole got what they wanted when they regrouped and hit the majors, revealing their softer side with the raw and righteous nirvana of this grunge pop classic.  After the tour for their debut album 'Pretty on the Inside', the band lost its rhythm section of drummer Caroline Rue and bassist Jill Emery.  Remaining members Courtney Love and Eric Erlandson recruited drummer Patty Schemel and began writing new material.  At the same time they secured a seven album deal with Geffen Records.  The trio recorded demos at Word of Mouth Recording in Seattle with producer Jack Endino as well as at BMG Ariola Ltda. in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with producer Craig Montgomery.  When they relocated to Los Angeles they brought bassist Kristen Pfaff (from Janitor Joe) into the fold and their new lineup was complete.  

The sessions for 'Live Through This' took place at Triclops Sound Studios in Marietta, Georgia with producers Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade.  The album features Courtney Love on vocals and guitar;  Eric Erlandson on guitar;  Kristen Pfaff on bass, piano, and backing vocals;  and Patty Schemel on drums and percussion;  with backing vocals by Kletter and Kurt Cobain;  and additional mixing by Scott Litt and J Mascis.   

Love would reveal at the time: "I want this record to be shocking to the people who don't think we have a soft edge, and at the same time, [to know] that we haven't lost our very, very hard edge...There's a part of me that wants to have a grindcore band and another that wants to have a Raspberries-type pop band ... Aesthetically we've changed a lot...I came into this band with a history of writing jangly REM songs.  I had a real chip on my shoulder.  I said, 'Fuck it; I'm going to move to L.A. and be the Melvins.'  In Minneapolis, Kat had been giving me shit 'cause I didn't like the Butthole Surfers.  So I was like, 'You want hard? I'll show you hard.  The hardest!'  I think on some level I accomplished this; but the consequences were we didn't show any...this is a lame word...'craftsmanship'.  One of the things I have a problem about women is, to me it isn't enough to just stand up with my guitar and say 'I'm angry, and that's rare.  Give me a lot of attention!'  I like the 'girl thing'.  I work the 'girl thing'.  But if you can't write a song and go, if the guy in the Pixies or Kurt or Neil Young...whoever you admire...wrote this song, would it still be good?  If a guy wrote this song, would it still stand up?"

 'Live Through This'  did more than that. The music was so powerful that many accused her of stealing the songs from her recently departed husband (and worse).  Schemel says: "There is that myth that Kurt wrote a lot of our songs— it's not true. Eric [Erlandson] and Courtney wrote 'Live Through This'."   The album went to number fifty-two in the US; thirty-nine in Germany; twenty-nine in the Netherlands; twenty-two in Sweden; thirteen in Australia and the UK; and number eight in Belgium.   It was praised by critics and lauded as album of the year by several music publications.  It went multi-platinum and has sold over two million copies worldwide.  

Love drew criticism for her performances by simulating the suicide of her husband on stage.  She would explain:    "What do I do?  Do I ignore it, do I acknowledge it, is there a middle ground?  What can I do?  Do I sit here, play Betty Crocker, and pretend that I don't write music, and die?...It's more catharsis.  It's catharsis and there's not a thing I could or would take back because it was for me, not for them, and yet they get something out of it.  I'm not a clown; I would never dishonor my husband, and I don't think I have...The name of my band came from a conversation I had with my mother.  People always think it's obscene.  And I guess it has that on top of it.  As someone who always wanted to be a poet, there was no money in it.  I've always been looking for the quadruple entendre, you know, the barge, you know, what Shakespeare could do.  And my mother said to me 'Now Courtney, you know you can't walk around with a hole in yourself just because you had a bad childhood.'  And I remember thinking 'What a brilliant name, HOLE.'"





http://www.holemusic.com/


https://www.facebook.com/Hole

http://hole.gomerch.com/







Violet




Miss World




Asking For It







 
'Live Through This' 
full album:



All songs written by Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson, except where noted.


1. "Violet" 3:24
2. "Miss World" 3:00
3. "Plump" 2:34
4. "Asking for It" 3:29
5. "Jennifer's Body" 3:42
6. "Doll Parts" Love 3:31
7. "Credit in the Straight World" Stuart Moxham 3:11
8. "Softer, Softest" 3:28
9. "She Walks on Me" 3:24
10. "I Think That I Would Die" Love, Erlandson, Kat Bjelland 3:36
11. "Gutless" 2:15
12. "Rock Star (Olympia)" 2:42

the hot rock

Sleater-Kinney expanded on their punk rock sound with the deep melancholy of this flawed and beautiful uncut stone.  The band had found critical acclaim with their second album 'Dig Me Out'; but they explored a more personal sound on 'The Hot Rock'.  The sessions at Avast studio in Seattle, Washington were produced by Roger Moutenot and featured Carrie Brownstein on guitar and vocals, Corin Tucker on vocals and guitar, and Janet Weiss on drums and percussion,  with Seth Warren on violin on "The Size of Our Love" and "Memorize Your Lines", and Roger Moutenot on slide guitar on "A Quarter to Three".  

Tucker said at the time:   "I think that we try and approach the songs in a different way. I think that we wanted to make a record that was different. And we were also writing songs that were more complex in a way. And the songs reflect what we have been going through this last year and a half, both as a band and as people...I think that we were definitely inspired by music to do what we wanted with our lives and if people are able to get that from our music I think that's great. But I don't think we can censor ourselves in any way to be what people expect of us, I think we just need to be who we are."


Brownstein considered:    "The past year and a half was a time of reflection for us, not only as a band, but individually. It was a time of examination, seeking out what was important in our lives and the things that made us happy. So I think we had to prioritize certain things in our life and where the band fit into our lives. And I think we realized that it wasn't that high up in what we found fulfilling. But I think a lot of these songs are drawn from that year of introspection and reflect an internal journey...I think we realized that the band is part of a continuum in our lives where it can exist equally important to other elements in our lives and because it is not the only thing we draw inspiration and happiness from, it makes it something we can keep coming back to, because it then remains rewarding."

Weiss reflected:    "We talk things out definitely. We don't really do any strong-arming. Everyone pretty much has to agree for a decision to be made...We're trying to explore the dynamics of the songs and see how they fit into the live performance as a whole. They sort of take on different personalities at a concert than they do on record and we just have to familiarize ourselves with that. It's impossible to say how a song is going to sound until you go on stage and play it. It's much different than practice. But for the most part they sounded good."

'The Hot Rock' went to number one hundred and eighty-one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and number twelve on the Heatseekers Albums chart.





http://www.sleater-kinney.com/










"Hot Rock"  




"Burn, Don't Freeze"  





"One Song for You"  





"The Size of Our Love"  





"Memorize Your Lines"  




"A Quarter to Three"  









'The Hot Rock'
full album:



All music composed by Sleater-Kinney.

1. "Start Together"   2:38
2. "Hot Rock"   3:17
3. "The End of You"   3:20
4. "Burn, Don't Freeze"   3:19
5. "God Is a Number"   3:44
6. "Banned from the End of the World"   2:09
7. "Don't Talk Like"   3:04
8. "Get Up"   3:46
9. "One Song for You"   2:49
10. "The Size of Our Love"   3:12
11. "Living in Exile"   2:31
12. "Memorize Your Lines"   3:10
13. "A Quarter to Three"   4:03

dig me out

Sleater-Kinney found a new drummer and a new label for the ferocious feminism of this dense and dynamic indie masterpiece. 'Dig Me Out' was recorded with producer John Goodmanson for the Kill Rock Stars label. The music was written over two months. Drummer Lora Macfarlane left the band to return to Australia because her visa had expired. Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein played with Toni Gogin for a brief stint before recruiting Janet Weiss from the band Quasi. 

Brownstein says:"We met Janet through mutual friends. On a late summer night she came over to Corin's house with her sticks and her cymbals. We went down to the basement. She had learned "Call the Doctor", played it flawlessly, hit hard so that you got a lump in your throat, tamed the long roll in the middle of the song. Next Corin and I played something that we were calling "Dig me Out". Janet made up a drum part, fierce and solid, we could practically bang our heads against it. Then we were three." 

Weiss remembers: "Their last drummer Toni had put a snare hit at a particular spot they liked, so I keep that and take it from there. It's exciting to awaken such fiery chemistry, a chemistry that still surprises me today. That fateful day sets off seven amazing years of music, travel, and deep friendship. Our band continues because together we complete a unique puzzle, and because our evolving, explosive relationship allows us to reach for the moon." 

Tucker's expressive caterwaul and Brownstein's more straightforward style provide an emotional contrast even as their complex guitarwork seemlessly weaves melodic magic while Weiss' drumming adds a propulsive punch. The lyrics speak to power struggles in relationships and the indie rock scene.







http://www.sleater-kinney.com/








'Dig Me Out'


"dig me out
dig me in
outta this mess baby outta my head
whaddya want whaddya know
one to get started three til we go"





'Turn It On'

"don't say the word
if you don't want it done
don't tell me your name
if you don't want it sung
don't come any closer
that's good enough
don't go away
I can't stand the thought"





'The Drama You've Been Craving'


"Ooh I wait
(I’m a time bomb)
For something more today
(I’m a fuse)
You know the place it stinks
(tongue is tired)
I smell like despair
(from over use)"





'Little Babies'

"i'm the water i'm the dishes i'm the soap
i will comfort make you clean help you cope
when you're tired feeling helpless
come inside i am the shelter
and then when you're feeling better i'll
watch you go"





'Not What You Want'

"do you wanna get the wheel
swerve my heart
it pounds with steel
he said tell me baby what's wrong
oh tell me baby what's wrong
it's not what you want it's everything"





'Dance Song '97'

"well you know there ain't no doubt
when the feeling finds you out
you know you can try to run
i tell you it still will come
when you feel your body shake
trip and fall you can't walk straight
baby then you know it's done
you can feel your heart is stung
you're the one that i saw
you're the one that i want"




'Jenny'
"Do you see her face
When she's gone
Sometimes so bright
Your heart just stops
Did she answer you
Your other half
You know they say
She comes just once"









'Dig Me Out' 
full album:




All music composed by Sleater-Kinney.


1. "Dig Me Out" 2:40
2. "One More Hour" 3:19
3. "Turn It On" 2:47
4. "The Drama You've Been Craving" 2:08
5. "Heart Factory" 3:54
6. "Words and Guitar" 2:21
7. "It's Enough" 1:46
8. "Little Babies" 2:22
9. "Not What You Want" 3:17
10. "Buy Her Candy" 2:02
11. "Things You Say" 2:56
12. "Dance Song '97" 2:49

13. "Jenny" 4:03