sleater-kinney
..........
Simply a fantastic band. Heard about them for a few years, but only got into them recently. Glad I did too.
..........
Sleater-Kinney (Corin Tucker - guitar, vocals; Carrie Brownstein - guitar, vocals; Janet Weiss - drums) are from Washington state, that same musical hotbed that produced the likes of Nirvana, Tad, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, the Screaming Trees, Mudhoney, Alice In Chains and countless others - however, Sleater-Kinney are not a grunge band. Far from it - their work essentially consists of melodic punk rock love songs, played with skill and sung from the heart, but that in itself is a bad description as you could say almost the same thing about NOFX, and Sleater-Kinney do NOT sound like NOFX! Their sound can't really be pigeonholed, so it's best just to hear them and see if it sauces your chips - I think Amazon.com has some sound clips from their CD's.
from left: Carrie Brownstein; Corin Tucker; Janet Weiss
Rather than give a detailed description of the band, dicsography, etc. (which you're bound to find better somewhere else - try the Rough Guide to Rock for one), I'll just tell you about how I discovered them. The name I had heard for a couple of years - I always thought it sounded like a stupid name for a band, too ambiguous - but I never heard the music. Then, when I got connected to the internet about nine months ago, I discovered Mike Watt's Hoot Page, which led to my joining his mailing list and getting in touch with a lot of people who turned out to have similar musical tastes to mine. A few of the guys professed to being Sleater-Kinney fans, and curiosity set in.
It wasn't until a couple of months ago, though, when I was hooked - watching the Jo Whiley show on Channel 4 one night, Sleater-Kinney played 'Start Together' live in the studio and completely blew me away! Catchy, original, amazing musicianship, and they didn't let their tits hang out like Courtney Love to get attention - being of course musicians and not washed up rock stars who couldn't right a song if their lives depended on it. However that's not to say that they aren't gorgeous (dammit they are!), but they don't sell themselves like cheap hookers - they let their music do the talking - and I respect that tremendously.
If you feel like checking them out, you won't go wrong with their latest album, 'The Hot Rock', on Kill Rock Stars (Matador Records in Europe).
Let's hear it for Sleater-Kinney: three great gals who make great music! OLÉ!
..........