What makes a modern girl? Is it happiness, hunger, or anger?
Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney claims all of these things make her a modern girl on their most popular song “Modern Girl.” Sleater-Kinney is an American indie rock band that formed in 1994 in Olympia, Washington. It is spearheaded by founding members Corin Tucker, who is the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist, and Carrie Brownstein, who is the lead guitarist and background vocalist, although their songs often contain guitar interplay that blurs the lines between lead and rhythm, and they also occasionally trade who sings a song or they’ll lead different parts of a song. Sleater- Kinney began as a side project for the two of them, as they were originally both in different bands, Tucker in a riot grrrl (genre derived from punk rock and indie rock, that explores feminist topics and ideals) band titled Heavens to Betsy, and Brownstein in the queercore (indie rock and punk rock-oriented genre with lyrics that are typically about sexual and gender identity), punk rock band Excuse 17. At the beginning of Sleater-Kinney they often switched out drummers, Lora Macfarlane was the drummer on the band’s first two records, Sleater-Kinney and Call the Doctor, until they met Janet Weiss who has been the drummer on every record of theirs since Dig Me Out in 1997.
Sleater-Kinney began recording their self-titled debut album in 1994. They recorded it all in one night on a trip to Melbourne, Australia, but they produced it back in Olympia. The record was released one year later in 1995 by an independent queercore record label named Chainsaw Records. It was a very harshly recorded rough around the edges record. The album was more punk rock-oriented than their later releases and has a very short runtime of only 23 minutes. Brownstein and Tucker were dating at the time and on the record, they discuss and dismiss heterosexual sexual acts, and their dislike towards them. They were praised by music critics for their punk angst and confidence in the album. The standout song “Be Yr Mama” conveys the normalized parasitic relationship in some heterosexual couples where women are supposed to build their men up and go above and beyond for them, but often for little in return.
After the success of their self-titled record, which sold around 1,000 copies in a year, they started recording their sophomore album, Call the Doctor. Between the release of their self-titled album and the recording of their Call the Doctor, Brownstein and Tucker had left their previous bands to focus on this one. Call the Doctor was written in three weeks and recorded in five days and was also the first album where they recorded with producer and sound engineer John Goodmanson, who would go on to record more of their albums with them in the future. Call the Doctor may have been their second album, but it was the first album as Sleater-Kinney’s full-time project, and you could immediately tell. This is the album where they decided to do more with their guitars and write two guitar parts to allow for call and response lines and melding guitar interplay. Corin Tucker was as confident and angry in her message and sound as ever. “I wanna be your Joey Ramone / Pictures of me on your bedroom door / Invite you back after the show / I’m the queen of rock ’n’ roll,” Tucker sings on “I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone,” a song that subverts the culture surrounding Rock music. Tucker energetically sang about the idolization of male rockstars and how she wants the status and respect of them and even have the ability to bring someone back after the show, something that men in bands could do, and did, but sounds obscene to some when they hear a woman like Tucker say the same. Critics loved the evolution in sound that was shown off on Call the Doctor with some claiming things such as, it was the most mature album from any riot grrrl performer ever made, and others stating the fiery performances and unrelenting guitar riffs could rival any other punk band around at the time. Critics wanted to make it known that they could do it just as well, if not better, than any band made up of men.
“What do you want? What do you know?” Corin Tucker sings on the title track of their third album Dig Me Out. After the release of Call the Doctor, Sleater-Kinney’s drummer at the time, Lora Macfarlane, who was from Australia, visa expired and had to leave the band, so they had to find someone new to replace her, enter Janet Weiss. Weiss joined Sleater-Kinney in 1996 after seeing one of their live shows, the Brownstein and Tucker had begun writing again and had Weiss audition to the song they had been writing, “Dig Me Out,” which would eventually become the title track for their third album. Tucker claimed that Weiss completed their band, that Weiss aced her auditions, and was what Sleater-Kinney really wanted for their songwriting. However, this wasn’t the only big change happening between the two albums. Unfortunately, Brownstein and Tucker broke up between the two albums as well, leading to songs on Dig Me Out being about relationship strains and issues. The song that highlights the break-up themes the most is the song “One More Hour,” which might be one of the most compelling and devastating break-up songs ever. On “One More Hour” Tucker and Brownstein have a conversation in song, singing simultaneously during the chorus with Tucker displaying their relationship with a certain vulnerability, and Brownstein exclaiming her understanding of Tucker’s feelings. “I needed it / (I know I know I know) / Oh I needed it / (It’s so hard for you to let it go) / I needed it / (I know I know I know) / Oh I needed it / (You never wanted to let it go)” Brownstein singing the part in parentheses in an almost dismissive way that sounds like she wants to yell “Stop talking” to Tucker but sounding so effortlessly cool, while Tucker herself is screaming about what she needs. All the while Weiss is providing a driving beat that doesn’t overpower the vocals and emotion and Brownstein layers idiosyncratic yet danceable riffs throughout the song. Dig Me Out also saw Sleater-Kinney releasing through a new record label, the indie label Kill Rock Stars, which was based out of Portland and Olympia, and had a history of working with other punk rock bands in the same scene as Sleater-Kinney. Tucker wanted to release through Kill Rock Stars because she felt that they would have better distribution resources and they would continue releasing through them for their next four albums. They recorded with Call the Doctor producer John Goodmanson again, who they felt understood their sound and what they were going for. Kill Rock Stars allowed them to double the studio time that they had of their last album. Sleater-Kinney released Dig Me Out in 1997 and it is known as one of their best albums and is often considered their best album and one of the best albums of all time making it on lists such as Rolling Stone’s and best albums of the 90’s lists. At this point in Sleater-Kinney’s career they were established indie rockers who had hit their first big stride after releasing an album a year for three years, so what was next? After the massive success of Dig Me Out, they began getting record deal offers from major record labels, so they knew that they had seen the most success of their developing career so far, but they didn’t want to leave their label Kill Rock Stars when they had already shown that they could be successful on an indie label.
Every album up until this point had been written in a somewhat short amount of time including Dig Me Out, which was the longest they had spent writing so far taking around two months to write, until their fourth studio album, The Hot Rock, which they wrote over the course of a year, a much longer amount of time than they had ever spent on a single record. Sleater-Kinney’s fourth album, The Hot Rock, came with some firsts for the band, since they spent the most time writing this album than any previous album so far, their sound slowed down just as their writing process did. This was the first album of theirs that you’d be hard-pressed to call a punk rock or riot grrrl album, the influence and energy is still there, but they trade out some of their previous fury for intricate, interweaving guitar lines that are cleaner than their past noisy, harsh guitars. To highlight this change in the sound they contacted a different producer instead of John Goodmanson, who was the producer of their last couple of records. The band sought out producer Roger Moutenot, who had experience working with another 90’s indie band, Yo La Tengo, who were an indie rock band, but had a more subdued sound and were focused on ambiance and textures rather than Sleater-Kinney’s trademark noisiness. Following the change in sound, was also a change in lyrical style. Tucker gets introspective lyrically, delving into lyrical themes of intimacy in the form of her talking about past relationships and lyrics about the band’s growth and what was next. On The Hot Rock, we see what could be considered Sleater-Kinney’s most heart-wrenching song “The Size Of Our Love,” a song with lyrics such as “Our love is the size of these tumors inside us, our love is the size of this hole in the ground where my heart is buried now.” The song is about the traumatic experience of watching a loved one in the hospital with a potentially fatal illness and waiting with them through the uncertainty. Seeing their popularity increasing album after album, this album was the first of theirs to ever make it on Billboard’s album chart, the Billboard 200, and it entered the chart at number 181. This is also the first of their albums to ever have a music video released with a song, and it wasn’t the spectacle that other music videos that were released in the 90s were, it mainly saw the band doing random things in black and white.
Sleater-Kinney would not let up anytime soon, they were probably the most consistent of any of their contemporaries, they were getting the commercial success they deserved and critics loved them more than ever and constantly praised them. After the musical slow down of The Hot Rock, Sleater-Kinney would speed it up again, of course, that’s what they knew, but this time with a peppier step, adding pop sensibilities to their songs that feel indicative of the sound of indie rock that came after their fifth album, All Hands on the Bad One. This album saw them working with John Goodmanson again, who they felt captured the energy of their live performances the best, which was fitting for them getting back into the sound that they were known for.
All Hands on the Bad One kicks off with the song “The Ballad of a Ladyman,” a song about being women in rock music after an event organizer referred to Sleater-Kinney as “ladymen.” The song discusses how women in the genre were thought of as being “manly” and how men were scared of powerful women and weren’t ready to see or hear women who were doing it on the same level as their male counterparts. “They say I’ve gone too far with the image I’ve got / And they know I’d make a mint with new plastic skin / And a hit on the radio! / Temptations of a ladyman,” Tucker sings. She is speaking up about how men think they know her and Sleater-Kinney more than they do, and how they could make more profit if they sold out and went for a look and sound that was marketable to the general public. In the next verse, Tucker conveys how she could do that, but why would she want to when she wants to rock? So if women being rockers make them “ladymen,” she would take that title over anything else.
Sleater-Kinney was always singing about political ideas, with their earlier political lyrics being focused on people, and how work environments reduce them to just an employee that’s not supposed to have feelings, and of course the politics of being women, and more specifically women in rock music, but on One Beat, Tucker and Brownstein get more political than ever. In between All Hands on the Bad One, which was released in 2000, and One Beat, which was released in 2002, America went through one of its most trying times, the terrorist attacks 9/11. On “Far Away” Tucker recounts her experience of the attacks unfolding, feeling what other Americans were feeling, hoping that her family was safe, and criticizing President George W. Bush’s actions during the event, she notes how he hid while working men risked their lives. One Beat continues to question America and its new landscape such as the nationalist ideas that began to run throughout its politics. “They tell us there are only two sides to be on / If you are on our side, you’re right, if not you’re wrong / But are we innocent, the paragons of good? / Is our guilt erased by the pain that we’ve endured, endured,” Brownstein sings on the song “Combat Rock.” Tucker and Brownstein question why skepticism was now considered un-American and how not conforming to the ideas that the new political landscape had set would get you labeled as “one of them.” They discuss how Americans will do anything to show America love, such as spend money on clothes that have the American flag’s design printed on them, to show their pride, parade around with militarized weaponry, to show that we’re stronger than other countries are, and refuse to have serious talks about America and how it’s responsible for innocent people dying because that’s how the American machine runs, off the resources taken from other countries. This song is a protest-ready anthem that skips along with a riff and beat you could step along to and is full of the scathing lyrical ideas that Americans would try to blacklist you for, like they did The Dixie Chicks. The entire album is filled with political themes and enough content to warrant its own deep dive, but other impactful events were happening in frontwoman Corin Tucker’s life at the same time. During the album’s writing Tucker gave birth to her first child, Marshall, who was born nine weeks premature. The closing track of the album “Sympathy” is about her experience giving birth. She pleads to God on the song, while claiming she isn’t the most religious person, but she would do anything for her son. A deeply saddening song lyrically where she recalls the doctors she encountered, how one would bring bad news whenever she saw them, her feelings as if she is cursed and that everything she touches crumbles before her, stressing how an event like this can take you by surprise and make you face life and death. One Beat showed no signs of a slowing band, they were still loved critically and the album reached number 107 on Billboard’s album chart, the highest they had seen, that is, until the release of their seventh album, The Woods.
Sleater-Kinney was ready to call it quits during the making of The Woods, and it almost was never recorded, which would be a shame, as this is now known to many as their best album. The Woods feels like a farewell, even though it’s a new sound from them, a sound that is heavier than anything they have done previously. It’s noisy, abrasive, and overall it’s a monstrous record filled with thunderous guitar riffs and drums that hit you like a ton of bricks. The band cites the sounds of many classic rock bands as the inspiration for the heaviness. They recorded the album with Dave Fridmann, who helped them achieve the noisiness of the record. Sleater- Kinney would release their most popular song to date, “Modern Girl,” on The Woods. “Modern Girl” starts off as the gasp for air in-between the heaviness of the other songs on the record, but sours over the course of the song’s length, gradually getting heavier and distorting. Brownstein sings about her life and what makes her feel like a modern girl in the song, ending by saying anger makes her feel like a modern girl when the song reaches its most blown-out peak. The Woods features the longest song Sleater-Kinney ever made, the 11-minute behemoth of a guitar solo “Let’s call it love.” Sleater-Kinney would release this album through a new label for them, the legendary record label Sub Pop. The Woods was released in 2005 to mass critical acclaim and reaching number 80 on the Billboard 200. A year later, Sub Pop announced that Sleater-Kinney would be going on an indefinite hiatus with no plans for the future, and they did for 10 whole years, and then the three of them came back for their eighth album, No Cities to Love. A return to form for the band, being back with producer John Goodmanson, who has worked with them throughout their career and receiving praise from critics with some citing it as their best album. No Cities to Love would be the highest-charting album of theirs reaching number 18 on the Billboard 200.
Finally, we get to their ninth album, The Center Won’t Hold. This is the latest album in their multi-decade-long career, being released in 2019. The Center Won’t Hold features the songwriting they are known for, except with a sleek new sheen. This album was produced by fellow indie rocker St. Vincent, who pushed them to try new things leading to their transition in sound. The Center Won’t Hold contains their most diverse instrumentals to date, as Sleater- Kinney explores new sonic territory with instruments such as synthesizers, non-traditional drum sounds, and a piano-led song to serve as the album’s closing track. During the making of The Center Won’t Hold, Janet Weiss, Sleater-Kinney’s drummer since 1997, unfortunately, departed the band due to creative differences. The album still featured Weiss’ drumming throughout it, but Weiss was replaced for Sleater-Kinney to tour.
Sleater-Kinney, one of the greatest rock bands to ever do it, is made up of the inspiring women, Corin Tucker, Carrie Brownstein, and Janet Weiss, who never let up on their uncompromising path to greatness, and you’d be remiss if you never got to hear their music or their story.