It is exactly 30 years since the band Sleater-Kinney was founded and a little more than the emergence of the Riot Girrrl movement of which he was a part (see: Bikini Kill, Huggy Bear, Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, etc.). This female trio from Olympia, Washington is today considered one of the best American alternative bands of the 21st century and at the same time the main legacy of the aforementioned radical-feminist movement within popular music.
The cultural and political context, however, has changed drastically since the early 1990s. From the defensive position of servants of the entertainment system, women on the music scene have moved at full speed into an active role to the extent that most of the business in the last ten years revolves around them, so they can impose their own rules (see: Grammy Awards 2024) . Contemporary pop stars are a kind of vanguard of general women's economic liberation - as a wise man said a long time ago: there is no freedom without winning the means to work. This does not only apply to the famous Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Billie Eilish, Lana Del Rey or Miley Cyrus - the latest wave of girls with guitars, from Wet Leg to Boygenius, adheres to the aforementioned new norm: girls are now running their own businesses and, consequently therefore, they keep the money in their hands (see: Z. Kojić and D. Ambrozić "New musical matriarchy", Time 1595). And lo and behold, as soon as men began to depend on them, suddenly a movement like #MeToo became possible… we're just saying!
One of the main and earliest examples of just such a practice in rock and roll, when it comes to ladies, has always been Sleater-Kinney. Originating during the grunge revolution in the greater Seattle region, they grew within the DIY aesthetic of small clubs and fanzines, single-handedly leading their career from complete underground to nationally recognized artist status. Founders Carrie Brownstein (b. 1974) and Corin Tucker (b. 1972; both - guitars and vocals), and joined Janet Weiss (b. 1965; drums) have mostly signed a whole series of fantastic releases exclusively for independent houses (emphasis added Call the Doctor 1996 Dig Me Out 1997 The Hot Rock 1999 No Cities to Love 2015), whose passion has always been a degree higher than anything else on offer in the rock scene. If you were to claim in a company that Sleater-Kinney, along with Wilco, are the most important American alternative group in the last twenty years, the signer would personally shake your hand and give you a brotherly hug. Over time, Sleater-Kinney have grown into a classic band, a cultural reference and a significant symbol of their era - one that many men still like not to understand.
Just released, the eleventh album in a row Little Rope, brings potentially significant change. It was created after a severe break in the group's private history: a car accident in which Braunstein's mother and stepfather were killed, and not long after a painful breakup with longtime drummer Weissova (2019). But all of this seemed to shake the band hard enough to rediscover that it still has a vital reason to exist.
Early Sleater-Kinney were a punkishly outraged three-part female howl, accompanied by furious, unique-sounding guitars and a hurricane-like rumble of percussion. A bloody original honed on listening to Gang of Four, Hüsker Dü, Fugazi and Hole. But, as time changed, they also accepted the contemporary ruling pop sensibility, and with Little Rope the moment had come for the Sleater-Kinney stylization. Of course, in their uncompromising way: through radical, modernized powerpop formula, which here reads = shock + melody + catharsis. In multiple Grammy Award-winning producer John Congleton, they had the perfect collaborator in shaping a new beginning for Sleater-Kinney.
The introduction to the album is called Hell. And from the beginning it is clear to us that the band has not changed, although it has learned that punk today is called pop. Hardly any composition better evokes the atmosphere of hopelessness, which is the starting position of the narrative on Little Rope - but that's the point, since from there you can only get better, and the record leads to that betterment, no matter how distant it may seem. They attack us in rapid succession, marching on our ears Say It Like You Mean It, Hunt you down i Don't Feel Right, anthemic songs for our troubled world, with such violent intensity that you wonder why there aren't more hits like this. Probably because in the past decade, the music industry also realized that sedatives sell best, and now sells them in bulk. Fortunately, not everyone makes music in order to deliver it to consumers digitally for a pittance delivered service, but because they have to say something with it. Sleater-Kinney belong to a generation that still believes that if you make something good and from the heart, it will find its way to an audience.
Little Rope that's why the record is full of fervor, divisive emotions and a fight with demons, hidden behind a drinkable melodiousness. Frenetic rocker pieces speak best of that Crusader, Small Finds i Six Mistakes, bursts of energy concealing chasms of vulnerability, a hallmark of all the best Sleater-Kinney songs, old and new. That's exactly how magnificent it is Untidy Creature, which closes the album with a crescendo worthy of the finale of a serious work.
And when it ends, in a personal emotional collapse that reveals everything, you unmistakably recognize a record on which something is really happening, made of that genuine human material - of which there are unforgivably few today.
