Customer Reviews

Sleater-Kinney

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is in my opinion the best album by one of the best bands of the decade. Although the sleeve contains lyrics to eight of the songs, its a full album with 10 songs. These songs are classics and you'll never hear a band like Sleater-Kinney again. Its from the earlier part of their career(s)and just after Heavens to Betsy and Excuse 17. It has a rawness to it that is refreshing. In my opinion, some songs on this album are among the greatest songs written in the last century. Its not for the faint-of-heart, but if you like female punk bands then this is it.

An acquired taste, this CD took a while to accept, but now it's on heavy rotation. Very thought provoking, powerful debut.
This album is enjoyable on its own but is especially fun when you compare it to One Beat or The Hot Rock. Such contrast is a testament to a band's evolution.

Sleater-Kinney,America's foremost trio of femme-punk furies,have always excelled at playing it cool and tough while retaining a strong sense of what thier testosterone-addled dude-rock contemporaries would likely term "icky girlie-ness"Stylistically,thier songs are full of proud sugar-and-spice signifiers:spirited playground chants,60s girl-group allusion,preciously campy vocal asides.But this could also describe any of a number of bands with similer elements in the Riot-Grrrl movement of the early 90s,a musical and political ground-swell that by 95(when this record dropped) was quickly becoming stagnant under the burden of it's own narrow views and dependance on familiar cliches.Sleater-Kinney's eponymous debut shows thier shrewdness in patently avoiding the same trap,while remaining true to the original idealogical thrust.The record is a brisk,rapid affair(clocking in at just under thirty minutes),but it manages an astonishing eclecticism and versatility:for every primal rager("Don't Think You Wanna","Sold Out"),there's a stunning,almost pastoral slow-burner("Slow Song","Lori's Song").Musically,the trio is astounding self-assured(especially for a debut).Guitarist-vocalist Corin Tucker,Guitarist-Vocalist Carrie Brownstien,and then-drummer Lori Macfarlane whip up a sound that is a miracle of cohesion,economy,and surging momentum.Tucker and Brownstien are a perfect compliment to each other here,both instrumentally and vocally;listening to the record is like eaves-dropping on an intimate conversation between two friends with a complicated,fascinating relationship.This makes for music that is occasionally sublime:the criminally cool"The Day I Went Away" builds from sinister,slinky verses to full-on choruses with a breath-taking organic buzz;the jaw-dropping "Be Yr Mama"(possibly the band's pinnacle) is so brimming with tightly-coiled, whip-smart attitude and musical inventiveness it sounds primed to explode at any moment.This band has,of coarse,gone on to record four much-more heralded and beloved records,but for my money,they've only been improving and refining a staggeringly original and compelling style that they display in all it's glory here,and despite a few clunkers("How To Play Dead",which is musically clumsy and rushed but nevertheless rescued by Carrie's deliciously nasty hectoring)this debut firmly establishes this Olympia,Washington trio as one of the most important bands of the 90s.

Have you ever had the chance to listen to an album all the way though without the fast-forward feature? If so, the album was probably Sleater-Kinney's self- titled. Corin Tucker's awesome voice is more then a feeling. Tucker's soul overflows into a place you can truley call rock. Just when you think her lightning has hit the ground, the thunder makes you forget that there is one. Carrie Kinney has vocals that are the counterpart of Tucker's vocals- equally satisfying. Lora Marfalane also sings. On "Lora's Song", the innocence of a voice tells a soft story while in you face. "Her Again", is a knock on your door accusing you of something you won't admit to. Sleater-Kinney makes you admit it. They force you into that place where they'll extend their welcome, then give you what you deserve. I think you wanna hear this album. At least so you know what hit you. Tracks: "don't think you wanna" "the day i went wawy" "a real man" "her again" "how to play dead" "be yr mama" "sold out" "slow song" "lora's song" "the last song"

I had the interesting juxtaposition of buying this album and seeing SK live for the first time within the same week. (It's lonely being a SK fan in Australia. Hardly anyone's heard of them, and their early albums are near impossible to find.) Anyway, while their live show was amazing, I was struck by that strange sense of displacement experienced by any obsessed fan at a concert - the band that seemed to exist solely to nurse your adolescent anguish in your bedroom are suddenly on a stage, unreachable, impersonal, and, well, glamorous. SK have become more palatable over the years - now they're more sophisticated, more stylish, more self-assured, and less politically extreme. Thankfully, they've managed to make that inevitable transition while still making compelling art - One Beat is a fantastic record. Still, something is lost in that forward-motion (not that same thing as selling out, mind you), and it's here in all its glory on this self-titled debut. On this record, and on Call the Doctor, SK were blessed with a wonderful lack of self-consciousness (the very thing that mars the uninspired All Hands On The Bad One.) This record is raw, immediate, direct, and naked. Sure, it's crude sometimes, and flawed, and brief, but it's impossible to question the sincerity, even if you don't like the politics, and while the militant feminism, bloodcurdling screams, and guitars that seem to simulate a monotone of dread are probably enough to alienate 99% of the human population, I'll love SK forever for having had the guts to make it. They seem like an entirely different band now, which leaves me with a sense of ambivalence: I'm glad they're becoming a real force to be reckoned with, that they're shiny and elegant and all grown up, that they're moving beyond their marginal status and seem more at peace with themselves and with men. But I think, deep down, I like my heroines a bit scrappier, a bit more unsure of themselves, a bit more messed up. Sometimes I think SK's flaws were their very virtues, and I worry that the more polished they become, the less powerful they are.

I don't know, I just couldn't get into Dig Me Out, which "they" say is their best. However I was completely into this Sleater-Kinney debut album. The first two songs pack an emotional punch ("Don't Think You Wanna and "The Day I went away").
Then comes the song, "Real Man", which I respect since it doesn't diss men, it just says, "I don't WANNA!" ;0
This excellent alt-rock debut continues with the two girl band, Corrin and Carrie until the last, but not least, "The Last Song". Hard to believe this whole album was recorded in one night. The followup, "Call the Doctor" is also great, however not Dig Me Out IMHO.
This band was in the right place at the right time: Pacific Northwest in the 1990s.

Corin Tucker, Carrie Kinney and Lora Macfarlane put the punk rock boys, jocks and Clintonesque womanizer wannabes in their place with a scathing CD. Musically and lyrically, the Sleater-Kinney debut CD is simultaneously castrating and energizing. The trio reinvents what was briefly called post-punk in the early '80s into a snarling, slam-dancing, pogo-ing mass of music that will send your feet flying and your cat running out of the room. Yet the band exhibits the capacity to be emotional, brave and poignant on gems like "slow song" and "the last song". Musically they trod ground close to The Pixies, Hole, PIL and others. But somehow, they become more than these other bands. When angry on "a real man" they don't just retread the punk cliches, they seduce and shock alternately. A cascade of aural alienation descends upon the listener in the more melodic "the day I went away" and the sheer drone of "her again". Exene Cervenka of X is probably the only female artist who has reached the level of the Sleater-K's in the past. Many have tried, Siouxsie Sioux and her Banshees, Lesley Woods of the Au Pairs, Kim Deal of the Pixies, Madonna, Courtney Love, etc. "be yr mama" makes you dance till you drop. It will be a long time before we hear music as good as this again. So, bow to the goddesses, give thanks and offerings, and pray they stay together to release more music. Pain is bliss.

before all the digging me out and getting your hands on the bad one ans listening to milestones like THE HOT ROCK and CALL THE DOCTOR...there was a cd that was just as good as the rest, and this is where it all started. Beautiful like the rest with songs just as mind blowing and insulting. This album, this band, is truly the best band in america and the entire world. Give it a listen and i bet you won't even sell it to a used cd store. This is the type of album that makes people like you and me proud to be american and alive.

Listen to S-K's first for sheer, raw, feel-like-you're-at-the-club fun. If you're familiar with Sleater-Kinney you'll find it enjoyable to see the early stages of what they were up to. If not, you might as well start here and work your way up to their more polished work. Every time I put this on I feel like I'm in every punk/new wave club from the early-80s. There's a little X, a little Go-Gos and a little of Athens, GA's beloved Pylon and REM. But, best of all, there's a lot of every late 70's/early-80's DIY band that never made it farther than opening locally for the band that never made it farther than headlining locally, except S-K have real talent. The sonwgriting is formative but you can hear the ability there. The instruments are on the verge of very good but with enough garage quality to give it life. You can tell Janet Weiss was about to become a very strong drummer. And, even back then, Corin Tucker's screams, screeches and playful let-it-all-hang-out vocals were something unto themselves. If you haven't heard a band that plays what it plays for the sheer joy of it in a while, listen to this CD. It's crude, it's immature and it's a joy. Then get every S-K album you can lay your hands on. But one at a time, please. They deserve to be listened to. Plain and simple, this is rock and roll.