All Hands on the Bad One

Sleater-Kinney

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 2, 2000)
• Original Release Date: May 2, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Kill Rock Stars
• ASIN: B00004RD8V
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #108,925 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 2000

It has all the blistering guitar work, punk-rock harmonies, and thunderous drumming of their previous efforts. But with All Hands on the Bad One, the Northwest trio of Sleater-Kinney doesn't forget to have fun, too. Their sound has evolved, but the spirit that forged the seminal riot-grrrl threesome animates every anthem here. --Jason Verlinde

Product Description

'All Hands On The Bad One' returns to jubilant, playful rock that reveals just how much fun this band has just being together and making music. Produced by John Goodmanson, and engineered by Larry Crane at the low-key Jackpot Studios in Portland from Kill Rock Stars Records.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Now Is The Time To Invent, June 23, 2000

By	John Orfield (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's been a fun ride over the past few years, watching the evolution of Sleater-Kinney from a fairly standard riot grrrl group (still, it was always easy to spot the talent) to the absolute indie pop rock masters they are today. And here's the really amazing thing about Sleater-Kinney: their sound isn't all that revolutionary. There's a lot of Sonic Youth in here, and at times Carrie's Rickenbacker gives the songs a strange R.E.M./Pylon feel. So, no, they're not reinventing the wheel, but they play with such passion that you can't help but take notice. Janet's one of the best drummers around, Carrie's easily my favorite guitarist today and Corin-- Ah, Corin-- she just wraps her voice around words, turning them inside out, twisting two syllable words into six. They just compliment each other perfectly...

The lyrics have improved with each album an not coincidentally it seems like each album has been better than the last (although I still count The Hot Rock as my favorite S-K album). All Hands On The Bad One has all the feel of that last warm-up album before all hell breaks loose and Sleater-Kinney takes over the entire country the way Nirvana did in the early 90's. Maybe that's too much pressure to put on them, but All Hands proves they may be ready for it. It expands on the pop hooks they've honed over Dig Me Out and The Hot Rock, adding hand claps and more harmonies and, in the process, coming dangerously close to Veruca Salt territory on pop gems like You're No Rock In Roll Fun, the title track, and Leave You Behind.

Other highlights (for me): The sexy Milkshake n Honey building to a knee-quivering climax, the relentless Ironclad asking the musical question "What would you kill to make a heart stand still?", the social #1 Must Have lamenting today's music culture ("Watch me make up my mind instead of my face"), and the near-lullaby The Swimmer which is the most fragile song S-K has ever recorded, with the possible exceltion of The Hot Rock's The Size Of Our Love.

You know, I hope my enthusiasm for Sleater-Kinney has come across in this review. We're really witnessing something pretty special here, folks. Don't miss it.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars burn don't freeze, December 3, 2001

By	Tom Madigan (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

There's a big difference between taking risks and indulging weaknesses, and Sleater-Kinney spend their fifth album dodging more bullets than you're comfortable with from the best band in rock.

They've always written too much about music and their place in it, and this time they overload with a half-dozen self-referential harangues about feminism in rock. The musical setting they choose all but abandons the deliberacy of 1999's awesomely strange The Hot Rock -- a few notable exceptions aside, this is a return to their riot grrrl roots, no less powerful but a bit less ambitious.

So the gods of disaster began sharpening their knives. But All Hands on the Bad One is not a disaster or even a misstep. It's actually one more step forward for a great band that hasn't stopped improving yet.

The trick is that Sleater-Kinney has indeed learned from The Hot Rock. Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker came of age then as guitarists, weaving in and out of each other's path with no bass player to mediate, and their playing on All Hands is wonderfully nonlinear. Some songs are relay races ("Ironclad"); others are tangles (the exquisite "Was it a Lie?" and the shimmery "The Swimmer"). Double-jointed guitar breaks that were fun at half the speed last time are thrilling now.

Both guitarists benefit from the sharpest production of their career, but not as much as drummer Janet Weiss -- with more room in the mix, she's more than ever the pivot, finding creative ways to shape the beat no matter how abruptly Brownstein and Tucker shift. Like Charlie Watts or Dave Grohl, she's the rare drummer who can give a tune body, even one as breakneck as the title track.

Tucker's singing shows the most growth. Now that she's mixing more real-life pain (as opposed to rock-song pain) into her lyrics, she's unlocking new range and nuance in her voice -- you can actually hear her shift gears from calm to crazy. On paper, "Youth Decay" could be about oral hygiene, teen angst or maybe bulimia, but on record, Tucker adds the possibility of incest just by swooping into the line, "Daddy says I got my mama's mouth."

Tucker's increasing skill as a multilayered songwriter is undercut by her more polemic moments. There's nothing wrong with her rage against corporate image control -- in fact, I'm with her -- but her overtly feminist rants are aimed at the wrong targets in the wrong arena. Such screeds as "Male Model" ("You always measure me by him") are so personal they seem to indict Tucker's immediate community -- an indie world that long ago accepted Sleater-Kinney's musical ability regardless of gender and that has never seen more women playing key roles in good bands. And it's never flattering for a band to brag on record that it won't sell out, especially one with bigger issues on its mind.

Smart reformers should aim higher. Tucker would do better asking why teen girls made a comeback as a pop commodity less than five years after the media declared a women's revolution in music. Maybe Tucker could even ask her male fans -- she's got plenty.

The only two mediocre tracks on All Hands are the preachiest one and the dumbest parody. If you have more tolerance for base awareness than I do, they won't drag down the album. Me, I started playing this record over and over once I realized that my misgivings couldn't keep the songs from rattling around my head all day. For all its shortcomings, this is still an album a best band in rock can be proud of.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All Hands Together for this 'Bad' One, May 3, 2000

By	John W. Florendo (Alhambra, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Terrific, dynamic and fun album. Sort of a culmination of their last three albums... Some songs confrontational like "Call the Doctor", others emotional, propulsive releases like much of "Dig Me Out" (still probably my favorite), and still others resemble the more reflective pieces of "The Hot Rock"... great sounding stuff, and much better mixed/engineered then the slightly washed out sound of "Hot Rock" to these ears. Great fusion of elements...which is partly what makes this band appealing in the first place. Corin Tucker's lead vocals are all over the place, being more seemingly playful than usual. First song, "Ballad of Ladyman", sets the mood perfectly: both coy and explosive, direct and wayward, with a great driving riff that comes together for a memorable finale (in less than three minutes?). Love this band, and after three listens, love this album. Another potential pop/punk masterwork from S-K.