Some bands are synonymous with their record labels: Bob Dylan
\nwith Columbia, Bright Eyes with Saddle Creek, early Nirvana and
\nSoundgarden with Sub Pop and Sleater-Kinney with Kill Rock Stars.
\nThe best of these labels act as homes to their artists. Still,
\nthere are times when you have to leave home to continue to grow as
\na person.<\/p>\n
Sleater-Kinney chose to move out of their Kill Rock Stars home
\nand move into still-standing-after-all-these-years Sub Pop records.
\nThey left on a high note with their 2002 release
\nOne Beat<\/i>, a combination of the band’s response to a
\npost-Sept. 11 America and a mediation of the responsibilities of
\nmotherhood by singer\/songwriter Corin Tucker and Carrie
\nBrownstein.<\/p>\n
With six albums under its belt, what can a band do for an
\nencore? If you’re Sleater-Kinney, hire Flaming Lips producer Dave
\nFridmann and start a serious jones with Deep Purple and Led
\nZeppelin. The result is
\nThe Woods<\/i>; probably the heaviest album you’re going to hear
\nthis year.<\/p>\n
\nThe Woods<\/i> certainly has a ‘woodsy’ feel to it. Animal and
\nforest imagery are all over the album. The opening track, “The
\nFox,” comes off as a creepy nursery rhyme a la Little Red Riding
\nHood. One song is even called “Wilderness.” But more abstractly,
\nthe band, possibly drawing from their Pacific Northwest roots, have
\nrecorded an album that sounds like a buzz saw cutting through
\nforest brush.<\/p>\n
Fridmann pushed Sleater-Kinney to retool its sound for
\nThe Woods<\/i>. Probably the best representation of this is the
\nten-minute-plus “Let’s Call It Love.” The first four minutes of the
\nsong has Godzilla-sized guitar riffs, but is sent off its tracks by
\nJanet Weiss’ pulverizing drumming. What ensues is a seven-minute
\njam with enough feedback for a My Bloody Valentine record. The song
\nwas recorded in one take.<\/p>\n
Fans of Sleater-Kinney’s earlier (read: more punk-oriented)
\nalbums can breath easy, though; the band hasn’t gone totally King
\nCrimson on them. “Rollercoaster” could have sounded at home on
\ntheir
\nCall The Doctor<\/i> album and the visceral “Entertain” takes a
\nMolly Hatchet to reality television and hipster wannabes. If this
\nsong was written by most any other band, it would have sounded five
\nyears out of date and would have reeked of sour grapes, but
\nBrownstein pulls you in when she screams “Rip me open, it’s free.”
\nThe seriousness of Brownstein’s delivery is immediately offset with
\na playful, punkish sing-along of “1,2,3! \/ If you wanna take a shot
\nat me, get in line.”<\/p>\n
With the exception of “Jumpers,” a frank account of a school kid
\npushed to suicide,
\nThe Woods<\/i> has a playful sound. “Kenny and Linda on the way
\nto Chelan \/ Transmission’s shot, no back up plan \/ Will they hitch
\na ride?\/Or get into a fight?” Brownstein sings in the opening lines
\nof “Wilderness.” The song could have very well have been about the
\nband as they chart a new path on
\nThe Woods<\/i>. It’s a departure, but not near the departure as
\ncritics are painting it to be. The only advice I have to listening
\nto it is to try to see the band live. It is in that environment
\nwhen the so-called excessive and indulgent risks of
\nThe Woods<\/i> make perfect sense. Just bring earplugs. Even on
\nlow,
\nThe Woods<\/i> rocks with a fury that is as fun as it is
\nlacerating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":27251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5981],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-38605","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-sleater-kinney","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38605"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38605"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}