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Sleater-Kinney Imagine A Better World

Born out of a post-Sept. 11 worldview, the upcoming Sleater-Kinney album, One Beat, due out Aug. 20 on Kill Rock Stars, holds out hope for humankind, challenging us to change both our thinking and our actions. (Check out Neumu's previous story, "Late Summer Release For Sleater-Kinney's One Beat.")

"What if our lives were totally different? What if we could invent something brand new?" singer/guitarist/songwriter Corin Tucker asked as she discussed the album's title track at a Portland coffee shop, sharing a table with her two bandmates, vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Carrie Brownstein and drummer Janet Weiss.

"We could be on the brink of our world going a vastly different direction," Tucker continued. "Especially because of what happened with Sept. 11 and the ways the old machinery of the government clicked into place: 'Get those bombs ready, get your cars gassed out.' All of that old-time thinking was ready to go, ready to be in place."

"Could I turn this place all upside down/ Shake you and your fossils out?" Tucker sings on "One Beat." The words flutter, tremble then fall from her mouth with fierce passion and urgency. "If I'm to run the future/ You've got to let the Old World go/ Could you invent a world for me?/ I need to hear a symphony."

In the coffee shop she explained, "That song is, from the point of view of the invention, saying, 'I am the new possibility. I am the new generation and you would be so lucky if you would open your mind to me.'"

Acknowledging such problems as the United States' oil-driven economy and its connection to the U.S. presence in the Middle East, Tucker is nonetheless hopeful that a new age will dawn. "Problems that we're faced with today are in some part because of that traditional thinking," Tucker said. "What if we could let go of this old way of living (and) put our energy into that instead of gearing up the military just like we've always done? And instead we used our thinkers and our scientists to help create a different mode of society?"

Throughout their eight years together, Sleater-Kinney have been known for the thoughtful, often political, discourse within their noisy yet melodic punk-influenced rock. But the impassioned songs rumbling and shaking through One Beat might make it the most engaging of all Sleater-Kinney albums. "The idea of One Beat is the idea of holding onto that one thing we might have in common, which is hoping that things will get better and that we can do our part to try and make it better," Tucker said.

"Why can't I get along with you?" Tucker wails, as if she's fallen to her knees in desperation on "Far Away," a song that refers to Sept. 11. "Turn on the TV/ Watch the world explode in flames/ And don't leave the house/ Don't breathe the air today."

The 12-song album — produced by John Goodmanson at Jackpot! Studio in Portland, Ore., this past March — balances the serious subjects of many of the songs with fun, catchy melodies and dance-y, occasionally funky rhythms. "['Step Aside'] was the last song we wrote for the album," Tucker said, "and it was a really collaborative process saying, 'We need a really fun song, a dance song.' We worked on it all together and then the lyrics came about in the studio. We all helped with the lyrics; Janet wrote some of the lyrics."

"Two lines," Weiss said, laughing.

Joking about last-minute studio prepping as they sat around the coffee shop's red, '50s-diner-style, chrome-legged table, Brownstein called Weiss "Dr. Lyric," deepened her voice to an ultra-serious tone like an ER doctor going into surgery and said, "I'm going in for five minutes, can you be here?"

Getting serious, Brownstein described the thinking behind "Step Aside," which includes such lines as "These times are troubled/ These times are rough/ There's more to come/ But you can't give up/ Why don't you shake a tail for peace and love/ Move it up one time FOR LOVE/ JANET CARRIE CAN YOU HEAR IT/ Knife through the heart of our exploitation/ LADIES ONE TIME CAN YOU FEEL IT/ Disassemble our discrimination...."

"In terms of the songs [on One Beat] that have to do with contemporary or current issues, it was the other end of the spectrum," Brownstein said. "It was much more of a call to arms or uplifting song. I've always thought those songs were funny; the ones that are about something serious but then they make it into a dance song — 'C'mon people, get happy! You're sad so shake your ass!'"

"Like dancing in the streets — free your mind and your ass will follow," Weiss added. "Funkadelic was the master of that, writing these really sociopolitical songs as, like, shake your ass! Let's go crazy!"

With vehement, lusty sounds set against poetic lyricism, Sleater-Kinney have been critics' favorites since the release of their second album, Call the Doctor, which included the underground "hit" "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone." The group has been on the cover of Punk Planet while being named "America's Best Rock Band" by Time magazine in 2001. Renowned rock critic Greil Marcus has championed them in such publications as Interview, Esquire and the New York Times.

Moving from jagged, thrashing tunes to an increasingly polished and fuller, albeit still punk, music, the band has evolved while maintaining a unique sound that's instantly recognizable as Sleater-Kinney. Tucker's and Brownstein's guitars clash and mingle like noise and pop, Tucker's idiosyncratic wails quiver, hiccup and carry with soul. Weiss keeps the songs grounded with her masterful rock drumming.

Founded in Olympia, Wash., in 1994, Sleater-Kinney have developed both as record makers and live performers. They've worked to keep things fresh. "I think it's natural to want to progress from one album to the next," Brownstein said. "When we started writing this album, we felt like, this is our sixth album, there's no reason to do anything similar to what we've already done.

"We had no expectations, nothing hanging over us," she continued. "So, with each specific song, we challenged ourselves and spent a lot of time editing and sculpting the songs. There's no major motivation except just the internal sense of wanting to grow.

"We used to rely heavily on the intuitive process, and that works and continues to work, but we realized our first idea wasn't always the best," Brownstein said. "So, we did a lot of rethinking on each song, going back and changing our parts if they didn't work the first time."

Certainly One Beat's most touching, emotional song is the blues-inspired, stripped-down closing track "Sympathy." It was partially inspired by the birth of Tucker's son, who was nine weeks premature. "That song evolved as this really bluesy number," Tucker said. "When we wrote the music for it, it was a very different thing — I'm stuck outside myself and singing in this really bluesy, gutsy way.

"When I started singing, it really connected on a personal level for me," she continued. "It's about spirituality and about being thankful for the things that are most important for you. It stems from my experience having my son, having it not be an easy thing at all — it was definitely a difficult time. But just being so thankful that he's a healthy guy and that my family is strong and together.... I think it's easy to take that for granted. It's something that all of a sudden there was a moment for me when I pictured losing the thing that is most important to me, and that was a very scary, scary thing."

"I'm so sorry for those who didn't make it/ For the mommies who were left with a heartbreaker," Tucker sings, like an old '30s blues singer about to break down. "... Thanks for the love, for the joy, for the smile on his face." — Jenny Tatone [Friday, July, 12 2002]


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