I said perhaps, chuckles, and it would be a very slow rot if it did happen. But at least you're willing to admit you're a whore.

were you not paying attention in 1997 when Dig Me Out was the darling of the music press??? Also they had KillRockStars discs in BestBuy before 2000 and AHOTBO and really that had nothing to do with the band at all, you don't "sell out" to get distribution at big chains, what happened in the late 1990s is that all the major distribution companies (not to be confused with the major music labels) realized there was money to be made even in small volume so they began putting "indie" records on mainstream store shelves and it was a gamble that paid off. Bands shouldn't lose street cred for their moderate success changing the dynamics of the music industry, if anything quite the opposite.


The NPR blog was fantastic, the first seasons of Portlandia were hilarious, and the Corin Tucker Band is by far Corin's best side project too date, its very mature lyrics and developed sound.


The new record I think isn't about money, because Carrie makes plenty of money and Janet and Corin have had ZERO problems putting together moderately successful bands and tours.. Really, I dare say this is an authentic reunion based on the fact that in the past 2-3 years all these ladies have had some really fun tours and they realized they missed the chemistry they had together. The realer question is not one of "selling out" or not but rather simply can a band that hasn't performed together in a decade rejuvenate that initial spark of chemistry to begin with? Honestly I'm hoping so..



What S-K "stood for" was always a bit more ambiguous than more extreme punk ethos.. Their perspective shifted over time but by the Woods they weren't a "political band" and neither was Wild Flag, Quasi, or the Corin Tucker Band, so really I think they just changed as musicians. Now, for example had they been more politically radical I think we could hold this taming and toning down against them as a matter of principle, but I'm not sure they ever abandoned any principles to begin with so we don't have much to judge here... Either the record is good or its not, either the tour is fun or its not, lets leave the judgements for there..

Honestly I think the most controversial thing that happened to S-K was when Corin Tucker got married and was no longer a lesbian because a lot of her earlier music was very anti-male..

no idea, and i do not care, but their live shows were tons of fun.

i do remember in one of their shows corin making bad jokes about indie artists having to have a day job. but i was pretty drunk already so i can't quote.

maybe they stood for first world problems?


i'm not a whore! not yet anyway, and not for small sums… but show me the 1/2 million dollars i requested and we'll see if you're right ha ha ha.

Why We Need Sleater Kinney Now More Than Ever

(Savage Clone doesn't agree, I don't have an opinion on them!)

that's a pretty great read

double bonus for me because i never understood most of the lyrics (i'm pretty bad at english phonetics)

everyone needs money.

to me, a musician getting paid for their music to be used in ads and such things is not "selling out." It may cheapen them, cheapen the music, etc., but it is not selling out.

to me selling out is actively changing what you do to try and please the lowest common denominator, in order to then make more profit. making your songs the way you want then selling them to Honda or whatever is one thing, but actually crafting your music to try and appeal to a fanbase that never before gave a shit about you and will never give a shit about your previous music? sell out.

^ Yeah, "cheapened" might be a better word.




I can write a review for the new one already. "Bold statement," "Surely will rank as the best album of the year," "passion," "heart," "the same fire they had in their younger years"... you know the drill.

---

I take it this



explains this?

it's an obscure fact but well documented in linguistics (i read a paper about it) that non-native speakers of a language will hear lyrics in said language as music before hearing them as words. the opposite happens to native speakers-- they will hear the word first and the music second.

so for my ear a lot of english lyrics will sound something like "choooni waaa, leeelo lloy, awa looolli wee waaa waaa" or something.

say, if you don't speak japanese, go listen to a song in japanese. that's what i hear most of the time in english--word sounds without meaning. like that poem by tears eliot.

to go further-- janacek famously took the cadences of the czech language and turned them into piano music. he said that if he could overhear the conversation he could understand what was being said by the cadences alone without having to understand the words themselves.

now i'm not saying i'm completely deaf-- i understand some singers more than others. it's just that i hear it less than you do. cat power is super-easy for me to understand for example. thruston more is half-easy. but do you remember that episode of the wire when prezbo can tell what people are saying because when he was 15 he spent 2 months with his ear to the speaker deciphering the lyrics of the intro of the rolling stones' 'brown sugar"? a lot of music is like that for me. e.g. in "words and guitar"-- those are the only words i get ha ha ha. the rest is growls and meows.

this is also the reason i think why i hate pavement-- while most pavement fans really love the supposedly clever lyrics, i can't understand them and i can only hear boring music, ha ha ha. (so boring!).

i hope that explains that (i know it was long but i find it to be a curious phenomenon).

forgot to say-- all of this happens because while grammar and vocabulary are easily acquired, phonetics are the hardest part of learning any language-- both hearing and pronounciation.

Oh that I could bend my tongue outwards
leave your lungs hurting
tucking my shirt in
pants I wear so well
cross your T's shirt smells
worse than your lying
caught my dad crying
loos like the wind
from the rough we get par
sleet city woman waiting to spar
I'm Drowning for your thirst
Drowning for your thirst
Drowning for your thirst
Drowning for your thirst
Getting off the candelabra
We call her Barbara
Breeding like larva
She rabble rousing
Dental surf combat
Get out those hard-hats
And sing us some skat
Blade gushers gush
Chained and perfumed
I don't need a minister to call me a groom
but I'm rattled by the rush
rattled by the rush


I love pavement specifically because their lyrics are personal babble!

(stay away from Terror Twilight. Boring)

I fucking love westing by musklet and sextant and slanted and enchanted and crooked rain crooked rain. the others are more or less good but not like these threee

btw, the EP's and singles were where pavement put their best shit which is why westing rules.

Watery Domestic and Perfect Sound Forever are GAWD

^^ i can read that and it reads well but i can't hear it when they sing it-- see? that's exactly it.

^ Thanks. That was really interesting.

Is English punk especially impossible? That first Clash record makes almost no sense to me and I'm guessing Strummer's singing is just a blur of sounds to you.

On the other hand, I'm wondering if Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave are somewhat easy? Not sure why I picked them. They seem pretty articulate to me, I guess.
--

I should point out both SK singers are sometimes hard to understand for most people.

I think S-K's lyrics are important to appreciating them fully. But they also fucking rock, and that's very important as well. This Lallapalooza show from '06 is a fine example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOgmPG2n3OY

I have never understood 99% of Unsane's lyrics, yet I love them so.

I know the "meaning" of exactly one Pavement song. "Grounded" is vaguely "about" a doctor, or doctors in general.

BTW, "Trolls in the glen are consorting again" is the stupidest lyric ever.

I thought the stupuidest lyric ever was "oh alice, come back he's just a kitten... he's just a kitten"

yes i loved s-k precisely because they fucking rocked.

true about cohen & cave. also 95% of lou reed. also all of jenny lewis or those babymen from belle and sebastian. with the clash: the only words i ever extracted from them were "shareef don't like it, rock the casbah" and "know your rights" and "loooondooon callliiiiing" (didn't know about what). i get a good chunk of the sex pistols but i remember reading/memorizing those from some insert and then they were such fun. johnny cash-- crystal clear. dylan--incomprehensible and therefore super-ugly (a high-pitched nasal torment). etc.

yes. exactly yes. unless your music is politically motivated at the root-- e.g. crass, quilapayún, etc.

===

ETA: fun stuff: http://www.vice.com/read/crasss-penn...his-bands-name

I wonder what percentage opf people who love Metallica because of the Black album actually went and bought the previous albums? I would say it is like under 10%

But rob, using your art to advertise for products is the very definition of selling out. Art is art, not advertising. When you sell your song to advertising its no longer art, its a fucking corporate jingle yo.. its beyond just the $, you're nit promoting your art, you're promoting some bullshit corporate agenda.

Dude.that is one of the most haunting moments on that record!

that whole fucking song sucks. worst SY song ever

that does suck, and I can see how people thinik of that as selling out.

I admire bands that really try to not do that (Beastie Boys for one, sue th shit out of anyone who uses their music, and will never use itto sell anything)

However, many bands do not own copyright to their songs, instead it is held by the publishing company or by the record company, and these bands are screwed from the get go. They have no say in whether their music will be sold to some ad company in 5 years to advertise lipstick.

The one of thing Courtney Love has.taught is via the Cobain Estate is to ALWAYS own your music

I remember Dog Me Out better than you remember your last shit!
Ok, so full disclosure: this is probably a bit of an exaggeration.
;p

Point is, the "music press" was still a press in 1997. Printing presses were involved, and we were minus one bigass music site that has become more destructive to local scenes than the one ring was to the hearts of men.

My point? I dunno. Fucking had a bad day, and I'm takin it out on YOU westside!!!

Na, I'm all talk. We cool. Im just bitter that Unwound isn't having this kind of "OMG HEARD ROUND THE WORLD" reception. If they got a single slice of the SK fanfare, I think they'd consider making more of their reissue series, and maybe playing a show or five hundred.

I laughed at first, but ATL ended up becoming my favorite Sonic Youth album of the '90s, and it was the first album I saw them tour behind.

Now, it all sounds perfect. And contre le sexisme is still scribbled on the knees of an old pair of carharts I used to wear for wayyyy too long at a time.

Don't think they've ever actually been washed. Ha.

Now I miss sonic youth :(

Dude severian are you drunk? I mean im drunk right.now.and your post still seems jumbled

Also I dont remember my last shit, should I be worried about this?

worry if you don;t remember your last wipe

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Rob Instigator again.

laughed out oh so fucking loud

LOOSFL

I don't think that one's in the box set.

It's like the second coming of Christ. It's only fucking Sleater Kinney, fuck's sake!

agreed. I love that moment.

Dissenting opinions are not "hating."
This music has some understandable deal breakers involved and detractors should be expected.
This is a band i cannot believe became "important," much like Beat Happening or Minor Threat or who knows how many others.
Understanding why a reasonable listener would find this music irritating or overrated is just as important as understanding why people who should know better think this stuff doesn't eat festering goat balls.

that's literally the hardest english lyric to understand and you figured it out!

Savage.. when the fuck did SK ever become important? And genteel was most definitely hating, dont argue with Jesus now ;)

Yeah, I'm really missing out by not visiting this place regularly anymore. For the sake of fuck.

Lee was right, by the way:

http://www.redbull.com/en/music/stor...ite-guitarists

"I hear rumours of a Sleater-Kinney resurgence so hopefully we may get to see [Carrie] play again very soon." (January 21, 2014)