Sleater-Kinney breaks up

Pavement is different because they had their indie smash from the start.

That VW commercial had a huge impact. From a VH1 article: U.S. sales of Nick Drake's Pink Moon album rose from 6,000 copies, prior to the song's use in a Cabrio commercial, to 74,000 copies in 2000.

Edward, you say mainstream folk have a larger audience and get to write the history books, but the question is: how many people are paying attention and how many people give a shit?

Just to clarify, the mainstream doesn't *always* get the last word, but its influence is stronger. Who's paying attention and who gives a shit? Anyone with more than a passing interest in music, I guess, which would be millions of people.

That acclaimedmusic.net site is interesting, here are Eno's rankings:

Another Green World 173
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts 316
Here Come the Warm Jets 351
Before and After Science 503
Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) 903
Ambient 1: Music for Airports 1213
Wrong Way Up 2091

I've would've predicted much bigger finishes for Taking Tiger Mountain (though I'm not a big fan of it myself) and Here Come The Warm Jets. Is this still a Sleater-Kinney thread?

Geez. You would have thought most people would at least know "Rapture", "The Tide Is High", or "One way or Another"* by now.

*Certainly the most overexposed old song of the past few years.

x-post

crystal ballroom remains more famous to me for being the place where little richard fired jimi hendrix.

What, Pavement and Boards of Canada shoulda been bigger?

x-post: question answered!

Taken as a whole the material is really interesting - the band seems to be at this midway point between riot grrl, Sonic Youth, and, I dunno, Helium? Nobody's really found their signature styles yet, and the vocals in particular feel like a total different band when they get up to the loud parts - there's no outsize wail from Corin, more of a Kathleen Hanna roar/mewl...or, on "Lora's Song" some sort of nasal Cyndi Lauper impression. The guitar approach is grungier, with a lot of big distorted chug-along chords accented by the kind of wobbly leads that would later be the key to their whole sound. Some of the tracks, like the very very good "Be Yr Mama," and "Slow Song" I think point very directly to where they were heading.

Stepping back and hearing it as just an album rather than a step in the Sleater-Kinney canon, there's some great stuff. "Don't Think You Wanna" and "How To Play Dead," those are great tracks! But it definitely fails the jumping-on-point test, I think, just for the aforementioned dud tracks. The last two especially fall off the boat, even with the Courtney Love cigarette shriek on "The Last Song."

Incidentally, I did some indie rock karaoke grunt work today and ended up spending a fair amount of time with the deep cuts on "One Beat," and sort of discovered "Funeral Song" for the first time. That one's great! Should have been the last song on the album - there's that wack All Hands/One Beat tracklist problem again.

Also, am I alone in wishing they'd put out an album of Smashing Pumpkins covers? I first hit on the idea over in this thread and I still think it's a good one. They could call it, you know, "I Am One Beat" or "ZerOh!" or something.

I have to admit I was incredibly let down with the version I found of the "Hunger Strike" duet with Pearl Jam - Corin seems to be holding herself back from really taking the Chris Cornell part, which she should be totally capable of rocking. With her singing a good octave lower than Chris just doesn't cut through the sturmundrang the way it should. In fact, I would think it was Carrie singing if not for Eddie's declaration at the end: "Senora Corin Tucker... and I don't know, uh, yo no se en Espanol, but, uh, I love to, Chris Cornell too. [pause for massive wave of applause] Bueno amigo." Oh well. She sort of picks it up halfway through, so maybe this was just a weak night on the tour that got mp3ized...

DC show webcast tomorrow

tonight was awesome and i don't particularly like them!

Seconded, I love their live "More than a Feeling" rendition.

Rescheduled for tonight. I am looking forward to it.

My favorite is Springsteen's The Promised Land, which they used to do a few years back. No covers last night sadly, but it was still one of the best times I've seen them.

They opened with Start Together.

NOthing from the first album.
Only thing from Call The Doctor was the title track.

5 from Dig Me Out: Dig Me Out, One More Hour (last song) Turn It On(2nd to last song) Words and Guitar, and The Drama You've been Craving.

Hot Rock: Title track, Start Together, Get Up and a couple more.

All Hands on the Bad ONe: Ladyman, Youth Decay and a few others. I haven't listened to that record in years so I'm not as familiar.

One Beat: Light Rail Coyote, Sympathy, Oh, and a few others. Sadly no title track which as of today is my favorite song of theirs.

The entire new record, which got the most exicting responses.

were all you dudes there too? i thought the sound sorta sucked at the beginning, but maybe it was where i was standing, and things got pretty great pretty fast, and epic-ish around the midpoint, peaking with the Let's Call It Love/Entertain jam (of course). the greatest-hits mini second-set/first encore was just gravy, and i loved the bittersweet version of one more hour. lol at carrie spraying the crowd with water.

Start Together
The Fox
The Drama You've Been Craving [these two might be switched]
Wilderness
Jumpers
Things You Say
The Hot Rock
Rollercoaster
Ironclad
Night Light
What's Mine is Yours
Modern Girl
Light Rail Coyote
Let's Call it Love
Entertain
Words and Guitar

Encore:
Jenny
Ballad of a Ladyman (audience chose this over Milkshake 'n' Honey)
I Want to be Your Joey Ramone
Dance Song '97
One More Hour (another audience pick)

At Tramps, after the show my friends told me that Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth literally walked right into me. I didn't even notice, I was so transfixed with what was happening onstage.

The way they act I hope it's really just to take a break for a year or two because I've never seen them that happy onstage. Corin, flirting with the audience (in JEANS!?); Carrie, the baddest dervish on the planet; Janet, playing so hard she went through her tom; the whole band so loud you had to lean forward to not get blown away... Picts to follow with any luck.

I gave my friend the setlist, which wasn't nearly as career spanning as the DC list. Mostly from "The Woods," plus "Turn It On."

Oh, yeah, they were good. I'm shocked at the number of people who apparently skipped S-K for the Violent Femmes. Who are find and all, but who also play every other street festival in Chicago each summer.

http://www.sleaterkinneytorrents.com/ (no that's not a joke, it's a real site)

and the msg board on sleater-kinney.net; there's a trading forum.

At Tramps, after the show my friends told me that Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth literally walked right into me. I didn't even notice, I was so transfixed with what was happening onstage.

wow, tramps! how soon after that show did tramps close? the last show i remember seeing there was in '96, i think.

I leared today that it's hard to shoot while dancing; also, I shoot better while dancing than Ryan P'fork does standing around, so fuck you 930 for trying to take my camera.