Sleater-Kinney breaks up

As much as I love the chorus and breakdown of "A New Wave", I feel like the guitar line in the verse doesn't make much sense. Kinda melodically aimless or something.

Brooklyn Vegan reveals it is "Katie Harkin of UK band Sky Larkin who will be playing guitars and keyboards for their upcoming tour"

Harkin of Larkin

Is Corin playing a baritone?

yeah i thought it was bass on the record but maybe baritone?

Stupid Winamp/CDDB doesn't recognize this yet.

in the no cities to love video, I thought Natasha Lyonne was in orbit.

Xxxpost Evan I agree, didn't notice the part as much until seeing Carrie play it

It's just a bit wonky.

if I'm being honest with myself, it looks like they're cashing in-and hey, more power to them. they probably deserve it more than just about anyone I can think of off the top of my head.

I dunno you don't really need to bother with doing an album if you just want to cash in, cf Pavement, Archers, Outlast, etc etc

For some reason, almost all late show indie performances seem tossed off in this way, just kind of sarcastic and not committed-to.

"Fangless" sounds like Franz Ferdinand.

Outlast

Great typo.

A Best Buy Coupon To Use If You're Buying The New S-K & Belle and Sebastian Together

On an unrelated note, I find this to be a solid but kinda unspectacular record. Like most decent reunion albums, really

Just dawned on me that in the time Sleater-kinney was away, Belle and Sebastian only released one proper album.

two - '06 and '10.

Life Pursuit dropped prior to the S-K breakup announcement tho. (February '06 vs. June '06)

The last s-k thing I heard was Dig Me Out. Watching the Letterman thing, Was not expecting Major key harmonies on the chorus.

This is amazing though. Over before you know it and every song on the album is tight. Gives me a feeling like when Weezer reunited and came out with the green album, in that respect. Bury Our Friends sounds even better in context.

Superb. I can definitely see several 32 minute blocks of my time in the coming days devoted to listening to this album, which is more than I can say for a lot of new stuff.

As for "it's like they've never left' comments, contextually this set makes perfect sense coming after the last Corin solo lp, while also remedying one thing that both of her solo collections lacked in giving her back a voice to trade lines with.

My biggest complaint is there isn't a really an obvious popcorn/summer jam funtimes track ala "Oh!", "Little Babies", "Prisstina" etc.

pretty sure "Hey Darling," the title track, and "Surface Envy" are those songs.

I admire the number of killer hooks but the guitars, vocals, and rhythms are less tangled than on their other records. I'm just not as impressed.

Really enjoying this record after 3 listens! I imagine I will like it even more as I continue playing it.

the Spin review today said there is not a Corin-wailing song, which is a big concern.

There are more Corin vocals than Carrie on this record, so that's a plus for me.

that's just like… there should be wailing. and wailing about there not being wailing.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61yHfYN768L.jpg

There are more Corin vocals than Carrie on this record, so that's a plus for me.

Actually there are a lot of guest vox on the new thang.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj2k3QsHmyM&x-yt-cl=84359240&x-yt-ts=1421782837

Ok, listening to the Conan performance of Surface Envy now, this is a lot better, lots of Corin.
this is really kind of a new sound for them-Carrie bringing a lot more St. Vincent/Belew-type into her playing, and Corin again with the baritone(?) or super de-tuned 6, almost gets a fuzz bass sound going. Awesome.
http://teamcoco.com/video/sleater-kinney-01-20-15

the guitars, vocals, and rhythms are less tangled than on their other records. I'm just not as impressed.

This is true, but also the direction they've been headed since All Hands. I think Hot Rock was the peak of tangled vocals and rhythms, then they got interested in more straight-ahead rock -- which they do well.

On just two times through, I like the new one a lot. Not sure where it will ultimately fall in my SK ranking, but really I have albums 2-4 on a pedestal and all the rest one rung lower. This one will fit in comfortably with the latter group.

This is fun - Broad City interviewing Sleater Kinney:

http://www.npr.org/event/music/378668756/we-cant-just-settle-broad-city-meets-sleater-kinney?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150121

Not sure where it will ultimately fall in my SK ranking, but really I have albums 2-4 on a pedestal and all the rest one rung lower. This one will fit in comfortably with the latter group.

Yeah, NCTL is for me the best of their second-tier work.

Is anyone else going to comment on the chorus of "Hey Darling" lifting from Lita Ford?

I am almost positive somebody did, maybe on a different thread?

It was here, upthread a bit.

Ah, did not load the hidden 583 messages since I'm at work and clearly VERY BUSY.

This is true, but also the direction they've been headed since All Hands

imo nah

i think the rhythms are really intricately tangled on one beat and the woods

lotta straightforward riffage on this record

i feel like one thing this has in common with one beat is melodic generosity

yeah i can agree with that, only on listen no. 1 right now though

S-K always reminded me of Fugazi, in that their songs sounded so entwined and interconnected I assumed they were composed out of jams. Ian's always said that's the number one reunion hold-up, that based on schedules and location and whatnot they could never build back up to that five hours a day, five days a week rehearsal routine (or whatever it was). S-K redux does sound more like they came to the studio with a bucketful of established riffs and songs, which is a different approach that gets you different results.

Wow, would S-K rock this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tdo9QX7BV4

It even sort of already sounds like a S-K template.

hearing "bury our Friends" just now. RE: another thread where I besmirched Weiss's skills —she's finally grooving! So it's the first SK sawng I've liked.

i guess i always thought she was good, but she has definitely kept up playing a lot and touring with lots of other ppl

Always loved Janet, definitely one of the greats...but watching that Letterman performance, she's taken her shit to another level.

seen JW live w/both SK and Quasi and she's pretty remarkable

The 2 bonus tracks to the album seem Woods-esque. Glad to hear them, as I was secretly wanting more than 10 songs from this reunion, even if the album is great as-is. Have been imagining in my head all day a half-tempo reggae version of the title track called "No Cities To Dub."

I think "A New Wave" is the popcorn/summer jam funtimes track I've been looking for on this album.

Show was pretty great. Some jokes about "oh shit we're in Spokane, how many of you are actually from here?". A couple of timing screw ups. More older material than I expected. Was cool to see who played what guitar-wise, and Carrie's Portlandia money seems to have bought her a couple more guitars and a tech while Corin played the same Les Paul that she tuned herself. Both voices were great live, and I sometimes find Carrie's voice sort of shrill on record. No covers which was kind of sad as Wild Flag and Corin's band both did awesome covers when I saw them. Opening act was pretty rad as well, and I got a nice screen printed poster for $25. Worth it despite the stress of leaving the baby home alone for the first time with my conveniently visiting parents.