Sleater-Kinney breaks up

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.

Who opened? I have tickets for the Phoenix show, and haven't been able to find any info on who's opening. Granted, the Phoenix show is at the end of April, so it will probably be a totally different opening act than the current shows, but I'm still curious.

Opener was a rapper named Lizzo - she had a pretty great voice, was pretty tight live, had a live drummer which made it kind of fun and it was cool because a decent part Sleater-Kinney crowd seemed sort of confused about why there was a rapper on stage.

Lizzo is a huge deal in here Minneapolis

OMG Lizzo RUUUULES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQaRQe86suA

Yeah she was rad, they had baskets of cookies they were tossing out to the crowd.

GO4's Andy Gill likes the album: http://thetalkhouse.com/music/talks/andy-gill-gang-of-four-talks-sleater-kinneys-no-cities-to-love/

OMG Lizzo RUUUULES

this is p cool - never heard of her before

I take that Gill piece as being the preface to him asking S-K to be the new +3 to his next Go4 move.

Hello.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc1htX3q-F0

Love it all, but especially for how detailed the instruments are.

two of my favorite things colliding

i went to the show this past saturday

really great valentine's day night out for me & my wife

lizzo was great, started out with her grrrl party crew coming out w/dj shannon blowtorch playing classic grrl punk - runaways, slits, bikini kill, etc

then lizzo rapped w/her crew for awhile and transitioned to solo set (w/ new live drummer who was great)

overall she was really excellent, gonna be a star i think, obviously big hometown show seemed like a big deal to her

sleater kinney was great, a few moments seeming tentative but overall really played excellently, janet might be better than ever as as drummer....good setlist, good mix, played quite a few new songs and they really stood up to the old stuff live, seemed better than when I'd listened to it online

anyway, they are great band and the crowd was definitely grateful to see them again as was i

Didn't see them here this week (horrible cold), but I love reading stuff like

Was cool to see who played what guitar-wise

they had a utility member, can't remember the name, they said it though...but that was kinda lame they did the whole 80s hair band thing of not lighting the extra member so she was in the shadows the whole time which like fine but it's not like we don't know she's there and there's nothing wrong with wanting an extra guitar part w/weird efx or keyboard part if you want

they had a utility member, can't remember the name

it's katie harkin from sky larkin