Critic's pick: Sleater-Kinney
(with Bettie Serveert) @ Cannery Ballroom (
by Marc Hirsh
originally published in Nashville Scene, June 30-July 6, 2005
So many bassless bands have insinuated themselves
into
mainstream reportage over the past few years that it’s easy to forget
that
before the White Stripes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Black Keys came
Sleater-Kinney, who tapped all of the above as their opening bands at
one point
or another. But where the Black Keys treasure simplicity, Karen O. and
company
value punk’s anything-goes ethos and the Stripes just plain cheat,
Sleater-Kinney
avoids the four-string simply because they don’t need it, having
discovered a
different way to fill out the sonic spectrum using two guitars and a
drum kit. Their
new album The Woods is a noisier
affair than anything they’ve done in the past, with Flaming
Lips/Mercury Rev
producer Dave Fridmann amping up the band’s aggressiveness and
complementing
the extended psychedelia of songs like “Let’s Call It Love” and “What’s
Mine Is
Yours,” where Carrie Brownstein takes a band-free guitar solo that
would make
both Jimmy Page and Thurston Moore proud. – Marc
Hirsh