Sunday, November 21, 2010

Vintage Tracks 7: The punk rock genius of Sleater-Kinney

We were recently celebrating Corin Tucker's return to the music scene with the release of "1000 Years", essentially her solo debut, which was recorded with The Corin Tucker Band that also includes Unwound's Sara Lund and Golden Bears' Seth Lorinczi. As much as I enjoyed the new material, I couldn't help but feel nostalgic about the amazing Sleater-Kinney, the band I have repeatedly praised as perhaps the most exciting rock act that the late '90s had to offer. Instead of trying to convince you of the validity of my claim with my clumsy writing, I'm going to let the music do the talking instead, and in this seventh edition of our Vintage Tracks posts, we'll have not one but three of my all-time favorite Sleater-Kinney tracks.

First off, it's "Dig Me Out", the title track from Sleater-Kinney's third LP, their 1997 breakthrough release for Kill Rock Stars which made Corin, Carrie and Janet known to a wider audience and convinced us that this band had much more to offer than riot-grrrl fire and fury. The video comes from a live a performance in New York's Central Park in the summer of 1998, a year before I had the opportunity to enjoy the band live myself, when I first saw them playing at the Reading Festival of '99 (from where the photo you see above) and then at Matador's Nice Weekend in London at U.L.U. (the label was celebrating its 10 years back then).

Dig Me Out (live in Central Park, July 12, 1998

The next choice is "Get Up" from 1999's "The Hot Rock" - a perfect single from my favorite album of that year and my top choice for the second half of the '90s. The video is directed by Miranda July:

 
Get Up

And, finally, another heartbreaker: "Jumpers", the final single from Sleater-Kinney's last album, the 2005 Sub Pop release "The Woods".

Jumpers

If the band is not reforming anytime soon, is it too much to ask for a joint Corin Tucker Band - Wild Flag tour in 2011? Just an idea....

No comments: