By SP

Sleater-Kinney is the all-female indie rock band (sometimes called punk band) that had a noticeable live performance in the third season of The L Word and is also another favorite music guest of Kate Moennig (Shane). The group was singing “Jumpers” from their most recent album, The Woods.

As their song was described on AfterEllen.com article, “Although it's about San Francisco (a suicide note drifting off the Golden Gate bridge), the lyrics befit L.A., particularly high-strung (although fictional) residents like Season 2 Bette: ‘I spend the afternoon in cars / I sit in traffic jams for hours / Don't push me I am not okay’.”

The same song is also praised in Our history biography (2005) written by Rick Moody can be also found on the Official Website. “‘Jumpers’, in which Carrie and Corin sing unison on the verses in a way that resembles Petula Clark … and the lyrics are about California, about the Golden Gate, and about, yep, about jumping from the bridge … and there’s no real chorus … passion is the thing, emotion is the thing, art is the thing, and art can knock you out, disorient you, unsettle you.”

In the interview Random Truths About (Sleater-Kinney's) Carrie Brownstein (September 2005), Brownstein also said, “I am most proud of the song ‘Jumpers’, both lyrically and musically.”

So, who is Sleater-Kinney, whose song created so much excitement on the show and outside of it?

One answer could be found in a little PlanetOut snippet (2000) where we read, “With five top-notch albums under their belt, Sleater-Kinney have long been a favorite among young queer punks everywhere. Their defiant manifesto-like songs have inspired girls (and boys) everywhere to pick up guitars and make music of their own … Coming out of the riot-grrl movement of the early ‘90s, Sleater-Kinney could easily be considered the definitive riot-grrl band … Without selling out their ideals, Sleater-Kinney have proven that not only do girls rock out as much as boys, they rock out better.”

According to the Wikipedia website, “Hailing from Portland, Oregon, the group’s name is derived from Sleater-Kinney Road, Interstate 5 off ramp #108 in Lacey, Washington, the location of one of their early practice spaces.”

On the Sleater-Kinney Fan site you can find the band members short biographies. One of the members, “Carrie Brownstein (guitar, vocals) was born 27th September 1974. She has a degree in Sociolinguistics from Evergreen State College … Carrie has recently been acting in short films as a hobby and her credits as an actress include Fan Mail, Group and Getting Stronger Every Day. During her free time, she enjoys gardening and playing with her cat.”

The second band member, “Corin Tucker (vocals and guitar) was born 9th November 1972. While studying film and social change at Evergreen State College, Corin became interested in feminism and formed Heavens to Betsy with Tracy Sawyer in 1992 … Heavens to Betsy broke up in 1994 and Corin decided to concentrate on Sleater-Kinney … In 2000, Corin married film maker Lance Bangs. Together they have a five year old son named Marshall Tucker Bangs … During her free time, she loves to belt out to karaoke.”

The last band member, “Janet Weiss (drums) was born 24th September 1965 in California, where she attended San Francisco State University. She moved to Portland in 1989 and soon after began playing with her (now ex.) husband Sam Coomes … Janet started playing with Corin and Carrie in 1996 - Dig Me Out is the first Sleater-Kinney album on which she drums … Her favorite drummer is Karen Carpenter.”

As Carrie Brownstein explained in their more extended biography on the Official Website, she and Corin Tucker met first in 1992 when Tucker’s band was playing in Bellingham, Washington. In 1993, Brownstein moved to Olympia, Washington where Corin Tucker was also living and the next year they started the band.

Brownstein says in the biography, “We started the band in a duplex. It was brick, held four people, one of us living in the garage … We pirated cable and concocted a chore wheel that turned out only to be decoration. Corin left a message for me one day saying that we would call ourselves ‘Sleater-Kinney’. Up until that moment it had only been a road in a neighboring town. Now it was us.”

After two years the band went through four different drummers until they had met Janet Weiss through some mutual friends. This is how Weiss described it, as she wrote in the same biography, “That fateful day sets off 7 amazing years of music, travel, and deep friendship. Our band continues because together we complete a unique puzzle, and because our evolving, explosive relationship allows us to reach for the moon.”

The first part of the Official Website biography has a lot more personal and passionate look at Sleater-Kinney, their growth as musicians and their music. As we read it we might understand what is it about this band that makes them unique.

“At first, it appeared that the weaponry, the system, the strategy, consisted of a lead singer who had an uncanny urgency to her voice … enough to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up … and the second part consisted of a remarkable chemistry between the two guitar players … There also began to appear on the horizon a certain devotion to the possibility of melody, hooks, and to the instrumental coloration and variation that might be brought into what is after all a rather simple ensemble … They want history, they want time, they want art, they want to deal with culture, they have demands, they have needs, they have vision, they have aspirations.”

Another thing that also makes those women who they are is mentioned in the Interview with Punk Planet (2004). “The women of Sleater-Kinney are friends first, bandmates second, and they will seize upon and neutralize anything that threatens that dictum.”

Since their beginning in 1994, Sleater-Kinney made seven records, Sleater-Kinney (1995), Call The Doctor (1996), Dig Me Out (1997), The Hot Rock (1999), All Hands On The Bad One (2000), One Beat (2002) and The Woods (2005).

Sleater-Kinney’s albums inspired several articles in the music section of the Village Voice (1999-2006) that talk in details about their music and the persons behind it. In the piece about Sleater-Kinney’s latest album, The Woods, the writer commented on their growth as musicians. “The thrill comes as the rising intensity from each musician threatens to unbalance the tenuous symbiotic stability; we wait for the overheated core to spew springs and screws and gear shafts, but the motor pops and whirs and races cleanly as intended. Until now. Their new The Woods is the sound of Sleater-Kinney unsprung—and also of the band's machinery persistently lurching forward.”

On the 10th anniversary of Sleater-Kinney as a band, the musicians had an Interview with Punk Planet where they were asked a question, “Have you guys thought about what happens after Sleater-Kinney?”

Corin Tucker replied, “Honestly, I don't really want to think about what I would do after Sleater-Kinney because Sleater-Kinney is so much fun, and anything else would just be not as fun. … I haven't really made up a backup career.”

Carrie Brownstein said, “I love what I do, but there is an insecurity in this kind of career where you don't really know what's coming up next, and it has to be generated by you. If we don't make another record, then we don't tour, you know? Everything's kind of dependent on our own creative health and abilities … That's very hard.”

Janet Weiss added, “I'll miss playing in such a powerful band. The problem will be going to a show and seeing something that reminds me of Sleater-Kinney and feeling like I miss it. That will be the biggest problem. Hopefully it won't happen for awhile … I can't imagine Sleater-Kinney's going to get in a giant fight and break up … I don't think this band will ever be totally over, but I could see someone moving away, and that would be a hard thing to get around, if someone moved far away. Let's see…how do I see it ending? I guess I don't yet.”

Two years later, on June 27, 2006, the band announced on their Official Website, “After eleven years as a band, Sleater-Kinney has decided to go on indefinite hiatus … As of now, there are no future plans for future tours or recordings … mostly we want to extend our gratitude to our amazing fans. You have been a part of our story from the beginning. We could not have made our music without your enthusiasm, passion, and loyalty. It is you who have made the entire journey worthwhile.”
 
As Village Voice expressed it in one of their articles on the band’s break up (June 2006), “They aren’t doing any interviews on the breakup, so it’ll probably be a while before we’re allowed to understand why … They’re likable people who like each other, and that probably has something to do with the inhuman levels of chemistry they’ve had on every album they’ve released as a trio … maybe they don't feel like the three of them have any new places to go musically. The Woods, the huge, wooly, sprawling, stomping psychedelic record they released last year, was a huge departure from all the tight, tense, compact punk songs they'd been perfecting for the previous two albums … So It’s tough to find a bright side to this breakup. Of course, an ‘indefinite hiatus’ isn’t necessarily the same thing as a breakup, and I suppose there’s still some slim possibility of another Sleater-Kinney album somewhere down the line.”

In another farewell article on pitchforkmedia.com, Sleater-Kinney were called “America’s greatest rock band,” and the author of the article finished with the following words, “Thank you for being an inspiration to women everywhere. No, f*** that – to people everywhere.”

Hopefully, the band will come back from the hiatus with a decision to continue with their music, but for now listen to their albums or re-watch their performance on The L Word as if they are still out there, together, inspiring people everywhere.