SKSKSKSKSKSK
Jesus, this new Sleater-Kinney album is untouchable!
Examine their previous work (on the brilliant Kill Rock Stars label), starting in the feminist-noisecore scene in the pacific-northwest: massive dueling guitar sound, urgent vocals, hardcore drumming. Now extend some of the song lengths out and add some insane guitar solos - some of them are still fast and furious, but some are slowed down, bringing what I can only call a blues-dirge quality to the table - still, within all this they remain just as fierce as they ever were. At the same time, the songs are as hook-y as I've ever heard SK be, with huge grooves and great change-ups in song structure.
This is really quite something, coming from a three-piece band (Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker & Janet Weiss) that's been pushing their limits since the early 90s, especially when you add it all up and The Woods is album number SEVEN - check out this quote from Janet on the band's blog, RE: playing some of these new songs for an artsy London crowd:
"Would love to peel the skin from their faces. So to speak, of course, and in a good way. Hopefully they'll dig it and clap their hands and close their eyes every once in a while. Mine will be closed too. With luck, we'll play like a giant locomotive, and steamroll this place to the ground." - that's what I call awesome. Really incredible, solid stuff.
You can listen to a stream of the entire CD here (wait till you hear the album-opener, "The Fox," "Rollercoaster" and "Let's Call it Love" - wow) - I heartily reccomend doing so - The Woods comes out on May 24th BUT if you pre-order the album from Sub Pop you'll be entered to win a "SK Survival Pack" with a fancy double-sided matte-printed The Woods poster, an SK 7", stickers and buttons - I love winning stuff!
Also, the ladies will be playing live on KEXP May 20th @ 1 p.m. PST. Tune in online here - they'll then be hitting the road for June + July, supported by Mary Timony and Dead Meadow (see their tour info page for the full listings - I want to try to see them at Roseland).