Summer 1996 was one of the first times I saw Sleater-Kinney, so named for the now infamous road just outside Olympia, Wa. It was a festival for SPRGRL Conspiracy, and convention I helped put together and to see these 3 women on be a part of the same thing I was a part of was exhilarating, amazing, overwhelming. They were an integral part of the Portland/OlyWa queer community then and one of Chainsaw record’s flag ship bands. Girls swooned at their feet and a newly born internet was giving rise to an entire community around riot grrlz and queercore in the NW. (See what I’m talking about in this earlier post).
And though they have evolved over the course of 7 wildly diverse albums they have still maintained a top stop in my list of the best bands ever. And now I’m pretty glad I put away my “I saw them when…” hipster pride and actually attended their last Portland show this December because…
According to their website they have gone on an “indefinite hiatus.” Now I have to say I am sorry that I have stopped keeping my ear to the queer rock scene gossip ground nearly as well as I used to.
I did not see this coming.
Granted Corin Tucker has kids now, and Janet Weiss keeps busy with her other popular band Quasi but neither of this is new and they seemed to be doing well. They were getting some real media attention (I even saw a video of theirs playing in American Eagle Outfitters, not that that is ncessarily a measure of sucess…) and their music is as fantasticly evolving as ever. Their latest album, The Woods (see my review last year) was odd yet incrediblyenticing. Would that I had more informtion to help explain why this travesty is occuring. I will certainly let you know more if I can ferret it out. I hope the hiatus is shorter than they think because I have been always been a fan, and this blog has continued to care for them. Goodbye SK. We’ll miss you.
More QPDX SK posts:
— The importance of Chainsaw records (SK’s first label)
