Published on Nov 3, 2005
Some bands are synonymous with their record labels: Bob Dylan
with Columbia, Bright Eyes with Saddle Creek, early Nirvana and
Soundgarden with Sub Pop and Sleater-Kinney with Kill Rock Stars.
The best of these labels act as homes to their artists. Still,
there are times when you have to leave home to continue to grow as
a person.
Sleater-Kinney chose to move out of their Kill Rock Stars home
and move into still-standing-after-all-these-years Sub Pop records.
They left on a high note with their 2002 release
One Beat, a combination of the band’s response to a
post-Sept. 11 America and a mediation of the responsibilities of
motherhood by singer/songwriter Corin Tucker and Carrie
Brownstein.
With six albums under its belt, what can a band do for an
encore? If you’re Sleater-Kinney, hire Flaming Lips producer Dave
Fridmann and start a serious jones with Deep Purple and Led
Zeppelin. The result is
The Woods; probably the heaviest album you’re going to hear
this year.
The Woods certainly has a ‘woodsy’ feel to it. Animal and
forest imagery are all over the album. The opening track, “The
Fox,” comes off as a creepy nursery rhyme a la Little Red Riding
Hood. One song is even called “Wilderness.” But more abstractly,
the band, possibly drawing from their Pacific Northwest roots, have
recorded an album that sounds like a buzz saw cutting through
forest brush.
Fridmann pushed Sleater-Kinney to retool its sound for
The Woods. Probably the best representation of this is the
ten-minute-plus “Let’s Call It Love.” The first four minutes of the
song has Godzilla-sized guitar riffs, but is sent off its tracks by
Janet Weiss’ pulverizing drumming. What ensues is a seven-minute
jam with enough feedback for a My Bloody Valentine record. The song
was recorded in one take.
Fans of Sleater-Kinney’s earlier (read: more punk-oriented)
albums can breath easy, though; the band hasn’t gone totally King
Crimson on them. “Rollercoaster” could have sounded at home on
their
Call The Doctor album and the visceral “Entertain” takes a
Molly Hatchet to reality television and hipster wannabes. If this
song was written by most any other band, it would have sounded five
years out of date and would have reeked of sour grapes, but
Brownstein pulls you in when she screams “Rip me open, it’s free.”
The seriousness of Brownstein’s delivery is immediately offset with
a playful, punkish sing-along of “1,2,3! / If you wanna take a shot
at me, get in line.”
With the exception of “Jumpers,” a frank account of a school kid
pushed to suicide,
The Woods has a playful sound. “Kenny and Linda on the way
to Chelan / Transmission’s shot, no back up plan / Will they hitch
a ride?/Or get into a fight?” Brownstein sings in the opening lines
of “Wilderness.” The song could have very well have been about the
band as they chart a new path on
The Woods. It’s a departure, but not near the departure as
critics are painting it to be. The only advice I have to listening
to it is to try to see the band live. It is in that environment
when the so-called excessive and indulgent risks of
The Woods make perfect sense. Just bring earplugs. Even on
low,
The Woods rocks with a fury that is as fun as it is
lacerating.