Archives for December 2021

Certain Songs #2244: Sleater-Kinney – “Start Together”

December 15, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Hot Rock
Year: 1999

. . .

One of the things I haven’t really discussed is just how totally unique Sleater-Kinney actually were. Sure there were historical precedents for bits and pieces of them: the Doors didn’t have a bassist (though they did in the studio), Led Zeppelin had a drummer who flowed in the songs; the Go-Gos & Bangles were all-female bands; Television had a twin guitar tangle; R.E.M. had vocals smooshed into vocals and X had front people who were ex-lovers.

And Sleater-Kinney sounded like exactly none of these precedents. They were sui generis from the start, and only got more so after Janet Weiss joined the band.

Certain Songs #2243: Sleater-Kinney – “Little Babies”

December 14, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Dig Me Out
Year: 1997

. . .

If the sound of Sleater-Kinney has always been a never-ending conversation between the guitars and voices of Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein, then the drumming of Janet Weiss was an ongoing commentary, if not a moderation, of that conversation. Weiss joined for the recording of their third album, 1997’s Dig Me Out, and the impact of her endlessly inventive drumming was instant: somehow she found the spaces in between the guitars and voices, and her drum parts both exacerbated and released the tensions in the songs.

Certain Songs #2242: Sleater-Kinney – “I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone”

December 13, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Call The Doctor
Year: 1996

. . .

Call The Doctor was where I first heard about Sleater-Kinney, as their self-titled debut didn’t quite hit my radar. Recorded in five days because their drummer was going back to Australia. Call The Doctor was where they began to hone their attack: a never ending conversation between the guitars and voices of Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker.

Certain Songs #2241: Slade – “Cum on Feel The Noize”

December 10, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Sladest
Year: 1973

. . .

With the exception of David Bowie, glam rock was much bigger in the U.K. than it ever was in the U.S. Sure, artists like T. Rex and (especially) The Sweet had big American hits, as we’ll discuss when we get there, but for the most part, those singles were few and far between and basically just a patch on their massive U.K. success.

Certain Songs #2240: Sky Ferreira – “Boys”

December 9, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Night Time, My Time
Year: 2013

. . .

Sky Ferreira’s debut album, Night Time, My Time, was originally scheduled to come out in 2011, but when the preview singles basically stiffed, everybody got cold feet, and it was shelved.

Which seems like a good thing, because those early singles were basically assembly-line early aughts dance-pop, whereas Night Time, My Time is . . . something different. It’s still pop, but the best songs add a fuzzy stew of overdriven guitars in the middle of all of the synths.

Certain Songs #2239: Siouxsie and The Banshees – “Dazzle”

December 8, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Hyæna
Year: 1984

. . .

In 1984, Siouxsie & The Banshees released Hyæna, their first album on Geffen records here in the U.S., who also re-released all of their previous records, which I’m pretty sure was the same deal Geffen struck with XTC. In retrospect, I think the gamble was that by making the back catalog easier to find, they could build up a fanbase to break the future albums.

Certain Songs #2238: Siouxsie and The Banshees – “Sin in My Heart (Royal Albert Hall 1983)”

December 7, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Nocturne
1983

. . .

A little over a week after the “Dear Prudence” single was released, Siouxsie and The Banshees made their first live recording — an album and a VHS tape — at the Royal Albert Hall, having made ringer Robert Smith an official member. While he’d performed live with them back in 1979, that was more of an ad hoc situation.

This time, Smith stuck around as a Banshee for nearly a year, after which he was never heard from again.

Certain Songs #2237: Siouxsie and The Banshees – “Dear Prudence”

December 6, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Single, 1983

. . .

Given how musically adventurous Siouxsie Sioux was, it’s not surprising that the sprawling, eclectic The Beatles was her initial go-to for covers. After all, it’s not every record that has room for both the big-ass rocker “Helter Skelter” and the lovely, psychedelic “Dear Prudence.”

And give that Beatles covers are a dime-a-dozen and that “Dear Prudence” is probably in my top five Beatles songs, maybe even top 2 (after “She Said She Said“), the Banshees’ cover of “Dear Prudence” had a pretty high degree of difficulty.

But they totally nailed it, remaking it in their own image while still retaining its initial flavour.

Certain Songs #2236: Siouxsie and The Banshees – “Spellbound”

December 3, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Juju
Year: 1981

. . .

To the extent that I have a favorite Siouxsie and The Banshees album, it’s probably Juju, because it’s full of guitar-based ravers like “Sin in My Heart,” “Halloween” and my favorite of all of their songs, the mighty “Spellbound, which kicks off the record with a big, dark — one might even say “gothic” — anthem.

Certain Songs #2235: Siouxsie and The Banshees – “Christine”

December 2, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Kaleidoscope
Year: 1980

. . .

One of the many bands that formed in the wake of the Sex Pistols, the original line-up of Siouxsie and The Banshees actually had deeper ties than most, as Siouxsie Sioux was part of the inner circle of Pistols fans — she was in the studio during the infamous Bill Grundy interview, and in fact, even kinda fake-flirted with Grundy — and in their very very first incarnation, their drummer was the future Sid Vicious. You know, the bad guy in Cowboy Bebop. (The guitarist was Marco Pirroni, who was later in Adam and the Ants, and played a lot with Sinead O’Connor.)