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.
And so, it took me a while to figure out where I stood on them. There’s a truism that TV shows will teach you how to watch them, but that also goes for bands: even if the music varies from album to album or even song to song, the more you listen to a band, the more you understand how to listen to a band. So my appreciation growing to love for Sleater-Kinney was a slow burn, for sure, as when each record came, I figured out what to listen for.
In the case of 1999’s The Hot Rock, part of what helped was new producer Roger Moutenot, who had previously worked with Yo La Tengo, who gave their songs more sonic clarity than before, which just underlined how complex some of the songs were.
Said clarity jumped out from the opening track, “Start Together,” which was called that because it’s what they quite literally did: Corin Tucker’s guitar in one speaker, Carrie Brownstein’s in the other and Janet Weiss splitting the difference with the drums.
If you want me, it’s changing
If you want, everything’s changing
If you want, the sky would open up
If you want, your eyes could open up
As Tucker sings that opening verse, she’s holding out “wannnnnnnnnnnnnnnttttt” over and over, and they sound bigger and better than ever, whether they crunch the guitars together or split them apart, cruising into overdrive at the end:
Baby, don’t you leave me
Baby, don’t you go
‘Cause I’ll head out the fences, head out the door
Baby, don’t you leave me
Baby, don’t you go
‘Cause I’ll roll with the punches, roll out the door
After which, they retreat back to their separate sonic spaces, and — of course — end together, as well.
Either because their fanbase had been steadily growing, or because of the video for “Get Up” or because the bigger sound of The Hot Rock attracted more people, it was the first Sleater-Kinney album to make it on the Billboard Album charts, stalling out at #187. But there was some critical backlash — idiots equating sonic clarity with “selling out” and such and The Hot Rock was only the second album from their initial run not to be a top ten on the Pazz & Jop critics poll — the debut missed it entirely — landing at #23.
“Start Together”
“Start Together” live at Lollapalooza, 2006
“Start Together” live in D.C., 2015
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