Sleater-Kinney's The Woods Turns 20

So, you want to be entertained?

Plugged in and ready to go, Sleater-Kinney waste zero time cranking out the jams on their almost final album The Woods hitting us full force with revved-up guitars and hammering drums that sound ready to conquer all and lay everything to waste. “The Fox” is a killer opening to any album and sets the tone for what would be Sleater-Kinney’s last album for a decade. It’s a walloping rock number and it takes no prisoners. This is an all out slaughter and we’re only just getting started. After a decade spent as a humble, yet mighty, band, they took this opportunity to pull out the big guns and arm themselves as a band that could rock just as hard as the classic legends. There’s grizzled Zeppelin and Who maximal, primal rock and roll glory here and the band was ready to lay it all down to prove once and for all that they could just as easily be the loudest in the room and didn’t need to sacrifice their songwriting to prove their point.

When the riot grrrl trio of Corin Tucker, Carrie Brownstein, and Janet Weiss dropped their powerful and damn-near perfect seventh album, their future was uncertain. After a decade and half as a fierce, powerful, and definitive band of their era and generation, things were about to fall apart. But before we get to the band’s future (at this point), let’s take a look at their past. Coming into relative fame from the Pacific Northwest, the trio had gained steady attention over the course of their career, raising the stakes from humble punk beginnings to practically becoming rock stars in their own right, opening for some of the biggest bands in the world all without compromising their style of advocates for the under represented and proving that their bite was just as strong as their bark. There was no one who could tell them their music wasn’t turbo-charged and ready to rip, but for anyone who was still in doubt at just how killer this band could be, The Woods lit it up.

From the explosive opening, things remain ragged and raw throughout as they push things to their limits so much so that you almost feel like their amps are cracking from the power rushing through them. Corin’s mighty howl reaches to new heights like we’ve never heard from her before and her ability to hit these notes while wailing away on her guitar only furthers the evidence that these three are operating at a level others only can dream of achieving. The back and forth interplay between Corin and Carrie comes to a thrilling head on “Jumpers” as the two battle back and forth through mighty guitar play, each one pushing each other to take things a step further and they handle this volley with expertise.

Of course in the background is Janet Weiss who is fully locked in and keeping these grooves grounded with a power all her own. Carrie and Corin might carry the torches up front, but Weiss holds them down and makes sure that even at their wildest, things never get fully out of hand. Her constraint here is remarkable and while other drummers may get carried away by their ax-wielding bandmates, Weiss knows that sometimes real power lies in total control.

At the center of the album comes the crown jewel of not just this record, but perhaps the band’s entire career and twenty years on, it’s become the band’s signature track. “Modern Girl” is a Brownstein penned track that cuts with raw, emotional intensity as the blown apart guitar succumbs to more tranquil melodies without giving up any of the roughness and is anchored by Weiss’ perfect harmonica notes that give it a touching flare you’d never expect from these women. It’s a tender near-ballad, but still hits with the same punch as any of their other heavier, surging anthems, but when they strip things back, we’re treated to something intimate and vulnerable and a rare moment that showcases that even without their soaring riffs, these three still know how to wallop us over the head.

Naturally, the intimacy doesn’t last long and the band retreats back to their ragged glory with “Entertain” and the “whoa oh oh” howls return in triumphant form making for yet another exemplary moment on an album that is bursting at the seams with things to celebrate. This is a pointed number and one that always gets the crowd roaring when it finds its way into their sets. It’s an ripping example of how good this band can be when they’re on and they perhaps were never as on as they were for this number. It does everything it sets out to do to establish them as a band that can rock with the best of them and, on their best days, blow the rest of the competition out of the water.

When the cowbell hits on “Rollercoaster,” you know you’re about to be in for a hell of a ride. The pumping riffs and sinewy solos wrap themselves in a twisted fashion before cutting loose and letting the track rage forward like all the best rock and roll songs do. The steady beat is laser sharp and focused once again and Weiss gives the others the ample space they need to flourish before the three of them congeal for something bruising and punishing. It all comes together and hits as one, amping things up once again to drive home just how powerful and intense this trio can be when they set their eyes on the prize and set their phases to destruction.

The eleven minute odyssey of “Let’s Call it Love” finds the band in their ultimate classic rock groove, hitting mind melting solos via virtuosic guitar maneuvers while Weiss once again attacks her drum kit like a jackhammer, pounding away like a god of thunder as the band stretches this one out into near psychedelic hyperdrive as it fall comes to a crashing, combustible finish, leveling everything in its path and setting us up for the record’s grand finale which strikes with one final, crushing blow.

There is hardly a moment on The Woods that feels out of place or like it could come from any other band. Sure, there isn’t much here that Sleater-Kinney does that others aren’t also attempting, but the sonic force that binds these three women together was on overdrive for these recording sessions and the band capitalized on every moment. For years, they’d been building up the notion that they could in fact be one of the best American rock bands of the last fifteen years and The Woods made it hard to argue that there was anyone out there doing it better than these three. It’s the exact album you’d expect from a trio that had been playing together with such passion for so long, but while it’s the album you’d dreamed they’d eventually make, it never felt like a sure thing, but The Woods not only hit those expectations, it obliterated the idea that Sleater-Kinney could be anything other than this good.