Sleater-Kinney
All Hands On The Bad One
Matador / Tuba (distribution, Norway)

Girrrls just wanna have fun! Portland threesome Sleater-Kinney - Corin Tucker (vocals/guitars), Carrie Brownstein (vocals/guitars), and Janet Weiss (vocals/drums) - grin at all rock cliché s and all the tuff boy-rock-bands with their 5th album, All Hands On The Bad One. Party on, dudesses!

The 13 songs show a playful trio in love with riffs, power-chords and melodic punch. The three girls take turns on vocals, and I'm not sure what songs each of them do. The first impression I get is a more rocked than arty Throwing Muses. Other references could be Patti Smith (because of some reminiscence to her voice and way of singing), P.J. Harvey (only slightly, because of the punch and energy, not switching dynamics), and X-Ray Spex and singer Poly Styrene (because of the punk spirit and the energy high-pitch vocals). However I find an album with 13 songs like this a bit too much altogether. I feel a little punched out afterwards, and maybe that's what they're aiming for as well. That said Sleater-Kinney steer way off earlier "girl-rock" bands playing "dick-rock", such as Babes in Toyland, L7 and Hole.

But, hang on I'm not all negative here. There are some great songs for sure, such as the excellent, powerful Ironclad, the energetic Pompeii, the poppy Leave You Behind, and the closing track, the quiet The Swimmer. And, according to another indeed reliable Luna K. associate, Sleater-Kinney kick for sure live.

Copyright © 2000 Håvard Oppøyen