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The Hot Rock
Sleater-Kinney
Kill Rock Stars Records, 1999
REVIEW BY: Sean McCarthy
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 07/14/1999
Moving sucks. And after being a college student for all of sevenyears, I've become accustomed to boxing things up and moving at thedrop of a thirty day notice. (Usually due to house roommatespacking up and leaving on a short notice) Just when you find thatright apartment, scoped out every nitch of its charm, you findyourself in a new environment. And in most cases, that newenvironment isn't nearly as cozy as your last.
Okay, enough with the apartment analogy. Much like getting usedto a new place, getting used to a musical departure takes someeffort for music fan. As much courage as it takes an artist towillfully ask an audience to go down a slightly non-beaten path, ittakes some courage for a listener to keep an open mind.
Sleater-Kinney's latest album, The Hot Rock, is that sort of album. Their last album, Dig Me Out, was a joyous romp, think the Go Gos onmethamphetamines. It had monster riffs and the vocal tag team ofCarrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker drew some comparisons to theKeith Richards/Mick Jagger chemistry. The album was so wellreceived that it finished behind only Bob Dylan's Time Out Of Mind and Radiohead's OK Computer in the Village Voice "Pazz and Jop Poll" in 1997.
Though commercial success still evaded the band, that could havebeen solved with one or two Dig Me Out type hits on The Hot Rock. Rock music needs a jolt and it still has alarge buying audience and Sleater-Kinney is one of those bands thatcan tap into that market. But instead of doing a retread of Dig Me Out, Sleater-Kinney take a different path and come upwith a batch of quiet, slightly subdued tracks on The Hot Rock.
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