Bandmates Carrie
Brownstein and
Corin TuckerWon’t Hold
body cried out when she spoke those
lines.” Carrie reflects, using academic
language with ease, “We’re singing a
lot about the ways the female body
deals with resistance and despair.
At its core, it’s about dismantling
hierarchical structures that subjugate
people. We can’t separate who we are
from what we’re writing about.”
Sleater-Kinney have, of course,
been fighting the patriarchy for dec-
ades. They were pioneers in the 90s
punk scene, discovering community
through creativity, as documented
in Carrie’s excellent 2015 memoir,
Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl. She
resists any temptation to roman-
ticise the era. “There are a lot of
ways that scene excluded people ofcolour. There’s always flaws in early
iterations of movements, where it
aims to be inclusive, but tends to
focus on whiteness. To yearn for the
past is usually yearning for a time
where other people felt less seen.”
She admits, “There was something
exciting about the 90s, when there
was a version of queerness that really
embraced otherness. It’s interesting
to see queer enter the mainstream.
I don’t lament it, because people
should feel safe and seen, but it
forces the question, ‘How do we find
that space that’s still transgressive?’
Because, to me, transgressive art is
interesting art.”
I’m curious how Carrie feels about
Sleater-Kinney’s reputation as “thelesbian punk band”. “I certainly would
not want to hide who I am, but we’ve
always worked really hard to have the
music transcend specific categories.
We’re not just a female band or a queer
band; we’re a band.” Nevertheless, her
queerness is integral to her identity.
“I’m not interested in moving through
the world as a straight person. I find
heteronormativity – I kind of find
homonormativity – pretty boring.”
Carrie is forever creating, forever
stretching herself. As a prolific musi-
cian, author, actor, and director, hav-
ing multiple plates spinning simulta-
neously “quells” her “mania”. When
I ask how those closest to her would
describe her, she answers, “Cerebral,
a little restless, kicky. Despite getting
older, there’s part of me that always
feels irascible and feisty.”
A few months after we meet,the group’s longtime drummer Janet
Weiss announces her departure,
tweeting, “The band is heading in a
new direction and it is time for me
to move on”. Carrie responds on
Instagram commenting, “What am I
supposed to say? She left. We asked
her to stay. We tried”. She tells The
New York Times: “I just realise that
there’s nothing that feels like this
band. I don’t know why you wouldn’t
want to do it.”
When I hear the news, I feel a
twinge of sadness that the album title,
The Center Won’t Hold, now reads as
poignantly prophetic, and that such
an undeniable talent will no longer be
part of the line-up. But then I
remember that Sleater-Kinney have
gone through many changes in their
lifetime. Before Janet joined in 1996,
they worked with a number of
different instrumentalists, and with
each new album, they strive to push
boundaries. It is in their DNA to
survive and adapt. Sleater-Kinney are,
and always have been, ever-evolving
and vital as hell.The Center Won’t Hold is out now. Sleater-
Kinney go on UK and European tour 18 February- Visit sleater-kinney.com for details
I find homonormativity
pretty boring”
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Contents page 455CULTURE | CARRIE BROWNSTEIN