I bought the The Hot Rock when it came out. I like it enough that I've kept it, but it wasn't compelling enough to get me to check out any of their other albums. My wife likes them. The new album seems pretty good.

I like a few songs by them and have maybe 3 of their albums (I think? All my cd's are in storage) but I really can't think of any standouts off the top of my head. Corin Tucker's voice is pretty annoying though saying they can't play is a bit much.

I guess this is probably my fav song.

I was never into S-K and have only really listened to this album once or twice, but its weird how a lot of the reviews/podcasts I've read/heard call Corin Tucker's voice a "perfect rock voice" or something to that effect while several here find it shrill or annoying.

I felt that way at first about her voice, but it's grown on me over the years. I prefer the songs that downplay the vibrato, for sure.

ooooOOOOOOOOOOOhHHHHHHHHH noooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh YouuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUU DIDnt

I feel guilted into wanting to walk back that stance - they're able to play instruments AND it doesn't matter if you're sloppy at it as long as the songs are good, yada yada yada. It's a cheap shot for me to say they "cannot play."

...but

The songs aren't good. The playing is usually really sloppy and ham-fisted. If there were hooks or something, none of it would matter, but it always just sounds like a mess to my ears. They need to somehow charm their way into your heart before you hear too much, because if they don't... it's just not good at all.

As an example, this...



...is fucking awful. For a brief moment the chorus begins to sound like something kinda professional and even likeable, but the rest of it sounds worse than all the terrible little bands at my high school (including mine). There's something about the choppiness of it, everyone playing and singing exactly on the eighth notes in these super simple forms, it's like Big Dave and fake kids' writing fonts. I look at at it, and my brain is like ".........really?!"

i don't really understand what I just tried to see.

Did not dig that letterman appearance above.

holy fuck that chorus

wait you liked it i turned it off there

Oh I didn't LIKE it.

it seriously took me going through about 10 of their songs to find one that was even remotely catchy. no hooks is right. i think they're one of those bands i thought i should like so that's why i kept trying with their albums.

I like their new video, especially because I'm a Bob's Burgers fan.

not a fan of S-K, but bob's burgers is GREATNESS

Mojo magazine gave it 5 stars in the Feb. issue.

If you say they sound like they can't play, I'm out.

I mean, they're clearly "able to play instruments." And I'm not the kind of person to buy an album solely because someone CAN play well (or vice versa). I just don't get the yelping and stuff, I guess.

how does one get this to occur?

A small-but-steady amount good press over a sustained period of time? Ie, this from Billboard...

"For around a decade starting in 1995 or 1996, the best rock band in America was an all-female trio out of the indie-rock hothouse of Olympia, Wash.'s Evergreen College..."

or this (qualified) Beatles reference from the New Yorker...

"For some people, this is a bit like John calling Paul in 1975 and asking, “Hey, should we do some shows?” In the nineties and the early aughts, the respect and passion that Sleater-Kinney generated was equalled by only a few bands. The group’s appeal went beyond the ordinary magic of making two guitars, drums, and voices sound like a setup that you’d never heard before; in 2001, Greil Marcus called Sleater-Kinney the greatest rock band in America."

I can only surmise that if you want this to happen, you need to be making some kind of really good point that nobody else is making, and just be incredibly earnest about it. The music itself will become secondary.