The Best American Punk Rock Band Ever Is Playing Dead.

Sleater-Kinney broke up just about 2 years ago, and I remember where I was when I heard the news. This was like my Beatles break up moment. Obviously, I'm not comparing the two bands, but...maybe to their respective genre', S-K were the Beatles. I don't have many "I remember the first time I heard (insert artist)" moments. I remember when I first heard The Chronic. My brother bought the cassette tape home when I was 9, and I promptly stole it the next morning and skipped school to listen to it (Proof that rap music is evil, and makes you do bad things.)...I, like everyone else in my generation, remembers the first time I heard Nirvana. Some girl who I was trying way hard to impress in middle school put on "Come As You Are" in her basement after school one afternoon. My attempts to make out ceased (although, you will all be pleased to know, I did succeed much later in life. Score one for me...in honor of Kurt, of course), and I listened to Nevermind for 3 hours straight.

And I remember when I first heard Sleater-Kinney. About 2000, when I was a senior in high school, my sister was leaving for Madison, Wisconsin. My sister had, and still has supreme taste in music. She's a snob for the sake of being a snob. So, she slipped me a CD and said "You HAVE to hear this"...so I took a long drive (of course when the price of gas was still reasonable...) and played the album, which was 1999's All Hands On The Bad One. I thought it was noise! just terrible! the screeching! the guitars! it's like a crappy version of Sonic Youth fronted by some kind of banshee!

But, it held my interest just long enough for me to pick up another album ('97's Call The Doctor), at which point I REALLY heard S-K for the first time. "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone" was pretty much everything I'd been looking for in a punk rock(ish) song since, well...forever. I didn't even know what the rest of that album sounded like for about a month, because I couldn't get past that song. After that, I was hooked. I got every S-K album that ever came out, and side projects (Quasi, Cadallaca, Heavens to Betsy) just to hear the wail of Corin Tuckers voice, or the growl of Carrie Brownstien's guitar.

**Bold Statement Alert** Not to take anything away from The Ramones, Black Flag, X, or any other band, but Sleater-Kinney is, to me, the greatest American punk rock band ever. In their purest form they weren't post-grunge, or riot grrrl, or any other phrase to try to seperate them from what they truly were: A really loud, aggressive punk rock band. They got their fair share of resentment from people, because it seemed like they were critically acclaimed just for the sake of critical acclaim, but I think they were just THAT good. And unlike the aforementioned bands (and countless other punk bands), they didn't let that scene define them. Therefore, the scene couldn't destroy them.

I guess what destroyed them eventually, after 12 years seemed to be what they tried to avoid for those 12 years. The fact that as women, they were different, and wanted different things. Corin wanted a family, to have kids, settle down, etc. And Janet just wanted to play loud music. Those two things just stopped seeming to go hand in hand.

My sister is the one who broke the news to me when they broke up. And I detected the sorrow in her voice. Her connection to them was deeper, because she felt like they spoke directly to her. When I got the news, I sat back and thought "Man, all of the bands I love break up..." (weeks later, as if proving this point further, Pretty Girls Make Graves also disbanded), and then I fought with the decision of whether or not I wanted to go see them on their farewell tour. I opted not too. Too much attached to those types of things. I was at a small, local concert recently, and a guy did a cover of "Modern Girl" (off of their final album, The Woods), and it impressed me most that he kept the gender of the song proper (instead of, like most people, changing "girl" to "guy" or some other ridiculous thing), because I think Sleater-Kinney fought hard to not only be equal and recognized in the eyes of their male counterparts, but also to speak to men as well. Punk rock is nothing if not all inclusive.

I was in the same room as Corin Tucker once. I didn't know it, I was in some coffee shop in Olympia, Washington with some friends, and she walked out while I was at the counter ordering. The girl behind the counter informed me of her presence, and I used every ounce of restraint in myself to not run after her. Sadly, her solo stuff is pretty much a joke. I could be saying that just because it's not S-K, and I have bitterness (I hated all of the solo Fugees albums at first after they, another group I loved, broke up), but I worry that I'll never have a moment again where I remember hearing a new band the same way I heard Nirvana, or Sleater-Kinney.

Finally, if you have no idea who Sleater-Kinney is....listen to them, and despite me probably over hyping them, I think you'll enjoy them.