Late Summer Release For Sleater-Kinney's One Beat

Sleater-Kinney's sixth album, One Beat (Kill Rock Stars), will be released Aug. 20. While staying true to the Northwest trio's riot grrrl punk-rock roots, the album incorporates a few new sounds: "There's different elements that weren't on the previous record [2000's All Hands on the Bad One]," said Larry Crane, owner of Jackpot! studio in Portland, Ore., where most of the sessions took place (several songs were recorded at drummer Janet Weiss' home studio). "There's some things that will be unfamiliar, that people haven't [heard] in a long time, but not that much.

John Goodmanson, who produced nearly all of the group's previous albums, produced this as well. "When those three play together, that is Sleater-Kinney," Crane said. "It's not like we made them play the drum machines and made them sound like a techno group. It's a really, really good rock band and they're making their sixth record, so it's a great record."

One Beat includes "Far Away," "Oh!," "The Remainder," "Step Aside," "Combat Rock," "O 2," Funeral Song," "Prisstina," "Hollywood Ending," "Sympathy" and the title track. Kill Rock Stars founder Slim Moon said One Beat "combines the artistry of [1999's] The Hot Rock with the energy of [1997's] Dig Me Out and All Hands on the Bad One.

Sleater-Kinney — whose lineup since the mid-'90s has consisted of singer/guitarist Corin Tucker, singer/guitarist Carrie Brownstein and Weiss — formed while Tucker and Brownstein were attending Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. "One reason I play music is to remove myself from a purely cerebral existence," Brownstein said during a musician's panel at the Experience Music Project's Pop Music Studies Conference in April. "To connect on a level that is visceral, to feel the power of music coming through me... Creating music [for me] is a moment flowing and being created between three people [the members of Sleater-Kinney]."

There are several guests on the album, including "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" lyricist/composer Stephen Trask, who sings on "Prisstina." Renowned Northwest underground producer/musician Steve Fisk (formerly of Pell Mell) contributed to the sessions. "Fisk does a lot of sound bites," Crane said. "He is amazing. He plays synthesizer — amazing parts, so good."

Sleater-Kinney will play with Belle & Sebastian May 15 at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., and May 17 at the Warsaw in Brooklyn, N.Y. They are tentatively scheduled to play New York's Village Underground on May 13 and 14. The group is expected to tour once the album is released, according to a Kill Rock Stars spokesperson. — Jenny Tatone [Thursday, May 9, 2002]