Sleater-Kinney To Tour East/West Coasts

Pacific Northwest punk rockers Sleater-Kinney are currently writing new songs for their next and seventh album. The riot grrrl-influenced trio will hit the road for brief East and West Coast tours beginning in late April.

The Portland, Ore.-based band will play eight East Coast dates, including stops at Washington D.C.'s 9:30 Club on April 22, Providence, R.I.'s Brown University on April 24 and Philadelphia's Trocadero on April 29. Their 10-date West Coast stint will find the band hitting Ventura, Calif.'s Ventura Theater on May 15 and Pomona, Calif.'s Glass House on May 18, before they wrap up the tour at Eugene, Ore.'s McDonald Theater on May 25.

Sleater-Kinney are not yet at the recording stage for their next upcoming full-length, and no release date details have been announced. But, according to the band's Web site, they will head into the studio before the end of the year. It is not certain whether they will work again with producer and longtime friend John Goodmanson (who produced Bikini Kill and Unwound), as they have for most of their past releases, including their most recent album, 2002's One Beat (Kill Rock Stars).

Singer/guitarists Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein formed Sleater-Kinney amid Olympia, Wash.'s burgeoning underground art and music scene in 1994, bringing drummer Janet Weiss on board in '96. Having crafted an idiosyncratic punk sound built on intricate, spiraling dual guitar work, standout falsettos and engaging, tribal-like drumming, Sleater-Kinney debuted with a self-titled album in 1995 on Chainsaw Records, but it wasn't until the release of 1996's Call the Doctor (Chainsaw) that the band first began to garner media attention.

In 1997, they released Dig Me Out on Kill Rock Stars, following it with the The Hot Rock (Kill Rock Stars) in 1999. Sleater-Kinney dropped All Hands on the Bad One (Kill Rock Stars) in 2000.

In other Sleater-Kinney news, Weiss recorded a drums-only album (due out later this year) in January with Matt Cameron of Soundgarden/Pearl Jam fame and Hella's Zach Hill at Portland's Jackpot! Studio. "We set up three kits and improvised for a few days," Weiss wrote in the Q&A portion of the band's site. "We hadn't practiced together, and had no set ideas as to what the record would end up sounding like. We sat down and played what we felt during those particular moments together.

"It was exciting to work in such an improvisational atmosphere, and absolutely thrilling to rock with two guys who push our instrument's capabilities far beyond the established boundaries," Weiss continued. "The three of us ripped it up!" — Jenny Tatone [Tuesday, April 6, 2004]

Sleater-Kinney Tour Dates

April 21; Baltimore, Md.; Recher Theatre
April 22; Washington D.C.; 9:30 Club
April 24; Providence, R.I.; Brown University
April 25; Boston, Mass.; The Roxy
April 26-27; New York, N.Y.; Irving Plaza
April 29; Philadelphia, Penn.; Trocadero
April 30; Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; Josselyn Beach
May 14; Santa Cruz, Calif.; The Catalyst
May 15; Ventura, Calif.; Ventura Theatre
May 16; San Diego, Calif.; SOMA
May 18; Pomona, Calif.; The Glass House
May 19-20; Los Angeles; El Rey
May 21; Sacramento, Calif.; Empire
May 22-23; San Francisco; The Fillmore
May 25; Eugene, Ore.; McDonald Theatre