Carrie Brownstein is walking through Brooklyn as she talks about the latest Sleater-Kinney album, “Little Rope,” which is drawing yet another batch of positive reviews and accolades for the vastly acclaimed Pacific Northwest rock act.
Her words struggle to rise above the cacophony of street sounds — including, of course, honking cars — as the vocalist-guitarist discusses the new music and accompanying tour, which thankfully brings the band back to the Bay Area for two shows this month.
There was a lot of ground that I wanted to cover here, especially given Sleater-Kinney’s lengthy history — having been around since the mid-‘90s — and vast significance. After all, very few, if any, acts of the last 30 years have created a body of work as wonderfully moving and impactful as this band.
Yet time was limited and Brownstein — who is also known for her work in the popular TV show “Portlandia” — had a lot to say about the new batch of material she created with longtime bandmate Corin Tucker. And I was certainly OK with that, given that “Little Rope” stands as one of the best releases of the still-young year.
Here’s our interview in advance of the Sleater-Kinney shows at 8:30 p.m. March 30 at the Warfield and 8 p.m. March 31 at the Regency Ballroom (note venue change) in San Francisco. Palehound opens both gigs. Tickets are $45-$79.50, axs.com.
Q: How does it feel to be back on the road and playing concerts for fans?
A: It’s been really exhilarating. We have a lot of new fans — a lot of people who have discovered us on this current record and the other more recent ones. Then we have people who have been around from the beginning, or the early years. So, it’s a really marvelous combination of people we see when we look out into the crowd.
Q: People obviously know you and Corin. But let’s introduce the touring musicians who’ll be sharing the stage with you two in San Francisco.
A: We have Angie Boylan, who has been playing drums with us since 2019 – “The Center Won’t Hold” tour. And we have Toko Yasuda. She plays synthesizers and Kee Bass and does some backup vocals. She’s amazing. We have also been touring with her since 2019. Then we have a woman named Kristina Lieberson, who is playing guitar and keyboards and singing backup. She is stepping in for our dear friend Katie Harkin, who has been touring with us since 2015. Katie is on maternity leave.
Q: I don’t think I have ever seen Sleater-Kinney perform as a quintet.
A: Yeah, we have been playing as a quintet since 2019. Before that, we were playing as a quartet since (2015’s) “No Cities to Love.”
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Q: I’ve definitely seen the quartet — and, of course, the trio. But looking forward to catching the five-piece as well. Are you playing a lot of material from the new album on this tour?
A: Quite a bit. There are only 10 songs on the new album. And we play 25 songs (in the set). We are playing nine out of those 10 songs off “Little Rope” — so, a good portion of the set. That also leaves us about 14-15 that we pull from the older albums. So, it’s a really nice blend of old and new.
Q: Do you feel bad for that one new song that you don’t play in concert? What about that poor little left out “Little Rope” number that didn’t make the set list?
A: Usually there’s more than one song that we don’t play from the current album. This album really lends itself well to the live setting. And the songs blend very seamlessly with the older records. It’s actually a bit of a rarity to be able to play so many of the new songs live.
Ever since “The Hot Rock” era — (1999’s) “Hot Rock” was a really difficult album to play live — we’ve had to wrestle with which songs really lend themselves to the live setting.
I think one advantage of having additional musicians joining us onstage is that we can play the full iterations of the songs. Even early on, we had overdubs and keyboard parts and other things that we couldn’t incorporate live. And now we are.
So, no, I don’t feel bad for that one song. I think it will survive.
Q: I know that some of the music was inspired by the tragic loss of your mother and stepfather (who died in a car accident in Italy in 2022). Are those songs therapeutic or difficult to play in concert?
A: Music is interesting and kind of ineffable in the way that you can write a song in one state of mind and it can take on different iterations and permutations when you play it. Because you have to reckon with the present moment. You have to reckon with the collective emotional state of an audience. And something that you perhaps wrote in a place of despair or despondency can be transformed into a joyful or hopeful moment.
Q: That’s fascinating to me.
A: It’s truly not unlike previous Sleater-Kinney albums, which have always been emotional. I think that’s why people are drawn to this band. It’s not new territory for us to convey a vulnerability or rawness in our music. But we’ve always allowed for that to change, you know, in a live setting. And it often does.
You can’t prescribe or predict how you’ll feel when you walk onstage or when you play a certain song. There are songs that we think of as lighter or maybe come from a place of happiness or even humor or absurdity — and sometimes those can have a darker, heavier moment onstage. It really all depends on the context.
Q: How has the songwriting process changed between you and Corin throughout the years?
A: There’s still always part of our songwriting that remains very similar to how it did in the beginning — which was the two of us in a room sharing ideas. Even back then, we would sometimes write on our own and then get together and flesh out a song in a room together.
But I think with the advent of technology, we are able to edit and toy with the songs in the writing process in a way that we couldn’t necessarily before. We can demo a song quite easily and sit with a chorus and listen to it.
Q: Technology can definitely make sharing ideas — from different locations — easier.
A: Of course, we did that early on with tape recorders and whatnot. But this just allows a deeper editorial process, which, I think, lends itself well — and is crucial — for making an 11th album, or even an eighth or ninth album. It’s not “first idea, best idea,” which you can kind of coast on for three or four albums. But the further along you get in your career, you have to be more intentional about differentiating one album from the next — which has always been our goal.
Q: Two of your early albums — 1996’s “Call the Doctor” and 1997’s “Dig Me Out” — remain true favorites for me. What do you think when you go back and listen to that older stuff?
A: Really the only time I actively listen is when we are putting together song lists for a tour. And I think now I have enough distance from those records to really appreciate them. I think there was a time, when we went from album to album, that each previous album I was critical of. Whereas now there has been enough distance, enough time that, first of all, I hear what is essential about Sleater-Kinney — what is singular about it. I can hear the language — the sonic language that Corin and I built together, in terms of how to play guitar, how our melodies interlock and intertwine, how our vocals have changed. I can appreciate that and also see how we have built off of those albums.
Q: That’s a cool way to look back at an early record.
A: Mostly, I see it as part of a narrative that’s ongoing and try not to not be overly discerning or critical. Often, I am kind of impressed we were able to make “Dig Me Out” when I was 23-years old. That seems almost shocking to me.
I think there is just a lot of gratitude, at this point, for what we’ve accomplished.