Sleater-Kinney Wrap “One Beat”
Sleater-Kinney are in the middle of a series of east coast tour dates this week to test run songs from their upcoming album, One Beat, which is due in August. The Olympia, Wash., trio recorded twelve songs for their sixth album, their first since 2000’s All Hands on the Bad One.
“There’s not much of a comfort zone in this business. Our real fans are incredible and they know when we’ve created something true,” drummer Janet Weiss says. “If we ever slack off, they’ll let us know. And that’s the relationship we’ve created by playing live. We can present things to them and they can let us know how they feel about certain songs. The live forum is where we get the feedback from the people who we’re really interested in communicating with.”
As with All Hands and 1997’s Dig Me Out, One Beat was produced by John Goodmanson. “John has a certain way with us that I think is unique,” Weiss says. “And we all kind of decided to steer this record in a challenging new direction. We always try to make a different record from the last record. I think we’re very skilled at tuning out the rest of the world. We practice in my basement and it’s a tiny space with just the three of us. It’s like putting the blinders. The songs sort of create themselves in a way, the sort of working method that Carrie and Corin have as far as songwriting goes is very esoteric. They don’t plan what a song is going to be and then write that song. The song just becomes a song because of their input and playing off of each other. It’s not something that’s created from a blueprint.”
The album will also feature a guest appearance by Stephen Trask, who composed the music and co-wrote the lyrics for Hedwig and the Angry Inch; Trask added vocals to the track, “Prisstina.”
One Beat track listing:
One Beat
Faraway
Oh
Remainder
Light Rail Coyote
Step Aside
Combat Rock
O2
Funeral Song
Prisstina
Hollywood Ending
Sympathy