And To Them I Say, Bring It On!

Carrie Brownstein, one of the mega-cool guitar-wielding singers of Sleater-Kinney, updated S-K's offical website on Tuesday with a longish note to fans. The most exciting piece of information revealed in that letter was her description of their new album, The Woods (due out May 24th on Sub Pop), as "heavy, raw, psychedelic". My answer is, bring it on! I can hardly wait.

Carrie went on to say: "We wanted to make something different, we always do, but for the first time, I think we actually have." While respectfully disagreeing with that "for the first time" bit (c'mon, both All Hands On The Bad One and One Beat were very different takes on the distinctive Sleater-Kinney sound), I'm glad that Carrie, Corin and Janet feel they've come up with something new.

After some musings on the Academy Awards (people still care about those things?), Carrie also wrote briefly about touring:

Plus, it has been a while since we've toured, which aside from writing songs and putting out records, is the reason we play music. When we don't tour, we don't connect with the people that listen to us. It all begins to feel a bit abstract.

About recording with new producer Dave Fridmann:

We were nervous to work with someone new but that quickly dissipated once we arrived in Fredonia. Dave Fridmann is masterful, and he understands our sonic intent better than almost anyone we've worked with. He pushed us and challenged us and I think it paid off.

And about being on a new record label:

We went through a lot of changes in the last year. Julie (our publicist and friend) retired from the business. And we switched labels. Sub Pop has been great. They didn't know what songs we took into the studio and we never played them the demos we did in our practice space. We mixed and sequenced the record with Dave and handed it over to Sub Pop completely finished. We crossed our fingers that they would like it and they did. We've greatly appreciated their complete trust in our vision.

Ending with that unique Carrie graciousness, of course:

We look forward to seeing many of you on our upcoming travels. Thanks for your support. I hope everyone is happy and healthy and still up for the struggle of just being alive right now. Peace.

I realize there isn't much of the note that I didn't quote, but you can read the full thing here if you like. The only other tidbit of news I have to report is that Sleater-Kinney will be playing SXSW this year, if you're into that sort of thing.