Show Notes
Scot and Jeff discuss Sleater-Kinney with Nic Rowan.
Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Nic Rowan. Nic is managing editor of The Lamp, a Catholic literary journal. You can follow him on Twitter/x @NicXTempore.
Nic’s Music Pick: Sleater-Kinney
When people talk about the greatest American rock bands of the past 30 years, the conversation usually starts in familiar places (we might say Spoon around these parts). But sooner or later, it ought to arrive at a discussion of Sleater-Kinney. The band, named after Sleater Kinney Road in Washington near Interstate 5, formed in the Pacific Northwest during the explosion of the riot grrrl movement. Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker, and, eventually, Janet Weiss built a sound that was fiercely intelligent without being pretentious and musically adventurous without ever losing sight of the hook. Their records are packed with jagged guitars, knotty rhythms, and thrilling vocal interplay, all delivered with an urgency that never feels manufactured.
Part of what makes Sleater-Kinney such a compelling subject is that they're difficult to pigeonhole. They're often introduced first as an important feminist band, or a cornerstone of riot grrrl, or a political band, and all of those descriptions contain some truth. But they can also obscure the bigger picture. Strip away the labels, and what's left is an extraordinary rock band, one with a distinctive musical language and an uncanny ability to make tension sound exhilarating.
Over the course of a remarkable run, the band continually reinvented itself without abandoning its identity. Dig Me Out and One Beat get universal praise on this show, while there's great debate over the generally well-regarded The Woods. And what to make of the comeback after a decade away? We trace that entire journey and discuss why Sleater-Kinney remains one of the essential bands of modern American rock.
If you know them, you know why they matter. If you don’t, you’re about to find out. Join us for a deep look at the music and career of Sleater-Kinney.
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Scot and Jeff discuss the first part of The Cure’s career (1978-1984) with Derek Wilczynski. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) are joined by guest Derek Wilczynski. Derek is a Michigan attorney with a trial practice, as well as treasurer for the Macomb County Republican Party. Derek’s Musical Pick: The Cure It’s time to paint your fingernails black and adopt your bleakest attitude as we dive into the first part of the story of post-punk’s longest-running and most influential band, The Cure. The Cure were never the loudest or most aggressively weird group of the British late ‘70s and early ‘80s – and they certainly weren’t the most musically adept. (Their original drummer was nicknamed “Lol,” almost as if they knew.) But they were always there, off in their own corner, sometimes held together as a musical proposition by little more than spit, chewing gum, and the songwriting talent and sheer force of will of Robert Smith, their lead singer and songwriter. In their early post-punk years, The Cure – before they hit enduring stardom in America in the mid-1980s with the sheaf of poppy, upbeat gems they’re now synonymous with – were a magnificently surly, forbidding beast, a barebones sound created by three (occasionally four) musical primitives using their technical limitations to create the minimalist bluntness we forever associate with “goth” as a subgenre. But Smith was never a style poseur – he was an incredibly gifted songwriter and lyricist, mining this particular dark ore into the depths of the underground with albums like Seventeen Seconds, Faith, and the legendary (and, in our opinion, overwrought!) Pornography. Then, he turned into a pop writer! For a band as famous and long-lasting as Robert Smith’s, is it strange to realize that The Cure were essentially two (and maybe three) separate groups, at least conceptually. Here we address the first group and embark upon a glorious, long day’s journey into night. Dawn is just around the corner by 1984.
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