THESE GIRLS WILL ROCK YOUR LAME ASS!

The mechanism inside your player lifts the disc from it’s plate. The CD whirs, then spins, and the laser squeakily reads away. Three seconds later, the silence is broken by a militant thunder of drums. One guitar chimes in. Then, another. And just as the instruments have gotten acquainted with each other, a fearsome and staggered duotone wail of vocals comes down on you like a gail-force hail. That’s “One Beat”, the opening/title song for Sleater-Kinney’s amazing sixth release. Carrie Brownstein (guitar, vocals), Corin Tucker (guitar, vocals) and Janet Weiss (drums, vocals) have a habit of making every S-K album an atomic beacon of the symbiotic relationship they share when making music, and their newest LP is no exception. Right from the beginning, it’s obvious that they’ve mastered their spry form of musical layering, as the multiple tracks of guitars, drums and vocals refuse to simply lie on top off each other. Instead, they churn and swing, loop and wrap themselves back, forth and in between. The songs on One Beat are touching, impolite, and violently charming all at once. While “Far Away” focuses on personal terror experienced during September 11th and “Combat Rock” speaks of dissent in the face of blind patriotism, “Light-Rail Coyote” is a steadily rising ode to growing up in a Western town. Both musically and lyrically, S-K is covering a lot of ground here. One Beat has the ladies throwing down a familiar gauntlet, but with a different ring to it. It’s got all the energy of The Hot Rock, and all the punch of Dig Me Out, mixed in with years of experience, and an uncompromising drive to create a sound that is truly their own. To find out more about Sleater-Kinney, visit them here.