Sleater-Kinney announce Dig Me Out covers album for 25th anniversary
The covers album features St Vincent, Courtney Barnett, Jason Isbell, Wilco, and more
Aux News Dig Me Out
Earlier this week, Sleater-Kinney teased a big announcement coming for the 25th anniversary of Dig Me Out. It would’ve been painful for the now-duo to go on an anniversary tour without Janet Weiss, who made her debut as the band’s drummer on that record. Thankfully, Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker went a different direction. The news is actually a covers album featuring Brownstein and Tucker’s “closest friends and admired artists.”
Those include St. Vincent, The Linda Lindas, Wilco, TV On The Radio frontman Tunde Adebimpe, Courtney Barnett, Jason Isbell with Amanda Shires, Big Joanie, Margo Price, Low, Black Belt Eagle Scout, Tyler Cole, and more.
The band announced on social media that a portion of the proceeds from the album will go to SMYRC, a Portland-based LGTBQIA+ youth center that provides “a safe, harassment-free space for queer and trans youth ages 13-23.”
The band has yet to share who will play what on the album, but the possibility of St Vincent covering “One More Hour” (a song about Tucker and Brownstein’s breakup) after having a similar dynamic with Brownstein is too much to handle—in the best way. So here’s hoping that Annie Clark chose the cover that would make queer Twitter lose its shit the most.
If you want to revisit the Dig Me Out days ahead of the covers album’s release, you can read The A.V. Club’s interview with Brownstein for the album from 1997, where she talked about Tucker and Weiss having boring day jobs (Tucker did clerical work and Weiss worked at an ad agency), saying no to Lollapalooza, being tired of the “riot grrrl” label, and not wanting frat bros to be part of their fanbase.
We’ll update you with the list of who’s playing what when Sleater-Kinney announces it.
19 Comments
I still dunno what happened with the Janet Weiss leaving. Do we know? Is there a place I can read on it?
Basically the other two were going in a different direction musically and not treating her as an equal part, with Annie Clark seeming to have more say in the band.
“The rules changed within the band, and they told me the rules changed,” she explained. “I said, ‘Am I just the drummer now?’ They said yes. And I said, ‘Can you tell me if I am still a creative equal in the band?’ And they said no. So, I left.”Please excuse me if I don’t have a lot of sympathy for how “painful” it would be for Brownstein and Tucker to tour without Weiss.https://pitchfork.com/news/janet-weiss-opens-up-about-leaving-sleater-kinney/
Can totally see it from their point of view. Contribute the same amount of songs and you’re the creative equal.
Have you heard Janet play drums? Have you heard ‘Dig Me Out’ or ‘Ironclad’ ? Without those incredibly inventive, driving drumbeats, they wouldn’t be anywhere near as good. And she’s a multi-instrumentalist who writes songs aplenty for Quasi. She wasn’t allowed, it seems, to contribute like she wanted to.
I’ve caught S-K (and Quasi) play innumerable times, and I always watched Janet play. Solid, muscular, and just fun. I just love her work on Things You Say and God Is A Number. S-K was one of those bands that truly is hard to imagine without one of those three members. While I was already starting to move on after The Woods, Janet’s departure sealed the deal.
Tell us you’ve never been in a band without telling us you’ve never been in a band challenge.
Tommy Lee, already questioning his own relevance in an apparently post-cock-rock era, foots around nightclub on Sunset, dumbfounded. Asks bartender, “What is this?” “Oh, that’s Sleater-Kinney. Aren’t they great?” Tommy Lee makes a face.
Wut?
“But, Doctor, I am Sleater-Kinney.”
Nice of them to point out that Tunde Adebimpe is in TV on the Radio, for a sec I though it was the other famous Tunde Adebimpe.
I am cautiously mildly optimistic. That’s a diverse lineup. The sparse, repeating lyrics on Dig Me Out dovetail nicely with Low’s own output.
If they do another covers album, I am ready and willing to tell the world that they are, in fact, no rock and roll fun.
Great. Annie Clark was the Wormtongue to current day Sleater-Kinney and now she can reinvent their back catalog.
I kind of like cover albums but the reality is sort of grim and lazy. The way royalties work, the incentive to write original material is not that enticing financially for most.
Love this album, especially the title track, Dance Song ‘97, and Little Babies. Brings back memories of doing all-nighters to try and get uni essays handed in on time, as well as of seeing SK in Glasgow dives like the 13th Note Club.However, my policy remains: no Janet, no sale.
Sleater-Kinney carried me through college and I still remember the announcement of their comeback and “Bury Our Friends” making me cry on the bus to university, because it coincided with my own getting my life on track and finally starting the route out of therapy.I’ll be forever grateful to them for vocalizing many, many concepts I had in my brain that I could not put to words. I might not have lived in San Francisco, but there never has been a track to encapsulate the sheer, mundane misery of carrying on through daily routine when in the middle of a depressive episode/panic attack as well as “Jumpers” did; and only Rainer Maria got close to verbalizing the all-consuming, greedy, almost destructive sensation of instant lust that “Turn It On” and “Let’s Call It Love” spoke of. “Dig Me Out” is also a top 5 favorite album of mine.That said, I have 0 interest in this line-up beyond hearing what Courtney Barnett does. And judging by The Center Won’t Hold and Path of Wellness, it seems I have 0 interest in Sleater-Kinney’s new output post-No Cities to Love, which I adored. That’s fine, it’s their band and they can do what they want with it, their old music isn’t ruined at all for me. I just wish I got to see them live, still with Weiss, still making music I want to listen to.
I got to see them together only once, on the No Cities to Love tour, in DC. NPR actually put video of the show online. I didnt find out about the band until after the break-up, so I never expected to see them play. Anyway, my wife sketched the band, and Janet came out to the floor after the show and signed it.
that’s really cool. i also came to know the band around the time that album came out, and i was so looking forward to hearing what music came next…