Carrie: It’s like they think they’re paying you a compliment by taking you out of the 'girl group ghetto' and saying that you’ve tran¬ scended gender. It’s like they think they’re paying you a compliment by taking you out of the "girl group ghetto” and saying that you’ve tran¬ scended gender. But that’s never been our goal. I mean, how could we possibly tran¬ scend something that’s so experiential and part of who we are?how could we possibly tran¬ scend something that’s so experiential and part of who we are? And why would we ever want to be "Men In RockMen in Rock?” It’s not a history that we’re a part of nor would we like to emulate it.It’s not a history that we’re a part of nor would we like to emulate it.
Janet: Maybe they’re trying to say that we’ve transcended the cliche of the girl keyboard player in a mini skirt.the cliche of the girl keyboard player in a mini skirt.
Corin: But that would be a more intelligent thing to say and they’re not saying that. If they had said exactly that, it would be dif¬ ferent. We’ve noticed a lot of really lousy, lazy journalists. They read the press kit and they write exactly what someone else wrote, just in different words—sometimes in the same words [laughs]. There’s no real con¬ text or basis for many of these people to write about us. They have very little to refer to when they describe women who play musicwomen who play music. You almost have to come up with a whole new vocabulary, really. Rock journalism has existed for as long as rock musicrock music, but when they try to describe some¬ thing that doesn’t fit easily into that same category with the same language, it’s impossible.
In a way, that’s a fault of rock journalism, which I’ve always found to be an especially illegitimate form of journalism. Having made attempts at going down that road before, I’ve gotten burned every time because, like you said, the language and framework that it works under is unbeliev¬ ably constricting.
Janet: Complexity is just not acceptable to rock journalism. Something has to be one way or the other. It can’t have shades of this or shades of that. Everything has to be put in really plain and simple terms.
Corin: It’s just such a cop out. It’s the same thing with mainstream musicmainstream music. They want it to be really simple and easy to understand.
If it is music that is difficult or just com¬ plex or weird in some way, so many times it gets overlooked.
Which is why Sleater-Kinney is such an anom¬ aly. Musically, you’re very complex. On its sur¬ face it seems simple, but once you break it down it’s actually really intricate. You have these competing guitar lines and competing vocal lines. It’s such an anomaly that you would have found this relative success in the main¬ streammain¬ streamand that you’d be playing venues this size and getting the amount of press that you have. What do you attribute that to?
Janet: I think the people that do love it, love it st> much. Writers see the reaction of our fans at shows and say, "What’s happening?” They try to explain it, and they do so poorly, but enough people are attracted by it that more and more people come.