A great many people laughed at the satire — and reality — of the series “Portlandia,” starring Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen.
Count Corin Tucker among them. As Brownstein’s bandmate in one of the Pacific Northwest’s preeminent bands, Sleater-Kinney, Tucker had first-hand knowledge of how her friend and fellow musician had other talents outside of shredding on guitar and singing. And, it was exposed in the series from 2011-18.
“Oh yeah, she was always hysterically funny, but chemistry between her and Fred Armisen was off the charts — so funny,” Tucker said. “It was so fun and chaotic. I was in the background for a couple episodes and that ‘playground’ they built, it was really different and special. We all miss the show.”
Brownstein, also the writer and co-developer on “Portlandia,” has gone on to other television and movie projects, including appearances on “Transparent” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” writing on “The Nowhere Inn” and directing on “Mrs. Fletcher.”
But, it’s been back to her main business in recent years, as the guitarist and singer alongside the singer Tucker in the punk band Sleater-Kinney, which was born in Olympia, Washington and was part of the early Riot Grrrl feminist genre/movement in the 1990s. The band, which has always had a strong following in Portland, has turned 30 years old, and put out the new album “Little Rope,” which leaned into Brownstein’s other emotions outside of fun-loving humor. It was released in January via new label Loma Vista.
Sleater-Kinney will play the first show of the next PDX Live concert series at Pioneer Courthouse Square, Wednesday, Aug. 7, joined by Amyl and the Sniffers. Tickets still remained as of Monday, July 29.
Tucker said Sleater-Kinney has been going strong for 30 years, which she attributes to the tight relationship between the two frontwomen.
“We have a good sort of yin and yang as collaborators, and we have different skillsets that bounce off each other really well,” Tucker said. “We’re both creative and enjoy the creative process.”
Thirty years ago, before countless gigs and 11 albums, “we were definitely living in the moment, trying something that might be fun. Making music that we thought was important to us. Playing around, as kids do,” she added.
“There is a sense of accomplishment. We didn’t know what to expect on our latest tour with our 11th album. We’re grateful to have a diverse audience and have young people discovering the band. It’s gratifying in that it feels fresh to new fans, and older fans are showing up.”
It’s the third leg of the tour in support of “Little Rope,” which has quite a backstory.
It was autumn 2022, when Brownstein received a call from Tucker, who had just received a call from the American embassy in Italy. The embassy was trying to reach Brownstein. Through Tucker, the emergency contact, the embassy finally reached Brownstein to deliver the worst news possible: Brownstein’s mother and stepfather had been killed in an automobile accident.
Brownstein continued to work on the album after the tragedy. But, aspects of each song — a guitar solo, the singing style, the sonic approach — took turns into a changed emotional landscape.
“As Brownstein and Tucker moved through the early aftermath of the tragedy,” publicity says, “elements of what was to become the emotional backbone of ‘Little Rope’ began to form — how we navigate grief, who we navigate it with, and the ways it transforms us.”
The album was named one of the most anticipated releases of 2024 by Rolling Stone, NPR, Pitchfork and more. The New York Times called it “Sleater-Kinney’s most tender album.”
Early singles were “Hell,” “Say It Like You Mean It” and “Untidy Creatures.” Other standouts are “Hunt You Down,” “Needlessly Wild” and “Dress Yourself.”
The opening riff of “Hunt You Down” is “The thing you fear the most will hunt you down,” a line Brownstein heard from a funeral director. And, in “Dress Yourself,” a Brownstein lyric goes, “Dress yourself in clothes you love for a world you hate” — it’s a song she wrote before her mother died, and it’s pain in her life, and “it was surreal to have her die after I’d written it. It was like I’d gifted the song to myself beforehand,” Brownstein told The New Yorker.
Overall, said the band: “So grateful to share this music with you. A rope can be many things, it can hold us back or it can be a guide line through our most difficult night. The songs, for us, always show us the way forward and we hope you will join us.”
Tucker recalled the “really sad day” she and Brownstein heard about her Brownstein’s parents.
“It’s one of those things where our lives are intertwined. I wanted to help her as much as I could,” Tucker said. “It spoke to how much music is healing, an incredibly powerful part of humanity. It was meaningful and helpful for her.”
Tucker said tears flow sometimes as the band plays “Hunt You Down.” And, the song “Say It Like You Mean It” is about getting older, loss and how relationships change — “I get choked up when doing that one,” Tucker said. “It’s different when you embrace your mortality, you don’t know how long it’s going to last,” as in life.
“When you’re young and starting off, you want to be seen,” she added. “We wanted to be seen as tough and holding your own in a predominantly male-dominated industry when we started. That’s fine, but there are other emotions and experiences to explore when you get older. Grief is a tender emotion that we all go through. It’s impacted how we approached performances — tenderly and more intensely.”
So, when Sleater-Kinney plays the new songs at Pioneer Courthouse Square, you know what has been on the minds of Brownstein and Tucker.
The duo tries to keep things fresh after 30 years.
“Sleater-Kinney is not just a band, it’s like a musical language that we put together,” Tucker said. “We tune differently, sound differently than other bands, play differently. It’s something we utilize to express ideas and our world view. Even as we’ve got older, it’s something that we think is unique and special.”
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