[The Soup Nazi]

 

On October 21st, Sub Pop Records will release Start Together, a 3,000-copy limited edition deluxe vinyl box set comprised of remastered editions of Sleater-Kinney's seven studio albums spanning 1995 to 2005. The set will include all seven albums pressed on colored vinyl and is accompanied by a 44-page hardcover book featuring never-before-seen photos of the band, as well as a limited edition print. The remastered albums will be released individually on CD and black vinyl on the same day. All are available digitally on September 2nd.

The wildly acclaimed and influential band —formed in Olympia, Washington in 1994— consisted of Corin Tucker (vocals and guitar), Carrie Brownstein (guitar and vocals) and Janet Weiss (drums). Over the course of a breakneck seven albums in ten years, Sleater-Kinney took rock music in a new direction combining raw punk energy and an unabashedly political stance. Greil Marcus writing in TIME Magazine called Sleater-Kinney "America's best rock band" and Rob Sheffield said they're "America's best punk band ever. EVER" in Rolling Stone.

Greg Calbi (Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon, Talking Heads) at Sterling Sound has remastered these albums from the original analog tapes. "For such ferocious music, it was actually a very delicate process," says Calbi. "I found, in dealing with one of the earlier albums, that my signal path and compression, including my Burl B2 convertor, gave me a more resonant, deeper sound on the guitars than the originals. Because the band rarely, if ever, used bass, I felt that this added to the aggressiveness and power of the band overall. I believe this treatment added a subtle, yet important, dimension to the band, and I explored each of the other albums with the same intention. Above all, their music, from inception, stands the test of time for the cleverness and emotional impact they brought to their genre."

The box set is now available to pre-order from Sub Pop Mega Mart. The remastered catalog is also available to purchase immediately from iTunes, Amazon, and Sub Pop Mega Mart. Fans who pre-order the box set from Sub Pop Mega Mart will receive immediate access to download high-quality remastered files of all the albums.

Remastered albums:
Sleater-Kinney (1995)
Call The Doctor (1996)
Dig Me Out (1997)
The Hot Rock (1999)
All Hands On The Bad One (2000)
One Beat (2002)
The Woods (2005)

http://sleater-kinney.com/
https://megamart.subpop.com/releases...start_together

All I can say is if the remastered The Woods is any louder than the original not only will my speakers blow up, but I think I'll leave the whole building without electricity. Not that I'd complain. Bring it ON.

 

[Savage Clone]

Did they overdub new vocals from a singer that is not a goat?

[!@#$%!]

nice fetish object

unfortunately i'm saving up for a chainsaw, so...

the chainsaw is LOUDER than any record though

it also runs on fossil fuels

Originally Posted by Savage Clone

Did they overdub new vocals from a singer that is not a goat?

HEY!!!

them's fighting words

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

I saw this.on carrie's twitter.. it feels right. In all actuality sleater-kinney were the "biggest" indir band from the riot grrl.scene and everyone here.knows my bias but I say they were the best when taking into.consideration all factors. I undetstand this is also getting released as a CD set too.. I trip out on reflection, its been 8 years since they broke up and wildflag/corin tucker banf tours.has made it hard to think its been that long.. since its been that long they are worthy of a box set, the first record is 20 years old, and so an enirely new generation, particularly young women who have beyonce gyrations as their sarah mccloclan need it more than we did. The high school people I work with today NEED to find this music and branch off from there, sadly we're all old nough now that our music is "classic" and kids get into it today like we all got into 60s and 70s music. Unfortunately sometimes kids discover the wrong shit. SEVERAL teenagers have,told me they like linkin park like it was some lost gem and im like, "facepalm."

[keep poppin pimples]

i'm not going to buy this but it's obviously awesome. kinda wish there was a cheaper, non-limited, black wax version

[pantophobia]

there is, the colored vinyl is only for the box set, you can buy the individual LPs on Black Vinyl

[evollove]

I might get the first album, actually. I always thought it was way too wimpy. Ten bucks for a digital download is fine with me.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by evollove

I might get the first album, actually. I always thought it was way too wimpy. Ten bucks for a digital download is fine with me.

their first one was pre-janet and not quite up to par with the rest. i think of it as a rehearsal of sorts, and call the doctor as the real explosion.

i already have all their stuff in either CD or vinyl so i won't re-buy but i was wondering what people would make of a headline like sleater kinney remastered by a man, ha ha ha.

shit, now i really want to hear the remasters (gender politics aside...)

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

nice fetish object

unfortunately i'm saving up for a chainsaw, so...

the chainsaw is LOUDER than any record though

 

"Better to play it when it's not running." —Richard Thompson

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

I actually like self titled better than call the doctor... my ranking 1hot rock 2dig me out 3woods 4 one beat 5 all hands on the bad one 6 st 7 call the doctor but fucking shit making that list was like splitting the baby!

[keep poppin pimples]

Originally Posted by pantophobia

there is, the colored vinyl is only for the box set, you can buy the individual LPs on Black Vinyl

well i'm only talking about the box set. i care about getting a book a lot and not very much about remastering

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by keep poppin pimples

not very much about remastering

Agreed, in fact I DON'T want remastered anything, well, ok, possibly a remastered The Woods because contrary to popular opinion the mix on that is total shit.

[keep poppin pimples]

Originally Posted by evollove

I might get the first album, actually. I always thought it was way too wimpy. Ten bucks for a digital download is fine with me.

but how good can the remaster be if the source recordings are really lo-fi? i don't doubt it's better but i'd be curious how much it will improve. i don't have that lp anyways so maybe i'll get it and compare with the cd.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Interestingly looking at the remastered release of the 4-track home recording of The Spells record Age of Backwards with four unreleased tracks that Carrie put out on her NPR blog back in 2009 surprisingly a lot can be done. However, I don't think its really necessary for any S-K records aside from The Woods, and in truth the Woods isn't really too bad, though it really could have been much better

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

Agreed, in fact I DON'T want remastered anything, well, ok, possibly a remastered The Woods because contrary to popular opinion the mix on that is total shit.

Uhhh... Shit, I guess I'm finally "popular opinion" on something! I LOVE The Woods' sound, which for all its massive obliterating might is rather natural, really - the explosion of taking (almost) everything to the max, not the product of artificial digital distortion like in Iggy Pop's 1997 remix of Raw Power. It's kinda impressive, in fact, that people still wonder whether the copy they got of the final Sleater-Kinney album may be "defective", 36 years (!) after The Modern Dance and 46 (!!) after White Light/White Heat, among other "there's noise all over this, you better check your masters" landmarks.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

Uhhh... Shit, I guess I'm finally "popular opinion" on something! I LOVE The Woods' sound, which for all its massive obliterating might is rather natural, really - the explosion of taking (almost) everything to the max, not the product of artificial digital distortion like in Iggy Pop's 1997 remix of Raw Power. It's kinda impressive, in fact, that people still wonder whether the copy they got of the final Sleater-Kinney album may be "defective", 36 years (!) after The Modern Dance and 46 (!!) after White Light/White Heat, among other "there's noise all over this, you better check your masters" landmarks.

Sorry my SK brotha, I love analog recording particularly of distorted guitar more than probably anyone on the forum but there is a world of difference between "lo-fi" and simply a "shit mix down".. on the Woods its not the recording quality itself that upsets me, its the totally unbalanced mix down. The guitar levels are continually off and dont match each other and the vocals sound muted half the time and blaringly too loud on others! To be sure, I still lovre this record and had it #3 on my SK rankings but whenever I listen to it I cant help but wonder how much better it could have been with a more balanced mix down. Again, its not about lo-fi vs overproduced, its not about analog vs digital, its about shit mixing vs balanced mixing. As we woulld say live on stage to the soundboy in the dancehall, "said I don't want no ice cream sound cuz its too soft for me," concluded with, "ring the alarm, another song is dying."

[keep poppin pimples]

i kinda like the woods sound. but i can't understand the f'ing lyrics


also sleater-kinney is a pretty cool road as well as band

[evollove]

But do we all agree that All Hands and One Beat sound fine--crystal clear, really? A re-mastering doesn't feel like and urgent necessity for those.

Hot Rock? I like it a lot, but I can see how I could like it more with a good remastering. I'm curious about this one.

And Call's sludge is part of its perfection, so no thank you to a remaster. Wish they'd release it on a beat-up cassette.

[Severian]

I used to be one of those really devout S-K show goers. The kind who would correct strangers who I'd overhear mispronouncing Corin's name.

(Actually, I used to larf my fucking ass off at those snooty little taints; there were MANY of them, and they would actually get angry, as though someone was having sex on the grave of their grandmother... I could never let that kind of unabashed humorlessness go un-ridiculed)

But I was a major Sleater-Kinney fan. Too major. Too close. I ended up completely overdoing their music, and their live shows became about as exciting as a trip to the can.

One Beat was the last album I really went nuts over. I don't even remember what half the songs on it actually sound like at this point. But The Woods did kind of eclipse it from memory, once I got the groove of the album down.
So, I guess I'm happy for you guys. It's great that you're all so excited. But I own these LP's, and cd's... I feel no need to own them some more for a bunch of money.

Now, I DO wish the Número Group's Unwound boxes were available on CD. I bought Kid is Gone on LP, and picked up the CD promo 13-song sampler, as well as the RSD bonus release... But I haven't been able to bring myself to throw down for Rat Conspiracy, though I'm sure I will.

The Woods is an interesting topic. I was disappointed by it at the time, but now it feels like the best record to go out on. It hinted at entirely new levels of sonic insanity for the band. It sounds out of place in their catalogue, and makes one wonder what would have followed it had they stayed together. But shit-- that's what all the best final albums do, isn't it? Make you beg for more while putting an irrefutable period at the end of their story.

My fave is Dig Me Out, for its post-punk (almost no-wavey) greusome death stomp. Then Call the Doc, Woods, Hot Rock & One Beat. For what it's worth. S/t and bad one are records for a specific kind of mood that I haven't been in for a very very long time.

[evollove]

Post-obsession ennui? Fair enough. They are easy to get very passionate about.

I always forget about Dig Me Out. Maybe because I'm the only one on the planet who doesn't really like it. Only four or so good songs to my ears.

I once put together a version of the Woods consisting of live performances. Yes, much ass it kicked. Put the album to shame.

PS- Listening to "Start Together" right now. Holy shit. I've heard it a thousand times and still holy shit.

If we judge bands by their best work, S-K is truly glorious.