DEFER YOUR ENTHUSIASM (22)
By:
June 21, 2025
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, analyzing and celebrating our favorite… late-breaking obsessions, avoided discoveries, and devotions delayed! Series edited by Adam McGovern.
In 2011, a billboard hovered over the interstate advertising Diet Dr. Pepper with the slogan: “UNBELIEVABLY SATISFYING.” It was around this time I encountered “The Fox” by Sleater-Kinney. And dear God was this song unbelievably satisfying.
But that was that. I didn’t listen to Sleater-Kinney again until 2024. Maybe because by then I knew I needed something unbelievably satisfying. Both my parents had cancer and the year was filled with ER visits, surgeries, overnights in hospitals, and days of malaise; a fast descent. Somewhere in there, I looked up that song: “The Fox”.
It hit. Just like back in 2011. “The Fox” is the first song off Sleater-Kinney’s seventh album, The Woods, which I began listening to on loop. I decided I’d move backwards, learning their albums one at a time in reverse.
I was on One Beat — which is great — when I met up with my friend, an only child like me, and a singer/songwriter (which I’m not; just a drummer). I said I was listening to Sleater-Kinney and, of course, his reaction was like, “Sure! But why now?”
I told him why, then added that I was working backwards.
“Let me know when you get to Dig Me Out.”
(Six months later, when I got to Dig Me Out, I felt… old. The album’s so fast and aggressive — which I do like — but it’s often too much for me. Corin Tucker even sings about it in “Words and Guitar,” dreaming of writing “quiet” and “pretty songs” but she must dictate “the noise” in her head.)
But that was later. After One Beat, I listened to All Hands on the Bad One. The overlapping vocals are like an organism; Carrie Brownstein’s and Tucker’s disparate guitar parts (no bass) fit together like puzzle pieces; and Janet Weiss is my favorite kind of drummer: loud, specific, weird, with minimal improvisation. The album overflows with ideas.
Around Christmastime, my dad — who was still encouraged to bike by his doctors — got hit by a car; he survived, but some of his ribs broke, so on top of the chemo treatment, he could barely move or sleep and screamed out in the night. I remember on Christmas Eve, driving to pick up some thyme for my mom and blasting Sleater-Kinney, and it occurred to me, is this weird? Like this was an undeniably depressing Christmas and any minute alone, I spent coating my brain with this kinetic music. Was it a kind of armor? Maybe. I’ve always found this go-go-go music to be relaxing, whether it’s jazz or metal, it’s this feeling of: “Don’t worry. They’ve got it covered.”
The Hot Rock, their fourth album, may be my favorite. Same interlocking guitars and constant duets; it rocks, as usual, but there’s more tenderness. The title track, the last track, and especially, the ballad. (There’s usually one ballad.)
“Our love is the size of these tumors inside us.” I’ve cried more than once listening to this song. “Our love is the size of this hospital room,” winter coats filling the chair, standing there while the doctor comes in and talks to my mom. “Days go by so… slowly; nights go by so… slowly.” How does this band know about slowness? They’ve been the ones keeping me going! “In a hospital room, in a box built for two.”
There’s one more album to go before Sleater-Kinney. Their first. The end is coming — unless I move forward, which I don’t want to do. Solo albums and their reunion without Janet Weiss. I want things to stay good and for them to stay together. I want the band to get better, not worse. Or if not better, newer, younger.
DEFER YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Adam McGovern | Mandy Keifetz on FAITH | Heather Quinlan on THE GRATEFUL DEAD | Carlo Rotella on SMOOTHER GROOVES | Art Wallace on MICHIGAN | Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons on TAYLOR SWIFT | Josh Glenn on ART | James Scott Maloy on BE-BOP DELUXE | Jake Zucker on LIGHT SLEEPER | Gabriela Pedranti on THE BIG BANG THEORY | Adam McGovern on DOGS | Tana Sirois on COLLABORATIVE EVOLUTION | Rani Som on LED ZEP | Holly Interlandi on HOT SAUCE | Jeff Lewonczyk on TWIN PEAKS | Nikhil Singh on PRE-TEEN DAVID LYNCH PROBLEMS | Christopher Rashee Stevenson on O’NEILL & THE SEA | Fran Pado on SHARKS | Juan Recondo on BEN GRIMM’S INNER LIFE | Miranda Mellis on KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD | Mimi Lipson on SOBRIETY | William Nericcio on ELYSIUM | Crockett Doob on SLEATER-KINNEY | Marlon Stern Lopez on PAT THE BUNNY | Crystal Durant on SEX AND THE CITY | Wendy Chin-Tanner on MY PARENTS’ ART STORE.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!