Olympian heroes

Which is one reason Sleater-Kinney's more self-referential songs, about being an all-woman band, excite me more than they bother me. My God, this band wants to take over the fucking world! I kind of thought so the first time I saw Brownstein up there on stage, standing with her legs splayed and yet looking completely feminine in the best sense -- you know, a little like Keith Richards in a button-down oxford. Weiss gives the lie to the dopey idea that women can't be great drummers because of limited upper-body strength. And Tucker -- well, I feared for her vocal chords the first time I heard her, I thought surely she'd just rip them to shreds. These girls just meant business.

But back to "All Hands on the Bad One." This is the sound of a band with a very certain sense of their place in the world. There's that line from "Male Model": "History will have to find a different face/And if you're ready for more/I just might be what you're looking for." It's not so different, really, from the sexual boasting of blues performers, a tradition that's as old as the hills. Or the cockiness of jazz musicians challenging each other to "cutting contests" -- one doing his damnedest to outdo the other. We're not all that used to hearing women doing it.

I guess if they're still doing it a lot on the next record, I'll be more worried.

Stark: The thing is, right now Sleater-Kinney aren't part of any real movement, mostly because the original riot grrls from which they sprang were smart enough and self-conscious enough to stopgap whatever they'd started before it dumbed down into parody. That shouldn't be a problem, of course, because great art is great art, but I'm worried about it. Because rock teaches us the same lessons over and over again, and one of them is that the iconoclasts get brushed aside for far too long, while those who figurehead something bigger than their own band get rich and famous.

And the thing is, I want Sleater-Kinney to be rich and famous. I want them to win, to make a difference. And I think they do too. "Now is the time to invent," screams Tucker on "#1 Must Have." Yeah, of course, but why not just do so?

Zacharek: Yeah, but see, I'm not so sure that the iconoclasts necessarily do get pushed aside. OK, they do if you're talking about Captain Beefheart. But what about Bob Dylan? There's a case of an iconoclast striking a chord with a huge number of people. It kind of defies the odds, but there's no denying it. And I wonder if Sleater-Kinney can't have it every which way, too -- maintain their dignity and their originality, but also figure into something much bigger. And make lots of money.

I understand why that line, "Now is the time to invent," bothers you -- it does sound like Tucker's making too many announcements about what should be done. I loved riot grrl, and the idea of riot grrl. And like you, I was glad that as a "movement" it just slipped off the horizon instead of turning itself into a joke. But I can't say that it spawned as many great girl bands as I'd hoped. I think its influence is still out there in a big way, certainly with Sleater-Kinney. But Sleater-Kinney is still the one band you point to when you're looking for an all-woman band that actually devoted some time and care into really learning how to play.

Not that knowing how to play is everything. Good Lord, over the years enough boys have gotten away without knowing how and nobody ever complained. But when somebody just sounds better and better with each subsequent record, as Sleater-Kinney do, you do get the sense that they're devoted to what they're doing. It isn't just a pose, or a way to get girls, boys, whatever. Nothing wrong with any of that, but you want the records and the live performances to sound good too, right? And I never feel that Sleater-Kinney let down their half of the bargain.

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