'THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF OUR BAND IS TWO GUITARS'

Sleater-Kinney were making bass-less records long before the White Stripes and the Black Keys came along. Says co-leader Carrie Brownstein, "The power comes from the conversation the guitars are having with each other."

- JENNA SCARAMANGA

When Sleater-Kinney emerged amid the '90s riot-grrrl movement, they stood out as a group of three young women making explosive records fueled by rage. The trio's new effort, Little Rope (Loma Vista), is barely less explosive but fueled primarily by a different emotion: grief. Sleater-Kinney were midway through the songwriting process when guitarist Carrie Brownstein learned that her mother and stepfather had been killed in a car accident while on holiday in Italy.

On this new album, Brownstein and fellow guitarist/vocalist Corin Tucker manifest all the feelings of loss in sounds that range from thundering to delicate. Now 30 years into their career, Tucker's monumental voice is more than equal to the task, and both guitarists wrestle their Gibsons into tones both caustic and vulnerable.

For some, grieving is a process of disappearing into yourself, but for Brownstein, Little Rope is exactly the opposite. "We just wanted to make something that felt extroverted, that felt lively, and that felt like it was going to be a container for these big emotions and sounds," she says. "Usually our favorite records are something that's going to bring people in and create an environment where there's restlessness and urgency. Whether it was guitar tones or tempo, I think everything just had this energy to it."

Little Rope carries off the feat of being melodic and aggressive at the same time, thanks to the interplay between Brownstein and Tucker's guitar tones. "We were just getting tones that were really crunchy to layer underneath prettier tones," Brownstein explains. "Two pedals that we really toyed with a lot were the Expandora [fuzz] and the Jangle Box [compressor]. I used a lot of chorus. I like putting a little harmonizer on things, or phase, but I like stacking that over something that is very corrosive.