Sleater-Kinney new Album "The Center Won't Hold"

I'm there with you. I think I'm getting off the train. I didn't like the new material at all and now the loss of Janet is too much. I've always been more a fan of Corin and Janet within the band, but Carrie is certainly the most famous member now and maybe that has just changed things.

 

Maybe she.will hook up with Mary Timony again.

 

I know they had a different drummer early on, but at this point I can't even imagine what their older stuff would sound like with a different drummer. I'm really bummed as I had tickets in October.

Maybe this isn't on par with the Styx "Mr. Roboto" tour debacle, but i fear they're gonna play the new album and not much else now.

 

I'd like that, but not sure what kind of terms they're on. When Wild Flag broke up, Janet said something along the lines of "It's hard to be a band when one of the people is a 5 hour plane ride away."

I also love Ex Hex....so would rather see them keep going on.

 

Exactly. I know she isn't the original drummer but every time I saw them live was with Janet and to me, S-K will always be Janet, Corin and Carrie. Putting two and two together, the Fallon performance seemed a little machine-like on the drums and Janet seemed a little disinterested (though this may entirely be me altering my memories of the song given today's news). I do remember thinking the song didn't give Janet a chance to show off. My guess is that they want to go in a direction in which they want a precision, drum machine like sound and Janet, as creatively restless as she is, was like, "forget that, anyone can play to a click track".

 

This happens to nearly every band that lasts for a long time.

 

At least when Gerard Love left Teenage Fanclub, they didn't sell tour tour tickets before his departure. I bought tickets to multiple shows to the upcoming S-K tour. Feeling a bit manipulated, if not ripped off.

 

It's totally fair to feel disappointed, but I'm not sure it's a rip-off. Reading between the lines, it seems Janet might have hit a tipping point, previously having tried to keep the faith. I highly doubt they intentionally misled fans by holding this news back until after the tickets went on sale.

 

I agree with this. That she made the album
and did the Fallon appearance suggests that she was planning to stay in the group, despite whatever reservations she may have had about the new direction. Agree that today’s announcement reflects someone who hit a tipping point, for whatever reason.

 

It just seems to be terrible timing for the band, after the album and really soon before the tour. I can't imagine any band would plan this kind of personnel loss smack dab in the middle of a media blitz for a new album and right before a tour. There might even be more to the story.

 

Wow... all this over the drummer? Not one of the lead front people... so I guess I just don't get all the fuss. As I said, I've never really listened to them much before this, but I like what I've heard so far, so I guess -- they will gain some fans, and lose some others...

 

You might feel differently if you bought tickets to eight shows up and down the West Coast like I did. And the tickets only went on sale in the last 10 days. My zeal, to say the least, has been severely tempered.

 

It caused a big fuss when Bill Berry, Keith Moon, and John Bonham left their bands too.

 

Don't get me wrong, I would be more than a little torqued off if I had bought tickets for one show, let along eight! Not trying to minimize that in the least, just saying that I don't think the band intentionally misled anyone by holding back this news for after the ticket sales.

 

Without Janet everything from Dig Me Out to now wouldn’t be what it is.

 

As I saw someone put it on Twitter this afternoon, Janet was the Dave Grohl of Sleater-Kinney: she wasn’t their first drummer, but she was the secret weapon that pushed the entire band to a new level when she joined.

 

Yep, I don't see these gals coming out and playing "Step Aside" on the upcoming tour, for example.

 

It’s not that her parts are that complex per se but watch in this clip how she really is the glue that holds em together, drives them, pulls back. This isn’t something you can just plug Kenny aronoff back there and expect no one will notice

 

Amazing how she pushes the band forward. Very sad she´s leaving home.
And I don´t really like what I have listened from the new album, but I´ll buy it anyway since SK is one of my favorite bands. I´m sure Janet is leaving because there are things she can´t stand no more.

 

yeah they did - australian tour was announced and on sale before the confirmation that love was leaving was announced

 

not the same band without janet. if you haven't seen them live you can't fully grasp what a force she is.

 

......and Bun E. Carlos.

 

Some losses are felt differently. R.E.M. could still sound like themselves without Bill when they wanted to — it hurt the songwriting/editing more than anything.

 

As someone who has listened to them since the very beginning, of course this is a big deal. If you like this garbage they've just released then more power to ya.

 

I am familiar with Sleater-Kinney but can’t say I heard much of their music. Having said this after the story broke about Weiss leaving I checked out the video of the band on the Tonight show from two weeks ago and watched the video above. Man, there is a world of difference, on the Letterman show she is the pulse of the band. On the Fallon show, she looked liked she would rather be anywhere else.