Carrie Brownstein is a Portland-based guitarist, vocalist, and actor, best known for starting the legendary riot grrrl punk band Sleater-Kinney with Corin Tucker, and for her role alongside Fred Armisen in the iconic TV sketch snow Portlandia. Since 1994 Sleater-Kinney has released 10 studio albums to widespread critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone declaring them the “best american punk rock band ever. EVER.” in 2006. Long known for their outspoken feminism, Sleater-Kinney’s socially conscious lyrics are perhaps more apt than ever in their highly anticipated upcoming studio album, Little Rope, out January 19th. You can listen to the first three singles, “Untidy Creature,” “Say It Like You Mean it,” and “Hell,” now. Lucky for us, Carrie is here to tell us what she’s been into.
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Real Life, Modern Romance, Lost in America, Defending Your Life. That quartet of films possesses so much DNA that I witness in today’s comedy. I love Brooks’ melding of earnest, trenchant, and silly. He’s always exploring the pitfalls of idealism and exposing self-awareness as a curse. Yet his films aren’t cynical, they’re heartfelt.
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I know, it’s obnoxious to be part of this trendy bandwagon. For all I know, you’re someone who has called to complain about the sound of people playing the game, which I’ve heard happens in certain neighborhoods. I get it. It’s essentially very loud and very big ping pong. If I can make one argument for taking up the sport, I’d say it’s that the age range of people with whom you hang out will expand greatly. The other day, I played with a 10-year old, a 30-year old, and a 70-year old. Plus, it’s a real-life interaction, and it’s easy to come up short on those sometimes.
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I’ve never understood why this band is relatively obscure in America. Amber Webber is one of my favorite contemporary vocalists; her voice has body and ooze and just generally captures that forlorn hauntedness I like in a singer. “Antonia Jane” is a song I return to annually, then listen to on repeat for a few weeks. Their latest album, Nostalgia Killer, has another song that sounds like an instant classic called “Wrecked.” Lightning Dust started out as an offshoot of Black Mountain, who have more psychedelic leanings and who are worth checking out as well. Basically, take a figurative musical detour to Vancouver BC and see what’s going on.
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Julia Davis and Vicky Pepperdine are absolutely mental. And brilliant. And I probably laugh out loud more at this than anything else. So, if you like your comedy dark, like a cave or a hotel room with blackout curtains, this is for you. It’s essentially an advice podcast, where the questions are fake and the answers are shocking. Plus, you learn about the sordid lives of Joan and Jericha along the way.
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If someone asked me to list the greatest living American novelists, Ward would be in my Top 5. Sing, Unburied, Sing is an absolute stunner, both lived-in and otherworldly, such aching and beautiful prose. And Ward can be blunt too, evincing the steps and steepness of life. Her most recent novel, Let Us Descend, is profound and painful, the story of an enslaved girl, of conjured humanity despite brutal circumstances. I love how Ward’s stories fuse generations, those living and beyond; I’m always transfixed as a reader.
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