The Woods

Artist: Sleater-Kinney
Released: 2005

You remember that scene in “Romancing the Stone,” the one where Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas are sitting in a wreck of an airplane and Douglas finds an old issue of Rolling Stone? He flips through it and suddenly shouts, “Shit, the Doobie Brothers broke up!” That’s how I felt last Tuesday upon learning of Sleater-Kinney’s “indefinite hiatus.” I could go on and on about the beauty of their interlocking guitars, Janet Weiss’ thunderous drumming, the power of Corrin Tucker’s vocals and Carrie Brownstine’s counterpoint to them, the political and personal consciousness of their lyrics, and the holy hell their music raised both live and on record, but I won’t. Instead, I’ll simply say I loved them, and now their gone, just like everything else that runs its course.

Oh, The Woods. It’s their masterpiece, and the highest of notes to leave on. If you don’t own it, buy it, then pickup Dig Me Out, and Call the Doctor and…