The first thing you hear on Corin Tucker’s new album is a distorted roar, something along the lines of Johnny Marr’s “How Soon Is Now?” guitar shudder, a familiar sound packed with big, noisy possibility. The sound is quickly put in its place by what comes next: an acoustic guitar, whose rhythmic strum relegates the would-be noise to little more than background. “And I’m alive after a thousand years,” coos Tucker, kicking off a song and an album that carefully leaves the clamor in the dust.
It’s a fitting start for Tucker’s first record since the disbanding of Sleater-Kinney, the late riot grrrl miracle group known far and wide for their roar. Over Sleater-Kinney’s ferociously intricate racket, created by guitarist/vocalist Carrie Brownstein, drummer Janet Weiss, and her own noisy guitar, Tucker unleashed the band’s primary identifier—a penetrating vibrato wail that repelled some and thrilled more. For the latter, Tucker’s howl was a sound we’d waited our whole lives to hear. Unshakably robust and distinctly feminine, Tucker’s powerhouse voice is reminiscent of Go-Go’s-era Belinda Carlisle, if Carlisle hadn’t been driven to bury all her love, lust, hope, fear, and anger under mountains of coke. Tucker howled her way around the globe with Sleater-Kinney until the band amicably went on hiatus in 2005.
Since then, Carrie Brownstein has devoted herself to radio journalism and music writing with NPR, and sketch comedy with Fred Armisen. Janet Weiss has recorded and toured with Quasi and Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. More recently, Brownstein and Weiss formed the band Wild Flag with Mary Timony of Helium and Rebecca Cole of the Minders. Meanwhile, Corin Tucker has spent her days as a stay-at-home mom in Portland, where she lives with her filmmaker husband, Lance Bangs, and their two young children. And so things proceeded until March of last year, when a benefit show for Portland’s “independent press emporium” Reading Frenzy brought Tucker back to the stage, where she performed early versions of three new songs and soon found herself back in the thick of it. “Kill Rock Stars asked me about making an album, but I just wasn’t sure,” Tucker tells me over the phone. “So I thought about it for a while and said, ‘I’m not gonna be able to tour very much,’ and they said, ‘Well, what if you did a handful of shows?’ and I said, ‘I could do that…’ There was a negotiation process.”
The end result: 1,000 Years, the new album by the Corin Tucker Band, in which Tucker is joined by drummer Sara Lund (formerly of Unwound) and multi-instrumentalist/producer Seth Lorinczi of the Golden Bears. Lorinczi also served as the record’s de facto musical director, supplying Tucker with a world of sounds, from lush strings and lone piano to the occasional glitchy synth beat. The core instruments remain guitars and drums, but as often as not, the guitars are acoustic, infusing this self-described “middle-aged mom record” with an audible maturity.
In Sleater-Kinney, cowriters Tucker and Brownstein never stopped chasing each other to higher levels of intensity and concision, sometimes collapsing two songs on top of each other and playing both at once (see The Hot Rock‘s awesome “Burn, Don’t Freeze!”). By comparison, the songs on 1,000 Years are conventional, with straightforward verse-bridge-chorus structures marching past in an orderly fashion for the requisite three and a half minutes (some of the best Sleater-Kinney songs didn’t break two). But whatever the songs may lack in innovation is made up for in depth and focus, as Tucker casts a sharp eye over her life as “a 37-year-old parent” and one half of a marriage of artists whose work regularly restricts their opportunities to share a time zone. Distance—physical, emotional, temporal—is a recurring theme.
Still, compared with the gold standard of the “punk-goddess-turned-stay-at-home-mom-returns-with-solo-album” genre—Patti Smith’s immaculately produced, mystically inclined Dream of Life—Tucker’s 1,000 Years is scrappy and resolutely down-to-earth. The lyrics deal with the things of here and now—cupboards and winter coats, lost jobs and distant lovers—and the record’s sound is pure basement simplicity.
Having been told of Seth Lorinczi’s hands-on direction of 1,000 Years‘ music, I ask if any of his suggestions made Tucker itchy. She immediately recounts two: “With the song ‘Dragon,’ he said, ‘What if we really make this an acoustic song—just acoustic guitars with strings added?’ and I was like, ‘Okay…’ So, yeah, just singing while playing acoustic guitar and just going for it—that’s very itchy. And ‘Half a World Away’ was a song I’d written as a totally slow ballad, and Seth was like, ‘I really think this song is a rock song.’ I was like, ‘No, no, no, no, NO!’ and totally resisted until he begged to just once try it fast. As soon as we started playing it, I knew he was totally right.”
Ironically, this Lorinczi-juiced rock version of “Half a World Away” is 1,000 Years‘ most Sleater-Kinney-ish track, with guitar arpeggios and an angular beat that hark back to the band’s 2002 release One Beat. But instead of Sleater-Kinney’s concentrated blast, the Corin Tucker Band flesh out the song with roomier garage-style rock ‘n’ roll, laced with artsy found percussion. Elsewhere the record offers orchestral pop (“It’s Always Summer”), slamming rock (the lead single “Doubt”), and a full-on piano ballad (the gorgeous closer “Miles Away”). The whole thing sounds like an exemplary version of just what it is: a world-class talent taking a break from full-time motherhood to bang out some beautiful music with her friends.
I mention the pleasure of getting young parents out of the house for a night, where their days spent tending to the minute-by-minute needs of others make them ferociously ready to Have Fun Now.
“Totally,” says Tucker. “All three of us are parents with little kids, who put a lot of really wonderful time and energy into it. We all love it, but when we had our time together, it was intense—intense!—and really fun.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” I say, “but this is both your first band with a bassist and first band with a dude, right?”
“Exactly!” Tucker says. “Two dudes now—we have Seth, who’ll play guitar and keyboards live, and then we have Mike Clark, who’s going to play bass live. It’s so fun.”
I ask her how her 9-year-old son has responded to seeing mom back at work. “It’s like any job,” she says. “It’s ‘mom’s thing,’ mom’s job, so he finds it tremendously boring.”
Does he have his own musical tastes yet?
“He loves the Misfits and Green Day. And I bought him an Operation Ivy album for his birthday. That was my contribution.”
I mention how difficult it would be to refrain from bossiness during a child’s musical development.
“There’s always a chance it’s gonna backfire,” Tucker tells me. “I try to introduce different things with a very light touch.” 
This article has been updated since its original publication.
So this has Corin Tucker and one of Unwound & one of Circus Lupus.
Here is my money.
sorry, in all my interactions with Corin, she’s always come off as arrogant and once acted rather put-off that a guy was telling her how awesome her voice was. i’ve since changed my mind on that assessment of her vocal talents. she goes off about how good a singer she is on a documentary called “Don’t need you: the HERstory of Riot GRRRL” she’s in…totally full of herself, but trying to play it off. Jello Biafra sings with a ton of vibrato too, Corin, you’re not unique.
too bad too, i used to like her and her music, but i can’t deal with inflated egos like that.
It’s odd how she is looking to the hard right in just about every photo I have seen of her in the past 10 years. Maybe she’s trying to get some kind of patent on eyeball rolling?
#2, that comment made me laugh. Is she the only musician you’ve ever met or something? Because you just described most of the famous musicians I’ve ever spoken to. I think that when it comes to being a musician, having a bit of an attitude or ego is what contributes to having great stage presence and swagger.
On the contrary, arrogance is what makes great musicians (and people) mediocre.
Arrogance really makes people mediocre,people with arrogance will not be success
I’ve never met Corin Tucker, but from seeing her live and listening to her albums – she is not mediocre. Arrogant or not, she is very talented, both as a songwriter and as a singer.
I don’t think arrogance is necessary for good stage presence though. There is a difference between confidence and arrogance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lDJZJRXw…
This is the interview from that movie. You think her saying “Striking vocals are part of our sound” and “I have the natural ability to sing really prettily, but…” constitutes arrogance or her being full of herself? Really? To me it sounded like she was asked about her instrument and she was explaining her technique and how she developed her sound.
She’s definitely a very serious person from an educated background, but this interview shows her as being more thoughtful in her responses than arrogant. I was never a big S-K fan because I thought they were soooo serious, but I’d still way rather watch them than someone like Cat Power who hides behind her hair and acts like she needs a hug.
HER MUSIC SUCKS! (buts its ok because shes from the nw right)
@5 and @6 you guys are super boring and mediocre and I bet you don’t have the balls to even sing karaoke let alone form a band or do something else amazing. Go back and log in to Second Life where you’re someone. I don’t dig her music but she’s doing something. Are you?
Bonus for those who showed up: Eddie Vedder went onstage for a song during the encore.
obviously, virginia, you are a fan of hers. so was i. once.
cute little remark about her being the only musician i’ve ever met, though, thanks!
she is not my first, thank god, or last. however at that time they weren’t that “famous.” good for you for meeting so many famous musicians to compare her to, though! (please, tell us more!)
yeah, that’s a clip of the documentary about the Riot GRRRL movement where she talks about her voice. YES, she is responding to someone asking about her voice, BUT she also does say, after she says that she could just “naturally sing prettily”, that “I could have sounded…normal.” (but, she was too good for that, and she needed to have an edge!) and SHE DID end up sounding like Jello Biafra in the end. it worked, don’t get me wrong. i still have their albums, but i’ve run into her more than once and wasn’t impressed with how she dealt with her male fans. i’ve met a few musicians in my time, famous and not, but she was the one that disappointed me the most. that’s all i was saying.
Sleater Kinney is one of my favorite bands, and yes, they are a gaggle of arrogant shits.
I met them at a signing and wanted to punch Carrie in the eye.
Doesn’t mean they don’t fucking shred better than any boy band out there.
Also, there was a tiny little girl there and the band lavished here with attention. It was great to see the positive girl empowerment. So whatevs.
@10 Way to be that guy.
@13, FTW.
#12, I still don’t see how being a musician and not wanting to sound normal constitutes arrogance. Why wouldn’t you work to better your abilities? Why is wanting to be a more unique singer and do more with what you’re given an arrogant or snotty thing? Of course, no matter what you do you might end up sounding like someone else, but just talking about how you worked to improve your skills makes you arrogant? That doesn’t make sense to me.
I’m not saying they aren’t arrogant in other ways, since I don’t know them, but the example you’ve provided doesn’t sound anything like arrogance and frankly comes off as a bit sexist, which is why I’m harping on this, not because I’m a fan of the band. I assume you aren’t intentionally sexist, given you watch Riot Grrl movies, but I do wonder if you’d view Corin’s comments less critically if they were made by a male musician. Because it sounds like you’re confusing assertive and opinionated with arrogant here.
@12 – If you have listened to any of their music at all…you might understand why Corin might not swoon because some dude with a dick can discern the difference between SK and Avril Lavigne. Bully for you. You have a penis…yet you STILL like SK! Shouldn’t you get some credit for that? STFU.
They can’t drink worth a damn.
<3 corin! <3 sara! i don’t know who the other people are but i love these ladies.
*yawn* at the complainy complainers!
Her music sucks. Brownstein from Sleater-Kinney’s doing some tv show about Portland. Ugh.
This whole crew of people is just a bunch of vapid trendsters that would get laughed at anywhere else than the NW. For some reason, once it gets a PDX/Oly/Seattle ‘stamp of approval’, it doesn’t have to have much except a vague (and muted) sense of outrage, 3 chords, and some lyrics/liner notes cribbed from actual writers.
Only fun to listen to if you’re shopping for a strap-on or vegan burger patties.
wow.
“You have a penis…yet you STILL like SK! Shouldn’t you get some credit for that? STFU.”
i have their albums, as i’ve said before. i got them signed by the band after attending a few of their shows. it was my interactions then that helped me form my current opinion about Corin. you respond by basically calling me a “cock, male, oppressor!” and then, essentially, telling me to shove it. (although not quite so eloquently.)
the Riot GRRRL movement wasn’t supposed to be about being “anti-boy,” but being “pro-girl.” the “anti-boy” theme just kept bustin’ out though, in some of the artists and LOTS of the fans. you have successfully represented the WORST part of the movement and the reason why it eventually lost steam.
What an absolute disappointment this show was. Man we are so broke ass and saved our $15 up to see this show. Oh god my heart breaks at the mediocre adult contemporary crap she spewed all night.
It was all over the moment Eddie Vedder walked out.
The whole thing was just sad, oh so sad! What happens to people when they have kids? It all turns to crap.