TS: Lindy Morrison vs Janet Weiss

so janet.

Janet Weiss is going to drum for Jon Spencer on his next tour and her band Quasi will open. This is per an IG post she did

love russell simins but that's a great match, maybe i will attend a jon spencer show in 2022?

Sam Coomes is in Jon Spencer & the HITmakers so now it's all of Quasi plus Spencer & Bob Bert (on trash)

Janet, dammit!

Yeah her feathery touch and restless syncopation is some of my favourite drumming.

I don't specifically remember her drumming on xpost Rachel Worth, but can't imagine that as a reason to not listen to/turn up your nose at the album: she's so great on Sleater-K records and show tapes, that her absence is my reason to not listen to/turn up my nose at S-K w/o her, so far.

Shit, glad to hear Janet got better, and psyched to hear what she brings to JSBX, though I already know it will be awesome. S-K minus Janet is not S-K and also why I pretend the current iteration of S-K is a different band, a la the Pixies, another band I simultaneously both love and ignore.

Jon Spencer & the HITmakers

xpost Yeah, that's the way I should think of post-J S-K, Josh; I did like some of the more recent Pixies shows online, even the album, though haven't listened in a long time. Also I shouldn't get worked up about beyond-predictable Old ILX put-downs of reliable artists.

loved that first Hitmakers album, will be very excited to see one of these gigs

i feel weird about post-janet SK too but they did do their first two albums without her

Rush made their first album without Neil Peart.

More big news in my world! Our Slang @RealSlang debut album will come out on @killrockstars 5/27/22 and you can pre-order it NOW. We can't wait for you to hear it @DrewGrow @kmfizzy #anitaelliott. Cover painting by Michael Brophy.https://t.co/w0DhPkV5ot

— Janet Weiss (@jazzzhand) February 16, 2022

Did Sam ever get a new Rock-Si-Chord?

Great news about the album, thanks! The other prob (becoming a prob per se in combination w 0 Weiss) was production of The Center Won't Hold by Annie Clark, whose own St. Vincent albs were getting to be too clever by 'alf, too hip, baby, with the tricked-out lyrics and arrangements, the surface-y distraction, no matter what deep themes she had in mind. Of course the appeal of S-K is like Bowie, wailin' and rockin' in the latest unfree little world of hard-edged stylization---so even some of the albums with Weiss were argued over among true fans, of course---but slick St. V. seemed like she might be inclined to over-encourage Brownstein x Tucker's studio preoccupations: so, her in, Weiss out, meant that I've stayed out too, so far.

(Not to say that I don't like some St. Vincent tracks, like the song to her mother, about loving her more than Jesus, but that was getting to be atypically direct and "simple," amidst getting-dated arch rock.)

The Center Won't Hold sounded like an album written in pieces separately, which is apparently how it worked - Corin & Carrie trading Logic Pro files long distance and it had more Brownstein-centered tracks. I don't think a different producer would have improved it tbh.

Supposedly it was Weiss’s idea to bring in Annie Clark to produce. That said, Weiss later said she felt like much of the album was recorded without her (Janet’s) input.

And speaking of S-K, I haven’t seen any mentions of their last record, apart from a handful of posts here. Was it met with a resounding “meh” (or was it widely hailed and I just missed it)?

Tracey Thorn's memoir about her friendship with Morrison is a gem.

XP It kind of just landed. There was a brief tour w/Wilco (rescheduled from 2020) and that was it, discourse-wise.

Xgau liked it.

Their worst album.

Wow, thanks for mentioning Thorn's book, looks amazing! https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/28/my-rocknroll-friend-by-tracey-thorn-review-lindy-morrison-go-betweens-friendship Could be, though, that if Thorn was in a band with Morrison, esp. but only long-term, she might find this "loose cannon" to be more problematic than a vicarious thrill and inspiring friend, if still not a full-fledged "fucking nightmare," as quoted from the band doc. Who knows, will have to read it.

xp Yeah, hadn't seen much about that, and hadn't thought to look.
Metacritic:
Metascore 78
Generally favorable reviews
based on 18 Critic Reviews
What's this?
User Score 6.2
Generally favorable reviews
based on 10 Ratings

Your Score
0
Summary: The 10th full-length studio release for the Portland, Oregon-based alternative rock duo was self-produced
https://www.metacritic.com/music/path-of-wellness/sleater-kinney

esp. but *not* only long-term, I meant to say.

I don’t know how I made my post appreciating Lindy seem like an endorsement of Janet but that’s what I get for posting when tired I guess.

ok no shade on Lindy Morrison but is everything Janet Weiss-related supposed to go on this thread?

Like, from the looks of it, this thread is mostly about how she is inferior to a different (also really good) drummer?

I will never not love Janet Weiss. 'twill never happen.

are there threads that discuss a dude drummer exclusively in terms of how he rates relative to a different dude drummer, not certain of this

It’s the only thread with Janet Weiss in the title. I haven’t read the old 2003 onward posts I must admit. If someone wants to start a new thread they can.

sorry curm, not trying to pick on you either, I understand expedience

There's a lot of pro-Janet, pro-Lindy content on here, past the early, Old ILX-predictable dismissals.

XP It kind of just landed. There was a brief tour w/Wilco (rescheduled from 2020) and that was it, discourse-wise.

Xgau liked it.

― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, February 16, 2022 6:10 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Their worst album.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, February 16, 2022 6:11 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I only heard a couple of songs, but they sounded aggressively average. And it seems like every S-K record from Dig Me Out through Center had boatloads of hype, press, and just general excitement surrounding their release; I thought it was a little odd (but telling) that so little attention was paid to this one.

There was pre-release hype & press! They filmed a special with an added-value (and unfortunately glitch-filled) livestream performance for Amazon, did a Tiny Desk concert, interviews etc.

...and then the album came out.

It went from Thought to Afterthought very quickly.

The Amazon special:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmbjdX1TJ6I

Thanks for posting that. The interviews and skits are more entertaining than the music. So much of what made them unique and exciting -- and I include Center in that, which may be my fave S-K record -- is gone. It's strange; now that they have the freedom to do many things that they couldn't with Janet (from their perspective, at least), they've chosen to be extremely dull. And some of that really is down to the drumming. Janet had that 6th sense of "this song needs to elevate slightly here," which whoever there drummer now is apparently doesn't have.

For whatever it's worth, Path is the first S-K record not to chart on the top 200 in the US since Dig Me Out. And Center hit #27.

OUCH @ that chart info.

FWIW, I think they did a Steely Dan thing and used different session players from song-to-song on the album, which I felt was alright, albeit their weakest since All Hands if not the debut; there's a lesser patch of songs starting in the middle up to near the end wherein Carrie & Corin each deliver their own killer final track (a funny byproduct of the problem of having two growingly distinctly solo voices in the band). I actually feel this was hamstrung some by clearly only existing <because of> Covid & lockdown.

i enjoyed path of wellness more than the previous two but it wasn't anything special. don't really understand the consensus that it's worse than the centre won't hold - that album really did not work at all