Corin Tucker was at the forefront of the Riot Grrl movement in Olympia, Wash., in the early ’90s, first as half of the raw, visceral Punk duo Heavens to Betsy and then as guitarist/vocalist for the hugely influential and wildly successful Sleater-Kinney. When the trio went on an open-ended hiatus four years ago, Tucker’s intention was to concentrate on her home life.
She and husband Lance Bangs welcomed their second child into the family in 2008, and Tucker largely narrowed her focus to her family. But her music would not be denied. She was invited to submit songs for the Twilight: New Moon film, and then she previewed additional new songs at a Portland, Ore., benefit concert early last year, laying the groundwork for her debut solo project, the Corin Tucker Band, and their first release, 1000 Years.
Two decades and a veritable lifetime of experience have given Tucker an informed and mature perspective on 1000 Years, but it’s still filtered through the sensibility that helped advance the Riot Grrl cause in the ’90s. As a result, even when she quietly reflects on Bangs’ long and far-flung absences due to his filmmaking duties in the clockwork Folk/Punk of “Half a World Away,” a little of the old argy bargy can’t help but leak into the proceedings. That undercurrent of energetic calm punctuated by potential chaos runs throughout 1000 Years, from the barely restrained acoustic strum/electric howl of the title track and the similarly framed baroque Folk/Punk chamber twang of “It’s Always Summer” to the full frontal Patti Smith-channeled assault of “Doubt” and the piano-balladry-turned-Punk/Glam-anthemics of “Thrift Store Coats.”
With 1000 Years, Corin Tucker shows why we miss Sleater-Kinney so very much and proves that we don’t have to miss them at all.
