Fender Tracks: Sleater-Kinney Breaks Down ‘A New Wave’

After ten years of building a reputation as one of the most important bands driving the Pacific Northwest indie punk sound, Sleater-Kinney decided to take nearly a decade-long hiatus.

They stepped back on a high note, as 2005’s The Woods was widely acclaimed. But when Sleater-Kinney decided to reconvene in 2015, they did so on an epic high note with the release of their eighth studio album, No Cities to Love, with the hit single “A New Wave” leading the charge.

Sleater-Kinney’s return announcement was just as big. The Washington outfit appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman to deliver a searing rendition of “A New Wave” to the delight of Dave and the Ed Sullivan Theater, only to perhaps top that with an animated music video featuring the cast of FOX’s Bob’s Burgers.

“It seemed to have a life of its own, between the Letterman performance and Bob’s Burgers, it just kind of became a reintroduction of the band to the world, so it’s one we hold close to our hearts,” vocalist/guitarist Carrie Brownstein said of “A New Wave.”

So, after so many years of waiting for Sleater-Kinney to put out new music and seeing them deliver on all accounts, how did this amazing song come together?

As Brownstein noted in this edition of TRACKS, it started with a surf-influenced riff, with a little extra growl thrown in.

“Surf riffs are underrated, but I love the way they’ve been reinterpreted, like Link Wray, The Gun Club or the Cramps,” Brownstein said. “You can contrast that to something a little dark and sinister. That’s my favorite use of that genre.”

The challenge from there was to fit the rhythms and lyrics around that riff.

“It was a puzzle, like, how do we make room for this (riff), and tell the story?” asked fellow vocalist/guitarist Corin Tucker.

The chorus of “A New Wave” features Brownstein and Tucker harmonizing in a way that seemed new for Sleater-Kinney, but one that worked so well in calling back to the melodies that appeared on the band’s 1999 album, The Hot Rock.

“The chorus of it, to me, is almost like a Beatles song, because we do sing in unison which was a new thing for us,” said Tucker. “It’s a little drop away from this crazy psych stuff that’s happening (in the song), almost like a ‘60s Beatles song.”

It’s also difficult to ignore Tucker’s expert handling of the rumbling bassline by tuning her guitar down one-and-a-half steps, something she and Brownstein famously did over the years. Altogether, everything came together into a single that sounds both classic and modern at the same time.

You can see Brownstein and Tucker dive deeper into “A NEW WAVE” on the American Professional II Jazzmaster® and Strat® in their TRACKS episode above.