Carrie is allergic to...
(was posted on the s-k.net message board)
http://sleater-kinney.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1873

The Goods
“She’s doing much better. She’s on some medication now and she’s working
with her doctor. They think they’ve figured out what she’s allergic to.”
SLEATER-KINNEY’S CORIN TUCKER calms down SYLVIA PAGE.


It’s always so weird when famous people get
sick. Particularly famous people of the hot rock
star variety. It’s unsettling; they’re supposed to
be untouchable! Or at the very least, immortal. So
when they get sick it throws the whole balance
out, making our own fragile existence all the more
tenuous. Case in point: Carrie Brownstein, singer/
guitarist of seminal riot grrl trio Sleater-Kinney. Very
allergic to soy, it turns out. Allergic to the point of
swelling up alarmingly, being unable to breathe and
having to be rushed to the hospital. Yes my friends,
it was the humble soya bean that caused the cancellation
of Sleater-Kinney’s month-long European
tour in November. “She swells up really, really bad,”
says Tucker. “We had to go to the emergency room
during our show in Denver, and it was pretty distressing.
It can be life threatening because her
throat swells and it can block off her breathing.”

Upon doctor’s orders, Carrie and her
bandmates have just spent a quiet winter in Portland.
“We’ve just taken some time off really to do
a bit of writing,” says Tucker. “It’s actually really
nice to have a holiday.”

Fortunately for Australian fans, the band has
been given the all-clear from doctors to go ahead
with Big Day Out shows in January. “We’re very
excited about being able to go to the Big Day Out,”
says Tucker.

Apart from the health problems, it’s been a
great year for Sleater-Kinney. Their seventh album
The Woods, which was released in May, has been
lauded as their best yet. It’s certainly their most
mature and experimental, following through with
the call-to-arms of its predecessor, One Beat.
“We’ve been touring off and on since finishing the
album, so we’ve played the songs quite a bit. It’s
been really fun and there’s so much improvisation
there’s just a lot to play around with,” says Tucker.

Have the songs changed much? “I don’t know
if they’ve changed as much as just maybe we’ve
got a little better at playing them. It’s really interesting
to be able to experiment and try a few different
things over the years with our old songs.”

“I write a lot of stuff that I know is never going
to see the light of day,” she says. “It’s haphazard.
Just a process of experimenting, of us trying
all different ways of writing and singing and rewriting
and seeing what we actually agree upon
like this sounds good, we all like this song and feel
moved by it.”

One thing is for certain, Sleater-Kinney know
how to write amazing songs; a fact revealed by the
almost religious devotion of their fans. “Yes,
we definitely have really amazing devoted
fans,” agrees Tucker. “It’s flattering that
we’ve gotten so much press attention and
so many wonderful things have been written
about us. Sometimes it can be kind of
strange to carry around those kinds of titles,
when you’re just three people in a rock
band, but it’s certainly brought attention
to our music, which is good.”

Sleater-Kinney play the Gold Coast Big Day
Out on Jan 22, The Woods is out now through Sub Pop.

http://www.ravemag.com.au/