It turns out that the grrrls from Sleater-Kinney barely made it out of The Woods together.
A little more than a year after releasing their seventh album, the girl-power punk rockers have announced that the music will stop after this summer.
"After eleven years as a band, Sleater-Kinney have decided to go on indefinite hiatus," guitarists Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker and drummer Janet Weiss said in a statement on the band's Web site. "The upcoming summer shows will be our last. As of now, there are no plans for future tours or recordings.
"We feel lucky to have had the support of many wonderful people over the years?But mostly we want to extend our gratitude to our amazing fans. You have been a part of our story from the beginning. We could not have made our music without your enthusiasm, passion, and loyalty. It is you who have made the entire journey worthwhile."
The Portland, Oregan-based trio whom Rolling Stone columnist Rob Sheffield called "the best American punk rock band EVER," still have five summer shows coming up, including Lollapalooza in Chicago on Aug. 4, where they are set to say their final goodbyes after more than a decade of making raw, angst-filled tunes that appealed to the hardcore chick in all of us (Sheffield included).
According to a spokesperson from the band's label, Sub Pop, Sleater-Kinney will also play a farewell show some time in Portland soon.
Brownstein and Tucker, who met in 1992 in Olympia, Washington, while they were students at Evergreen State College, made the band's first two albums, Sleater-Kinney and Call the Doctor with drummer Lora MacFarlane. Weiss replaced MacFarlane on 1997's Dig Me Out and has been in the band--which eventually relocated to Portland--ever since.
"Eleven years is a long time," Slim Moon, president of Kill Rock Stars, the label that Sleater-Kinney recorded with until switching to Sub Pop to release The Woods in 2005, told The Olympian newspaper. "Bands don't really have that long of a lifespan. If a successful band goes over a decade, it is notable."
In 2001 Time named Sleater-Kinney America's best rock band. Last year's The Woods, which included the singles "Jumpers" and "Entertain," was considered by many to be the band's best yet and it debuted at number two on the Billboard Top Independent Albums Chart.
But fans may be lucky to have The Woods at all. Tucker told Billboard.com not long ago that Sleater-Kinney nearly split before they got into the studio.
"It was very frustrating," she said. "It was like, 'Ugh, I don't know if we're going to make another record.' It was definitely a weird, tenuous journey for this record."
"Our band continues because together we complete a unique puzzle, and because our evolving, explosive relationship allows us to reach for the moon," Weiss' bio on the band's Web site reads. Weiss guests on the upcoming Bright Eyes album, due out in spring 2007, and also has been playing in the indie pop band Quasi on the side.
Sleater-Kinney joined Pearl Jam on tour in Canada last September; appeared at Australia and New Zealand's Big Day Out festival in January alongside the White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, Iggy & the Stooges and a whole mess of others; and headlined Coachella in early May.
"We feel kinda bad for Violent Femmes who will be sharing a slot with them [at Lollapalooza] and playing to a much more intimate audience as a result," www.Chicagoist.com associate editor Scott Smith wrote Wednesday.
"All three women in that band are incredibly talented and smart and capable," Moon said. "And I expect all three of them to do great things in the future."