When the members of Sleater-Kinney decided to go their separate ways back in 2006, drummer Janet Weiss and guitarist/singer Carrie Brownstein each seemed to immediately get involved in new projects. But singer/guitarist Corin Tucker took some time off to be a mother and gather her wits after nearly 15 years of solid rocking. While she never stopped writing, it took her a few years before she committed anything to tape and got back into the groove of playing with a live band. She recently got a band together (Sara Lund from Unwound and Golden Bears' Seth Lorinczi) and released 1,000 Years under the no-frills moniker the Corin Tucker Band.
The result is an amazing collection of incredibly dynamic rock songs, many of which deal with domestic issues, the current economic downturn and the distance between people. But there's at least one song on the album — the spare, lovely "Miles Away" — that was inspired by much-beloved "Twilight" heroine Bella Swan.
"I'm a really big fan of the 'Twilight' books, and Lauren Ross from Kill Rock Stars said 'I'm going to pitch to the music supervisor who works on those films, and if you have anything let me know because they're working on the soundtrack to 'New Moon,'" Tucker recalled during a conversation with MTV News. "I thought about the character of Bella, of this teenage girl who is sort of isolated and lost, and she really goes through this time of being by herself and being really unhappy and not knowing where she wants to go. And then on her own, she kind of comes back to herself. She kind of reawakens. She decides that she's gonna start riding motorcycles and doing all this stuff and connecting with other people. I really identified with being a young woman and sort of coming into your own, so that was a theme I thought could come out on this record."
Tucker also said that she was attracted to the character's strength, which has come to life in the film series through breakout actress Kristen Stewart. "I would argue that Bella has a lot of strengths, but she's very feminine," she said. "She's not this buff physically strong woman, but she has a lot of emotional strength, a lot of mental strength and a lot of wisdom that she brings to relationships."
The rest of the songs on 1,000 Years are full of that same kind of power, sensitivity and angst, and they are expressed both quietly ("It's Always Summer") and loudly ("Doubt"). The centerpiece of the album is "Thrift Store Coats," which is about a number of people in Tucker's community in Portland, Oregon who have been suffering through the recession. It's all extremely satisfying, and though Tucker hasn't committed to anything more than the end of her tour (which finishes up on Friday), it bodes well for her continued output in the music world.
Tags Corin Tucker Band, corin-tucker, sleater-kinney, twilight, video
