Liz Phair and Sleater-Kinney

Liz Phair
Throughout her career, Liz Phair has continued to defy expectations and break barriers. She has released five albums, sold over five million records, composed music for television, and received two GRAMMY nominations. In 2019, she published a memoir, Horror Stories (Random House), which the LA Times called “a raw look at fame, motherhood and aging with all the unbridled honesty of the songs that put the singer in the spotlight in the first place.” 

In 2023, Phair toured to celebrate the 30th anniversary of her widely-loved debut, Exile in Guyville, performing the record in its entirety at sold-out shows across the US. An 18-track double album loosely framed as a song-by-song reply to The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St., Exile In Guyville was dubbed a classic upon arrival. It is now regarded as a feminist landmark, recently cracking the top ten of Pitchfork’s “Best 150 Albums of the 1990s” (#4) and the top 100 of Rolling Stone’s “Best 500 Albums of All Time” (#56). 

Sleater-Kinney

Now three decades into their partnership and no less ferocious and inventive than day one, Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker’s alchemical connection has made Sleater-Kinney one of the most impactful and vital rock acts of their generation. 

Their self-titled 1995 debut demonstrated a singular vision – the duo’s idiosyncratic and interlocking musical language composed of the most dynamic elements of punk, riot grrrl, classic rock fury, and modern indie rock guile. The following year’s Call the Doctor brought that mercurial structure into clearer focus, and 1997’s Dig Me Out amped the bombast – netting a spot on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” The critical fervor that the band had started amassing was only matched by their ravenous fans, inspired by Sleater-Kinney’s propulsive intentionality, intense emotional honesty, galvanized feminism, and explosive live shows.

While the band members spent the intervening years on other projects (including Brownstein’s creating and starring in Portlandia) fans were overjoyed at Sleater-Kinney’s 2015 return with the triumphant No Cities To Love – which showed no sign of lost time and found the band yet again near the top of countless year-end lists.

Their most recent record, Little Rope (2024), perfectly rang in Sleater-Kinney’s 30th anniversary – their signature crunch and roar daubed in a post-punk glow, a culmination of their profound and influential canon while pointing to an even more concussive future.