Brownstein Corin Tucker and Carrie

At the very forefront of the riot grrrl boom that swept the mid-‘90s into a fiercely feminist tizzy, Sleater-Kinney delivered a well-needed wallop of unforgiving fury and incandescent energy into a fast stagnating punk scene. Whipping out three of the trend’s biggest and most boisterous albums back-to-back, the cornerstone of their sound was the rich, yet raw – tight, yet turbulent and tempered – interplay between shredder-singer duo Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker.

Though it was largely their political activism that garnered most of the attention, Sleater-Kinney were instrumental in developing the new wave of DIY punk-rock that crash-landed at the turn of the millennium. And even as both Tucker and Brownstein moved beyond the boundaries of the genre (readers might spot the latter in some of their favourite TV dramas, for example), they’ve remained die-hard guitarists first and foremost. Just look to Sleater-Kinney’s 2019 effort, The Center Won’ t Hold: a roller coaster ride through lashings of powerful riffs a la poignant theatricality.

Fun fact: the self-titled Sleater-Kinney debut – which changed the game forever in 1995 – was recorded over one impromptu overnight stint while Brownstein and Tucker (then a couple) were holidaying in Australia. So when you think about it, they’re virtually locals, right?