Spectacular Sleater-Kinney Trivia Quiz

Sleater-Kinney's self-titled debut was recorded in Australia, where drummer Lora McFarlane was based, and mixed in Olympia, where Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker were based. Although Stephen O'Neil of the Cannanes, a friend of the band, drummed for them at gigs in Australia, they needed a more permanent drummer and he put them in touch with McFarlane.

The album was released on Chainsaw Records, a label founded by Donna Dresch of queercore band Team Dresch, in 1995. It was a rather scrappy affair, with only two songs over three minutes in length ('The Day I Went Away' and 'The Last Song', which features a lot of screaming from Brownstein), and the majority of it was recorded in one take. McFarlane also sang lead vocals on 'Lora's Song'.

'Call the Doctor' was written within three weeks and recorded in five days, and released on Chainsaw Records in 1996. It was Tucker and Brownstein's first serious attempt at songwriting and, according to Brownstein, the album that defined their sound. Several of the songs were inspired by Tucker's job at a camera shop, such as the emotional labour required by working in customer services and the feeling of being watched. Although Lora McFarlane played on the album, she had to leave Sleater-Kinney due to her visa running out, and musical differences had also arisen between her and Tucker and Brownstein, as she was a singer-songwriter herself and did not want to be confined to playing the drums. Toni Gogin briefly replaced her, but Tucker and Brownstein fired her due to her inability to get the crucial solo on 'Call the Doctor' right at gigs.

No singles were released from the album, though 'I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone' and the title track are both fan favourites.

'Dig Me Out' was released on Kill Rock Stars, home of other riot grrrl acts such as Bikini Kill, in 1997, and was Sleater-Kinney's breakthrough album. The album cover was based on the Kinks' 'The Kink Kontroversy'. Sleater-Kinney had changed labels as Chainsaw was relatively tiny and they needed a label with more resources. After Toni Gogin's sacking, a make-up artist mentioned Janet Weiss - who also played with Quasi and Elliott Smith - during a photoshoot, and she officially joined the band in 1996 after playing a showcase for the trade journal 'College Media Journal' in New York. The title was partly inspired by the band being stuck in the snow during recording, and their studio was filled with space heaters, which Weiss used as percussion on 'Heart Factory'.

The singles were 'One More Hour' (about Tucker and Brownstein's break-up) and 'Little Babies'.

'The Hot Rock' was released on Kill Rock Stars in 1999. It was one of the few Sleater-Kinney albums not to have been produced by John Goodmanson; instead, they worked with Roger Moutenot after hearing his work with Yo La Tengo. It featured heavy use of counterpoint vocals and guitar lines, and the band found the songs from the album hard to reproduce live (I've seen them a few times and not once have I heard them do a single song from 'The Hot Rock'!) Some of the songs on the album were inspired by a relationship Brownstein was in with another musician at the time, which she described as 'suffocating'. While touring the album, there was a large amount of friction within the band, and a pair of therapists were brought in to help them work through their issues and learn to communicate properly. Some fans criticised the band for 'selling out' and making a commercial album, but Tucker viewed it as their least commercial album to date.

The singles from the album were 'Get Up!' and 'A Quarter to Three', which was released as a double A-side with 'Burn Don't Freeze' (which, incidentally, was the song that introduced me to Sleater-Kinney).

'All Hands on the Bad One' was released on Kill Rock Stars in 2000, and is one of Sleater-Kinney's more poppy albums. Brownstein has stated that it is her least favourite Sleater-Kinney album. Tucker had been playing in Cadallaca, a garage-rock side project in which she took the stage name of 'Kissy', and had enjoyed the idea of singing in character, which she wanted to bring to Sleater-Kinney. One song, 'The Ballad of a Ladyman', was inspired by a sign placed on Sleater-Kinney's chalet at the Bowlie Weekender, a festival at a holiday camp, calling them 'ladymen'. '#1 Must Have', meanwhile, was inspired by the rapes and violence at Woodstock in 1999.

'You're No Rock 'n' Roll Fun' was the sole single from the album.

'One Beat' was released on Kill Rock Stars in 2002. It is considered to be Sleater-Kinney's most political album, as songs such as 'Combat Rock' were heavily influenced by the aftermath of the 11th September terrorist attack. In 2000, Tucker had to take time off from Sleater-Kinney as she was pregnant with her son Marshall, who was born prematurely, and she wrote the song 'Sympathy' about him. Tucker and Weiss were based in Portland while Brownstein lived in Olympia, and she moved to Portland in 2001 to be nearer to them; 'Light Rail Coyote' was inspired by a news story about a coyote hitching a ride on a local train. When touring the album, one of Sleater-Kinney's support acts were the Gossip, who would later hit the mainstream with 'Standing in the Way of Control'; another were the White Stripes, who would later become even more famous.

No singles were released from the album.

'The Woods' was released on Sub Pop in 2005, and was Sleater-Kinney's final album before the band went on hiatus. In 2003, Sleater-Kinney had supported Pearl Jam and came onstage with them to sing 'Rockin' in the Free World' as an encore, and playing with Pearl Jam partly inspired them to create 'The Woods'. Eddie Vedder gifted Brownstein with a Gibson SG Special guitar. Fittingly, 'The Woods' was Sleater-Kinney's heaviest album to date and was produced by Dave Fridmann, who had also worked with the Flaming Lips. While touring 'The Woods' in the USA, Brownstein suffered from allergic reactions to soy and had to be admitted to hospital; in Germany, she came down with shingles and Weiss, who had never had chicken pox, had to travel separately to her. In Brussels, while still ill with shingles, Brownstein had a breakdown backstage and punched herself repeatedly in the face. She later stated in her memoir 'Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl' (named after a line from 'Modern Girl') that the Brussels gig was the beginning of the end of the band.

In 2006, Sleater-Kinney curated All Tomorrow's Parties, a British music festival held at Pontin's in Camber Sands. They went on hiatus after playing a final gig in Portland on 12th August 2006, which Eddie Vedder attended, and that year's Lollapalooza.

The singles were 'Entertain' and 'Jumpers' (which Brownstein wrote while temporarily living in California, inspired by the many suicides at the Golden Gate Bridge).

'No Cities to Love' was Sleater-Kinney's comeback album, released on Sub Pop in 2015, ten years after the hiatus. After the band had gone on hiatus, Tucker had toured solo and Brownstein and Weiss had played with Wild Flag; Weiss had also volunteered at a local animal shelter and acted in 'Portlandia'. In 2011, Tucker asked Weiss if Sleater-Kinney would ever play together again, and the band played together in Tucker's basement the following year, to see if they could still write together. They relearned old songs and wrote new songs, and wanted to keep the reunion a secret. Sleater-Kinney played their first reunion gig in Spokane, Washington, in 2015.

'Bury Our Friends' was the only single from the album, though a video was made for 'A New Wave' by the 'Bob's Burgers' crew, featuring the Belcher children and the band drawn in the cartoon's signature style. The video for 'Bury Our Friends' featured a whole crowd of celebrities, from Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis and Elliot Page to filmmaker Miranda July and My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way.

'The Centre Won't Hold' was released on Mom + Pop in 2019 and was produced by Annie Clarke, aka St Vincent. They were originally going to work with Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, but worked with Clarke first and liked the results so much that they continued to work with her. 'The Centre Won't Hold' was quite a dramatic departure from the band's usual sound, with a more industrial-sounding production and more use of keyboards and synthesisers (Brownstein played keyboards live on 'Broken'), and received a mixed reception from fans, though it was well-received by critics. Although Janet Weiss was involved in recording the album and appears in the cover art, a mash-up of the band members' faces, she left the band on 1st July 2019, a month before the album's release.

The singles were 'Hurry On Home' and 'Can I Go On'. The band also released a standalone single, 'Animal', in October 2019.

'Path of Wellness' was released on Mom + Pop in 2021, and was Sleater-Kinney's first album since 'Call the Doctor' to be recorded without any involvement from Janet Weiss. Weiss stated in a 2019 interview that she felt she was 'just the drummer' and was no longer treated like a creative equal; this caused some resentment among fans who felt Weiss had been treated unfairly, and was a crucial part of the band's sound. Angie Boylan of Aye Nako replaced her as touring drummer. To promote the album, Sleater-Kinney livestreamed a show on Amazon Music's Twitch channel in June 2021, which included guest appearances from Nick Offerman (who plays Ron Swanson in 'Parks and Rec'), Megan Mullaly (Karen from 'Will & Grace') and The National frontman Matt Berninger. They even had a fortune teller predicting the band's future!

The singles from the album were 'Worry with You', 'High in the Grass' and 'Method'.