The first Corin Tucker Band album, 2010’s 1,000 Years, was dominated by moody, thoughtful songcraft—quite a left-turn coming after Tucker’s last album (to date) with groundbreaking trio Sleater-Kinney, 2005’s furiously distortion-heavy The Woods. But now, 1,000 Years’ follow-up, Kill My Blues (Kill Rock Stars), is another sonic shift. The guitars are louder, the textures more extreme, and Tucker’s lyrics on the album cover an amazing gamut—from clarion calls to teenage memories to more elliptical pieces. At times, the LP brings to mind S-K’s post-September 11 album, 2002’s One Beat, a collection of rock anthems for troubled times. Throughout Kill My Blues, Tucker writes—and the band plays—like something important is truly at stake on every song. The Corin Tucker Band—which also includes drummer Sara Lund, guitarist Seth Lorinczi and bassist Mike Clark (as well as touring bassist Dave Depper)—will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new feature on the group.
Clark: By 2005, I had been touring in a rock band for four years; not a seasoned vet by any means, but I was beginning to pick up a few tricks. And that was the year I was introduced to a key tactic for surviving life on the road by our newly hired tour manager, Jeremy Lemos. Happy Cow is an online guide to vegan and vegetarian restaurants in cities all over the world. It was founded in 1999, and its purple-and-green color palette and graphics are charmingly reminiscent of those GeoCities-dominated days of the web. But I’ve found it to be easy to use, thorough and reliable. I started eating a mostly vegan diet in 2011, but by then I had already been relying on the site for several years because, by listing a city’s best vegetarian and vegan restaurants, Happy Cow often lists the best restaurants, period.
Video after the jump.
