Sleater-Kinney

Bitchtapes: Sax Positive from BitchTapes on 8tracks.

I don't think I'm alone when I say I can't stand saxophones in rock music. To work through my fear of sax, and to help any fellow saxophobes out there, I've dug up ten exceptional uses of the sax in rock. Think of it as saxophone exposure therapy.

(Wild Flag cover the Rolling Stones' Beast of Burden. Genderbent covers=some of my favorite things...)

The big exciting announcement in music this week was supposedly that iTunes now has the Beatles catalogue. Well, in news that may shock some of you—I was A. unaware that they didn't already, as I'd never looked for it, and B. unconcerned, as I don't actually like the Beatles.

I understand that the Beatles are incredibly important to the history of rock 'n' roll. Hell, Ringo produced T. Rex, without whom I would not be who I am! (That was a joke. Partly.) But I never get the urge to sit down and listen to the Beatles. I am an Elvis/Stones girl, and yes I know that the Beatles had far better gender politics (well, sorta) than Elvis or Mick Jagger. But the heart wants what the heart wants.

That VOICE.

By the end (I'm hoping not for good, but for now, anyway) of Sleater-Kinney Corin Tucker's voice was a finely honed weapon, full of deep, slow, sexy soul and capable of an earsplitting wail, a bonechilling snarl, a rock'n'roll howl that didn't so much as defy gender as rip the guts straight out of it.

Her new record, 1,000 Years puts that voice front and center, without the thrash that made The Woods so threatening at the time.

"Indefinite hiatus" are two words you never want to hear from your favorite band. But when it comes to Sleater-Kinney, it means rad new rock projects rather than a riot grrl death knell.

A look back at Degrassi: The Next Generation's season two episode "Shout," and how Paige Michalchuk uses rock music to work through the trauma of date rape.