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Nov 15, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Sleater-Kinney

Sleater-Kinney released a new album, The Center Won’t Hold, in August via Mom + Pop (stream it here). Last night they stopped by The Late Late Show with James Corden to perform the album’s “Can I Go On.” It was the band’s first late night TV performance since longtime drummer Janet Weiss left the band. Watch it below.

Don’t forget that Sleater-Kinney is on one of the two covers of our current print issue, the My Favorite Album Issue, in which we interview each of them about The Center Won’t Hold and their all-time favorite album.

Also, we previously posted our review of The Center Won’t Hold and you can read that here. The album was also our Album of the Week.

The Center Won’t Hold finds the band experimenting with a slightly more polished sound, thanks to producer St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark), and on a new label in Mom + Pop. After the album was announced, drummer Janet Weiss unexpectedly announced at the start of July that she was leaving Sleater-Kinney only a month and a half before their new album was to be released. That leaves Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker as the sole members.

Prior to the announcement of The Center Won’t Hold, Sleater-Kinney shared the album’s first single “Hurry On Home” via a Miranda July-directed lyric video for the track (it was one of our Songs of the Week). When the album was announced they shared its second single, “The Future Is Here,” which was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then they stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to perform “Hurry On Home,” in what might be Weiss’ last public performance with the band.

Then they shared the album’s title track, “The Center Won’t Hold,” which was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared “Can I Go On,” via a lyric video (it was also one of our Songs of the Week). Then they shared a video for them performing the album’s closing track “Broken” live, with just Brownstein on keyboards and Tucker standing next to her singing. When the album was released, album track “Reach Out” also made our Songs of the Week list. Then they shared a video for “Can I Go On” featuring mud wrestling. Then in October they shared a brand new non-album track, “Animal.”

In a previous press release Brownstein also had this to say about recording the album: “Instead of just going into the studio to document what we’d done, we were going in to explore and to find the essence of something. To dig in deeper. It felt like a really crucial part of the process itself, not just the end game.”

Sleater-Kinney North American Tour Dates:

11-16 Oakland, CA - Fox Theater
11-17 Oakland, CA - Fox Theater
11-19 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
11-20 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
11-21 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom
11-23 Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre
11-24 Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre

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