The organizers of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass have now released two segments of the roster of this year's free music festival in Golden Gate Park, and the second batch of names includes the great and marvelous Sleater-Kinney.
As is tradition, the Hardly Strictly team has begun dribbling out the lineup in weekly medleys on their social media, and Tuesday's medley included Venezuelan singer-songwriter (and onetime San Francisco Art Institute student) Devendra Banhart, as well as a familiar clip of Sleater-Kinney.
The festival happens October 4 to 6 this year.
Once a trio and now a duo with a backing band, Sleater-Kinney consists of the multitalented Carrie Brownstein on guitar and vocals, and the powerhouse vocalist and guitarist Corin Tucker. The pair put out Sleater-Kinney's 11th studio album this year, Little Rope, which Pitchfork calls "taut and cathartic." The album grew out of grief and tragedy, in the wake of Brownstein losing her mother and stepfather in a car accident that happened while they were in Italy. As she said in an interview, "I needed to hear Corin's voice."
Sleater-Kinney formed in Olympia, Washington in 1994 and joined a wave of all-and mostly female rock bands of the grunge and Riot Grrrl eras, adding — with the help of Tucker's vocals — a theatrical belt to the punk wail. In 2019, longtime drummer Janet Weiss departed the band, but Sleater-Kinney has now produced two albums since then, 2021's Path of Wellness, and Little Rope.
Below you can watch them perform two songs from the new album as well as two songs from 2005's The Woods at an NPR Tiny Desk Concert. (In addition to co-creating and starring on Portlandia, Brownstein also did a stint as an NPR employee back in the late aughts, writing the NPR Music blog Monitor Mix.)
Also added to the lineup today are British Afro-pop group Ibibio Sound Machine, folk musician Sean McConnell, as well as Tony Trischka’s Earl Jam, which is a tribute to three-finger banjo player Earl Scruggs, celebrating his 100th birthday.
Previously announced acts include English singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock, Portland-based roots group Fruition, the Wood Brothers, blues musician Bobby Rush, and jam band Greensky Bluegrass.
See the whole lineup as it stands and upcoming updates here. The next teaser medley should arrive next Tuesday, August 13.