In front of a small crowd in New York’s Ace Hotel, five feminist voices sat down for a chat about their art, their gender, and how much they admire each other.
The 5 most amazing moments from when Broad City’s Abbi and Ilana interviewed Sleater-Kinney
Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer’s hit Comedy Central television show Broad City just premiered its second season. They are the writers, directors, editors, and stars of the show, and they sat down to interview some of their inspirations, the band Sleater-Kinney, who dropped their first album in 10 years on Tuesday. Here are the 5 best moments from their interview:
1) Their mutual admiration for each other
Jacobson and Glazer admitted that Broad City wouldn’t exist without Sleater-Kinney’s work, and Tucker replied, “When we watch your show, I want to write a song.” So, basically, it was a love-fest. Watch the video from NPR above.
2) On how Feminism has changed since their first album
Glazer asks Sleater-Kinney’s members how the band, feminism, and their consciousness have changed since the early days of the band.
“Phase One was pretty confrontational,” Corin Tucker says, “and I needed to be because it was a very different time then. To have the chutzpah to get on stage and be like, ‘We’re going to be this amazing band; you have to watch us.’ ... I think that our culture has changed in the last 20 years, and that’s pretty rad.”
“There isn’t really a settled state of this band,” Carrie Brownstein continues. “There’s a part of me that encompasses just a constant agitation at the world. I just mean frustration. We are still in very tumultous times, and Sleater-Kinney is the soundtrack to that, for me. ... It is the conduit through which I can relate and feel empathy.”
3) On the band’s inevitable reunion
Brownstein says, “There is kind of an inevitability to this band. It does feel like something that exists outside of us that was orbiting around, and once we could feel it again, we kind of had to get on board.”
“It’s a movement,” Glazer adds.
“It’s more like a band of wild horses that you hear out the window,” Tucker responds.
4) On Rocking Hard
“Does rocking hard mean gender equality to you?” Glazer asks
Janet Weiss, the drummer, responds. “I feel very strongly about an alternative to the idea of women being a certain way. I think you guys are chipping away at that as well, that sort of quiet, demure, soft-spoken stereotype.”
5) What all five are reading and watching
Janet Weiss, drums :
TV: Homeland
Corin Tucker, guitar:
Books: Angelica Houston's memoir A Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London, and New York.
Carrie Brownstein, vocals and guitar:
TV: Broad City, The Comeback, and Black Mirror
Books: The First Bad Man by Miranda July, Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon, The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber, and James Baldwin’s works.
Ilana Glazer, Broad City:
Books: Yes Please by Amy Poehler
TV: Transparent on Amazon
Abbi Jacobson, Broad City:
Books: Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch and Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist
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