Sleater-Kinney – The Woods
One of the most amazing concerts I saw in my life – one of the most amazing evenings in fact, because Masami as Merzbow played a solo set at ATP in LA when SY was curating and there was shitloads on, amazing stuff: Tony Conrad, Television, the programme was insane. But after each other there was SK and Merzbow, and in a way the combination of the two was fucking genius, fantastic! But I'd heard very little of SK before that. I think they played some of the material that became The Woods at that concert. It just killed me, I couldn't believe it. Going back to my roots with the punk rock and garage stuff, and there I had it, this was the music I'd like to be able to do. That's the feeling I had. The energy, the focus and the interaction. And the songs. They also happened to have really great lyrics. It really changed things for me. When the record came out I had really high expectations and it was even more. I think the production [by Dave Fridmann] is spectacular, the sound and everything. It kills me. I miss them.