Anna Minard, our former city hall reporter, claims to "know nothing about music." For this column, we force her to listen to all the records that music nerds consider important.
Dig Me Out
(Kill Rock Stars)
WOOOO-HOOOOO, this is a hell of a week for this album—and I mean that in a good way! This week, I:
• Spent a bunch of time reading three comic books: Bitch Planet, Ms. Marvel, and Y: The Last Man (all of which are packed full of boss ladies kicking people's faces and saving people and being cool).
• Watched Thelma & Louise with a room full of loud, hilarious feminists and then also watched In a World....
• Ignored football as best I could in favor of reading, cooking, and talking to badass women about stuff like weight lifting and the politics of body hair.
• Sang Vitamin C's "Graduation (Friends Forever)" at karaoke and dedicated it to my eighth-grade graduation outfit (baby-blue leopard-print tube dress, chunky heels).
• Discovered the podcast Call Your Girlfriend, which is just two smart, funny female best friends talking about the world.
I'm just saying, by the time I got around to listening to Sleater-Kinney in the living room, my brain was pumped and primed for women in charge to tell me what's up. So while I think a couple years ago, and maybe even in a different week, I might've gotten my "ow-loud-people-are-yelling" face listening to this, this week it made me want to put on big boots and run around practicing karate, high-fiving random women on the street.
My favorite songs: "One More Hour," which makes me feel spooky and melancholy. "Little Babies," which nods my head for me. "Dance Song '97," because it feels like a heartbeat. Actually, I could keep on listing songs, because every time I listen through, I get interested in a new one.
The vocalist who's doing that wavery yodel cry—is that Carrie Brownstein? [Editor's note: No, that's Corin Tucker.]—is so complex, animal, weird, lovely. Listening to this makes me want to understand music better, to pick apart what each instrument is doing. The layers of what seem like totally normal rock-song ingredients are doing something really great and I want to know why. What's the slow, steady crunch noise that some guitar (?) is making in "Jenny"? Why does this all sound so full, even though only three people are generating it? This noise is so rich. How do the vocals switch so well back and forth between chanting, singing, screaming?
Something about this makes me feel included, like this is my soundtrack. It makes me want to go get more Sleater-Kinney in a record store and not avoid eye contact with the clerk. Which is convenient, because I think I got assigned this album because they have a new album out? I'M SO READY.
I give this a "YEAAHHHHHHHH" out of 10. 
