Dig Me Out

33⅓ Main Series #115

by Jovana Babovic

Sleater-Kinney's 1997 album Dig Me Out is built on Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein's competing guitars, Janet Weiss's muscular rhythms, and layered vocals that teeter between an urgent, banshee-like vibrato and a lower accompaniment. Dig Me Out was the band's third studio album, but the first one written and recoded with Weiss. It inaugurated Sleater-Kinney into a lineup that would span its two-decade career.

This 33 1/3 follows the narrative of Dig Me Out from its inception in Olympia to its recording in Seattle and its reception across the United States. It's anchored in a short period of time – roughly from mid-1996 to mid-1998 – but it encompasses a series of battles over meaning that continued to preoccupy Sleater-Kinney in the coming decades. The band wrestled with the media about how they would be presented to the public, it contended with technicians about how their sound would be heard in clubs, and they struggled with pervasive social hierarchies about how their work would be understood in popular culture. The only instance where the band didn't have to put up much of a fight was when it came to their fans. The acclaim Sleater-Kinney received from their listeners in the late 1990s, and continue to receive today, speaks to a need for icons who challenged normative notions of culture and gender. This story of Dig Me Out chronicles how Sleater-Kinney won the fight to define themselves on their own terms – as women and as musicians – and, in the process, how they redefined the parameters of rock.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Feminism

152 pages, Paperback

First published May 19, 2016

Reviews

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Academia-light, like an well-written extended magazine article. I would have liked a track-by-track analysis and more of a personal connection with the author, but I still really enjoyed this and will be seeking out more 33 1/3 books.

[J.T. Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wrote about 'Dig Me Out' itself here: it is one of my favourite albums. Here, Jovana Babovic, a history professor, writes about the band drawing on exhaustive research including contemporary articles, zines, fan correspondence and, crucially, interviews with the band's associates and Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss themselves. Carrie Brownstein is absent, presumably due to either scheduling conflicts or because she was working on her memoir at the time (published in October 2015, the Brownstein book would have been released too late for Babovic to use).

While some of the books in this series, such as the one for 'Low', spend time on a track-by-track breakdown of the album, Babovic spends no time whatsoever on the actual content of 'Dig Me Out', focusing on the context, recording, touring and legacy of the album in a lite-academia style. It's a gutsy move not to spend any time dwelling on the record's sound, but it's also a contradictory one: in one section of the book, we learn that the band's canny publicist Julie Butterfield asked journalists not to ask the band about what it was like being a woman in rock, and the overall thrust is that Sleater-Kinney should be respected as musicians on the merits of their songs. Yet Babovic herself seems to spend more time talking about the band's place as female musicians than on the music! Babovic spends a lot of time complaining that reviewers at the time used "strange words" to define 'Dig Me Out', and particularly used gender language to describe the sound of the vocals and the music. This is definitely true, but lacks an alternative: by resisting discussing the music in anything other than general terms, Babovic also avoids holding her own writing up to the microscope.

Moreover: some of the reviews quoted include saying that Sleater-Kinney's sound is "wavering between rage and gentleness", "brutal beauty" and "brittle, electrifying vitality". I'm not convinced that these are "gendered paradoxes": you could apply these definitions to, respectively, Mogwai, Jesu and Gang Of Four. Plus, I mean, it's rock and roll: the music on 'Dig Me Out' is written from an emotional place, sometimes angry, sometimes vulnerable, sometimes defiant, just as all music is. 'One More Hour' (and probably 'Jenny' too) is literally about Carrie and Corin's relationship ending. If you can't write about the emotional impact of the music from either its genesis or its execution, how can you talk about it at all? It does a disservice to this heartfelt, energetic music, played passionately and frenetically by three of the best musicians of their generation.

What this book is more successful in doing, and what seems to have been the objective for the author, is chronicling the period in the band's career from barely-successful side-project in 1996 to critics' favourites and almost-mainstream in 1998. Here we learn that the album was recorded in a freezing cold studio during a snowstorm; that the recording lasted just eight days because that was all the money the label had (still eight times longer than the recording of their debut); that the band were constantly at war with fuckboy soundmen who thought they knew how the band should really sound (familiar territory for any musician of any gender tbf); that the Danelectro guitar on the cover has become so iconic that Los Campesinos! were literally queuing up to have their photo taken with it. It's thrilling to have a band like Sleater-Kinney written about in this type of detail, to show that the band who did 'I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone' successfully managed it and that they did so by making a great record.

[Matt Sparkman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Academic fare. Reads like a doctoral thesis. Sociolinguistic analyses of Dig Me Out’s reviews were interesting, as was the section covering Corin Tucker’s dope-as-hell zine, Hey Soundguy. Also of interest was a section detailing some implications of S-K’s move from Portland queercore label Chainsaw Records, on which they released Call the Doctor, to the larger Kill Rock Stars. Babovic’s academic tone felt out of step with Dig Me Out’s galvanic, urgent subject matter. Would like to have read more about the genesis of each track, especially the brutally sad “Jenny”, an all-time great album-ender.

[Martha Paola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Investigación sobre el tercer disco de Sleater-Kinney en la que la autora aporta una perspectiva no solamente desde su trinchera de historiadora, sino también de fan.

Interesante el contexto que da sobre:

1. El surgimiento de la banda dentro de la escena punk de Olympia y el movimiento Riot Grrrl.
2. El papel de las mujeres en la cultura musical en 1997:
- Spice Girls tuvo el disco más vendido del año.
- Alanis Morrissette y Celine Dion lo hicieron en el año anterior y posterior respectivamente.
- LeAnn Rimes, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey y Janet Jackson tenían hits que alcanzaron el #1 en las listas de Billboard.
- Sarah McLachlan lanzó el Lilith Fair que reunió a Sheryl Crow, Tracy Chapman, Jewel, Paula Cole y Fiona Apple en una gran gira norteamericana.
3. La influencia y relevancia de los fanzines en la cultura musical de los noventa.

Hitos de DIG ME OUT:

- Representó el momento en la discografía de la banda en que comenzó a reclamar su propia narrativa sonora.
- La manera en que SK interactuó con lo mainstream pero en sus propios términos.
- Marcó el inicio de la banda como un trío con Janet Weiss en la batería.

Las frases:

Riot grrrl quickly evolved from a critique of the punk scene to a critique of American Society (20).

“We wanted to be heroic, scary, edgy and challenging”. (48)

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge S-K fan so probably this review is biased but all I can really say is that this volume is excellent! It is everything I would want in a 33 1/3 book. In this brief volume there's a history of the band, a history of Riot Grrl and how it was an influence on all members of S-K. Then there's recording of the album and how SK faced problems when promoting it. The book ends with the group's legacy.

It's simple, the writing is neat and factual and at the end we do discover that it is twice as difficult for a female rock band to be noticed and that stereotypes still prevail, although it has improved slightly in the 10's.

[Elliot Chalom · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I definitely enjoyed this book, and I recommend it to fans of the band, it is a pretty vanilla entry into the 33-1/3 series. By now I have read more than enough from this series to identify which ones are must-read, which are not-quite-must-read but take a fun or unique angle, which are fluffy histories of the band and/or album, and which are outright boring or bad. File this one under "fluffy."

For starters, the author does not discuss the songs on Dig Me Out. I don't object to one of these books being about more than the album itself, but to not even mention the name of a single song, let alone the lyrics, instrumentation, etc. is quite odd and leaves the book lacking. The book is not really about Dig Me Out the album; it is about a year in the life of Sleater-Kinney, that year being the one during which they added Janet Weiss as drummer and recorded and toured around Dig Me Out. The reason the book gets 3 stars is because that is a fine story in and of itself. It just isn't enough.

In terms of the content that the author does provide, it is interesting but repetitive. There is a basic background into the importance of Olympia as a birthplace for the band (other books do a much better job of explaining the uniquely fertile ground for music that Olympia provides - see for example, Beat Happening's Beat Happening). There is the story of the 8 day recording process, which as told is more of a fun anecdote than a crucial story point. (Had the author tied her observations to actual songs on the album, it may have been much better.) And then there is a lot - I mean a lot - about what it means to be women in rock who don't want to be perceived as women in rock but also kind of do. Whether it's told from the perspective of their coverage in the media, their treatment by club owners and sound guys on tour, or by their fans, it's all about the tension between being treated as powerful women in rock without being pigeonholed as women. Again, the stories are interesting and there is a valid point being made here. It's all just a little fluffy for my taste. Most of the work done here by the author is in taking quotes from media (including the band's own zine) in the late '90s. There were interviews conducted with each band member but they don't add all that much.

I liked "Dig Me Out" the book, but not nearly as much as Dig Me Out the album. For an easy breezy read about a great band, I recommend it. Unfortunately it didn't do the one thing I hope for in these 33-1/3 books - it didn't make me love or appreciate the album any more than I already did.

[Josh Mock · Rating 2 out of 5]

The historical context of post-second wave feminism and riot grrrl, as well as the struggles of being an all-woman band without getting pigeonholed as "women in rock" was excellent.

Unfortunately the writing appeared to have been edited very poorly, if at all. To the point it became distracting and hard to read. Beyond minor spelling and grammar mistakes, the book felt like it had no structure. Some ideas were addressed two or three times with barely a word changed, making it feel like I had accidentally reread certain pages several times. Chapter and section headings felt more cosmetic than actual guideposts; the author jumped between topics so often that no section of the book seemed to be any more about the subject it claimed to be covering than any other part of the book.

A lot of the zine pull quotes from fans about the band were excellent, but there were so many such quotes that the quality suffered. Several were poorly written or didn't help to serve or emphasize any point that hadn't already been established without them.

If this were given a few healthy rounds of editing, and the songwriting and studio recording time covered in a more documentarian style, this could have been a really great read about feminism in punk.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dig Me Out is one of my all-time favorite albums, so of course I had very high expectations for 33 1/3's take on it. I was under the impression that the purpose of these books was to really dive into the album, to delve into what inspired the songs, the recording process, etc.
Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed in this book. Yes, there's backstory on S-K recording DMO during a snowstorm in 1996, and a chronicle of the tour for DMO, but that's pretty much the only new information you'll get. The rest is the same history of riotgrrrl that's been regurgitated several times, and then several pages of why fans love S-K. Also, who edited this book? "Heart Factory" is referred to as "Heart Machine", the rock club CGBG is misspelled, music critic David Sinker is David Stinker, and I'm sure there were other errors.
Overall, while it's always a pleasure to read about S-K, this volume felt rushed, and lacked the in-depth take on DMO that I was looking for.

[Burgoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A historian looks at Sleater-Kinney and in particular their third album. It's an accessible look at an underappreciated time in rock history.

http://fedpeaches.blogspot.com/2016/0...

[abi · Rating 3 out of 5]

how are you going to talk about this album, yet not actually talk about the album; the songwriting process, the influences, the songs, the interpersonal dynamics. absolutely baffling.

[Josie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a fan of Sleater Kinney and the scenes they emerged from and contributed to, I thoroughly enjoyed this insight into 'Dig Me Out' and the band as a whole.
I did, at times, feel that this book was becoming repetitive. Although analysis of sexism directed towards the band was very interesting, it felt the same points, and even phrases, were being used again and again, and the book would have benefited from some structural changes to accomodate this. Additionally, as Carrie's book was published a year prior, there are a lot of overlaps in information provided; I feel more time spent on the technical aspects of making the album, as well as analysis of the work, would have allowed this book to stand out more.

Despite this, Babovic's exploration of media and fan responses to Sleater Kinney was more in-depth than any other writing I've seen about the band, and provided an expansive summary of how they were received.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book from the 33 1/3 series looks at the making of Sleater-Kinney's terrific album Dig Me Out, its accompanying tour, and the cultural moment in which it all happened. The focus is on how the band resisted the rock hierarchies and culture that alternately excluded women and pigeonholed them into narrow, stereotypical roles. Babovic does a wonderful job of examining the press coverage of the band and album and the ways they interacted with venue staff. I especially liked the exploration of Sleater-Kinney's journey from obscure underground band to an indie-punk success and how they navigated that. I could have wished for some discussion of the music itself, but I nonetheless really enjoyed this part of the band's story.

[J M-B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of material and references drawn from fanzines and author interviews with Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss make this something of a must have for S-K fans. You do have to put up with Jovana Babovic’s slightly clunky integration of de Certeau and academic feminist discourse, but that can be forgiven. (Well, we know she has a Ph.D., but the fan-obsessive is not far below the professorial surface). Oddly enough, for a book published in 2016, there is no material from Carrie Brownstein’s (wonderful) memoir ‘Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl’ (published 2015, Virago) and no author interview with her either. Pity. The chapter on ‘Dig Me Out’ in Carrie Brownstein’s book - so well written - is worth looking at to plug this gap.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a mostly a pretty good entry, although I wish there was a little less emphasis on what fanzines and national media wrote about Sleater-Kinney. I absolutely get why it was a focus, particularly around this album, given the misogyny rampant in the rock world then (as now, sadly), so it's an important consideration, but it resulted in page after page that just summarized what other people wrote about S-K. I'd rather hear more about what they themselves thought. Still, it gives a lot of good context to the '90s punk, indie and zine scenes.

[Brad · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a lot that annoyed me about this book. One glaring example is how the author puts Sleater-Kinney in a bubble that only makes the author look ignorant. (They must be the only band to ever encounter terrible music writers who have no better ideas than focusing on superficial things. They must be the only band of indie darlings who aren't taking over the airwaves. They must be the only band that locked horns with opinionated sound technicians.) The many typos didn't help in winning me over to the book. There are better volumes in the 33 1/3 series to choose from.

[Feck · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I think the in-depth history of riot grrrl was compelling, detailed, and interesting, when it came to the album this book is about, there was very little in the way of musical or lyrical insight. The author is clearly more knowledgeable in the history of the band & genre than of the content of the record. Still, it was an entertaining read with a lot of interesting tidbits I didn't know, but I would've liked a track-by-track analysis, like I've come to expect from the 33 1/3 series.

[Jacob Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less insightful than the series' edition on Nick Drake's Pink Moon or Sleater-Kinney bassist Carrie Brownstein's ELECTRIC memoir, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl. Remarkably repetitive in its thematic appraisals. A little over-broad, especially with its attempt to encapsulate riot grrrl '90s culture. Not bad or totally fruitless, but disappointingly light on engaging, meaningful info. And tbh... not a top-choice S-K album for this type of critical + historical assessment.

[Robby Poffenberger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Exhaustively researched and clearly written by a fan, which is cool. This record came out two decades before I listened to it so learning more about the context was really rewarding. As far as the writing, I just thought the transitions were awkward and many of the topics circled back to themselves with the impetus of using yet another quote, not necessarily offering anything new. That made it a little tedious and bloated. Then again, I guess it's more of an academic read.

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really excellent little book about the making of Dig Me Out, and Sleater-Kinney’s rise to fame. I really loved how much the author highlighted their unique and democratic approach to making music as well as their struggles being taken seriously by male critics and musicians. It made me appreciate them so much more! Occasionally, you can tell Babovic is an academic as she gets a bit repetitive, always weaving her thesis statement into each paragraph. But overall it was a fun read!

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like this is how the series should be written...a focal point, wound tightly around the album. Here you get the setting, the before, the during and the after, all in one tightly wound narrative. Perhaps the recording section lacked a little for my own preference, but overall, one of the better of the last bunch that I've managed to read.

[Jonathan Farrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was no track-by-track analysis, a staple of 33 1/3 books, but there was a lot packed in here. I'd say about 75% band history and 25% about the actual album. Most of the focus was on touring, rock criticism, the band's roots in riot grrrl, and the cultural moments in which this all happened. I think everyone should listen to this album and read this book.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Amazing album. Less than mediocre book that reads more like a Master's thesis. There were a few interesting anecdotes about the tour and recording of the album, but they're not enough to make the book worth reading.

[David Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Successfully makes the case that Sleater-Kinney transposed the social conflicts of riot grrrl to the plane of ROCK MUSIC itself with this album. As such, I'd complain about not getting more on the music if the book hadn't given me pause to think about my expectations of authority...

[Patrick Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely falls on the more academic, theoretically-centred end of the 33 1/3 canon. But good detail and interesting insights abound.

[erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

should’ve sent a poet (to maybe not write the most stilted academic prose ever)

[Mad Hapa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is 75% about SK's history 25% about the actual album. Was expecting more about the songs, writing process, etc. If you've read Carrie's book you don't need to read this one.

[Shant · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I enjoyed reading about the recording process, as well as touring, for Dig Me Out, but I wish there was more about the songs themselves.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

She paints a nice backdrop in contrasting the 90’s music scene in Olympia with those in Portland and Seattle. And she makes a great point about the blatant sexism in rock and roll, how the band were dismissively treated as amateurs who couldn’t even handle a sound check. But then she makes that same point again.... and again... and again. Inspiring band. Solid album. This fell a little short but has me wanting to read Carrie Brownstein’s book. And their turn on Austin City Limits was just spectacular!

[Jon Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Sleater-Kinney; they’re one of the last bands for my generation that you could fall in love with, who could mean the world to you and who would who loved the fans as much as the fans loved them. They always seemed aware of the fan reaction and the political statement of being three women playing fast, often angry music. They seemed to want to be the feminist equivalent both the Sex Pistols and the writers of Sniffin’ Glue. It’s a beautiful ambition. I love that the album Babovic has chosen for the 33 1/3 series is Dig Me Out; whereas Call the Doctor and All Hands on the Bad One feel more obvious choices Dig Me Out is where the ‘classic’ line-up coalesces and things began to take off for them commercially. It’s a portrait of a band on the cusp of their big artistic and commercial break; almost invariably it’s the most interesting point of any band’s career. Even Coldplay’s.

As with the best books in the series this is barely about the album itself; although the circumstances of recording are discussed as they’re important to the record’s mood Babovic wisely realises that the technicalities aren’t important and often the album itself isn’t either. It’s simply the cultural artefact that triggers everything; the eye of the storm. As with the last 33 1/3 I read (Blondie’s Parallel Lines) this is about putting the album into context; its roots, its reception and the consequences for the band and music in general. I’d perhaps have liked a little more on Riot Grrl (although I appreciate there’s not a great deal of room to discuss it a little more beyond depth beyond Bikini Kill would’ve been nice) but Babovic drills down to just why the movement made little impact outside its heartland of Washington state and the UK but Sleater-Kinney did. It’s perhaps a simple conclusion but it might have been interesting to see it linked to Nirvana and Cobain’s inability to marry his purist ethic to grand scale success. Not comparing female rock stars to male stars is very much the point but equally the comparison could simply be made band against band. Riot Grrl wasn’t equipped to handle mass success but Sleater-Kinney’s willingness to meet mainstream press and the music business whilst maintaining their principles means they were. You can’t spread a message, no matter how worthy, with an insular attitude. My favourite part of the book remained the details of the interactions of fans and band; the late 1990s and early 2000s feel like the last hurrah of fanzine culture and it’s fantastic to see it detailed here. Hey Soundguy sounds like the DIY punk zines of the late 1970s; a love of music (not necessarily technique) combined with a willingness to expose the workings of the system. It’s about artists genuinely interested in having a conversation with their audience rather than preaching at them; that’s my favourite kind of band and a reminder of just why I love what they mean as much as any individual song or album.

If there’s a minor fault it’s perhaps that Babovic lapses into dry academic tone occasionally but it’s not at the expense of clearly dealing with the issues surrounding the band; it’s clearly as much about using the language of rock criticism to communicate as the band were using musical language to get their point across. That very much feels like the right way to write a book about the band; it covers what makes the band important in a relatively small wordcount.

And now I’m off to play Dig Me Out loud and take myself back most of two decades. Driving you back to the album is always a sign of a good book.

(STANDARD DISCLAIMER – The copy I read was an advance eBook provided gratis by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review).

[MM · Rating 3 out of 5]

More reading up about Olympia. Fine on context for SK; not much on the record itself.