Carrie Brownstein
Encyclopedia
Carrie Rachel Brownstein (born September 27, 1974), is an American musician, writer, and actress, best known as a guitarist and vocalist in the now-defunct Portland, Oregon
-based band Sleater-Kinney
. In 2006 she was the only woman to earn a spot in the Rolling Stone
readers' list of the 25 "Most Underrated Guitarists of All-Time."
In September 2010, Brownstein announced she had formed a new band, Wild Flag
; the band released their self-titled debut album
, on September 13th, 2011. Portlandia
, her sketch comedy
show for the Independent Film Channel
, began airing in January 2011.
. She began playing guitar at 15, and received lessons from future Sunny Day Real Estate
/The Fire Theft
frontman Jeremy Enigk
. She later said "he lived in the neighborhood next to mine, so I would just walk my guitar over to his house. He showed me a couple of open chords and I just took it from there. I'd gone through so many phases as a kid with my interests that my parents put their foot down with guitar. So [the instrument] ended up being the [first] thing that I had to save up my own money for-and maybe that was the whole reason that I actually stuck with it."
After high school, she attended Western Washington University
for a short time, before transferring to The Evergreen State College
(where Corin Tucker
, Kathleen Hanna
, and Tobi Vail
were also students). While there, Brownstein was in the band Excuse 17
. Around this time, she met Corin Tucker
, who was in the band Heavens to Betsy
. The two bands toured together and both contributed to the Free to Fight
compilation. They formed Sleater-Kinney as a side project, and released the Free to Fight split single with Cypher in the Snow
.
In 1997, she graduated from Evergreen State with a degree in sociolinguistics
, and stayed in Olympia for three years before moving to Portland, Oregon.
joined the band in 1996. Following their eponymous debut, they released six more critically acclaimed albums before going on indefinite hiatus in 2006.
guitarist/singer Mary Timony
, recording as The Spells, released The Age of Backwards E.P.
in 1999.
In summer 2009 Brownstein and Weiss worked together on songs (produced by Tucker Martine
) for the soundtrack of a documentary film by Lynn Hershman Leeson
.
In September 2010, Brownstein revealed her latest project is the band Wild Flag, with Janet Weiss, Mary Timony, and Rebecca Cole, formerly of The Minders
; according to Brownstein, about a year earlier "I started to need music again, and so I called on my friends and we joined as a band. Chemistry cannot be manufactured or forced, so Wild Flag was not a sure thing, it was a 'maybe, a 'possibility.' But after a handful of practice sessions, spread out over a period of months, I think we all realized that we could be greater than the sum of our parts."
, Mary Lynn Rajskub
, Karen O
, and Cheryl Hines
for The Believer
magazine. Brownstein has also written a couple of music-related video game reviews for Slate.
From November 2007 to May 2010, Brownstein wrote a blog for NPR Music
called "Monitor Mix"; she returned for a final blog post in October, thanking her blog readers and declaring the blog "officially conclud[ed]."
In March 2009 Brownstein contracted to write a book that "describe[d] the dramatically changing dynamic between music fan and performer, from the birth of the iPod
and the death of the record store to the emergence of the "you be the star" culture of American Idol
and the ensuing dilution of rock mystique"; The book, called The Sound of Where You Are, is to be published by Ecco
/HarperCollins
.
, helping them review applicants for their WK12 program of one-year internships.
Brownstein has been an actress (in what she calls a "mere hobby"), with a role in the short film Fan Mail, as well as Group and the Miranda July
film Getting Stronger Everyday. Brownstein and Fred Armisen
have published several video skits as part of a comedy duo called "ThunderAnt". She also starred opposite James Mercer
of The Shins
in the 2009 independent film Some Days Are Better Than Others.
After their ThunderAnt videos, Brownstein and Armisen developed Portlandia
, a sketch comedy
show shot entirely on location in Portland, for the Independent Film Channel
. The two star in the series and write for it with Allison Silverman
from The Colbert Report and Jonathan Krisel, a writer for Saturday Night Live. The show, which features appearances of some of the characters from ThunderAnt, aired its premiere in January 2011. It has been renewed for a second season.
, though she does not "seem to be very 'out' as [a] Jew."
Brownstein was outed
as bisexual to her family and the world by Spin
when she was 21 years old. The article discussed the fact that she had dated band mate Corin Tucker
in the beginning of Sleater-Kinney (the song "One More Hour" is about their breakup). After the article was out, she said, "I hadn't seen it [the Spin article], and I got a phone call. My dad called me and was like, 'The Spin article's out. Um, do you want to let me know what's going on?' The ground was pulled out from underneath me... My dad did not know that Corin and I had ever dated, or that I even dated girls." In 2006, The New York Times described Brownstein as "openly gay
." In a November 3, 2010 cover-story for Portland, Oregon's Willamette Week
, Brownstein laid to rest questions about her sexual identity
: "It’s weird, because no one’s actually ever asked me. People just always assume, like, you’re this or that. It’s like, ‘OK. I’m bisexual."
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
-based band Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney was an alternative rock band from Portland, Oregon that formed in 1994. Originally formed in Olympia, Washington, the group's name is derived from Sleater-Kinney Road, Interstate 5 off ramp #108 in Lacey, Washington, the location of one of their early practice spaces. They were a...
. In 2006 she was the only woman to earn a spot in the Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
readers' list of the 25 "Most Underrated Guitarists of All-Time."
In September 2010, Brownstein announced she had formed a new band, Wild Flag
Wild Flag
Wild Flag is an American four-piece group based in Portland, Oregon and Washington, D.C.. The group consists of Carrie Brownstein , Mary Timony , Rebecca Cole and Janet Weiss...
; the band released their self-titled debut album
Wild Flag (album)
Wild Flag is the first album from American indie rock band Wild Flag. It was released September 13th, 2011 on Merge Records.-Track listing:#"Romance" - 3:52#"Something Came Over Me" - 4:03#"Boom" - 2:45#"Glass Tambourine" - 5:29...
, on September 13th, 2011. Portlandia
Portlandia (TV series)
Portlandia is a television series that debuted on the Independent Film Channel on January 21, 2011. The show, produced by Andrew Singer and Jonathan Krisel, is set and filmed both in and near Portland, Oregon and features Saturday Night Live cast member Fred Armisen as well as Carrie Brownstein, a...
, her sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
show for the Independent Film Channel
Independent Film Channel
The Independent Film Channel is an American cable TV network that airs independent film and related programming. IFC programming includes commercially interrupted feature-length films, original documentaries, shorts, animated series, original series, acquired series, and content exclusively for...
, began airing in January 2011.
Early life
Brownstein was "born and raised in the posh East Side suburbs of Seattle" and attended The Overlake SchoolThe Overlake School
The Overlake School is a private, non-sectarian, co-ed, college preparatory school located in Redmond, Washington. It serves 500 students in grades 5 through 12. The school was founded in 1967 by Charlie Clarke. It was recently featured in the Seattle Times for its work in Cambodia.- Academics...
. She began playing guitar at 15, and received lessons from future Sunny Day Real Estate
Sunny Day Real Estate
Sunny Day Real Estate is an American rock band from Seattle, Washington. In the 1990s, the group expanded upon the grunge style that was popular in the local scene to make a more melodic sound. While not the first band to be classified as emo, they were instrumental in establishing the genre. In...
/The Fire Theft
The Fire Theft
The Fire Theft is an indie rock band from Seattle, Washington. It was formed in 2001 by vocalist/guitarist Jeremy Enigk, bassist Nate Mendel, and drummer William Goldsmith, all of whom were previously members of Sunny Day Real Estate...
frontman Jeremy Enigk
Jeremy Enigk
Jeremy Enigk is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist known for being the front man of the Seattle band Sunny Day Real Estate.-Biography:...
. She later said "he lived in the neighborhood next to mine, so I would just walk my guitar over to his house. He showed me a couple of open chords and I just took it from there. I'd gone through so many phases as a kid with my interests that my parents put their foot down with guitar. So [the instrument] ended up being the [first] thing that I had to save up my own money for-and maybe that was the whole reason that I actually stuck with it."
After high school, she attended Western Washington University
Western Washington University
Western Washington University is one of six state-funded, four-year universities of higher education in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located in Bellingham and offers bachelor's and master's degrees.-History:...
for a short time, before transferring to The Evergreen State College
The Evergreen State College
The Evergreen State College is an accredited public liberal arts college and a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. It is located in Olympia, Washington, USA. Founded in 1967, Evergreen was formed to be an experimental and non-traditional college...
(where Corin Tucker
Corin Tucker
Corin Lisa Tucker is a singer and guitarist, best known for her work with rock band Sleater-Kinney.- Early life :In the early 1990s, Tucker attended Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where she studied film, political economy, and social change...
, Kathleen Hanna
Kathleen Hanna
Kathleen Hanna is an American musician, feminist activist, and punk zine writer. In the early- to mid-1990s she was the lead singer and songwriter of Bikini Kill, before fronting Le Tigre in the late 1990s and early 2000s...
, and Tobi Vail
Tobi Vail
Tobi Vail is an independent musician, DIY zinester, and feminist activist from Olympia, Washington, noted primarily as the drummer of the defunct punk band Bikini Kill. She formed one of her first bands as the drummer for The Go Team when she was 15, later collaborating in several other groups...
were also students). While there, Brownstein was in the band Excuse 17
Excuse 17
Excuse 17 was a punk rock band from Olympia, Washington that performed and recorded from 1993 to 1995.Carrie Brownstein, Becca Albee and CJ Phillips came together to form Excuse 17, a band that would only last a few years but would prove to be influential. Carrie and Becca both played guitar and...
. Around this time, she met Corin Tucker
Corin Tucker
Corin Lisa Tucker is a singer and guitarist, best known for her work with rock band Sleater-Kinney.- Early life :In the early 1990s, Tucker attended Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where she studied film, political economy, and social change...
, who was in the band Heavens to Betsy
Heavens to Betsy
Heavens to Betsy was an American indie-punk band formed in Olympia, Washington in 1991. They were part of the DIY riot grrrl movement in the punk rock underground in the early 1990s, and were the first band of Sleater-Kinney vocalist/guitarist Corin Tucker....
. The two bands toured together and both contributed to the Free to Fight
Free to Fight
Free to Fight is a project consisting of a 1995 double album and booklet, and a single later released by Candy Ass Records.The release is subtitled "an interactive self-defense project." The theme of the project is self-defense for women, and it includes records featuring all-women bands and a...
compilation. They formed Sleater-Kinney as a side project, and released the Free to Fight split single with Cypher in the Snow
Cypher in the Snow
Cypher in the Snow were an all women queercore band from San Francisco.One of the band's first appearances was at the Dirtybird Queercore Festival in San Francisco in 1996. This historic festival also featured Tribe 8, Sta-Prest, Behead the Prophet, No Lord Shall Live, The Need and many others...
.
In 1997, she graduated from Evergreen State with a degree in sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...
, and stayed in Olympia for three years before moving to Portland, Oregon.
Sleater-Kinney
After both Excuse 17 and Heavens to Betsy split up, Sleater-Kinney became Brownstein and Tucker's main focus. They recorded their first self-titled album during a trip to Australia in early 1994, where the couple were celebrating Tucker's graduation from Evergreen (Brownstein still had three years of college left). It was released the following spring. They recorded and toured with different drummers, until Janet WeissJanet Weiss
Janet Lee Weiss was the drummer of now defunct Sleater-Kinney and is currently a member of Quasi and Wild Flag. She was the drummer for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, leaving after the album Mirror Traffic.-Early life:...
joined the band in 1996. Following their eponymous debut, they released six more critically acclaimed albums before going on indefinite hiatus in 2006.
Other work
Brownstein and former HeliumHelium (band)
Helium was an American alternative rock band formed in the summer of 1992. Originally calling themselves "Chupa", its founding members were Mary Lou Lord, Jason Hatfield , Shawn King Devlin and Brian Dunton...
guitarist/singer Mary Timony
Mary Timony
Mary B. Timony is an American independent singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, and violist. She was a member of the bands Helium and Autoclave, and currently plays in Wild Flag.-Biography:...
, recording as The Spells, released The Age of Backwards E.P.
The Age of Backwards E.P.
The Age of Backwards E.P. was the only release by the short-lived band The Spells, a collaboration between Carrie Brownstein and Mary Timony.-Track listing:# "The Age of Backwards"# "Octaves Apart"# "Number One Fan"# "Can't Explain [The Who]"...
in 1999.
In summer 2009 Brownstein and Weiss worked together on songs (produced by Tucker Martine
Tucker Martine
Tucker Martine is an American, Grammy nominated record producer, musician and composer who has worked with artists such as My Morning Jacket, Mudhoney, Bill Frisell, The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, R.E.M., Laura Veirs, Spoon, and Tift Merritt...
) for the soundtrack of a documentary film by Lynn Hershman Leeson
Lynn Hershman Leeson
Lynn Hershman Leeson is an award-winning American artist and filmmaker. She was Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis, and an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University...
.
In September 2010, Brownstein revealed her latest project is the band Wild Flag, with Janet Weiss, Mary Timony, and Rebecca Cole, formerly of The Minders
The Minders
The Minders is a band closely associated with The Elephant Six Collective. Started by Martyn Leaper in Denver, Colorado in 1996, the band's original members included Leaper on guitars and vocals, Rebecca Cole on drums, Jeff Almond on guitar, and Marc Willhite on bass.Leaper formed the Minders in...
; according to Brownstein, about a year earlier "I started to need music again, and so I called on my friends and we joined as a band. Chemistry cannot be manufactured or forced, so Wild Flag was not a sure thing, it was a 'maybe, a 'possibility.' But after a handful of practice sessions, spread out over a period of months, I think we all realized that we could be greater than the sum of our parts."
Writing career
Brownstein began a career as a writer before Sleater-Kinney broke up. She interviewed Eddie VedderEddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
, Mary Lynn Rajskub
Mary Lynn Rajskub
Mary Lynn Rajskub is an American actress and comedian, best known for her leading role as Chloe O'Brian on the Fox action-thriller 24.-Early life:...
, Karen O
Karen O
Karen Lee Orzolek , better known by her stage name Karen O, is the vocalist for New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs.-Early life:...
, and Cheryl Hines
Cheryl Hines
Cheryl Ruth Hines is an American actress and director, known for her role as Larry David's wife Cheryl on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. She currently appears on the ABC sitcom Suburgatory...
for The Believer
The Believer (magazine)
The Believer is a United States literary magazine that also covers other arts and general culture. Founded and designed in 2003 by the writer and publisher Dave Eggers, it is edited by Vendela Vida, Heidi Julavits and Ed Park...
magazine. Brownstein has also written a couple of music-related video game reviews for Slate.
From November 2007 to May 2010, Brownstein wrote a blog for NPR Music
NPR Music
NPR Music launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music discovery. The Web site is a project of National Public Radio, a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to 797...
called "Monitor Mix"; she returned for a final blog post in October, thanking her blog readers and declaring the blog "officially conclud[ed]."
In March 2009 Brownstein contracted to write a book that "describe[d] the dramatically changing dynamic between music fan and performer, from the birth of the iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
and the death of the record store to the emergence of the "you be the star" culture of American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
and the ensuing dilution of rock mystique"; The book, called The Sound of Where You Are, is to be published by Ecco
Ecco Press
Ecco Press is a publishing imprint of HarperCollins, who acquired it in 1999. It was founded in 1971 by Daniel Halpern as an independent publishing company. Until 1994 the press was the publisher of the literary magazine Antaeus.- External links :**...
/HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
.
Side projects
In 2007 Brownstein briefly worked at Portland ad agency Wieden+KennedyWieden+Kennedy
Wieden+Kennedy is an independently owned American advertising agency best known for its work for Nike...
, helping them review applicants for their WK12 program of one-year internships.
Brownstein has been an actress (in what she calls a "mere hobby"), with a role in the short film Fan Mail, as well as Group and the Miranda July
Miranda July
Miranda July is a performing artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character from a "girlzine" Miranda created with high school friend Johanna Fateman, called Snarla.- Background :Miranda...
film Getting Stronger Everyday. Brownstein and Fred Armisen
Fred Armisen
Fred Armisen is an American actor, comedian and musician best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, and portraying off-color foreigners in various comedy films such as EuroTrip, Anchorman and Cop Out...
have published several video skits as part of a comedy duo called "ThunderAnt". She also starred opposite James Mercer
James Mercer (musician)
James Russell Mercer is an American guitarist and Alternative rock musician. He is a founding member and lead singer-songwriter of the Grammy-nominated indie rock group The Shins. In 2009, Mercer and producer Danger Mouse formed the side project Broken Bells, for which they released a...
of The Shins
The Shins
The Shins are an American indie rock band comprising singer, songwriter, and guitarist James Mercer, guitarist/bassist Dave Hernandez, Eric Johnson of Fruit Bats, drummer Joe Plummer and bassist Ron Lewis. Their sound draws on several musical genres, including pop, alternative rock, indie rock,...
in the 2009 independent film Some Days Are Better Than Others.
After their ThunderAnt videos, Brownstein and Armisen developed Portlandia
Portlandia (TV series)
Portlandia is a television series that debuted on the Independent Film Channel on January 21, 2011. The show, produced by Andrew Singer and Jonathan Krisel, is set and filmed both in and near Portland, Oregon and features Saturday Night Live cast member Fred Armisen as well as Carrie Brownstein, a...
, a sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
show shot entirely on location in Portland, for the Independent Film Channel
Independent Film Channel
The Independent Film Channel is an American cable TV network that airs independent film and related programming. IFC programming includes commercially interrupted feature-length films, original documentaries, shorts, animated series, original series, acquired series, and content exclusively for...
. The two star in the series and write for it with Allison Silverman
Allison Silverman
Allison Silverman is an American comedy writer from Gainesville, Florida. She was the head writer and executive producer for The Colbert Report until 2009.-Life and awards:...
from The Colbert Report and Jonathan Krisel, a writer for Saturday Night Live. The show, which features appearances of some of the characters from ThunderAnt, aired its premiere in January 2011. It has been renewed for a second season.
Personal life
Jewish Woman magazine said Brownstein is JewishAmerican Jews
American Jews, also known as Jewish Americans, are American citizens of the Jewish faith or Jewish ethnicity. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe, and their U.S.-born descendants...
, though she does not "seem to be very 'out' as [a] Jew."
Brownstein was outed
Outing
Outing is the act of disclosing a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender person's true sexual orientation or gender identity without that person's consent. Outing gives rise to issues of privacy, choice, hypocrisy, and harm in addition to sparking debate on what constitutes common good in efforts...
as bisexual to her family and the world by Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
when she was 21 years old. The article discussed the fact that she had dated band mate Corin Tucker
Corin Tucker
Corin Lisa Tucker is a singer and guitarist, best known for her work with rock band Sleater-Kinney.- Early life :In the early 1990s, Tucker attended Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where she studied film, political economy, and social change...
in the beginning of Sleater-Kinney (the song "One More Hour" is about their breakup). After the article was out, she said, "I hadn't seen it [the Spin article], and I got a phone call. My dad called me and was like, 'The Spin article's out. Um, do you want to let me know what's going on?' The ground was pulled out from underneath me... My dad did not know that Corin and I had ever dated, or that I even dated girls." In 2006, The New York Times described Brownstein as "openly gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
." In a November 3, 2010 cover-story for Portland, Oregon's Willamette Week
Willamette Week
Willamette Week is an alternative weekly newspaper published in Portland, Oregon, United States. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business and culture....
, Brownstein laid to rest questions about her sexual identity
Sexual identity
Sexual identity is a term that, like sex, has two distinctively different meanings. One describes an identity roughly based on sexual orientation, the other an identity based on sexual characteristics, which is not socially based but based on biology, a concept related to, but different from,...
: "It’s weird, because no one’s actually ever asked me. People just always assume, like, you’re this or that. It’s like, ‘OK. I’m bisexual."
External links
- Official Sleater-Kinney website
- Carrie Brownstein at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...