Kathleen Hanna is such a deeply influential figure in rock and roll that it is difficult to imagine indie rock without her presence, or rather, without Bikini Kill. A very popular, very effective rock band who spearheaded the riot grrrl movement and changed the way women rockers were seen, substituting sex for power.
And, I loved the first two Bikini Kill albums.
Aaaaaand, though I never considered them in Sleater Kenney, they maintained a level of integrity equal to SK.
Anyway, according to Pitchfork, Hanna has expanded her one woman band Julie Ruins into a real band and has recently collaborated with James Murphy on a song. Here is PF's money quote: "The song [Murphy] gravitated to is called "Just My Kind" and is what I like to call a "desperate, pleading" love song. We were all surprised when he chose it because the rest of the record is so different. "Just My Kind" is definitely the only song Kathi played stand up bass on! She'd never played stand up before and just walked over and grabbed it and figured it out. Thank god she had saddle shoes on that day because it added that "magic moment" feeling you get in the studio sometimes."
I could have done without the "magic moment" stuff but there you go.
As for Murphy, as Alyson reported here, he is working with Arcade Fire. Of course, they are old buddies having toured Australia together back in the day. Indeed, Arcade Fire were at LCD Soundsystem's farewell gig (the one that made such a lousy movie) and still, I think this should work very very well. Is I'm guessing the new album is dropping some time in 2013. So I guess his post LCD career is continuing apace…