Hump Day Treat, 'In Memoriam' edition

Three years ago on this past Saturday, critically acclaimed punk trio Sleater-Kinney announced that they were going on 'indefinite hiatus'. Rock and the Single Girl pays tribute with by presenting four videos from one of their last overseas performances.

All four songs are from their final album, 2005's The Woods. A meditation on disenchantment, disorientation, growth, and growing apart, the songs are moody, contemplative, and treat love, sex, and partnership with a certain amount of cynicism. This was a major departure from positive and self-righteous denunciations of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars found on the band's previous album, One Beat (2003).

But fans were probably more shocked by the sonic changes found on this record. In retrospect, one can hear strains of classic rock swagger and grandiosity on both One Beat and All Hands On the Bad One (2000). But upon its release, Sleater-Kinney's new super distorted, aggressive, pseudo-1970s confounded longtime listeners, while attracting and challenging new fans. It seems like this is exactly the response the band wanted. Watch the videos below to see the spectacular and ferocious sounds of confrontation found on The Woods on this long Hump Day.