Sleater-Kinney
   1995, Chainsaw/Villa Villakula

  Call the Doctor
   1996, Chainsaw

  Dig Me Out
   1997, Kill Rock Stars

  Hot Rock
   1999, Kill Rock Stars


The Hot Rock
1999, Kill Rock Stars/
Matador Ltd, OLE 352-2

1. Start Together
2. Hot Rock
3. The End of You
4. Burn, Don't Freeze
5. God is a Number
6. Banned from the end of the World
7. Don't Talk Like
8. Get Up
9. One Song for You
10. The size of our Love
11. Living in Exile
12. Memorize your Lines
13. A Quarter to Three

'The Hot Rock' was recorded at Avast studio in Seattle, WA in July of 1998.
Producer: Roger Moutenot
Engineer: Kip Beelman
Mastering: Greg Calbi at Sterling
Photos: Marina Chavez

1. Start together

If you want me it's changing
If you want everything's changing
If you want the sky would open up
If you want your eyes could open up

I'm a mess
I'm the worst
But the best
that you've heard

Come so far come close together
Don't tear apart what we worked for

Right or wrong
here we are
I wanna know
what you are

Baby don't you leave me baby don't you go
I'll head out the fences head out the door

I don't know
what you want
But I got
what you..

Baby don't you leave me baby don't you go I'll
roll with the punches roll out the door

2. Hot Rock

I'm onto you
before the night is through
I'm going to steal this diamond
hot rock to you

how am I to know what you want me to feel?
counterfeit or real?
I'm not the one you wanted
not the thing you keep

It's a caper theme. there's a getaway car
A diamond to steal, a plan that might go wrong
If this is a set up. please let me know
I can't risk my life for a guilded stone
(I thought all along this was everything
Try not to look to hard to find that it's not real
I knew all along you weren't everything
Then in the darkest hour I watched you disappear)

It's a crafty scene, full of power and greed
You tell me not to steal, yet you still want a thief
You write out the plans. I carry out the act
But then I lose it all if I can't bring it back
(How was Ito know this rock was so fragile
It cracked in my hands while I was holding on
An uncut stone is flawed and beautiful
Don't try to size me down to fit your tiny hands)

It's not real
You don't need to tell me
that it's not real

I'm onto you
before the night is through
I'm going to steal my heart back
and find a love that's true
hot rock to you.

3. The End of You

Build for me your tightest ship
make the oars run swift and fast.
Send me out your strongest crew
make their hearts and minds steadfast,
Bless me with Athene
there's no meaner, she's the best.
For when we hit the roughest seas
we'll need all we can get.

You say "sink or swim", what a cruel cruel phrase
I'd rather fly, don't want to get caught in this endless race,

The first beast that will appear
will entice us with money and fame.
If you listen long enough
you'll forget there's anything else.
Tie me to the mast
of this ship and of this band.
Tie me to the greater things
the people that I love.

You can walk the plank, do the dead mans float
Never let them see, your heart is pounding full of hope.

Let the last storm hit us
let it strike at the hardest part.
Turn us all to mutiny
turn this boat upside down.
I am not the captain
I am just another fan.
Sailing off the edge of truth
into the end of you.

Eye of the storm, what a cruel myth
There's no bigger spotlight than shown
on the ones brave enough to live.

4. Burn, Don't Freeze

I’d set your heart on fire but arson is no way
to make a love burn brighter.
(When you saw me, on that first day
said I’d blossom under your care).

Always thought that the devil was the only one
who knew the ins and the outs of the ways of love,
so I sold off my heart to see how this would end,
now I can’t move an inch for fear it will begin.
(Wrap me up tight inside your wing
Is it safe now, is it safe to breathe?)

You come in between me and the darkness,
 please don’t ever leave.
(I force my eyes open, and now who has changed?
You look different, so different today)

Holding your eyes in the hardest stare
running around like you wanted me there
Lookin’ at me like I’m the hottest in town
then turnin’ your back when you’re movin’ around
I ain’t gonna listen to you no more
breakin’ outta this place throwin’ open the door
Use me up just to fan the flame
but you’ll be sony as I’m walkin’ away
(Backwards, forwards going out of my mind,
 spinning way off time
Fire to water baby’s putting me out)

You’re the truest light I’ve known,
 but someday I’ll learn I don’t need your fuel to burn.
I’m the one who decides who I am
I’m the one who will shed this old skin)
Always thought that hell was the only place
hot enough to melt our hearts into a locked embrace
There’s something so safe about a lack of air
the only way to make sure that you’ll always be there
(I force my eyes open, and now who has changed?
I feel different, so different today)

Did you really change your mind?
Could this be your only crime?

5. God Is a Number

We’re a reference number, a code, a screen.
An army out of digits, out of fax machines.
Mapping out the head and heart, mapping out the history.
If a part does not compute, cut it out, cut it free...

God is a Number.

What you want to know, what can you believe?
Grow up on the internet, get off on t.v.
Tell me about God and Country, music, heart and history.
Answer me with computations, answer me with industry.

Knock on every door, programmed to receive.
Answer my communication! Display! Command! Retreat!
Looking for some kind of heart inside this great machine
I don’t get an answer except 011 011 01...

6. Banned from the End of the World

Banned from the end of the world
I’ve no millenial fear,
the future is here, it comes every year
(If you want me there, I’ll play forever dear
Open up the box a new life rushes out
Nasty little bug, much work to be done
Eat all the numbers up, we’re 00 gone!)

Hot hot, go back, these eyes are shut!

If you want it, I’ll come right over
then throw me out when the party’s over

Banned from the end of your world
We can bottle time and sell it back
It’s a nostalgic crime!
(If you want me there, we’ll party without fear
A new world rushes on and we'll just play
 along
A night of revelry spend it here with me
For so many dreams cannot be contained)

Banned from the end of the world
The future is here, look in the mirror
(We're the band from the end of the world.)

7. Don't Talk Like

don't talk like
like you're nineteen
you're thirty-five
if you're a day don't act like
like you're nineteen
everyone is waiting

haven't I done enough this time
haven't I done enough today

don't stop here she said
don't say that
a part of me is dead
numb just like a
fallen limb
like what you left behind

there's a part of me
that works just like a child
there's a part of me
that's you

8. Get Up

And when the body finally starts to let go
let it all go at once
not piece by piece.
but like a whole bucket of stars
dumped into the universe.
Whoooh! Watch it go!
Good-bye small hands, good-bye small heart
good-bye small head
My soul is climbing tree trunks
and swinging from every branch

They're calling on me,
they're calling one me...

Do you think I'm an animal?
Am I not?
Do you like fur
Do you wanna come over
Ne we captive only for a short time
Is there splendor, I'm not ashamed
Desire shoots through me
like birds singing
(The way you move no ocean's waves were ever as fluid)

They're calling on me,
they're calling one me...

I hit the mark!
I target moon, I target sky, I target sun.
Fall down on the world before it falls on you.

Like beggars, like Stars,
like whores, us all
Like beggars, like dogs
Like Stars, us all

Shoot straight for my heart
(And when you were near no sky was ever quite so clear)

Like stars, so small
Like us. when we fall
Like beggars, like whores
Like lovers, Get Up!
Get up...too far.

9. One Song For You

If you want it and you're going out of your mind
If you want me in your bed we better do it on the sly,
 and you know why
One Song for you
We wrote a little tune
it takes off for you
Hold on, hold on it's coming soon

If you feel it in your body like a hurricane,
Let your arms become propellers, take off don't feel any shame.
I know for you it don't make sense
I don't make sense
Nothing comes true
because the doors were locked for you

Got a message spelled out in a lovesick bruise
I got this secret code, only flameholders know how to use.
Piled up for you
the notes I wrote on hollow walls
Let me come through
Pass through the things that we went through

Have memory of the things we said
take memory of the things we left
drop little boy crumbs you could follow back
when you get lost becoming a man
It's a lie. it's the truth
You need it more
than I do
I want it all for you
but I can't live for you

10. The Size of Our Love

Our love is the size of these tumors inside us
Our love is the size of this hospital room, you're my hospital
groom

Put the ring on my finger, so tight it turns blue
A constant reminder I'll die in this room if you die in this room

Sit like a watchdog and patiently wait
Listen for footsteps down the hallways, visit beds like they're
graves

Days go by so slowly
Nights go by so slowly
In a hospital room
In a box built for two

I fight for air, fight for my own air
Forget all the things I can do alone
I fight for a heart. I fight for a strong heart
I fight to never know this sickness you know
But I know its my own, I gave it a home

Our love is the size of these tumors inside us
Our love is the size of this hole in the ground, where my heart's
buried now.

11. Living In Exile

Once I had all, had everything
the real princess, the ruling queen.
I walked with arrogance, with vanity
but I made sure my heart
they wouldn't see.

One day I woke up it was gone
the castle kingdom all were lost.
Now I have nothing left.
nowhere to go.
And my heart that's full of doubt
is all I've left to show.

She is living in exile.

I'll walk 3.000 lonely miles.
I'll start a new life on my own.
Don't know what I'm waiting for.
but when it comes.
You know that I'll be ready
a new woman.

I know my head is my worst enemy
Swallowed too much of it and started to believe
I know my heart is my worst enemy
Swallowed too much of it and started to believe

12. Memorize Your Lines

I've learned how to wait. I know not to beg.
I know I shouldn't ask why I wake up feeling dead.
(Say forever, that's a dirty word
Will you stay here, that's a dirty girl)
Performance of my life, performance of your life.
(Act two, scene four line three
I want this room, just for me, just for me)

You said you'd never be mine, you swore it to me until the end of time
You said that love's never kind,
I memorize these lines, practice them every night.

We can talk it out, tell each other lies.
We can just pretend today isn't goodbye.
(It will be soon, now
heard that before
You better polish your speech
before you hit the floor...)
Wont'[sic] you tell me what are we fighting for?
Do you want me here do you know for sure?
You know the coldest face is the worst to me
and I won't calm down till I get to you

You know that I wish I could undo this role
Let's go back to what, what we came here for

13. A Quarter to Three

It's one a.m you haven't called
it must be four wherever you are
And the photo booth strip, and the letter you wrote
they feel like nothing I could hold

Nothing bad, nothing free
there's nothing left
for me to feel

It's like goin' to bed at a quarter to three
Finally tired, finally empty

Should I be up to play the game
back and forth get back at me
And my confidence fell and I feel so mad
tell me whose side are you on?

It's like goin' to pieces could fix everything
At this point I'm really me