“After intense deliberation and with heavy sadness, I have decided to leave Sleater-Kinney,” stated Janet Weiss on Twitter on July 1. Weiss will depart the band after 24 years as the trio’s drummer.
Sleater-Kinney first emerged as part of Washington’s Riot Grrl movement in the mid-’90s. In 1996, two years after Sleater-Kinney’s formation, founders Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker welcomed Weiss to the band.
Videos by American Songwriter
The band’s public response to Weiss read, “We are saddened by Janet’s decision to leave Sleater-Kinney. It has been an incredible privilege to work with such a talented musician and drummer over the course of so many albums, including The Center Won’t Hold.”
Sleater-Kinney intended to disband permanently on June 27, 2006, saying, “as of now, there are no plans for future tours or recording.” Ten years later, however, the band released its eighth studio album, No Cities To Love.
In American Songwriter’s 2015 cover story on Sleater-Kinney, Weiss echoed similar sentiments to her final decision to leave the band: “It’s sad to say goodbye to something that’s been so fulfilling and nourished us in a lot of ways, but it seemed like the right thing to do. I don’t think there was any choice, really.”
The band’s new St. Vincent-produced album The Center Won’t Hold, which Weiss played on, will drop on August 16.