Carrie Rachel Brownstein (born September 27, 1974) is an American musician, actress, writer, director, and comedian. She first came to prominence as a member of the band

Excuse 17 Excuse 17 was a punk rock band from Olympia, Washington, US, that performed and recorded from 1993 to 1995. The band consisted of Becca Albee (vocals and guitar), Carrie Brownstein (guitar and vocals), and Curtis James (drums). The band recorded ...

before forming the rock trio

Sleater-Kinney Sleater-Kinney ( ) is an American rock band that formed in Olympia, Washington, in 1994. The band's current lineup features Corin Tucker (vocals and guitar) and Carrie Brownstein (guitar and vocals), following the departure of longtime member ...

. During a long hiatus from Sleater-Kinney, she formed the group

Wild Flag Wild Flag was an American four-piece indie rock/post-punk supergroup based in Portland, Oregon and Washington, D.C. The group consisted of Carrie Brownstein (vocals, guitar), Mary Timony (vocals, guitar), Rebecca Cole ( keyboards, backing vocal ...

. During this period, Brownstein wrote and appeared in a series of comedy sketches alongside ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...

'' alumnus

Fred Armisen Fereydun Robert Armisen (born December 4, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. With his comedy partner Carrie Brownstein, Armisen was the co-creator and co-star of the IFC sketch comedy series '' Portlandia''. ...

which were developed into the satirical comedy TV series ''

Portlandia ''Portlandia'' is an American sketch comedy television series starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, set in and around Portland, Oregon, and spoofing the city's reputation as a haven for eccentric hipsters. The show was produced by Br ...

''. The series went on to win Emmy and Peabody Awards. Sleater-Kinney eventually reunited; as of 2015, Brownstein was touring with the band as well as in support of her new memoir.

Early life

Brownstein was born in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, and was raised in Redmond, Washington. Her mother was a housewife and a teacher, and her father was a corporate lawyer. They divorced when Carrie was 14, and she was raised by her father. Brownstein has a younger sister. Her family is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. She attended

Lake Washington High School Lake Washington High School is a four-year public high school in Kirkland, Washington, a suburb east of Seattle. It is one of four main high schools in the Lake Washington School District, with an enrollment capacity of approximately 1,500 student ...

before transferring to The Overlake School for her senior year. Brownstein began playing guitar at 15 and received lessons from

Jeremy Enigk Jeremy Enigk (; born July 16, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter, vocalist and guitarist / multi-instrumentalist. He is known as a solo artist, a film score composer, and as the lead vocalist, bassist, rhythm guitarist and keyboardist of the ...

. 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 chord In music for stringed instruments, especially guitar, an open chord (open-position chord) is a chord that includes one or more strings that are not fingered. An open string vibrates freely, whereas a fingered string will be partially dampened u ...

s 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 he instrumentended up being the

irst An infrared search and track (IRST) system (sometimes known as infrared sighting and tracking) is a method for detecting and tracking objects which give off infrared radiation, such as the infrared signatures of jet aircraft and helicopters. IR ...

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, Brownstein attended

Western Washington University Western Washington University (WWU or Western) is a public university in Bellingham, Washington. The northernmost university in the contiguous United States, WWU was founded in 1893 as the state-funded New Whatcom Normal School, succeeding a pri ...

before transferring to

The Evergreen State College The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts college in Olympia, Washington. Founded in 1967, it offers a non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study towards a degree or follow a p ...

. In 1997, Brownstein graduated from Evergreen with an emphasis on

sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural Norm (sociology), norms, expectations, and context (language use), context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on languag ...

and stayed in

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. Europea ...

, for three years before moving to Portland,

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

Music career

Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney at Lollapalooza 2006

Excuse 17

While attending Evergreen, Brownstein met fellow students

Corin Tucker Corin Lisa Tucker (born November 9, 1972) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known for her work with rock band Sleater-Kinney. Tucker is also a member of the alternative rock supergroup Filthy Friends, and previously recorded ...

Kathleen Hanna Kathleen Hanna (born November 12, 1968) is an American singer, musician, artist, feminist activist, pioneer of the feminist punk riot grrrl movement, and punk zine writer. In the early-to-mid-1990s she was the lead singer of feminist punk band B ...

Tobi Vail Tobi Celeste Vail (born July 20, 1969) is an American independent musician, music critic and feminist activist from Olympia, Washington. She was a central figure in the riot grrl scene—she coined the spelling of "grrl"—and she started the zi ...

, and

Becca Albee Becca Albee is an American musician and visual artist who was a founding member of the band Excuse 17, which was an early pioneer in the riot grrrl and third-wave feminism movements. She is based in Brooklyn, New York. Early life and education Al ...

. With Albee and CJ Phillips, she formed the band

, one of the pioneering bands of the riot grrrl movement in the Olympia music scene that played an important role in

third-wave feminism Third-wave feminism is an iteration of the feminist movement that began in the early 1990s, prominent in the decades prior to the fourth wave. Grounded in the civil-rights advances of the second wave, Gen X and early Gen Y generations third-w ...

. Excuse 17 often toured with Tucker's band Heavens to Betsy. The two bands contributed to the '' Free to Fight'' compilation. With Tucker, she formed the band

as a side project and later released the split single ''Free to Fight'' with Cypher in the Snow.

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 in early 1994 during a trip to Australia, where the pair 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 Weiss Janet Lee Weiss (born September 24, 1965) is an American rock drummer, best known as a former member of Sleater-Kinney and a current member of Quasi. She was the drummer for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, leaving after the album '' Mirror Traffic ...

joined the band in 1996. Following their eponymous debut, they released six more studio albums before going on indefinite hiatus in 2006. In a 2012 interview with ''DIY'' magazine, Brownstein said that Sleater-Kinney still planned to play in the future. On October 20, 2014, Brownstein announced on Twitter that Sleater-Kinney would be releasing a new album, '' No Cities to Love'', on January 20, 2015, and would tour in early 2015. At the same time the announcement was made, they released the video for the first single from the album. The single, "Bury Our Friends", was also made available as a free MP3 download. Critics

Greil Marcus Greil Marcus (born June 19, 1945) is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a broader framework of culture and politics. Biography Marcus wa ...

and Robert Christgau deemed the band one of the essential rock groups of the early 2000s. In 2015, '' Stereogum'' Chief Editor Tom Breihan called them the greatest rock band of the past two decades.

Other work

Brownstein and former

Helium Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...

guitarist/singer Mary Timony, recording as The Spells, released '' The Age of Backwards E.P.'' in 1999. Also in 1999, Brownstein,

Lois Maffeo Lois Maffeo (professionally known for much of her career as Lois) is an American musician and writer who lives in Olympia, Washington. She has been closely involved with and influenced many independent musicians, especially in the 1990s-era Oly ...

, and

Peter Momtchiloff Peter Momtchiloff (born 10 March 1962) is a British guitarist and bassist. He was educated at Winchester College and Worcester College, Oxford. His musical career began in 1978 playing bass guitar in Winchester band The Big Figure. At Oxford ...

released a single ("The Touch"/"Louie Louie Got Married") on

K Records K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington founded in 1982. Artists on the label included early releases by Beck, Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. The record label has been called "key to the development of independent music ...

as The Tentacles. In summer 2009, Brownstein and Weiss worked together on songs (produced by

Tucker Martine Tucker Martine (born January 14, 1972) is an American record producer, musician and composer. In 2010, ''Paste'' Magazine included Martine in their list of the 10 Best Producers of the Decade. Early life Tucker Martine, the son of singer and son ...

) for the soundtrack of the documentary film '' !Women Art Revolution'' by

Lynn Hershman Leeson Lynn Hershman Leeson (née Lynn Lester Hershman; born 1941) is a multimedia American artist and filmmaker. Her work combines art with social commentary, particularly on the relationship between people and technology. Leeson is a pioneer in new med ...

. In September 2010, Brownstein revealed her latest project was the band

, with Janet Weiss, Mary Timony, and Rebecca Cole, formerly of

The Minders The Minders are an American 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 o ...

; 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." They released a self-titled album in September 2011. In 2011, they toured for a second time and played at

CMJ Music Marathon CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

Accolades

In 2006, Brownstein was the only woman to earn a spot in the ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' readers' list of the 25 "Most Underrated Guitarists of All-Time".

Writing career

Brownstein began a career as a writer before Sleater-Kinney broke up. She interviewed Eddie Vedder, Mary Lynn Rajskub,

Karen O Karen Lee Orzolek (born November 22, 1978) is a South Korean-born American singer, musician, and songwriter. She is the lead vocalist for the indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Early life She was born in Seoul, South Korea, the daughter of a Ko ...

, and

Cheryl Hines Cheryl Ruth Hines (born September 21, 1965) is an American actress and director, best known for playing the role of Larry David's wife, Cheryl, on HBO's ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'', for which she has been nominated for two Emmy Awards. She also s ...

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";Welcome to Monitor Mix
from the NPR Music website she returned for a final blog post in October, thanking her blog readers and declaring the blog "officially conclude " In March 2009, Brownstein was contracted to write a book to "describe 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 ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

'' and the ensuing dilution of rock mystique"; The book, called ''The Sound of Where You Are'', was planned to be published by Ecco/

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

. In an April 2012 interview on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, Brownstein said she was no longer working on the book. Brownstein's memoir, '' Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl,'' was released on October 27, 2015. The book was published by Riverhead Books, an imprint of

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Ann Wilson Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in th ...

, lead singer of hard rock band

Heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...

, announced in an interview that Brownstein was writing the script for a Heart biopic.

Acting career

Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein with Peabody Award

Brownstein has acted (what she calls a "mere hobby") in the short film ''Fan Mail'', the experimental feature ''Group'', and the

Miranda July Miranda July (born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger; February 15, 1974) is an American film director, screenwriter, singer, actress and author. Her body of work includes film, fiction, monologue, digital presentations and live performance art. She w ...

film ''Getting Stronger Every Day''. Brownstein and

published several video skits as part of a comedy duo called "ThunderAnt". She also starred opposite James Mercer of

The Shins The Shins is an American indie rock band formed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1996. The band is the project of singer-songwriter James Mercer, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes. The band's cu ...

in the 2010 independent film '' Some Days Are Better Than Others''. The film had its world premiere at SXSW on March 13, 2010. After their ThunderAnt videos, Brownstein and Armisen developed ''

'', a sketch comedy show shot on location in Portland, for the

Independent Film Channel IFC (formerly known as the Independent Film Channel) is an American basic cable channel owned by AMC Networks, originally launching in 1994 as a TV channel devoted to independent films. The Independent Film Channel originally operated as a com ...

. The two starred in the series and wrote for it with Allison Silverman from ''

The Colbert Report ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show fo ...

'' and Jonathan Krisel, a writer for ''Saturday Night Live''. The show, which featured appearances of some of the characters from ThunderAnt, premiered in January 2011. The series received positive feedback and concluded after its eighth season. From 2014 to 2019, Brownstein played the role of Syd in the

Amazon Studios Amazon Studios is an American television and film producer and distributor that is a subsidiary of Amazon. It specializes in developing television series and distributing and producing films. It was started in late 2010. Content is distributed th ...

original series ''

Transparent Transparency, transparence or transparent most often refer to: * Transparency (optics), the physical property of allowing the transmission of light through a material They may also refer to: Literal uses * Transparency (photography), a still, ...

''. In 2015, Brownstein portrayed Genevieve Cantrell in the

Todd Haynes Todd Haynes (; born January 2, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender ...

film '' Carol'', based on

Patricia Highsmith Patricia Highsmith (January 19, 1921 – February 4, 1995) was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 novel ...

's novel '' The Price of Salt''. However, the majority of her scenes were cut due to the film's length. The film had its world premiere at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

on May 17, 2015. It began a limited release on November 20, 2015. Brownstein has also appeared as a guest on ''

'', '' Curb Your Enthusiasm'', and ''

Man Seeking Woman ''Man Seeking Woman'' is an American surrealist romantic comedy television series that aired for three seasons on FXX from January 14, 2015, to March 8, 2017. The series is set in Chicago, about a naïve and soft-spoken man in his 20s named Josh ...

'', among other shows. Brownstein starred in and wrote the screenplay for '' The Nowhere Inn'', a 2020 tour mockumentary thriller, with Annie Clark ( St. Vincent).

Personal life

Brownstein was

outed Outing is the act of disclosing an LGBT person's sexual orientation or gender identity without that person's consent. It is often done for political reasons, either to instrumentalize homophobia in order to discredit political opponents or to com ...

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 bandmate

in the beginning of Sleater-Kinney (the song " One More Hour" is about their break-up). In 2006, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' described Brownstein as "openly gay". In a November 2010 interview for ''

Willamette Week ''Willamette Week'' (''WW'') is an alternative weekly newspaper and a website published in Portland, Oregon, United States, since 1974. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business, and culture. History Early history ''Willame ...

'', she stated that she identifies as bisexual. She says, "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. Just ask.'" In a 2020 article, the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' noted that Brownstein and Annie Clark (who performs as St. Vincent) "dated years ago."''

'' article:
Annie Clark, St. Vincent and Carrie Brownstein all meet at 'The Nowhere Inn'
" Since working together on ThunderAnt, Brownstein and

developed what Brownstein has called "one of the most intimate, functional, romantic, but nonsexual relationships

hey have Hey or Hey! may refer to: Music * Hey (band), a Polish rock band Albums * ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014 * ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980 * ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title ...

ever had." According to Armisen, their relationship is "all of the things that I've ever wanted, you know, aside from like the physical stuff, but the intimacy that I have with her is like no other."Fred Armisen: Transcript
from

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that ...

's ''Here's the Thing''.

Filmography

References

External links

* *
Official Sleater-Kinney website

Carrie Brownstein's blog, "Monitor Mix"
at

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

(2007-2010)
Radio interview
on ''

Fresh Air ''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to ...

Early life

Music career

Excuse 17

Sleater-Kinney

Other work

Accolades

Writing career

Acting career

Personal life

Filmography

See also

References

External links