Heavens to Betsy Unvault Lost Demo Tapes for New Album

Heavens to Betsy, the punk band of Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker and Tracy Sawyer, have announced their first release since their split in 1994. After announcing a reunion tour back in June, the duo has unveiled Baby’s Gone, an archival album that Kill Rock Stars will release on October 16. Listen to “Ain’t Never Goin’ Back,” one of eight demos that comprise half of the new release, below. The 1993 and 1994 EPs These Monsters Are Real and Direction are bundled into the 16-track LP, too.

Tucker and Sawyer recorded the demo in February 1992, assisted by Bratmobile’s Molly Neuman, who provides new liner notes. Sawyer says in a press release, “I wasn’t sure if I would ever revisit heavens to betsy, and then when we started talking more about it, and feeling how relevant the subjects are today, almost even more so than they were back then… it just seemed like just the perfect opportunity to be doing this.” Among those subjects, a press release notes, are rape culture, intersectional politics, body shaming, and celebrations of female friendships, queerness, and community. “Just to know each other again as adults and as mothers, it’s really cool,” Sawyer continues. “Once we started playing again, it was like muscle memory.”

Of the duo’s relationship with Neuman, Tucker adds, “Molly’s such a leader, and she’s […] such an intellectual. She grasped right away that it was important for young women to have these tools to express themselves.… She was so confident and so unafraid to just be like, ‘Yeah, why don’t I just record that for you? I’ll just check out the Tascam from the AV library at Evergreen and do it.’”

Check out the new LP art and the tracklist below, and revisit Pitchfork’s overview of the ’90s scenes in and around Olympia, The 50 Best Indie Rock Albums of the Pacific Northwest.