It is almost too fitting that Kurt Cobain, deceased lead singer of Nirvana, wrote most of his band’s most famous album while living in Olympia, Washington. That album, Nevermind, released in 1991, went on to change the musical landscape forever by bringing alternative music to the mainstream.

Cobain’s stay in Olympia is fitting because it is the birthplace of another band who indelibly altered the musical landscape. Sleater-Kinney, that is, was formed on the campus of Evergreen State College in 1994, the year Kurt Cobain committed suicide. Like Nirvana, Sleater-Kinney would go on to draw together disparate threads of musical and pop culture history into one rich tapestry–and then make them popular and accessible. One major difference between the two bands, among many of course, is how long that popularity would take.

On Jan. 20th, 2015, Sleater-Kinney released their eighth studio album, No Cities to Love, and have already garnered almost universal critical acclaim and a nearly inescapable media presence. The “best rock band in America” label is being used for the band as a common identifier. This was not always so.

This is a band that started and remained a fiercely political, unabashedly feminist, and willfully abrasive force on record and in interviews. They have been labeled “riot grrrl,” an obscure form of punk rock that is outwardly feminist and politically charged, carrying with it an aggression once only associated with men. Never scared to address controversial themes, topics the band has tackled in their lyrics include sexual abuse, eating disorders, gender inequality (in rock music and in life), income inequality, and the media’s treatment of women, among many others.

In 2005, the band released their seventh studio album, The Woods; the album that is considered their breakout and entrance into the mainstream. After The Woods, Sleater-Kinney took a decade-long hiatus. In the meantime, it seems, a lot of people discovered the band and many critics re-evaluated their place in pop music history.

Sleater-Kinney consists of three permanent members: Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker, and Janet Weiss. Both Tucker and Brownstein sing and play guitar while Weiss plays the drums. Ironically, Sleater-Kinney’s entrance into the pop culture orbit may be due, at least in part, to factors outside of their output and work as a band. All three band members also have formidable careers as individuals.

Tucker, often considered the lead singer of the band, performs and records with other musicians and has appeared on several albums as part of different bands. Performing under the Corin Tucker Band with members of Unwound and Golden Bears, during Sleater-Kinney’s hiatus, she released an album called 1,000 Years to wide critical claim.

Janet Weiss, on the other hand, followed the announcement of the hiatus almost immediately securing a place as the drummer of Indie Rock legend Stephen Malkmus’ (former lead singer of Pavement) band, The Jicks. She not only recorded on two Jicks’ albums, but also toured with them.

Much of the credit for the band’s steadily widening audience goes to Carrie Brownstein and her varied, prestigious career post-2005. In the decade between 2005-2015, Brownstein found an enviable level of success within, and outside of, the music business. Almost immediately following the Sleater-Kinney hiatus in 2005, it became quickly apparent Brownstein wielded a diverse set of talents. Smoothly moving from one role to the next, she effortlessly utilized her talent, always with consistency and poise. Her versatility allowed her career to develop organically, bolstered by impeccable taste in collaborators and a clear understanding of her strengths and limitations. Any possible preconceptions about a punk rock guitarist quickly vanished as Brownstein’s successes mounted.

The seeds of Brownstein’s career renaissance were planted quite inauspiciously. She began to write musical criticism and Op-Ed pieces for NPR Music, a popular segment on National Public Radio. Her blogging for NPR was a low-key affair, but also a signal that she could not be pigeonholed as a guitarist in a punk band. Carrie Brownstein then had the year which made her the most recognizable face in Sleater-Kinney, by far. In 2011, Brownstein was the co-founder of not only another critically-acclaimed all-female punk band, called Wild Flag, but also a successful sketch-comedy TV show called Portlandia.

Portlandia proved Brownstein a truly versatile and diversely talented artist. Created with veteran comedian and former-SNL cast member Fred Armisen, the show would go on to be nominated for numerous awards. Jerry Seinfeld himself said Portlandia is “the best comedy on TV right now.” Before the show, Brownstein had absolutely no acting experience at all.

Despite their individual successes outside of the band, Sleater-Kinney have once again come together to speak up for the marginalized and protest injustice with loud, brash, and catchy punk rock. The band is currently on tour in North America and will be playing dates through May.