"Entertain," the first song from The Woods leaked by Sleater-Kinney on their website, has been primarily interpreted by critics as an attack on the corporatization and marketing of "indie rock" and on the shift towards empty retro gestures (StrokesVinesFranzKillersJetInterpol anyone?) in place of more politicized and less commercially viable trajectories of rock and roll.
"You come around looking 1984
You're such a bore 1984
Nostalgia, you're using it like a whore
It's better than before
You come around sounding 1972
You did nothing new with 1972
Where is the "fuck you"
Where's the black and blue?
Thus far critics seem to have ignored what strikes me as the most provocative and powerful argument Tucker, Brownstein, and Weiss make in the song, as Tucker howls, "And if your Art is done, Johnny get your gun/Join the rank and file, on your TV dial." The Dalton Trumbo reference and militarized imagery suggest a connection, however subtle, between the mass marketing of consumable alterity and military imperialism. This is a connection i'm still trying to wrap my head around, but which i find intriguing.

On "The Wilderness," Sleater-Kinney blast the DavidBrooksian Red-State Blue State model in a manner which challenges both the construction of the nation state (a family feud/the red and the blue now/it's truth against truth/i'll see you in hell now/i don't mind) and the dreams of secession and flight many liberals wallowed in following November 3rd, painting the dream of hippy cities on the Left Coast as racialized and ultimately failed, one head of the two headed brat which they brand electoral politics. The song curses the darkness, but i think the album is an attempt to ignite a flame.