kusama pyjamas
Titled for Yayoi Kusama, who is the cat's pyjamas.
We are in desperate need for the contact info for some of the people featured in our On Tour Documentary! These people were filmed and we need their contact info ASAP to get some releases signed so we could get this DVD out and in your hands!!!
ladyfest ten week: a chat with MEN « wears the trousers magazine
JD Samson, interviewed by Wears the Trousers mag.
You and Ginger have talked about how current queer/feminist dance music can be seen as shifting from “angry” music to politically “optimistic” music. Can you elaborate on that?
That shift I think began a long time ago when Le Tigre was at the helm of the feminist dance music scene. I think now we are kind of working somewhere down the line from optimistic to thought-provoking. We aren’t happy all the time, we are only realistic, practical and hopeful.
So many people have done covers of Deceptacon and made up crazy dance videos for it that we decided to make it official and have a contest. We posted the backing tracks for ‘Deceptacon’, ‘Hot Topic’, ‘Keep on Living’, “Nanny Nanny Boo Boo” and ‘TKO’ on our Myspace in hopes you will improve them with your own vocal stylings, make your own remix, or just cover a song with your own instruments. The contest will commence immediately and the lucky winner will receive a Le Tigre ‘swag’ bag full of goodies in September. Send all entries to LeTigreContest@gmail.com
Here are the entries so far.
Better than Colberts bears!
“Le Tigre: On Tour” is a concert film shot by Carmine Covelli and directed by Kerthy Fix. It follows our band across 4 continents and 10 countries and provides an unusual peek into our lives as touring musicians. The film edits together 20 shows from our 2004-2005 world tour along with backstage footage and interviews. The movie highlights our motivations and the many ways we attempted to use humor when confronted with the inherent sexism and homophobia of the rock world.
It is 70 minutes long.
Feminist Review: Le Tigre: On Tour
“What’s the status of Le Tigre?” an eager—albeit slightly angst-ridden—fan asks Kathleen Hanna during the Q&A session after the screening of Le Tigre: On Tour.
I, too, had been wondering the same question—because this band, who has proven so formative to women young and old everywhere, seems to exist only in our collective lesbo-feminist consciousness at the moment. For myself, in particular, I was introduced to Le Tigre’s music a year before they performed their final show in NYC, on 18 September 2005, so I never had the opportunity to witness their awesomeness in concert. Their existence to me, in other words, was always to me like a memory, an extant pastness that is real but not actual in that particular moment. I think their existence, for me, is kind of like how people understand Jesus or Santa Claus: he’s touched their hearts, and therefore he’s real… at least they think he’s real, but they’ve never actually seen him.
What a beautiful way to describe the presence in the audiences feminist consciousness that performers like Le Tigre have.
I kind of think of that personal impact, that resonance, as artistic success, no matter how much things like publishing and credit are also success in terms of being able to keep practicing your work.
p.s. Le Tigre doco, yeah!
Are we not divas? We are MEN! Q&A with JD Samson
JD “the girl with the mustache” Samson is perhaps best known as member of Le Tigre, having joined the “Deceptacon” trio in 2001. The band acquired quite a following with indie labels Mr. Lady and Chicks on Speed, but not long after their major-label effort in 2004, most of the noise surrounding the group was rumors of breakup. Although they haven’t split up entirely – the three recently worked with Christina Aguilera for her new album – JD’s main focus for the moment is MEN, a new band with Michael O’Neill and Ginger Brooks Takahashi, integrating themes of gender inclusivity and queer rights into catchy, danceable pop beats.
MEN are now touring throughout Europe, including a Berlin stop on the 20th of April at Festsaal Kreuzberg. I recently had a conversation with JD about the tour, Christina, Amanda Blank, the forthcoming MEN album and the New York University Library’s new riot grrrl collection.
..and about fucking your friends to get a little baby.
Internship Opportunity « Kathleen’s blog
Punk Feminist Band Le Tigre is looking for a summer intern. The internship takes place in NYC from June- August and hours are flexible. Tasks include, internet research, web maintenance and odd jobs related to our upcoming DVD release. Our dream applicant would be self motivated, organized, good at social networking and have their own computer. This is an unpaid internship but we will be happy to fill out school paperwork if you are a student. Must be able to put in 10-15 hours per week. Please send letter of interest and/or resume to: letigreinternship@gmail.com
