MUSIC REVIEW:
‘Feminists we’re calling you’
Album: This Island
bq. Band: Le Tigre
Reviewed by Jackie Esmonde
Le Tigre’s long-awaited third album, This Island, was released in October 2004 amidst intense fan speculation about whether the trio of feminist “electronic punk” rockers had sold out. This Island is Le Tigre’s first album on a major label, Universal, and fans were concerned that the politics and musical innovation of the band would be replaced with pop music designed to appeal to a wider audience. The fact that their song “Deceptacon” had recently been used in Telus ads fueled the speculation.
With their first two albums, Le Tigre’s Kathleen Hanna, Johanna Fateman and J.D. Samson created a unique danceable feminist sound, an off shoot from the riot grrrl movement of which they were all a part in the 1990s. This Island is a continuation of this aesthetic, blending disco, punk and dance music with feminist, anti-racist and queer politics.
I had a chance to see their multi-media live show in Toronto just after they released the album. Le Tigre is adept at creating a connection with their audience and their political call for equality and pride could not be missed.
In a clear signal of the importance the band places on getting their political messages out, the first single and video from the album is “New Kicks”. “New Kicks” doesn’t actually feature many vocals from the band itself. Instead most of the vocals and sounds are sampled from the February 2003 anti-war protest in New York City. The song includes clips from actual speeches and chants from the demonstration set to music. The result is a creative interplay of politics and music, and an anti-war song that captures an important historical moment. The band created the song to “serve as a reminder that we are not alone in our protest and our struggle” against the Bush administration. “New Kicks” is not the only song to speak out against the Bush administration. Le Tigre also takes it on in their song “Seconds”: “On a golf car / Wearing some uniform / Bombing in the night-time / Lying on TV / You make me sick sick sick sick sick.”
This Island continues Le Tigre’s project of creating forms of cultural resistance. The album projects an incredibly affirming message. For example, “Viz” is described as a butch lesbian anthem written from the firsthand experience of Le Tigre’s JD Samson and includes lyrics such as: “They call it climbing and I call it visibility / They call it coolness and I call it visibility / They call it way too rowdy, I call it finally free.” Through their music, their website and their live performances Le Tigre continues to encourage their listeners to fight apathy, believe in themselves, get involved with activism and engage with art and ideas. These characteristics have not changed despite their shift to a major label after their former label, the queer/feminist “Mr. Lady”, closed down. In this sense, at least, it cannot be said that Le Tigre has “sold out.” Though it is hard to understand why the grassroots anti-establishment band would not have found another independent label.
While I enjoy the positive messages and the political nature of Le Tigre’s music, I continue to feel disappointed with their unwillingness to push themselves lyrically beyond somewhat shallow sloganeering. The band acknowledges that the term “feminist” can refer to a wide range of positions on the political spectrum, but it is difficult to discern where they position themselves. On their website they state that they feel the greatest affinity to a feminism that challenges misogyny while also standing “against racism, homophobia, class-ism, imperialism etc…” If this is the case, I would have hoped for more than slogans such as “peace up, war down”. There is nothing particularly radical about such a lowest common denominator anti-war statement. The group’s participation in the “Bands Against Bush” performances suggests an unexpectedly wishy washy, liberal politics, and a failure to critique the political process in the United States.
But perhaps I am asking too much of Le Tigre. They are a band after all, not a political organization. In a clear statement of their goal in making music, the band states on their website: “We want to make great music that radical people can recognize their values in, because that is what we ourselves crave.” This Island does accomplish this goal, as limited as it is. With Universal’s resources, Le Tigre is able to bring radical values to a wider audience.
If the crowd of dancing and joyful young women at their concert in Toronto is any indication, this is something there seems to be a real hunger for.
Jackie Esmonde is a member of the Toronto branch of the New Socialist Group.