A Record a Week: Le Tigre - Feminist Sweepstakes

SIDE 1.
LT TOUR THEME
SHRED A
FAKE FRENCH
FYR
ON GUARD
MUCH FINER
DYKE MARCH 2001

SIDE 2.
TRES BIEN
WELL WELL WELL
TGIF
MY ART
CRY FOR EVERYTHING BAD THAT'S EVER HAPPENED
KEEP ON LIVIN'


Another week of Le Tigre, but a slightly different sound. In between release of last weeks record and the release of this weeks, they underwent a slight lineup change, when JD Samson replaced Sadie Benning. This change seemed to bring on a more electronic-influenced sound. This sparked a change that made the lo-fi sound slightly fuller and quite enjoyable. I found the record was more listenable in whole as a result. No one song was better than any of the songs on the first record, but the style varied enough to keep me interested. Side A is excellent and side B has a few gems as well, including TGIF and Cry for everything bad that's ever happened.

A Record a Week: Le Tigre - s/t

SIDE 1.
DECEPTACON
HOT TOPIC
WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON CASSAVETTES
THE THE EMPTY
PHANTA
EAU D'BEDROOM DANCING

SIDE 2.
LET'S RUN
MY MY METROCARD
FRIENDSHIP STATION
SLIDESHOW AT FREE UNIVERSITY
DUDE, YR SO CRAZY!
LES AND RAY

I had forgotten both sides of Le Tigre and sort of lumped them into a different category altogether.What I didn't remember is how fun their lo-fi funky music is. It had me grooving and my daughter was loving it too (she will dance to commercial jingles, though). Then, as the second side of the record went on, I remembered the other half of Le Tigre I had forgotten; the half where I get bored of the same drum beat and basic chord structure layered with vocals that are a part of the mix. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it, but it's more of a fun thing to have a few songs as part of a mix than as a straight through listen.

Deceptacon (recognizable from a Nivea commercial), Hot Topic and Let's Run are my favourite tracks.

One time when I was maybe 19, perhaps 20, I attended a Le Tigre concert at the Opera House in Toronto. I went by myself and stood near the bar for the first 10 or 20 minutes waiting to see one of my friends. After scouring the crowd and failing to see any of them, I saw a girl that i was instantly drawn to. I spent the following minutes (who knows how many) trying to build up the confidence to go speak to her. Just when I hit the moment when I thought I could do it, a friend that I had met a few weeks earlier came up to say hi. As it turned out, this girl was a friend of this friend of mine and came to hang out. This caught me completely off guard and I got completely flabbergasted. I'd like to think it was the change of situation that made be a blabbering fool and ruined my chances, and that if I had been in the situation I had planned on things would've gone differently. Instead I was left wondering.

Got a little off topic there. Anyhow, the show was good and the record was a good rewind to that era.