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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 2003)
nary 17.2003 MUSIC ..............▼............... Silent running Lesbian twin popsters w ant to plug up that pigeonhole and talk about music. Well...0K. BY CORl TARATOOT IN P O R T L A N D F R ID A Y J A N 31 AG ATE H A L L A L L AGES S A TU R D A Y F E B 1 D A N T E S 21 A N D O V E R T IC K E T S F O R B O T H S H O W S A V A IL A B L E FR O M F A S T IX X inC oi*** LINDA ALLEN With Kristin & Jen Allen-Zito Sunday Feb. 2, 4 pm Bridgeport UCC 621 NE 76th ave Tickets: Annie Bloom Books, In Other Words Books, It's My Pleasure, or on-line: marylyn@easystreet.com for the best body of your life intro series 6 private sessions $240 mat classes 8 classes/$96 max. 12 stu. beginners tu/th noon starts feb. 4 beg/intermediate m/w 6pm starts feb. 3 1500 nw 18th ave, n° 107, easy parking call now to register 5 0 3 . 2 2 2 . 7 0 1 1 anadian power-pop duo Tegan and Sara are earning their props the proper way— touring the highways of America’s West Coast in promotion of their sophomore album, If It Was You. Portlanders— still high from their energetic display last fall at the Roseland— get to see them again Jan. 18 at Aladdin Theater. Recently recovered from gigs opening for alt-country hoy Ryan Adams, Tegan spent a few minutes with Just Out to catch us up on life on the road, the best boy-rock of 2002, the downside of being pegged “lesbian twin rockers” and the year she didn’t eat meat. C Cori Taratoot: I really dig the new album. Tegan: It’s been a lot of fun. W ith the last one I felt, not embarrassed, b u t...I feel more proud of this one. Sister act: Tegan (right) and Sara play Jan. 18 at the Aladdin C T : Would you ever have thought you’d want to be in a band with your sister? T : No. O h god, no. If you told me five years ago, “You’re gonna play in a hand, you’re gonna open for Neil Young”... if you had told me that 1 would have to spend years on end in a small car with Sara...n o . I’d have been like, “1 want to go to university." C T : You guys are honest, and it’s rare. T : It’s rare, and it’s also dangerous...there’s all this pressure.... In Canada, they’re like, “M O R E, M O RE, SH O W U S M O RE, TAKE O FF YO U R S H IR T S !" C T : How have your U .S . dates been? T : W e’re still in that really awkward stage in America; we’re kind of like 14 there still...I’ve had to explain to everybody we’re not sad that we’re not on M T V ...y ’know, we’re 22, and we’re just figuring out who we want to be...today 1 might feel like not going out and signing auto graphs— that’s not the type of hand 1 want to he. And then tomorrow I’m like, “Throw me into the crowd, Sara, 1 wanna go surfing!" [Laughs] C T : Tell me about the band, the guys on drums and bass. T : O K , so the guy on bass is my only friend; his name is Gabe, and he’s .... EVERY SNG LE BOOK OF GAY EROTICA ALW AYS H I STOCK! <@ > The Natural Male. Sherwin Carlquist’s 3rd book of photos of natural (i.e. uncut) men. $42. (@ > Family Jewels; A Guide to Male Genital Play & Torment:'Scuse me while I squirm. $18. < @ > Thar He Blows. Illustrated tales of horny salts and randy tars. Doing it. And how. $25.00. DOWNTOWN a 927 SW OAK • 226-8141 C T : Now, come on Tegan, 1 have a hard time believing th a t.... T: No, no, I’m for real, I’m telling you. It is very hard to make friends in Vancouver...Sara has lots o f friends. She lets me hang out with them. C T : I’m not buying it. T : I’m for real, I swear to g<xl, I don’t lie. C T : Well, who are all these girls you’re writing about in the songs? T: Um, they are not my friends. ¡Laughsl C T : Do you and Sara ever want to date the same people? T: O h god, no. W e are opposites in who we attract— in dating and in friends. W e’re very different people.... didn’t eat meat for a year once, and I was really hungry. And I’m insecure, and I love to play music, and I love recording.... C T : O K , so do you bring complete songs to Sara, and she has her own songs? T : Yep, that’s exactly it. But you can just write that 1 wrote them all. [Laughs] C T : Do ya like the Cars? Those guys rock. T : O h yeah, hut...w hen we were in the 1980s, we were watching Smurfs. We were 8. It’s impossible for us to say, "O h , we’ve been influenced by the ’80s." W e haven’t! I wore Hammer pants and had bad hair. C T : Tell me what your mom thinks about this whole rock hand thing. T: She’s actually really supportive.. .she was a drummer when she was a teen-ager.... Sometimes she still talks about Led Zeppelin and throws her fist up in the air and gets really emotional. C T : Thank you Cleveland! T : Totally.. .we used to have gigs in our garage, and my mum would serve drinks and stuff. C T : Do you like performing live? T: I’m ADD. I think that’s why we’re like that on stage. It’s not a shtick, it’s not because we’re sisters...I’m transferring all of my insecu rity onto everybody else. Everyone in the audi ence wants to go to the bathroom, hut they’re just scared to get up. [Laughs] C T : Have you ever fallen in love on the road? T : Nope. CT: Have you ever met anyone on the road? T : Nope. C T : Oh boy. T : I find it really creepy actually sometimes when I read our fan sites and they’re like, “W hat kind of girls do Tegan and Sara date.7" ...W e ’re very shy. We don’t come across that way, hut we are. C T : It’s gotta be frustrating to be boxed in as the “lesbian twin sister act.” T : Yeah. Why not talk about music instead? We love Bruce Springsteen. Our favorite records o f this year are Sptxin and Hot Hot Heat and Queens of the Stone A g e.... And I C T : W hat music was playing when you were growing up? T : Springsteen is the soundtrack to our lives. My dad was listening to Mike and the M echanics, Dire Straits, that kind of stuff. C T : Mike and the Mechanics?! T : I love Mike and the Mechanics. C T : There ya have it. T : For real. T h a t’s who we think we sound like. W hen I write a new song I’m like, “God, that is so Mike and the M echanics.” And then everyone else is like, “D o you listen to Ani DiFranco?" and I’m like, "N O ! M IKE A N D T H E M E C H A N IC S!” C T : So, are you the oldest? T : Yeah, by eight minutes. C T : And that’s influenced your m usic...how ? T : W ell, I’m still striving for that quietness. [Laughs] T h at eight minutes was perfect. I was an only child. For eight m inutes...I had my mum all to m yself...it was all about me. in It’s all about T egan and S ara 8 p.m. Jan. 18 at Aladdin Theater, 3017 S.E. Milwaukee Ave. Tickets are $8 or $ 10 the day o f the show from the box office or Ticketmaster. C om e hear and meet the musicians I p.m. Jan. 18 at Borders, 708 S.W. Third Ave. Free-lance music writer C ori T aratcxtt loves the Cars and is furiously working on her “Top 100 Albums '' list for Tegan and Sara.
