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 ....
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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.