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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 6, 2003)
M»B, Mta» M U S IC --------- w .............. ew York City-based Le Tigre, who play the Roseland Theater on June 13, aren’t just another electronic band. They’re feminist crime fighters on a mission. Live, expect the former Bikini Kill front- woman’s band to incorporate visual media, dance and digital gremlins into their perform ance and plan on a jumping night with— to quote the 2001 release Feminist Sweepstakes — “the ladies and the fags." Band member JD Samson took a few min utes with Just Out to give us the lowdown on her/his identity crises, “JD ’s 2003 Lesbian C al endar” and Le Tigre s plans for bringing justice to the planet. N Cori Taratoot: How important has it been for you personally to use Le Tigre as a venue for expression? JD Samson: It’s been everything to me. I was really frustrated with making art and not perform ing. Before Le Tigre, 1 was making films, Johanna [Fateman] was painting, Kathleen [Hanna] had been doing Bikini Kill for so long.... Our performance is an expression of who we are and who our audience is. We’re creating a space for people...to be who they want to be, to dance and have a good time and feel really safe doing that. This is the one place where there are more queers and women than there are straight men. ]Laughs] C T : I read a quote from Carrie Brown- stein of Sleater-Kinney about how her char acter in the movie Qroup was who she might have turned out to be had she not found a vehicle for self-expression. JD : It’s funny you mention that. Did you see the calendar I made? One of the reasons I made that calendar...it was a lot about who I would be if I weren’t in Le Tigre, what I would be doing. C T : Was the calendar aimed at the trans community? JD : A lot of people asked me why I called it a “lesbian calendar.” 1 was so confused about that. What do all these words mean right now? Am I weighting this in the wrong way by say ing this? I do feel very much a part of the trans com munity as well as the lesbian community, but it was this thing I felt I had to do in reclaiming the word “lesbian”. . . « was like, I want that word back! [Lattghs] I want all of this! So, I was just like. I’m gonna do it, and I’ll deal with it when people ask me what that means. And I do feel like it was for the trans community. C T : How do you prefer to be identified? I’ve been seeing “ sh e.” JD : If you said “he,” I would have noth Winning Hie sweepstahes Le Tigre’s JD Samson is one mixed-up little mother— but he’s in Just the right band for it by C ori T aratoot ing wrong with that. If you said “she,” I would have nothing wrong with that. T he one thing that’s been hard for me is that I’ve been considered “he,” not from gay papers, but because people actually think I’m bio-m ale.... Mojo magazine thinks I have a little penis that has semen in it. [Laughs] Peo ple come up to me and say, “Wow, I’m so sorry that happened.” But it doesn’t make me feel bad. It’s so complicated. Som e times it makes me feel good. C T : After recovering from feeling like what you do is meaningless, you must wonder if making music is the most meaningful thing you can do. JD : Definitely. We’re covering a war song this tour. It’s really hard for us to do— because we feel this is our place, where we have this voice, where it means some thing more than it ever did. And it’s so weighted for us to play that song right now and have the video of protests going behind us. C T : Do you play with that on stage? JD : Definitely. And in everyday life. [Laughs] C T : One last question. W hat’s this I hear about Le Tigre’s ambitions to be the anti-Charlie’s Angels? JD : Yeah! When we stop having this band.. .we are going to form a private inves tigation team. We’re really into justice right now and making everybody free who should be. We’re especially interested in people who are freed from 20 years in prison after a DN A test. Things like that, that’s what we’re really into. C T : You’re from the East Coast, right? You don’t have a personal rela tionship with the Pacific Northwest like your bandmates. JD : No. Well, my girl friend lives there, used to live there, she moved here now. I’d never been to Olympia until we drove through on tour. [Laughs] C T : What will you C T : What are you lis wear? tening to these days? JD : Wow. Well, me per J D : I really am going sonally, probably a Sherlock back to what I liked when Holmes hat and a magnifying They’ll be post-fem inist in a post-patriarchy: From left, Le Tigre’s Kathleen H anna, I was 17, which I’m sure glass. [Laughs] Yeah! Maybe a Johanna Fateman and JD Samson play the Roseland on June 13 everybody is...Toshi pipe— that sounds good. JT1 Reagon and Joan Arma- trading and Tracy C hapm an .... I dreamt celed after 9/11.. .everything seemed so stupid. Experience the wonder that is L e T igre 9 p.m . about Joan Armatrading last night. [Laughs] We thought, why do we even give a shit, we June 13 at the Roseland Theater, 8 N.W . Sixth I’m obsessed with her. don’t even want to reschedule this.... It’s hard Ave. The Aislers Set and King Cobra open. to talk about, for all of us, when we get asked Tickets are $12 from TicketsWest. about Sept. 11; you’re tongue-tied. It's compli C T : You guys, as a band and as New cated. It’s hard to say anything. Yorkers, have been through a lot together Free-lance m usic contributor CO RI TARATOOT is these past couple of years. still recovering from being spotted by Sleater-Kinney C T : Everything got weird, sort of JD : We had a tour planned that we can wearing her “ Sleater-Kinney is for Lovers " T-shirt. 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