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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.
B
e a u t i f u l
P at i o D i n i n g
S
B E N TO
p e c i a l is t s
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flip-flopped. D o nothing? D o something? Be a
pacifist in the midst o f this?
JD : I know. Watching it happen from my
apartment building, watching the buildings
fall, I just felt...like the wind was getting
knocked out of me. There was this thing inside
of everyone, like “How do I feel? This is horri
ble.” My every day is affected by what this
government is not doing.
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