Le Tigre

This article deals with the musical artist Le Tigre. For their debut album, see Le Tigre (album).

Le Tigre is a feminist electro post-punk band formed in 1998 by Kathleen Hanna. Initially envisioned as a live back up band for Hanna's solo project Julie Ruin, Le Tigre mixes the politics and feminism of riot grrrl with fun electronic samples and lo-fi beats. Other members include Johanna Fateman and JD Samson. JD joined Le Tigre as a full member when co-founder Sadie Benning left the band before the Feminist Sweepstakes album was recorded. JD had previously worked with the band as a roadie and the operator of Benning's slide show during live performances in support of their first record. Le Tigre live shows are quite famous^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}. The self-proclaimed "underground electro-feminist performance artists" combine visuals, music and dance in their performances. The band mixes politically aware lyrics with dance music.

The song "Hot Topic" on Le Tigre's self-titled debut pays tribute to dozens of visual artists, musicians, writers, feminists and others who have inspired them. Among the honorees are: Yoko Ono, Aretha Franklin, Vaginal Creme Davis, Yayoi Kusama, Sleater-Kinney, Billy Tipton, James Baldwin, and Jean Genet. In a similar fashion the song "FYR" off the album Feminist Sweepstakes is a tribute to the chapter and ideals put forth in Shulamith Firestone's Fifty Years of Ridicule in her 1970 feminist work The Dialectic of Sex.

The first two recordings by the band were released on the independent label Mr. Lady Records, run by Kaia Wilson of The Butchies and artist Tammy Rae Carland. Feminist Sweepstakes (2001) came out on Chicks on Speed's record label. The album This Island (2004) was Le Tigre's first on a major label (Universal/Strummer). Ric Ocasek of the Cars produced one track, "Tell You Now."

Even after signing with Universal, Le Tigre has continued to work with independent labels. In 2005 they released This Island Remixes with Chicks on Speed.

In 2005 Le Tigre performed at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. The festival has been criticized for its womyn-born-womyn admittance policy, which prohibits transgender women from attending.

Le Tigre licensed two of their songs for use in advertisements by Canadian telephone provider Telus and Australian jewellery chain Goldmark. A sample from 'Deceptacon' plays in the background of a 2006 television commercial for Nivea cosmetics.

Discography

Albums

EPs and singles

Hot Topic (1999)
From the Desk of Mr. Lady EP (2001)
Remix (2003)
Standing In The Way Of Control 12" split EP with The Gossip on Kill Rock Stars
This Island Remixes Volume 1 EP, Chicks On Speed Records
This Island Remixes Volume 2EP, Chicks On Speed Records

Compilations

"Revolt" from Giggles In The Dark, Lesbians On Ecstasy Remixes, Alien8 Recordings, (2005)

External links

[Le Tigre World] (official site)
[Le Tigre's live show]
[Fake French, a song submitted to the Creative Commons]

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.