Le Tigre: Le Tigre
As long as this guide is going to turn into a Nirvana bashing,
we'd might as well take it all the way. With all of the end of
decade and millennium polls, there seems to be a consensus that
Nirvana was the most important band of the 90's. But why?
Sonically, there was nothing new here: Black Sabbath, Husker
Du, Pixies.
When it comes down to it, Nirvana was special because they
made it acceptable for mainstream boys to be sad. Boys had been
sad before: Bauhaus, Joy Division, Smiths, Cure, et al., but
not in the mainstream. All of the previous sad boys earned
reputations as weirdo, loser, fags. But Kurt, he was beautiful,
really really male, and super sad. And it opened the floodgates
for all the boys who wanted to rock but had something in mind
other than a good time.
Why then, while grunge flourished, was riot grrl fizzling?
Like grunge, riot grrl had a standard bearer in Bikini Kill.
Like grunge the sound was not all together new: X-ray Spex,
The Slits, Joan Jett.
When it comes down to it, Bikini Kill was one of the most
important bands of the 90's because they made it acceptable
for girls to have rage. Kathleen Hanna was not a women's
advocate in some sort of Lilith Fair-hippie, singer-songwriter
mode. She was a mouthpiece for a generation of grrls who
got told that they mattered and that they were as important as
boys, but realized that it was all talk. The reality was that
nothing had changed; women are still abused, exploited, and
ignored. What had changed was the language of oppression.
Riot grrl understood that if grrls wanted power, they had to
fight for it themselves because no one else was going to do it.
Riot grrl fizzled because it's easier to sell angry, beautiful
boys who can play their instruments in mainstream ways than
pissed of girls whose questionable skills have the power to
mutate punk in important ways. Kurt was "tormented" ; Kathleen
was "a bitch." How fair is that?
But at least she's back- this time with a slightly new twist.
Sure enough, Le Tigre brings Hanna's tortured howl and lyrical
bent for things that really matter. Once again she targets
hypocrisy, media paradox, power, and grrl-unity. But this time
she does it with Chris Stamey (dB's) on the boards and a more
pop bent than ever before, even making use of electronics and
samples, possibly a side-effect of her work with Atari Teenage
Riot. In many ways Le Tigre resembles the Sleater-Kinney side
project Cadallaca in its fascination with girl-pop in the 60's
Phil Spector sense.
You won't see this verified or duplicated in many places, so
there's no real reason to buy it when I say it. But at least
ten people were more important than Kurt Cobain when it comes
to preserving the vitality of rock music in the 90's: Stephen
Malkmus, Billy Corgan, Jonathan Donohue, Thurston Moore, Jason
Pierce, Kevin Shields, and most very importantly, the true voice
of the decade, which was as one time cynically called the decade
of the woman, Kathleen Hanna.
You have 23 days left in the decade to see what I mean while
it still matters.
IYL: Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Huggy Bear, Sleater-
Kinney, Cadallaca, X-ray Spex. (GW)
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作者: terissa (Come On Now Social) 看板: Lilith
標題: Re: Le Tigre: Bikini Kill主唱的新團體
時間: Wed Dec 22 00:37:19 1999
正好在看 SonicNet 專屬作者選的年度十大，
就有選到這張，是第二名，
我蠻想試試他選的第一名 Wilco 的，
據說他們是 Avant-Country，好像蠻好玩的樣子。
1. Wilco, Summer Teeth (Reprise): An honest and beautifully human
record, filled with contradiction and confusion. This will prove itself one of
the best of the decade.
2. Le Tigre, Le Tigre (Mr. Lady): Kathleen Hanna demands to know
"Who took the bomp?" from riot grrrl rock. She puts it back in spades
with this album, which, along with last year's Julie Ruin, easily trumps
her late work with Bikini Kill.
3. Johnny Dowd, Pictures From Life's Other Side (Koch): Skillfully
written and perfectly executed, filled with twisted voices and eerie
textures. And Dowd's live show is, amazingly, even better.
4. Beck, Midnite Vultures (Geffen): Gimme this party
jam in album-length doses.
5. Rage Against the Machine, The Battle of Los
Angeles (Epic): I'd argue about Rage on several fronts,
except for their claim on being the most exciting metal
band around.
6. Pavement, Terror Twilight (Matador): Coming late to
Pavement means your ears aren't stuffed with so much
Slanted and Enchanted that you can't hear today's goodness. If they
break up now, well, that's OK. I'll be coming back to their catalog at least
through 2010.
7. CafTacuba, Reves/Yo Soy (Warner Bros.): Oh, that every band
challenged itself 霠and came up with such fascinating results
霠as CafTacuba does on Reves, the instrumental half of this double-CD set.
8. Public Enemy, There's a Poison Goin' On (Atomic Pop): Chuck D
grabs media attention for leading the digital revolution, but folks should let
their ears feast on "I," one of his best-scripted songs ever.
9. Nine Inch Nails, The Fragile (Nothing/Interscope): Even if there
weren't crumbs of hope scattered about the album, the expertly
conceived and rendered musical achievement would save it from
becoming too depressing for listening.
10. The indie-punk draw: Skull Kontrol, Deviate Beyond All Means of
Capture, for its head; The Tight Bro's From Way Back When, Runnin'
Through My Bones, for its heart; Make Up, Save Yourself, for finally
scoring the retro-soul they've been chasing for six albums.
其他特約作者選的也有 Beth Orton、Beck、Flaming Lips、Moby 等
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