The iconic feminist electro trio, Le Tigre, which features Kathleen Hanna, JD Samson and Johanna Fateman, have just announced a full tour, their first in 18 years. They returned to the stage in 2022 at This Ain’t No Picnic after an eleven year absence and had already announced some festival dates this year including Primavera Sound in June and The Mosswood Meltdown in July. Now fans in many more cities can enjoy their post riot grrrl electro clash sounds of the “party after the protest” with dates in the US and Europe coming this spring into the summer.
The tour will commence with one date in Philadelphia on 5/27 that will serve as a warm-up before the European leg kicks off. They will return to North America in July, concluding in Brooklyn on 7/28 at Brooklyn Steel. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday 1/27. See below for all dates.
The band members have hardly stayed still in their time away from the project though, and tell us via a press release “Recently, Kathleen has been touring with Bikini Kill (see pics), running Tees 4 Togo (which sells artist-designed T-shirts to fund the non-profit organization Peace Sisters), and writing a book. JD has a full-time teaching position (as Assistant Arts Professor and Area Head of Performance at The Clive Davis Institute at NYU/Tisch), performs with CRICKETS, and tours with the original live score for the film 32 Sounds, directed by Sam Green. Johanna is an author and art critic who writes regularly for the “Goings on About Town” section of the New Yorker and for 4Columns; she is a contributing editor of Artforum.” They also released the song “I’m With Her” in 2016 to support of then presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Le Tigre 2023 tour dates:
5/27- Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
6/1- Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound Barcelona 2023
6/3- London, UK @ Troxy
6/5- Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall
6/6- Glasgow, Scotland @ Barrowland Ballroom
6/8- Madrid, Spain @ Primavera Sound Madrid 2023
6/9- Porto, Portugal @ Nos Primavera Sound Porto 2023
A rock n roll show on a school night (or any night) sounds like my kind of good time. This was also a night for all of these bands to kick off their 2023 of shows and with several friends on the bill, I was more than happy to be on-hand to see them and support.
The show was kicked off by folk singer songwriter, Jummy Aremu aka War Violet, and having vastly over relied on “punk time” to plan my arrival, I got there just as she was starting her last song, very much to my chagrin. But alas, there will be more shows and I can keep myself busy with her EP, Getaway, while I wait for another show. Next up was Raisalka which features current and former members of bands like Haybaby, AK & the Hallucinations and Fraidycat among others and bills themselves as “water demon dream rock” which translates to grunge infused indie rock that I definitely need more of in my life. The group does not have any recorded output that I could find online, but here’s hoping that changes soon. Both of these artists were ones that I had seen their name around on flyers and such for a while (and on shows we have listed in FTA) but it was my first time seeing both; it surely won’t be my last.
And in the third and fourth slots— and the reason I came out to the show— was the double header of Americana/rockabilly twinged noir shoegazers, Leathered, and feminist post garage rockers Frida Kill, two of my favorite Brooklyn bands. Speaking of favorites, Leathered put out one of our favs of 2022, A Reckoning, which our very own Chantal (who also attended the show) especially loved (read her review). On their live set she offered this “I really liked the album, but wondered if the atmosphere of the songs would carry over to a live setting, and was happy that not only did they sound great, the band gets a really full sound out of only three people.” Indeed, with the help of an array of pedals and impressive chops, they really get a very nuanced and textured sound on the record and in person.
Frida Kill also got a nod in our favorites of 2022 with their debut release, EP1, being one of my picks as well as being tapped by two other contributors for the honor. They played all of the songs from it and included a few brand new songs in their set: “Inevitably,” “Anxiety” and “Painkiller” a noisy rager featuring bassist Maria Lina on lead vocals which in particular I can already tell is bound to be new favorite. Word on the street is they are working on their debut full length and will have that ready sometime this year. They will also be touring to Stoop Fest in April and I am half tempted to jump in the van with them to ride out for the festivities.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (and again and again and again) don’t sleep on your local scene. The best bands on earth are right there underneath your nose, trust me.
Scroll down for pics of the show (photos by Kate Hoos)
There’s so much going on in any given week in the music press/world of pop culture/the world at large that I can’t possibly keep up with it all. That being said, there are definitely things I see that I want to comment on and that being the case, I thought it would be fun to share some thoughts/anecdotes/snarky observations on a few things and get a little cheeky each week on things that I either liked or scoffed at that happened in the world of music/pop culture. I always love a chance to be sassy, sarcastic, and a bit over-the-top-gay, so here we are! Welcome to me serving up my aging punk nerd thoughts—not all of them polite—on some pop culture moments and music news from the preceding week. A little Sunday Brunch if you will.
You couldn’t go anywhere this week in terms of the music press corners of the internet without seeing the news that the holy trinity of indie rock, aka boygenius, had finally announced their debut full length. Indeed we, among probably 500 other outlets, offered our take on it too (read here). And while I’m certainly chuffed at the news, me being a teen of the 90s meant I was arguably even more excited by their re-interpretation of two iconic Nirvana photo shoots of the 90s, which they very accurately nailed right down to the posture and inflection of the poses. Kudos not only to the band but to the photographer, Ryan Pfluger, and particularly the art directors and the team behind it who made it look so good. I haven’t purchased a print copy of Rolling Stone in years but I may just have to get a copy of this one.
I am also cackling with glee at the thought of the crusty old gatekeeping white men who you just know are losing their minds over three queer women replicating this classic photo of their grunge rock heroes. I’ve stayed away from Twitter/Reddit commentary on this, because it is surely a cesspool of toxic masculine chest beating that I don’t need in my life, but I also don’t even need to go there to know the trolls have most definitely emerged from underneath their rocks to comment. And to that I say oh well, fuck ’em, who is on the cover of Rolling Stone and who is bitching about it on the internet, amirite?
Also, I fully believe that if Kurt Cobain were alive today, he’d be one of the loudest voices cheering this on. He was always vocal in support of women and queers (for example, read the liner notes to Incesticide) decades before it was fashionable for men to be. He said shit/spoke up about inequality when so many of his contemporaries kept their mouths shut and/or looked the other way. I also do not believe it was some empty statement or lip service on his part like so often is the case from men in his position, it was his ethos. So really, the troll dudes can keep their mouths shut because anything else would just be these bros playing themselves.
[Update: I did crack and go look the day after I posted this and wow was I right! Loooots of triggered men flapping their gums in the wind. Refer back to my last sentence of paragraph two.]
If you wanted to take a peek at the pics that inspired the current colorful skirt/sweater shots, click the link here to see 20 photos from the original Nirvana shoot which appeared in a 1993 issue of Mademoiselle. (I’m still deciding if I love or hate the original headline from 1993, or the one that appears on the linked article, which in the context of 2023, both feel a little cringey.)
Okay this one was last week but since I didn’t decide to think up and launch this column til this week, here it is! A few different people sent this to me because well, I’m me, and they know that and know that this is exactly the type of shit I fucking live for. I have seen (and played) shows in all kinds of wild places (including on top of more than one skate ramp and one on the Williamsburg Bridge at sunrise), unfortunately never on a moving train though, so I’m pretty bummed I wasn’t able to see this in person. I also really hope someone pulls this off in NYC soon. (And while tempting to go for it myself, I’m not currently in an active band or booking shows much these days so it will not be me, but I would be happy to attend if someone else went for it.)
I looked up the two bands, False Flag and Surprise Privilege, and they’re pretty good, both playing crusty d-beatish hardcore which I always dig. The members are pretty young so not sure if or when they’ll be touring out this way, but I’d go to a show if they did. Read the full article from the San Francisco Chronicle and check the bands out below:
Ah conservatives! Is there anything a right wing nut bag won’t lose their mind at? When they aren’t busy raging at cartoon pieces of candy not being sexy enough or trying to strip more marginalized communities of their basic human rights, they find time to be angry at classic rock bands celebrating the anniversary of landmark albums. Such was the case this week when people of a right leaning persuasion (aka mostly men) lost their damn minds over Pink Floyd unveiling a new logo with a rainbow on it to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their legendary album, Dark Side of the Moon.
You would think any fan of the band would be fully aware of what the album cover looks like and know what the logo is referring to already, since they are ahem, fans and all, but as we already know, this is the internet in the age of idiocy and extreme/immediate reactionary takes, so the comment section was quite the experience in the theater of the absurd. Read more about this on NME (or The Music) and be ready to roll your eyes a lot.
One of my favorite queer Instagram personalities, Matt Bernstein, who routinely roasts these clowns and beats them at their own game made an incredible post on this. I highly recommend following the account to see more hilarious takedowns.
Can we talk about Fat Mike for a second? Just a second though because I don’t really want to give him any more thought than that. He’s long been someone revered in the punk world and I have never understood why (though it’s mostly been by white men who are safe inside their bubbles of unrecognized privilege so consider the source). Sure, I listened to NOFX a lot as a teenager, it was the 90s and that’s just what you did if you liked punk. And he could get away with a lot more of his shit back then. But now, thankfully, not so much. Also thankfully, NOFX will be calling it quits this year. 40 years of doing the same thing over and over and Fat Mike saying/getting away with stupid edge-lord shit, I think it’s well past time.
While I can’t comment on the “emo nostalgia” aspect of this or much about it in general considering I was never a fan of emo or part of that scene, I think it’s great Hayley Williams called a spade a spade and pointed out some of the toxic attitudes and behavior of the past while specifically calling Fat Mike on his BS. In a Billboard interview (which the cited Loudwire article summarizes), Williams talked about how things weren’t always so great in the punk/emo scenes “if you were different, if you were a young woman, if you were a person of color, if you were queer. And that’s really fucked up if you think about it, because this was supposed to be the safe place, wasn’t it?” She further elaborated that “Fat Mike used to tell people that I gave good rim jobs onstage when I was 19 years old. I do not think that that’s punk. I don’t think that’s the essence of punk. And I feel strongly that without young women, people of color and also the queer community, I just think we would still be where we were then.” She said it best and I one million per cent agree. And as I said in the Facebook group I first saw this article in, “that guy ain’t it, never has been.”
There are innumerable other instances I could call upon for this that stem to way before he ran his mouth off about mass murder victims, but again, this is meant to be brief. Suffice it to say, I was pretty much done with him after he released a dis track about Kathleen Hanna on 1997’s So Long & Thanks For All The Shoes. I bought that album when it first came out and even saw them play on that tour as a tiny baby punk, but I wised up not long after that (probably in reaction to being at that show) that I was not in a place where it was going to be safe or affirming for me as a woman or queer person to be among their fanbase. I haven’t spent a dime on anything else they have done in the 26 years since.
And yes, I did recently review one of their new singles because I figured at the time oh why not, nostalgia factor and all (and in my admittedly weak defense, I was also on a bus from London to Cardiff with three hours to kill) but it will be the first and last time they receive anything remotely akin to positive press from me.
To bring it full circle for this article, I think this 2020 tweet from Phoebe Bridgers sums it up nicely!
society has progressed past the need for dudes in bands
The holy trinity of indie rock, boygenius, aka the super group of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, have just announced their official return and are set to release their debut full length, the record, on 3/31 via Interscope. It’s been a long time coming, arriving over four years after their lauded and much loved first self titled EP was released at the end of 2018. In that time, busy individual careers and acclaimed albums by each of the three followed and there was that whole pandemic thing to navigate too, so the wait is understandable.
The announcement was understated, with each band member’s individual account and the band’s main account simply stating “‘the record’ is out march 31st and three songs are out now.” It comes amid much speculation and online talk that more was coming from the group after they were mentioned on several “anticipated albums of 2023 lists” and which only intensified when their name appeared on the recently announced Coachella lineup. And while no other live dates have been announced at this moment, it seems very likely a full tour will be in the cards for 2023. If the very active comment sections on social media and scores of articles already out are any indication, people are more than excited about all of this, the album in particular, with Rolling Stone declaring “Boygenius Are Back in Town to Save 2023” (I see what you did there. I love what you did there.)
the record artwork
In fitting fashion, the album announcement comes with the release of not one, but three songs, one by each member of the trio taking songwriting/lead vocal duty. Each song bears the distinct hallmarks of the individual woman behind it, but allows the space for her band mates to have strong supporting roles, holding her up in the spotlight before their chance to shuffle the chairs and take the lead. The album will contain 12 songs in all (see below for tracklist) so it’s safe to assume we will get four songs from each creative force for an intriguing blend of their styles much like the EP was in 2018.
The harder edged “$20” of course comes courtesy of Baker, the more delicate “Emily I’m Sorry” was penned by Bridgers and “True Blue” is very much a true blue Dacus song. While there is sure to be much debate among fans online which is “best” (and likely what to expect/who wrote each of the as-of-yet-unreleased remaining tracks) that hardly seems the point. Each song absolutely is distinctly that of its main songwriter and could have appeared on one of their solo records, but were saved for this purpose because there is no room for ego in a project like this (something the band spoke about in past interviews after their 2018 debut EP). It is frankly refreshing to see in the world of today with so much noise and competition for “likes” and “streams” and “whatever” permeating our daily lives. boygenius may just indeed be back in town to save 2023.
I shot my first show of 2023 and I’m more than thrilled that it was a DIY show in a dive bar, first and foremost the kinds of shows my heart always lives for and the place you’ll find me happiest in.
For this show, I found myself heading a hundred miles north of NYC, to the quiet upstate town of Catskill for a nice break from the city and a chance to be a visitor in a small town scene, honestly some of the best and most welcoming places to see shows. I’m spoiled living in NYC getting to see shows almost any night of the week (and I generally do between work or going out and about) but it is always my forays into these pockets of creatives and politically minded folks shaking things up that make the most impact on me (and by extension, the communities around them).
I also love a mixed bag show genre wise, which oftentimes comes as a means of necessity in these smaller scenes since there may not be a ton of bands playing the same style/genre in these areas like there are in cities. I come from small town scenes like this and still always appreciate it. (It does happen sometimes in NYC, but not enough and I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing more of it.) This show had that in spades with seven overall artists, and though I unfortunately wasn’t able to see the entire show, I was able to catch four of the bands who each brought their own flavor to the night. I was more than pleased to get to see friends (who I don’t get to see often enough) play in two of the bands: first, the ska/hardcore fusion greats, RBNX, who always put on a super energetic set and get the crowd riled up and dancing.
And the reason I made the drive, my “supreme forever homies,” political thrash metal powerhouses, WORLDSUCKS. I have spent countless hours in the van rolling to shows (while listening to Arnold Schwarzenegger prank phone calls) with them in the US and Canada; I always revel any chance I can to be at one of their shows. They were also playing their first show as a trio, having just made the addition of a bassist, Mike Sorensen, who added a dynamic element to the band not just with the bottom end, but with some experimental glitchy noise effects. I’m very excited by the new direction the band has been going in with their song writing in general, adding more nuanced and quieter instrumental passages in their newest (as of yet unrecorded) material, and can only see the addition of Sorensen allowing this to flourish even more.
Standouts of their set were “1312 Overture” (which will be on their next album, something I anxiously await), “Unlivable Hell,” and the always incredible fan favorite, “Punch Yr Local Nazi,” which got the crowd fired the fuck UP with some help from 50 Ft. Furies vocalist Tracy Noel.
WORLDSUCKS debut show as a trio
I also always love these kinds of shows to discover new stuff and I was able to take in the sounds of Icebox Cake who have a “K Recs circa 1992 twee/post punk” vibe going for them (and who sadly seem to have zero online presence that I can find to check out some of their recordings; someone please point me in the right direction if you know) and crusty punks, Phantom Sleeze, who put on a set of traditional punk rippers that reminded me of bands I saw at shows of my youth when I was first discovering and falling in love with punk music and culture.
If you want to have a great 2023, do yourself a favor and take a look at the DIY communities in your own backyard. Some of the best bands in the world are right there in under your nose, playing shows on Friday nights at the dive bar for a couple of bucks, no tickets required. You just might discover a whole new world, ready to embrace you, along with one hell of a soundtrack.
Scroll down for photos of the show (photos by Kate Hoos)
