FEBRUARY 20 / 9:00PM
21 & Over / $10 Advance

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Nectar, Hot Mess, & The Stranger Present:

Men (JD & JO of Le Tigre)

Hey Willpower

• DJ Mathmatix & LA Kendall

Men

Initially envisioned as a live back up band for Hanna's solo project Julie Ruin, Le Tigre mixed the politics and feminism of riot grrrl with fun electronic samples and lo-fi beats. Other members included 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. The self-proclaimed "underground electro-feminist performance artists" combined visuals, music and dance in their performances. JD is a big gay-rights activist, and the excerpts in New Kicks are from an actual protest that JD recorded herself. Kathleen is a speaker against sexual abuse. The song "Hot Topic" on Le Tigre's self-titled debut pays tribute to dozens of female visual artists, musicians, writers, feminists and others who have inspired them. Among the honorees are: Yoko Ono, Cibo Matto, Aretha Franklin, Vaginal Davis, Yayoi Kusama, Angela Davis, Sleater-Kinney, Billy Tipton, James Baldwin, and Hanna's close friend, Tammy Rae Carland. 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 continued to work with independent labels. In 2005 they released This Island Remixes with Chicks on Speed. Le Tigre self-titled album contains a sample of an essay written by Mark Rothko in response to a negative review in 1942 where he debuted the style he would become famous for. Le Tigre licensed two of their songs for use in advertisements by Canadian telephone provider Telus and Australian jewelery chain Goldmark. A sample from "Deceptacon" (Deceptacon is French for Decepticon)plays in the background of a 2006 television commercial for Nivea cosmetics. Le Tigre's "TKO" is featured in the 2006 movie Accepted. In the second half of 2006, Le Tigre went on hiatus [1].In 2006, Le Tigre contributed to Yoko Ono's Yes, I'm A Witch album by remixing "Sisters O Sisters". The band decided to take an extended break starting early 2007, and Samson and Fatemen went on to form MEN.

Hey Willpower

"hey willpower" was conceived one night in july on 3rd street in san francisco when amy linton and i were at a tussle show and i was still smoking. we were talking about our love for r&b pop/hip hop and how she had lived in the same building in harlem as Sean Paul the summer before and our favorite songs on kmel. i gave her a ride home and the Busta/Mariah song "i know what you want" came on and we just listened in awe. as if she was reading my mind, she said we should get together and make a song using all the elements of pop that we've ever loved. a couple of days later we started working on a song in her basement. i came up with some vocal melodies and keyboard/guitar parts and left amy overnight with them. the result was the backing track for "onthefloor". after exhaustively stalking amy and trying to convince her to drop everything and work on this project, she told me she had to go on tour with her band the Aislers Set. i was left despondent in sf with a new computer and this music in my head. i met tomo through a friend and we hardly even asked each other on a music date before we were on a regular practice schedule furiously writing and recording music. tomo loves blippy bleepy yet melodic landscapey music the most. i had to coerce him a bit into some ass-shaking, but he eventually caved in. whether it's a hot beat or bass part or a strangely beautiful keyboard melody, he always brings something unique and inspiring to the music. we'll be hanging out and he'll be tapping out a beat with the keys in his pocket and we'll record that. i grew up listening to Michael and Janet and L'Trimm and pop that my sisters would turn me on to. as soon as I heard Sonic Youth and the Velvet Underground my world turned inside out and I started voraciously ingesting anything other than what was played on the radio. i became immersed in the indie music world with my band Imperial Teen, all the while reveling in the latest greatest pop/hip hop songs and records. "hey willpower" feels like something new and exciting and postmodern without being smug or ironic. although it's different from Imperial Teen, it makes perfect sense to me to be making the music we're making because it comes from what i love about music. when we're performing live and people are doin' their dances and making noise, we know it's right. dance is becoming a big part of our live show. erin rush and justin kelly are on dance detail and we have a good time synching up. i'm good with the chin scratchers and musicologists and philosophers too, but sometimes you have to let the emotions take over. let's dance now and we can talk about it later if you want. xoxoxo will

LINKS

• Men on MySpace
• Le Tigre on Myspace
• Hey Willpower on Myspace

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