FM
History
Le Tigre is an American electroclash trio formed in New York in 1998 by Bikini Kill vocalist Kathleen Hanna. Initially envisioned as a live back up band for Hanna's solo moniker Julie Ruin, Le Tigre mixed the leftist 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. JD had previously worked with the band as the roadie and operator of the slide show created by Sadie Benning for Le Tigre's live performances of the first record. The self-proclaimed underground electro-feminist performance artists combined visuals, music, and dance into their performances.
The song "Hot Topic" on Le Tigre's self-titled début pays tribute to dozens of visual artists, musicians, writers, feminists and others who have inspired them. Among the honorées 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.
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