vain, selfish & lazy.

Tuesday, January 09, 2001

LE TIGRE - "DECEPTACON"
i had it all planned out. it would've began: "oh, where are the autobots when we need them, to defend us from the likes of this." i'd been hearing "le tigre this" and "le tigre that" and i was set to put an end to all of this nonsense. and that's how i intended for it to go, at least. then something happened along the way: i actually heard the song and everything changed.

in theory, i should despise this with every fiber of my being. let's start with the band name and artist: i made fun of people who wore le tigre shirts and a deceptacon is something that is allowable to come up as a pop culture reference in closely-guarded, intimate chats with friends, but never, never should be a song title. break the song itself down into its individual parts and they form a laundry list of things you'd expect to hear from a beastie boys vanity project: gurgling synths, mechanical handclaps, turntablism, and samples from you too can learn english records.

and yet, i find that i have no choice but to love this, and not because i'm afraid of kathleen hanna, though i am: it's the classic example of a whole greater than the sum of its parts. the riff is totally buzzsaw and the thing just drives along, with hanna's don't-give-a-fuck vocals behind the wheel, switching lanes recklessly. "deceptacon" is the sound of a girl group grown up all wrong, an early punk blondie waking up in the new millennium. with my cynicism now thoroughly obliterated, the only question i have about le tigre now is: what do i get now?
-fred solinger | steal this link! | discuss