BABES IN BOYLAND / Ovary Action interview with
Le Tigre : Lyon, Le Pez Ner (05.14.2002).


The concept of the interview is pretty much radio-oriented, since it's a blind test we prepared for them... They had to give us the name of the band we played and we were asking questions on the themes these led us to.


Kathleen : Oh, it's The Slits , but I don't know what song it is until I've heard it. Yeah, it's The Slits but I can't think of what song it is.

BiB: Yeah ok, you got it.. The song is called "Adventures Close to Home". It's on Cut.
Johanna and Kathleen : We know Ari Up, we're friends with her. We met her through this guy we know who was gonna hook us up with her to make a 7". She has a new band and was playing in New York and we were going to her shows, and then we met her manager and went to party at her house and hung out. We've just been too busy recently to make that happen though, and we haven't had time to see her in a while.

BiB : Is she playing the same king of music as she used to ?
Kathleen : No, it's more like reggae. She's a big band.
Johanna : Well, she was, you know, in New Age Steppers after... Like, she moved to Jamaica and was doing this step down club called New Age Steppers and one of the record got like greatest hits. I mean it's not a greatest hits 'cause, I mean, it's like one of their only record but it gets called greatest, which is really good, and now she's doing some other dub projects.
Kathleen: She's just called Ari Up

BiB : So, were you into the Slits when you were kids ?
Kathleen : Not when I was a kid. I mean I was into the Slits when I was in Bikini Kill. I don't know when I first heard them, but the Cut record totally changed my life. I would lie in bed and listen to it and freak out, you know 'cause there were so many different things going on and there are like really smart lyrics that are complicated. One of the things I really loved about them is that we have this tape of an interview, a radio interview that they did, and it was really inspirational to us in BK. It helped us deal with bad interview situations (which did happen a lot to us) because they carried a tape recorder around with them and they had sounds taken from anywhere, like people typing on type writers and when they got stupid questions, they would put that up to the microphone. They were just really playful in the way they dealt with these situations. Like a guy would call and say 'hugh, I really like your first record '(Kathleen takes this maniac's voice)... like he would ask all these questions but he obviously was a total pervert and they got really close to the microphone and they would say (she takes the same voice): ' are you waiting in the phone box around the corner? Are you wearing a trench coat?' They totally made fun of him. It was just a creepy call like a guy who was too obsessed with them or something. That's how they responded. I was just as inspired by that interview tape as I was by the music.

BiB : Next track...
Johanna : Oh, it' , hum.....'oh Bondage, Up Yours'
Johanna & Kathleen : by Free Kitten !

BiB : So, what do you think of that cover and how do you feel about the song ? I must say for me, it's like the women in Punk anthem.
Johanna : Well, I love both the cover and the original. Actually when I had a radio show in art school, I would play them both and try to go back and forth between them, but it's hard because it's a different speed, so... (laughs), it didn't really work. Yeah, I think it was really inspiring and deals with the real mystery of punk and of women in punk, like what happened to Poly Styrene. You know, what is she doing now, why was the band so short lived and that stuff. And it also was very bizarre, that you know, she was so young when she wrote those lyrics and they sound so sophisticated. You know, this very interesting absurdist abstract way to talk about, you know, like capitalism and sexism and all those things, so I think she was really amazing. The Free Kitten cover, I think it just sounds great, like it sounds really cool and I was really into it when I heard it. I like that whole Free Kitten album a lot.

BiB: It was pretty much in keeping with this original pop art approach.
Kathleen : I think one of the best thing about the 'oh Bondage up Yours' song is how historically interesting it is, that a lot of what was going on was around Vivienne Westwood and Mc Laren's Sex shop. They were selling bondage gear and she was working there. That means that she made that commentary within a situation that was really risky. It was not just like she was far away from something and she was criticizing it. How I have always interpreted it was that she was working in that Sex shop that had bondage gear that was mostly about making women submissive and it probably wasn't a very popular thing for her to be criticizing that when it was like really in vogue, and that was where all the punk kids were hanging out and working and stuff. That reminded me of the sort of positions that we get in now with what's hip and cool and how it's also really hard to criticize what's going on like five feet away from you. I mean it's way easier to be like 'oh yeah, I know, back in the days or whatever, you know when it was so hard to be a woman in a band or something', but then it's like a huge band right now that has, you know, misogynist lyrics, it's kind of harder 'cause people are like 'but they sound really great !'
Well, I don't live close to any of them anymore. I just missed Molly when she was in NY. She was the manager for the Donnas, so she just had like 2 hours.
Johanna : I saw them a couple of years ago at some show case, and it was good to see them. I know Molly from Berkeley, because that's where I grew up, and I hung out with her. I think you know Bratmobile was one of the first that, when I started becoming aware of riot grrl, or like punk feminism beyond what was happening in my scene, which was more hard core or even ska when it was political. It was really inspiring to hear this kind of minimal guitar, and it just sounded so weird. I loved going to their shows, although I don't even know if I have any of their records, I know I have some 7", but I know I liked to see them live.

BiB : What shocked me was how the media were saying they were so more mature' when they got back together, and they were trying to bring the dead riot grrrrls back to life.
Kathleen : I don't know, I was really frustrated when I read the reviews on them when they got back together that were saying that they were too old to be playing this kind of music, and it really pissed me off. When I heard them, I just thought they sounded great. One of the most interesting things about that is Erin's guitar playing and also how she just started out as a big fan of K Records, and especially the band Beat Happening, and she became involved in the scene that way, through being a big fan of that kind of music. This very minimal music, that was punk in a different way. It was not punk because it was like loud and very aggressive, it was punk because once again it was challenging the rules of what music could be. To me it's a very interesting thing that she started as a fan and then became a producer, that it wasn't just like another 'you're a fan OR you're a musician.' She really does occupy both spaces really successfully. She's still now a big fan of music and she's still in this great band.

BiB : How did you start playing music? Individually and altogether ?
JD : I wasn't allowed to play music, it was just too loud and my parents were not interested... but I did play the classical guitar, because it was quite.... I didn't play music before I met these guys.
Johanna : I was in choir in grade school, and then I started playing with Kathleen.....
That's how the interview ended because of a phone call Kathleen got on her cell…and because I was low on battery as well (sorry about that!). If you want to have more primary sources, well, here is what you can get.

BiB : Ok, here's track #3...
Kathleen Hannah : I know this.....is it Huggy Bear, or something ?

BiB : Yeah, it is. It's 'Dissthentic Penetration'.
Kathleen Hannah : But is it on the Kill Rock Stars records, because I never really listened to
it...

BiB : Well, it's on the one that was released on Wiiija. I was about to play my Huggy Bear all time favourite...
Kathleen : 'Herjazz' ?

BiB : Well, it's a good one too, but I was thinking of 'February 14th', but I thought it would be too easy, since it's on Our Troubled Youth/Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.
Kathleen : yeah, I like that one too.

BiB : Well, do you know them, like personally, do you know what they're up to now? What can you say about your working together ?
Kathleen : Well, yeah, I did know them pretty well. I still see John from time to time. They were a great band. I was just talking about them today actually.

BiB : So how come them made it in the States, when they were like still quite unknown in Europe and definitely isolated in England ?
Kathleen : Do you think they made it in the States ?
Johanna : After their first tour...
Kathleen : Well, they were huge in England for a minute, like they were in the Melody Maker every week , I mean it was a very big thing until that thing happened , you know, when they threw things at the Barbie twins and they started freaking out, that was an amazing appearance, actually… but I don't know what you want to know about them.... I mean, BK toured with they, and they took a lot of drugs, that al I have to say.... no, I am just kidding, but they did drop a lot of acid, they were really fun. It was the best time in our life being on tour with them, it was very amusing. I don't know if it was such a success in the States, though. Some kids were really into them but it was quite limited. They weren't big, I mean, they were not like Fugazy, or something. They were just amazing live.


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