Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Music Box: Tegan and Sara

Is there any question that Tegan and Sara would be my "favorite duo of all time" if their debut had come out in 1982 instead of the late '90s? Obviously the answer is no. But now that they have six albums -- including the just-released stylistic change-up "Sainthood," which features a song called "Alligator" that The Washington Post says "sounds like vintage Madonna, whose presence looms large both here and on the Material Girl-referring 'Paperback Head'" -- where do I even begin? My pal Russell invited us to see them in concert later this month but it looks like there are no more tickets ("Damn lesbians bought 'em all," he explained). Right now, the only two songs I know are "One Second," which my pal Christopher included on a playlist he did for me last year ("The weekend reminded me that Canada is an enormous country with a small population. Apparently Tegan and Sara need to live on opposite sides of it in order to get along. I didn't know this song from their 'I'll Take the Blame' EP before I heard them play it live last month. It sounded much more like a new wave nugget than this studio version, but I love the creepy calliope quality it achieves. They are by far Canada's best identical twin lesbian folk rock duo") and the wonderful "Not Tonight," a version of which I have by Matt Sharp and Maya Rudolph. I'm tempted to just dive into the new LP, but am open to suggestions -- from lesbians or otherwise. 

 

3 comments:

pdx fan said...

I first heard of Tegan and Sara on the "CBC Radio 3 Podcast with Grant Lawrence". If you're interested, download episodes #191, #193 and #211 which feature a few of their songs. You might like "Back In Your Head (Tiesto Remix)".

Bill said...

Hey, they came up as "also liked" on Amazon as I bought the last Regina Spektor MP3s I still didn't have!

Unknown said...

For the "hard hearted" - -'Sentimental Tune' from Sainthood may be perfect pop, in the best possible sense of the word, and will melt anyone into Tegan/Sara submission. (Spinner.com is streaming the entire album.)