KarenUhOh

tylercoates:

Le Tigre - “Hot Topic”

Carol Rama, Eleanor Antin, Yoko Ono, Carolee Schneema, Gretchen Phillips, Cibo Matto, Leslie Feinberg, Faith Ringgold, Mr. Lady, Laura Cottingham, Mab Segrest, The Butchies, Tammy Rae Carland, Sleater-Kinney, Vivienne Dick, Lorraine O’Grady, Gayatri Spivak, Angela Davis, Laurie Weeks, Dorothy Allison, Gertrude Stein, Marlon Riggs, Billie Jean King, Ut, DJ Cuttin Candy, David Wojnarowicz, Melissa York, Nina Simone, Ann Peebles, Tammy Hart, The Slits, Hanin Elias, Hazel Dickens, Cathy Sissler, Shirley Muldowney, Urvashi Vaid, Valie Export, Cathy Opie, James Baldwin, Diane Dimassa, Aretha Franklin, Joan Jett, Mia X, Krystal Wakem, Kara Walker, Justin Bond, Bridget Irish, Juliana Lueking, Cecilia Dougherty, Ariel Skrag, The Need, Vaginal Creme Davis, Alice Gerard, Billy Tipton, Julie Doucet, Yayoi Kusama, Eileen Myles

Oh no no no don’t stop stop

Think I ran this about six months ago—four, maybe? Who’s keeping track.

I used to write e-mails to Robert Christgau when he was at Village Voice. I’d just “discovered” Sleater-Kinney (it was 1999…I took a few years off in my brain and heart), and was enraptured. I felt he needed to know about that, given he was the one who’d pulled the blinders off me to find them.

On the learning curve, of course, I unearthed Bikini Kill, who was already gone, and Le Tigre, plus a bunch of other artists who have come to define my last decade.

So I’d write RC these long letters, drawing parallels hither and mostly yawn, and he ignored me. Then, in one, I said that “Hot Topic” was the best song of the past ten years, and he started writing me back.

Of course, he got over it, after a while. They all do.