The Tegan and Sara Blog

The Inevitable Backlash Sex for Safety EP art by Emy Storey!

2007-05-02T20:17:00.000-07:00

Our favorite artist and past interview subject Emy Storey is keeping busy! Looks like she has done the cover art from a new band "The Inevitable Backlash" for their debut "Sex for Safety". I downloaded a track on Itunes, but decided to buy the CD to get the full Emy treatment. Is anybody else SUPER EXCITED about what she has up her sleeve for Con??? Reviews below...

75 or less "The Inevitable Backlash features former members of Saccharine Trust and the Rollins Band and sounds like late 80's SST bands like SWA and DC3. Close to a late-era Naked Raygun crossed with a touch of rock. "Le Fou Rire" starts off with some Greg Ginn-ish guitar licks before kicking the tempo up a bit. Fast driving riffage and one acoustic number—in total, five songs just under 13 minutes recorded live without any overdubs. Bring on the full length." and good word from Treble "Chugging, distorted guitars? Check. A snarling vocalist? Check. A drum beat that hits like a concrete block to the skull? Check. From the first few seconds of "He Never Left," the opening track on The Inevitable Backlash's new EP, the band makes their mission quite clear—to rock you hard, slap you around, steal your beer and maybe break a couple windows. It's not a complex sound, nor one that hasn't been covered a hundred times before, by the likes of Nirvana, The Stooges, The Sex Pistols...you get the idea. But if the formula worked so well the first time, why mess with it? These five tracks do no such thing, but hey, they don't have to."
The Inevitable Backlash Wikipedia Page oh the inevitable backlash twitter page craziness

Sanctuary Closing, Could this affect Tegan and Sara and Vapor?

2007-05-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

Yikes!! From Pitchfork...

The American home to Morrissey, Idlewild, Tegan and Sara, Jonny Greenwood's reggae comp, and more, England's Sanctuary Records Group will soon cease its front-line operation in the United States and focus exclusively on catalog releases. This is according to a Billboard.biz report and confirmed by a spokesperson at the imprint. UK operations will presumably continue as before.

Ex-Cranberries frontlady Dolores O'Riordan's Are You Listening?, out May 15, will likely be the label's final new release in the U.S. Meanwhile, the status of Tegan and Sara's latest LP, The Con, is unknown at this time. That record was slated to come out July 24.

As of June 30, the label will shift focus entirely to its catalog-- which, according to a Sanctuary spokesperson, will include both existing titles (including the Wedding Present, the Pentangle, Joe Meek, and more) and future reissues. The Sanctuary Records Group umbrella includes the Attack, Castle, Trojan, Vapor, and Fantastic Plastic sub-labels, among others.

Tegan and Sara THE CON July 24th 07. YAY!!!

2007-05-02T20:12:00.000-07:00

friends,

our new album, "the con", will come out july 24, 2007. i'm crossing my fingers that you'll like it. love it. adore it. etc.

here is a track listing:

i was married
relief next to me
the con
knife going in
are you ten years ago
back in your head
hop a plane
soil, soil
burn your life down
nineteen
floorplan
like O, like h
dark come soon
call it off

********************************************************************************************
ill send out a bulletin in the next few weeks about tour dates. small shows. (like really small) and lots of in store performances at great indie record shops.

remember those?!

stores where you buy cds!!!!!

ohhhhh those were the days.

these small shows will happen in july and august on the west and east coasts of canada and the usa.

soon after that, we'll release the dates for our big north american tour happening in september and october.

then we're off to the UK and australia and japan, and anywhere else that you want us to be.

in the meantime you can start practicing clapping over your heads. you'll need to strengthen your arm muscles for the shows.

please check out ee storey's fancy work at www.teganandsara.com (remember band websites!!!!!)

one last thing. i hate spam. i am personally going in and erasing every god damn one, and its taking FOREVER. so if you are normal and just sending normal happy messages that don't include pornographic photos, or self advertising propaganda, or annoying rude dispatches, or advertisements for god damn phones and gift cards, then i will eventually get around to adding your comment. we really do appreciate them, and know that you like to see your letters spelt out on our page. so, hang in there buddies.

friends forever,

sara

Tegan and Sara's New Album Has a Producer!!

2006-12-13T12:32:00.000-08:00

There are a couple of reasons why indie rock sounds so good right now and one of them is Chris Walla.

The guitarist for the Seattle outfit Death Cab for Cutie has produced albums for Hot Hot Heat, The Long Winters, Nada Surf and, most recently, The Decemberists.

Walla took what he learned from producing Death Cab albums and passed it along to other bands, creating indie rock nirvana in the process. Nada Surf’s The Weight is a Gift was surprisingly good and The Decemberists The Crane Wife is on the way to becoming one of the best albums of the year.

And it’s all come from Walla, a friendly vegetarian with a passion for voter registration causes during his free time.

“If you had asked me five years ago if I wanted to produce full time, I’d say yeah, just to get me the fuck off the road,” Walla said. “Now I’m at a point where I don’t really like one more than the other. I do wish I had more time to produce since I’ve had to turn down a lot of things.”

Right now all his time is with Death Cab as they take their final tour in support of last year’s Plans, the band’s successful major label debut.

At the tour’s end, Walla will be heading back to the studio to produce the new Tegan and Sara album in January. Then it will be time to put the final touches on his first solo album, which is slated to come out in August of next year.

Yet amid all the good music, purists have questioned whether bands like Death Cab and the Decemberists have sold out – pointing out that their most accessible music in years comes at the heels of joining a major label.

“We wouldn’t have moved to Atlantic if the decision wasn’t unanimous,” Walla said. “It took a long time. We had decided before we recorded Transatlanticism that it was something we wanted to pursue if the door opened. It had to be the right deal.”

So far that deal has been working. The tour has been a success. It will finish up in the band’s hometown of Seattle at Key Arena, the city’s professional basketball arena.

It’s definitely a high point for Walla and Death Cab – to play in the arena where they each saw so many of their favorite bands growing up. For Walla, it was The Cure, a band that taught him how an album should sound.

“You have to commit to Disintegration,” Walla said. “The first song feels like an invitation and the last song feels like the band leaving the stage. And everything in the middle is placed so well and carefully.”

Walla takes this same approach today and makes sure to have the running order (the song placement) of the album before any recording takes place.

“One of the most important things for records is some sort of arc, from beginning to end,” Walla said. “I love, particularly in the iPod age, the idea of a linear record. It starts and takes you some place else.”

As for the band, Walla doesn’t feel like there is a definite destination for them.

“I still don’t have much of a sense of what we’re doing,” Walla said. “It’s been a state of suspended animation for the last six years.”

New Tegan and Sara Album Info!!! YAY!!!

2006-11-14T09:36:00.000-08:00

Tegan and Sara have started work on their next album.

Tegan Quinn revealed that her and her twin Sara are at work on the follow-up to 2004's So Jealous (Vapor/Sanctuary) (read Aversion's review). The duo imported Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla to Montreal to man the boards as the album comes together. No title or release date for the album has been revealed.

Has Tegan Always Wanted to Be a Musician?

2006-10-22T14:55:00.000-07:00

From the great "Three Imaginary Girls"

TIG: Hi Tegan. Have you always wanted to be a musician?

Tegan: No. Up until I was like seven I wanted to work at McDonalds, and then I wanted to be a veterinarian. My mom's a therapist, so I wanted to be a therapist for a long time. She worked for a center that helps women who were just about to lose their kids; she helped them get their shit together and keep their kids. For the last eight years she's worked with this privately-run feminist group that helps integrate high risk teenager girls between the ages of 12-17 back into the school system by teaching them life skills. That always fascinated me. My mom is very passionate.

I'm only a musician by default, really. I was never really good at anything else. My last couple years of high school I was just like, "What the hell am I going to do?" because I had slacked off so much, I didn't get that good of grades. I was an average student. My mom was like, "You have to get into university." I asked if I could take a year off. She said okay, and we started playing gigs around Calgary. We won this contest and they gave us some money and we got a demo deal through Universal, and then we started touring.

We put a bunch of money into a record, borrowed money, and all of a sudden — we're here. It was a snowball. It wasn't a dream, but I totally love music. I always wanted to be in a band, but I didn't necessarily think that it was ever realistic that it would become a job.

TIG: Who was your favorite person to open up for?

Tegan: Overall I would have to say Ryan Adams because he came out every night and played five songs with us. He was so good to us, and was so funny. A week into the tour, he put books and CDs — Black Flag, Replacements — all over the monitors. He was really involved with us while we were on tour.

But touring with Neil Young and the Pretenders that was a lot of fun. Those kind of moments aren't my favorite artistically though, because there's not much gratification in playing 25 minutes in a amphitheatre filled with people wanting to see Chrissie Hynde or Neil Young. But it's cool to look back on years later. We didn't even take pictures while we were on tour or anything. I don't have any pictures and we did a month of dates with them. It's only lives in my imagination.

TIG: When was the last fight you and Sara got into?

Tegan: Oh, about an hour ago? {laughter}

She's been in a fucking terrible mood all day. She borrowed a bag of mine and I told her "I want my bag back. Put your shit in that broken rolly suitcase..." Fight ensued because she believed I was giving her attitude and that I'd been patronizing her all day. I told her she's been in a bad mood all day and she said, "You're in a bad mood all of the time." And then I asked her for a shirt or something and she said "If you fucking ask me one more thing, I'm going to fucking punch you in the face," and I said, "If you touch me, I'll throw you into traffic and I'll punch your fucking head in" or something like that. And our manager was like "Ok girls, take some time apart." And I was like "Yeah, that's right." {laughter}

TIG: Does your manager wear a black and white striped shirt?

Tegan: Yeah, he should. We tend to only fight when we're stressed out. We are stressed out right now. It's been a long couple of weeks. Sara hasn't been home in a month. The record just came out and we start touring on Sunday again, so we only have a day off and Sara's going to be flying. Whatever. Our life is one big nightmare.

TIG: I love how she's not here to defend herself.

Tegan: Exactly. If she were here it would be the exact same story except for she would tell it in a sympathic way. I'm trying to be unbiased. I was a bitch too and she was in a bad mood all day. She didn't want to participate. She even said that to me, "I don't feel like doing this today." She said she wishes she could just blow everything off and go home, and that bugs me. Her priorities are different than mine — not that she doesn't like or enjoy or want to be a part of music as much as I do. She just sets different boundaries than I do. She feels that in order to have space away from music she has to actually be apart from it and apart from me and I'm not quite feeling like that. On a day like today she would probably blow it all off.

TIG: What's the biggest difference between you two?

Tegan: Well, our whole lives people always thought that Sara was extroverted and I was the introvert. But I think Sara is actually quite shy and reclusive and independent and she likes a lot of time on her own. They say that there's always a twin that doesn't want to be a twin and one that's fine with it. And Sara speaks singularly; she never speaks plurally, even if I'm there. She won't be like, "Me and Tegan went to do this" she'll be like, "Oh yeah, this one time, bla bla..." and I want to jump in, but I know if I jump in, then she wasn't able to tell the story from her perspective. It's like a lack of independence.

She doesn't want to have to share everything with me. I totally sympathize. I've just come to terms with it, and I almost find comfort in knowing I have a partner no matter what. I'm sure on some level she does too. But, I'd say that our biggest difference is just that. She's very independent and I'm happy being part of the group kinda thing.

She used to be the one to scream and push when we got into a fight, but now I'm the one more likely to do that. Now she's the one to pull back and be inside and be upset about it. I don't know when that happened. I guess it was a couple of years ago. I think that's actually more her real self. She needs a lot of Sara time. We've gone to a couple of different therapists. We went to therapy the whole time we were making this record. He's done sessions with a bunch of different sets of twins and he said there's always one that needs their own space. Hearing that was a lot better than hearing the other perspective which is "I hate you" and "you embarrass me". It's easier to just hear "Sara needs Sara time". And I know I can be overbearing too, because I have a million things going on inside of me. I don't balance music and personal as well. Musically we do the same thing; Sara takes a long time to write her songs. She perfects them and is more about the whole vibe not just the lyrics. I'm really quick.

TIG: Since you live away from each other, do you use the internet to write songs?

Tegan: Sara has a computer to record, but not the internet. So for a while we were FedExing stuff back and forth, and it was very frustrating. But that was really cool. It was cool to know that we could do it alone.

TIG: And you got mail all the time.

Tegan: {laughs}Yeah, and I got mail all of time. And it was cool because before if I had a new song, I couldn't resist the urge to play it for her right away. Now when I write a new song, I have to send it. A week later you get it and you pop it and you hear a song you've never heard before and you're instantly a fan of it — and you get excited because you get to play it.

TIG: So when she sends you something, is it pretty finalized? Do you take ownership over your individual songs?

Tegan: Yeah, we do. We have stuff we each want to contribute to the other's songs, like fixing the arrangement, making it shorter, or those kind of suggestions. We do that, but we never record on each other songs. Well, when we get into the studio we did a bit, but because we develop the songs so much prior to actually getting into the studio, it's much easier for Sara to play the weird guitar parts she came up with herself rather than having me learn them just so I can play them. So it's kind of a mix of Tegan and Sara.

Most of our record it's not even Sara singing on my songs or me singing on hers. It's just us doing our own vocals. I mean, our band is Tegan and Sara and we perform the songs live and we contribute to each others songs. Like if I can't get a harmony for some reason, she'll jump in and do it. And same with guitar — I'll sit there while she's recording her guitar and try to whittle something out. If I find something cool, like "Walk As it Goes" — a lot of guitar parts on that song are mine, but that's Sara's song. So we really come together on the road. Prior to that we are like two separate people writing a record together.

TIG: That way you get the best of both worlds

Tegan: Yeah, you have this person you trust no matter what to produce the songs. Like Sara will tell the band kinda what to do because I can't be worrying about that when I'm playing and singing. It's hard to hear what everyone else is doing. Sara will be my outside ear. We do work together. Generally it's a very independent process for us. It works better that way... less fighting.

TIG: Do you have any other siblings besides Sara?

Tegan: Nope, there's only two of us. I suppose we may have other siblings, we just haven't met them yet.

TIG: Who's older?

Tegan: I am, by eight minutes.

TIG: Did your mom know she was going to have twins?

Tegan: Yep, she did. They had my name picked out, but they didn't have Sara's name picked out. When she checked into the hospital the woman that was sharing the room with her was also having twins and we were all born within the same half an hour... same 28 minutes, actually.

TIG: To shift topics... we're sure you're aware that we're coming up on a Presidential election in the coming weeks. Do you have a powerful conservative Christian movement in Canada?

Tegan: Sure. In June, I was in Calgary for our elections, and I made my grandparents go vote for the NDP, which is the new Democratic Party. It's basically as far left as you'd want to go before getting into Communism. On the ballot we had the Communist party, the marijuana party, the Christian coalition, NDP, the Democratic party, and the New Conservative party. And the New Conservative which almost got into power, which is really sad. The New Conservative party is led by this man, Steven Harper. He's basically our Canadian version of George Bush. He was basically going to open the floor to a free vote for abortion, gay rights, gun laws and put all this money into the military. We have a minority government now.

Yeah, so things are really changing in Canada as well too. Sara was very involved in the election, handing out flyers in the streets in Montreal and doing interviews, unbeknownst all of us on the West Coast. I got forwarded an email from like the Ottawa Sun or something that Sara was doing all of this anti-Harper stuff. So yeah, there's totally a movement for that sort of thing. As much as people talk about Canada being so much better than the states as far as politics or education or bla bla bla, we are very conservative as well.

TIG: Oh no! But we're counting on Canada!

Tegan: We're very conservative, but only to the point where we never have a right government either. We ride the fence every election, without fail. But we're just always going to have a liberal government. I can't imagine actually having either party. We'd probably be liberal, and liberal just means major chaffing. It's just like constantly riding the fence; we just can't make up our minds about anything — but that's Canada, in my opinion. But that's great because it leaves a lot of room for movement either way.

I grew up in Calgary, and I never thought of it as redneck, sexist, racist, homophobic, but I've heard this things said about it. But then, I grew up in a single parent family with a feminist mom who worked at all these incredible organizations that had us out at womens day marches when we were eight and was really supportive of us being gay, so I obviously grew up in Mars or some other incredible place.

So I think Canada is probably a lot like the States in the sense that you can find little pockets of openness and greatness and all that other stuff. But there's still the shit too. But definitely if George Bush gets back in, you're all welcome to stay at my house.

Tegan and Sara Producer Howard Redekopp Strikes Again at Warehouse Studio

2006-10-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

Gauntlet Entertainment - Spun: Lotus Child

Like a sloppy first kiss, Lotus Child's sophomore album flirts with greatness at times, but ultimately falls into limbo somewhere between "outstanding" and "okay." Gossip Diet is a competent combination of unchained, confident instrumentals and endearing vocals, but is tainted by over-complicated lyrics on a few tracks.

Upbeat tracks like "Lids" and "Archaeologists" show a goldmine of instrumental potential complimented by toe-tapping rhythms. Unfortunately, a few lesser tracks tend to be bogged down by obscure references only understood by the band or freakishly-obsessed groupies.

Fresh out of Vancouver, Lotus Child credit their musical inspiration to bands like Muse, Spoon and Arcade Fire, but the end result is a hybrid of generic indie-pop that doesn't really stand out. Backed by the renowned Warehouse Studio and producer Howard Redekopp (Tegan and Sara, New Pornographers, 54-40), Gossip Diet, with its yin and yang hodge-podge of transcendent and merely-listenable tracks is able to achieve true musical balance: mediocrity.

Our favorite Sara, From Tegan and Sara Blogs her heart out!

2006-10-02T18:06:00.000-07:00

BIG news from sara and other tidbits

hello friends,

tegan and i have exciting news!!! our first album, "under feet like ours", is now available on maplemusic.com!!!!!

there are a limited number of copies available, and once they sell out we will be re designing the packaging. which means these will be collectors items!!!

also...kate bornstein's new book "Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws" is up for sale on our page at maplemusic,com i wrote the foreword for the book and i think you should definitely check it out.

and coming very soon- our winter/holiday merch! including new hoodies, t-shirts and gym bags designed by emy at eestorey design. they are soooo cool, i swear i wear them underneath my real clothes.

in music news:

tegan and i are officially in pre production. we have a trillion and a half songs written and in the coming weeks ted gowans will be summoned to montreal to "jam" with us.

when the gillion or so songs have been whittled and wanked to perfection, we will head to portland to start work on the new album with chris walla. chris plays in the band death cab for cutie, and we are very excited to have him on board.

we hope to have the new album out sometime in late spring early summer. and we will be keeping you posted on songs, titles and artwork.

in un related to merch or music news:

tegan has been cooking up a storm, and if music doesn..t work out she has suggested she may go back to culinary school. much of our spare time has been spent watching
nip/tuck. i recently read ' a personal history" by jonathan franzen and cant wait for richard ford's final book in his trilogy about fictional sportswriter, Frank Bascombe. i find my ears are very sensitive these days, but sometimes i play the new tv on the radio or kaki king softly in my ears before bed.

bridges falling, ice caps melting, shootings...

stay safe friends,

sara

Tegan and Sara Contribute to America's Newspaper

2006-10-01T19:41:00.000-07:00

Shuffler: Tegan Quin, Canadian, twin sister, and the somewhat chattier half of playful guitar-pop duo Tegan And Sara.

Tegan Quin, "One Second"

Tegan Quin: This is a new song that I wrote. I call it my Prince song, because it's pretty breathy. It's kind of whiny. I have this big house that I was renting, and I was going to lose that, so I moved in with a friend of mine from high school. She's a painter and doesn't have a job, and I'd write music all day. Every time I stopped recording, I'd hear her downstairs singing along with me, which was horrifying, because it meant that she could hear everything I was doing. But then I realized I was making her a really big fan. [Listening.] I'm writing about being a loser. I actually really like this song. I write a lot of music, so I'd say that 75 to 80 percent of my songs are crap, and it's just a matter of finding the right people to make sure that the crap gets weeded out and the good stuff gets on the record. But this song is actually pretty good.

Cake, "No Phone"

TQ: I just toured with them. I like Cake—they remind me of when I graduated high school. Over in the UK, they're major, but over here, they're what I would call a mini-major. Sara and I just finished two years where I think we took that leap and made the next step, but at the same time, it's like, at what cost? We never projected that we wanted to be famous, or a really well-known band, we just wanted to make music that we really like. Can you do that as a mini-major?

Something that I appreciated about touring with Cake and the last record they did is that they're still doing the same thing. They're still doing the music they want, no matter what label, no matter what else. They're still making music that they want to make, and they're really happy with it. They were making music when we were all in diapers, practically. I know a lot of friends from that area where they started, and they remember the first Cake shows, and a lot of music came out of what Cake was doing, like rap-So-Cal-surf kind of music. I think that [Cake frontman] John [McCrea] is so intelligent, and everyone in that band is so amazingly talented.

My first serious girlfriend was really into Cake, so it's sort of a love-hate thing with them. Sometimes it leaves this weird taste in my mouth when I think about it. It totally reminds me of high school.

The Be Good Tanyas, "Up Against The Wall"

TQ: I love The Be Good Tanyas. They're a Canadian band out of Vancouver. They put out a record five years ago—great record. They had some really heartbreaking stuff on it. I got the record because their manager manages another Canadian star who's a friend of mine who's also really talented and really great. It's kind of bluegrassy and poppy. I overplay that record.

I got dumped, and the person that dumped me changed their phone number, which is like a total loss of control. Which, like, fucking sucks, because you can't get on the phone and be like, "Fuck you." And this was, like, before email, at least in my world. So this record was just full-on screaming. Seriously, when I was like 14 or 15, I would say, "I wish there was a band that just fucking screamed. Not like heavy metal, but like regular pop music that just fucking flipped out. So I could be like, 'I don't feel good,' and I could just put my headphones on and listen to it and really feel it."

Green Day, "Longview"

TQ: I would have been 14 when this record came out. So Dookie came out, and for my first real concert—I'd been to New Kids On The Block and Bruce Springsteen with my parents—but when it came out, I thought it was such a rad record. Even now when I listen to it, it's like, so good, full of energy and life. About a month after I found out about Green Day, I found out about Smashing Pumpkins, and I never really got into them. I always thought Green Day was really awesome. I went to all the concerts, and my boyfriend at the time—he's gay now too—and the two of us, like, linked arms, and he's like, "Don't let me go!" It was kind of sweet and sensitive, and we held onto each other the whole time. I still like this record. I don't have a lot of stuff on my iPod, so pretty much everything I have, I like a lot.

Brendan Benson, "Spit It Out"

TQ: The Alternative To Love—good record. I just ran into him, he's so cute and little. I really like his record. I think he's totally underrated. I've always read the press on him, and it's always really positive, but I don't think it's glowing. I kind of relate to him in a lot of ways, where we get this consistent amount of press where people are like, "Yeah, it's good," but there's no huge hype. I think he deserves a lot of hype, because he's a good writer. When you look through his history, he's been through the whole train. He knows everything. He understands a lot of stuff going on in the industry that a lot of people don't. He's not a fool at all. You know how they say that if you like someone, you like their music? Well, when I met Brendan Benson, I already liked his music, so it was impossible not to fall in love with him. His last record had this song, I forget what it's called, but it would just be perfect if I could change some of the lyrics. I hate that he's not a huge famous star.

Razorlight, "Up All Night"

TQ: I'm not going to go so far as to say that this is a guilty pleasure, because it's not, it's a really good record. There are some really good songs on it. I saw them on Letterman, and I didn't really get it. I like his voice. The production is interesting. They seem really sweet.

I am really resistant to certain UK bands that I won't name, that are drug addicts and alcoholics, because I don't think it's cool that they get to be popular, because so many of us are working so hard, and we're not drug addicts and alcoholics. It would be so much easier if we were, but we're not. And they're actually really sweet. And I've heard they're really good live, too. Some of their songs are really good. I like the production. I like them, I feel like they're my friends.

"Ryan Adams' booking agent was putting together a tour and Ryan compiled a list of artists he'd like to tour with. We were second on the list," laughs Tegan, half of the sibling duo Tegan & Sara. "The first person on the list was pregnant, so we got it."

Tegan is quite happy to elaborate the call she initially received from Adams, a moment she will never forget, and how Tegan & Sara landed a recent U.S. tour supporting Ryan Adams.

"His manager called our manager and then Ryan called us. He knew the record," she says with excitement. "We shared the same publicist a few years ago and he got our first record and wasn't blown away. But when the second album came out, he checked it out and loved it. When (Adams) called, he named all of the songs Sara had written, like 'Underwater' and 'Monday Monday Monday.’ I told him he should talk to Sara because he was obviously a Sara fan because he didn't name any of my songs.

"So he asked which songs were mine and I yelled, 'All the ones you didn't name!'" Tegan continues, half screaming, half laughing into the phone. "It really broke the ice, I think."

The Canadian-based twins, who have been writing together since they learned guitar, have been playing out as Tegan & Sara since the 2000 release of This Business of Art, their first commercially released full-length on Vapor Records. Prior to This Business of Art the duo self-released a full-length under the name Sara & Tegan, Under Feet Like Ours, which ended up getting them signed.

"Literally two months before we got signed, we had decided to go into the studio and record a new record, the follow-up to Under Feet Like Ours. We recorded This Business of Art," recalls Tegan. "Then we got signed and handed Business over to the label, expecting them to tell us it was good, but it could be better, and then putting us in the studio to record a new record. But they loved the record and agreed to put it out."

Thus began Tegan & Sara.

"This Business of Art didn't play well live," Tegan informs me. "The difference between the new record and Business is the fact that we can play the new one live a lot better. The new record has a lot more confidence."

A lot of that confidence is due to the fact that their label, Vapor Records, was completely hands-off, allowing the girls to create the exact record they wanted to make, checking in only periodically to make sure the girls were happy with the record the record they were making.

"We called and said we were ready to start recording and they said 'OK'," laughs Tegan. "They came into the studio halfway through the recording and said 'sounds good'. Then we called them and said we were ready to master it."

Displaying their punk sensibilities in a folk-pop mold, Tegan and Sara stretch the boundaries and perceptions of folk, and pop for that matter, creating a masterpiece in If It Was You, their sophomore effort, and first for Sanctuary. Using their two distinct writing styles to add different dimensions to each other's playing styles, the two girls create a lush arrangement of sparse moments complimenting a much fuller sound.

"If It Was You isn't about doing things we didn't do on Business. Things just started snowballing and getting bigger and better," Tegan tells me. "There are major differences in the way Sara and I write. But on the new record it's more of a band effort. Less Sara & Tegan separate and more of us writing and working together."

The two, who admit to drawing better in Canada than in the U.S., with the exception of the East Coast, are set to embark on a West Coast tour the first part of 2003 to further expand their fan base. Their plan is to keep hitting reliable markets while trying to develop other strongholds in the process. Look for them on the road throughout the first and second quarter of 2003.

Tegan and Sara: SO JEALOUS: Random Memories

2006-09-17T23:59:00.000-07:00

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. ~From the television show The Wonder Years

Unlimited Sunshine Tour
9:30 Club
Washington, D.C.
January 21, 2006

The pairing of alt-rock stalwart Cake with two up-and-coming indie acts—a gypsy punk band and a pair of singing sisters, along with an inter-act comedian—was a bit of a surprise and begged the question: Would fans of the mainstream-radio played Cake take to the eccentric opening bands?

At Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club on Jan. 21, the crowd loved them. Blown away by the onstage antics and energy of Gogol Bordello, the sweet sing-along charm of Tegan & Sara (pictured) and the clever, biting humor of Eugene Merman, the opening acts did their jobs, getting the crowd excited for Cake.

The menagerie of gypsy punks in Gogol Bordello took the stage first, and used the entire stage—and audience—in their production, which closely resembled a circus act. The four musicians and two female dancers sang, jumped, danced and in one case, stage dove into the crowd, to heavily Eastern European-influenced songs.

Tegan & Sara followed, and despite the drastic change in styles—the boundless energy of Gogol Bordello compared with the sweet and mild stylings of the singing twins—the transition worked. Tegan & Sara sang a series of their greatest hits, including the essential “Walking With a Ghost,” along with “Monday Monday Monday,” “I Hear Noises,” and “I Know I Know I Know.” The duo can write songs, there’s no doubt about that, but they’d benefit from an engaging stage presence to go along with them.

But despite the crowd’s appreciation for Gogol Bordello and Tegan & Sara, it was Cake that they really wanted to see. As Cake ran through a “best of” list, including “Sheep Go to Heaven,” “Never There,” Shadow Stabbing” and “Short Skirt/Long Jacket,” (the band’s first hit, “The Distance,” went noticeably missing), it became apparent that what was once disparaged as a one-hit wonder was, in fact, a real band. When frontman John McCrea stepped on stage, dressed in couture every rock star should emulate—corduroy pants and a tweed suit jacket over an orange sweatshirt over a t-shirt, plus a tan fedora—he and the band owned the stage.

Cake’s odd combination of wry humor, speak-singing and minimalist stage shtick was just what the audience expected and wanted. As the crowd sang, shouted and chanted “hey” and “ho,” Cake encouraged the feedback. When the final song of the encore faded out, it was clear that both band and audience got what they wanted: A perfectly enjoyable evening.

Opinions are Like Assholes....Everybody's Got One!

2006-09-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

The Reviews keep pouring in!!

Good... not great., Aug 29 2006
Nicholas Woychesko -
I'm a pretty big T&S fan - and after they didn't show up at Live8, I just had to get this DVD. The only problem I had with it is that the concert portion was so short - a 44 minute set? Or did the editor just clip stuff out? For instance, one of my favourite things about T&S is the on-stage banter - it's hilarious. Why did they leave that out? My only other problem comes with their complete neglect of their first album (well, second, but nobody seems to remember Sara and Tegan). That was just really disappointing. I mean, I understand that they are going to play their latest stuff, which is good... but that 1st album rocked! Anyway, after 2 years of nothing its about time. I just hope the mounds of special features will keep the rest of you T&S fans busy until another album.

It is Fun, You Should Buy It!!, Aug 9 2006
Nathan Poitras (Calgary, Alberta Canada)
(3 and a Half Stars actually) I'm a Tegan and Sara fan, so I could be a little biased on this DVD. I'll tell you this: It's not a great concert DVD, I wouldn't even call it a very good one. The camerawork is repetitive and weak, and the stage is quite dimly lit, so it's not a feast for the eyes to say the least. HOWEVER.... I love the songs, and they are performed to near perfection on stage. Also, there are a lot of extras, including all of their music videos so far, some tour footage shot by the band, and an addictive photo album segment (narrated by T&S.) I do recommend this DVD to all Tegan & Sara fans, it's not perfect, but worth the reasonable asking price.

God Help Us: Pitchfork weighs in on Tegan and Sara's DVD It's Not Fun Don't Do It

2006-08-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

Amazingly it is not as bad as I thought it would be. After all we have had some interesting encounters with Pitchfork's "musings" on Tegan and Sara in the past. Although they do say that Tegan and Sara "are set to follow in the footsteps of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen" and that they are "actually funny" (Imagine that! Tegan and Sara funny? Who has heard of such a thing?). The piece is posted for your viewing pleasure:

Tegan and Sara Coming to DVD
Seeing double? Don't be alarmed. Canada's favorite tune-carrying twins, Tegan and Sara, are set to follow in the footsteps of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Nah, no eating disorders or public breakups. Rather, T&S are headed down the road towards media mogul-dom, with the release of their DVD, It's Not Fun, Don't Do It!

The disc hits stores in North America and Australia courtesy of Vapor/Sanctuary Records tomorrow, August 8. In addition to a full live concert from a performance at Toronto, Ontario's Phoenix Concert Theatre, the disc includes a segment on the making of 2004's So Jealous, a tour documentary, music videos for "Walking With a Ghost", "Speak Slow", "I Hear Noises", "Living Room", and "Monday, Monday, Monday", a photo album, and band commentary.

Unlike most bands, Tegan and Sara are actually funny. So the commentary will actually be worth listening to.

Tracklist:

01 I Bet It Stung
02 I Know, I Know, I Know
03 I Hear Noises
04 Monday, Monday, Monday
05 Not Tonight
06 So Jealous
07 Where Does the Good Go
08 Speak Slow
09 Downtown
10 This Is Everything
11 Walking With a Ghost
12 Living Room
13 You Wouldn't Like Me

Tegan & Sara are writing new material for their full length, which is tentatively scheduled for a 2007 release.

Tegan mentioned on STAR PULSE about Kinnie Star!

2006-08-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

Like Nellie McKay? Then Check Out Kinnie Starr

Canada's MC-singer-poet-actress-beatnik Kinnie Starr returns with her latest enchanting adventure, Anything. Her effortless smoky vocals sound more original and unorthodox as ever. Raw ballads and optimistic jams showcase Starr's seductive voice, creating a broader poppy palette on this new album out on MapleMusic Records.
Starr began making her presence felt around 1995 with edgy visual arts, graffiti, rhymes, outspoken race and gender politics, decidedly unorthodox performances, stunning good looks and envelope-pushing recordings. This combination earned her a well-deserved and devoted fan base, a record contract with Mercury/Island/DefJam (1996-1999), and an immediate connection with critics and consumers alike. Shortly after signing to MapleMusic, Starr was actually singing for Zumanity, Cirque du Soleil's controversial cabaret production. With Anything, nothing is taboo. Her brilliant, beat-driven songs are imaginative and fun, coming from a songwriter who can blend folk with gold chains. "You don't appreciate / No room to debate / My eyes don't dilate / Your words have no weight," Starr spits on Step Back, Anything's opening song. It's a bluesy blast-off, embossed with the spirit of self-determination that has defined her career. Step Back is a battle track, but every song afterwards is about Starr's family and private life. Wind In Your Sails is a lyrical riff on a photograph of her parents when they were near her age; Not Enough is "about [my] niece and nephew being born, and wondering if the world will be good enough for them"; Up In Smoke chronicles a cousin's misadventures with a nameless West Coast record label. The creative core behind Anything is Kinnie, who wrote all of its complex and shape-shifting toons, and John Raham, the drum thunder in Kinnie's live band. The pair recorded and produced the album at Ogre studios in Vancouver BC throughout 2005. Tegan and Sara's Tegan Quinn contributes vocals to the single La Le La La, which was mixed by Howard Redekopp (New Pornographers, A.C. Newman, 54-40).
Kinnie Starr's songs have been featured on "The L Word" and the film "Thirteen". She also been nominated for numerous Juno awards (Canada's version of a Grammy).

New Tegan and Sara T-Shirts from the great Emy!

2006-08-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

Some great new shirts at the official Tegan and Sara store at Teganandsara.com for summer. Make sure you check them out!

Tegan and Sara do ANOTHER podcast!

2006-07-19T16:39:00.000-07:00

I think the reason this new podcast hasnt been seen much by the Tegan and Sara world is because they spell Sara as Sarah! It is a great listen, we should have the summary up soon. It is done by the "FBI"....

http://www.odeo.com/audio/1030370/view

Tegan and Sara: The Next Outkast? They want to do "Love Below/Speakerboxx" Style Double?

2006-07-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

For those of you that missed the great CBC Podcast that it is for download at www.cbcradio3.com you missed a very interesting tidbit. The host asked if the twins would ever consider doing a solo record. They explained they never would, but they would consider a "Love Below/Speakerboxx" Style Double album like Outkast did! I think this could be incredible. I am calling Tegan's is more Speakerboxx (my personal fav of the two discs) like. What do you all think?

Tegan and Sara featured on a Podcast on CBC

2006-07-14T18:06:00.000-07:00

Tegan and Sara will be featured on this week's CBC Radio 3 Podcast, #60, available on Friday July 14 for free download at www.cbcradio3.com or through iTunes. Included in the feature is an exclusive track from Tegan and Sara's new DVD 'It's Not Fun. Don't Do It!' Tune in for a chance to win a copy!

Even more Info On Tegan and Sara's DVD It's Not Fun Don't Do It from Vapor Records

2006-07-14T17:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, the news just doesent stop. Our good friend Jonathan Krop who did the Vapor Records website and who we interviewed on the Tegan and Sara blog HEREhas updated Tegan and Sara's Vapor page with some more tidbits on the first Tegan and Sara DVD "It's Not Fun Don't Do It". Apparently the tour documentary is directed by Tegan Quin and Angela Kendall. As well "The Making of SO JEALOUS" Directed by Angela Kendall and Brian Dutkewich. All these new tidbits are making me very excited. It is great to see that it is already getting great reviews as well! Remember now in addition to Amazon, Music Today is offering a pre-order and you get an Emy designed shirt! You can pre-order the dvd here

Here Come The Reviews: Tegan and Sara DVD It's Not Fun Don't Do It

2006-07-10T17:27:00.000-07:00

From the great DVDConfidential.com
Review: Tegan & Sara - It's Not Fun. Don't Do It! (2006)
Starring Tegan & Sara
MPAA: UR
Grade: B

Review by Bobby Nashville

The indie-alt-pop music scene is headed in a million different directions and this reviewer finds it fascinating. At the fringe of this explosion is a couple of gals named Tegan & Sara. I have no idea as to their backstory (the label sent it to me, but I refuse to read it, I prefer the mystery over the publicity sheet anytime).

Tegan & Sara look almost identical, except one of them has a pierced lower lip. Which one is Tegan? Which one is Sara? Personally, I say who really cares, because the music is damn good, they have a sharp look and they kick out fine pop music with interesting lyrics. That's better than 99% of the artists currently at the top of the U.S. charts.

Tegan & Sara - It's Not Fun. Don't Do It! is a DVD featuring a live concert, some of their music videos and a documentary about their tour. Standard fare, but if you are into Tegan & Sara, you won't be disappointed. Good stuff!

BREAKING: Tegan and Sara join Music Today + even more DVD info for It's Not Fun Don't Do It

2006-07-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

Big news over at TeganandSara.com. It looks like Tegan and Sara have partnered up with Music Today to sell and pre-order It's Not Fun Don't Do It.

The news keeps coming. MusicToday is currently offering a bunch of different Tegan and Sara DVD packages with limited-edition posters and shirts that can be pre-ordered here

The DVD will be out in stores in the US, Canada and Australia on August 8th. Fans in other territories will not be able to pre-order the DVD at this time, but the DVD will be available for overseas shipping after its release in August. Even cooler is we now get a trailer for the DVD! You can watch the trailer here

It's Official, Tegan and Sara DVD It's Not Fun Don't Do It being released in August

2006-07-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

The official release date for the much anticipated and delayed DVD has become official. The DVD will be released on August 8th 2006. The DVD is currently ranked at #6,000 on AMAZON, it's high peaked at #4,000 yesterday. The Tegan and Sara Blog is wondering whether those rumors about Best Buy are going to materialize? If you don't remember that story click here
One of our sources sent us an email saying that the Best Buy thing probably fell through with the continued delay. She suggested however that there are rumors of possible "Fan Viewing Parties" at music clubs across the country to help promote the DVD release. Bands such as PHISH and Widespread Panic have used this tactic effectively in the past. Personally, we are keeping our fingers crossed for autograph signings but so far we have had heard nothing suggesting this.

BREAKING: Tegan and Sara DVD It's Not Fun Don't Do It NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!!

2006-07-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

Well fans, we have waited many long months! Amazon just put it up for Pre-order, I already ordered mine. I am so excited!!
Pre-Order From AMAZON!
For those that have been living under a rock:
The DVD contains the full live concert from Tegan & Sara's performance at the Phoenix in Toronto, the making of So Jealous, a tour documentary shot by Tegan & Sara, all of Tegan & Sara's music videos, a photo album highlighting Tegan & Sara's career, and endless commentary from Tegan & Sara.

It's Not Fun. Don't Do It! Tracklisting:

"I Bet It Stung"
"I Know, I Know, I Know"
"I Hear Noises"
"Monday, Monday, Monday"
"Not Tonight"
"So Jealous"
"Where Does The Good Go"
"Speak Slow"
"Downtown"
"This Is Everything"
"Walking With A Ghost"
"Living Room"
"You Wouldn't Like Me"

Kinnie Star and Tegan to collaborate

2006-06-20T12:14:00.000-07:00

Some very interesting news coming out of the Calgary Sun:

It seems like a match made in marketing heaven. Two former Calgarians, now living on the West Coast, both enjoying popularity in the music business, collaborating with one another. Kinnie Starr gets it. But there's an entirely different reason she was pleased to work with Tegan Quin, from Tegan and Sara, on the song la le la la from Starr's new CD Anything. "Tegan's just a friend," Starr says of the vocalist who provided back-ups on the song. "Lots of people are excited about that because Tegan and Sara are quite famous right now and selling records, so that's good for me. "But it's just nice when friends put their love into your record." Even nicer when that love turns out so wonderfully. The track, which is pegged for the freshly released album's second single, is a remarkable pop number, sounding like Feist fronting Men Without Hats. It is one of the few collaborations on Starr's fourth album, a disc of moody hip hop, catchy sonics and dramatic prose, which is a noticeable change from her previous recording, Sun Again, which featured guest artists and writers such as Lily Frost and Moka Only. "With Sun Again, I had kind of lost my faith in the music business, overall, and I just wasn't writing," admits Starr, who has had, and lost, major label deals over the years, seeing in it the negative aspects of the industry.
"So it was my friends that ended up writing a lot of music for that record because I was not writing music ... I was like, 'You know what? (Screw) this.' "
So does that mean her songwriting explosion with Anything signals a renewed faith in the industry? "No," she says. "I'm very aware I'm being given a really good chance right now at getting some of the word out there about what I do.
"Even though I certainly don't have any faith in the music business, I do know it is an opportunity that can't be passed by. Starr is in town Tuesday night on a double-bill with Buck 65 at the Grand Theatre.
http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2006/06/17/1638003.html

Gogol Bordello Interview with Eugene Hutz from Cake's Unlimited Sunshine Tour!

2006-06-15T14:25:00.000-07:00

You asked for it you got it! Here is the first interview of one of the other acts touring with Tegan and Sara on Cake's Unlimited Sunshine tour. Gogol Bordello is an incredible band on the up and up. I predict that they are just going to get bigger and bigger as the years go by. I could definitely see them getting a BIG radio hit in the near future. Eugene is a really great guy and incredible musical mind. To learn more about them make sure to check out the official Gogol Bordello website

Below is the interview transcribed directly...

Tell me a little bit about how you got involved with Cake and Unlimited Sunshine?

Well to be perfectly honest I never heard anything about them until they said “Hey, your playing this tour!”. That’s all a true story! But um people in my management heard about them and brought up that it is good. The things that I heard about it when they asked if I was interested or not was that it was an eclectic lineup that Flaming lips did it and a couple of other cool bands did it before, and I am a really big fan of these crossover lineups. It hits people from a different angle and I’m actually a big fan of myself hitting people from a really different angle! I know when they are coming to see Cake they are not going to be necessarily, like other bands are intimidated by unfamiliar crowds, you know? They worry about the reception, our band has no fear like that.

I think it is going to be great exposure for all the bands because all the bands on the bill have pretty different fan bases, are you excited to go out and play for audiences that have not heard your band before?

Yeah absolutely, a matter of fact I actually prefer that. I mean I love Gogol Bordello for the same reason as everybody else which is he was the shitty fuckin Tuesday night and fucking shitty god knows where and it still will be fucking full on balls out party. Its just a band that has certain method of doing a party and it is quite indestructible at this point. So I know that people will have a really great time and you know I love that, I know that that’s my life. I know that that’s my passion and I full heartedly accept it.

Yeah, I think you are going to convert a lot of fans over who had never heard you before just off the live show.

Yeah well I mean even, its not just the live show, this record itself (Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike) has really made a crucial critical statement which was Gogol Bordello is essentially a music band and not a show band. Show is really the icing on the cake because we just did for example a run in Europe through all new territories where the first row of kid had already scooped the record and knew every word of it even though they never seen our show. So, which basically speaks for itself that the record is already a strong enough statement of material to um convert. But of course it is a great treat for them, they didn’t even know how we looked or the craziness of the performance and they were fantastic. Girls were having a band and totally added to the performance.

Do you think you can credit that critical response on Steve Albini’s production job on Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike?

You know, um to be perfectly honest the credit goes both ways. You know, because Steve did what he did. Which is documenting the band and uh and it was perfect to work with him. He has similar aesthetics and is a savage intellectual you know? And he is boss fucking crazy and at the same time he is a very detailed oriented um analytical mind you know? And so are we but you know when we fucking party its full balls out, so it was great to work with him but he didn’t mix the album. The mixing was done by our fantastic sound man Eyal Midyan and me. We mixed the album. There are sound qualities that come from Steve being able to capture it and the mix of the album actually comes entirely from Gogol Bordello that’s our revolution you know? Its both ways. I would say Steve made sure it sounds right. But the final stages really came from the band.

Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike is a phenomenal album!

Thanks a lot! I mean we really worked on it as hard as we could. Its funny when people say they want to add something, I say “I’ve added everything I possibly could!”. I really gave it all. Its an extremely personal album and real important album for a lot of people out in the world it was like our first album. Because our first 2 albums were poorly distributed because of the stupid fucking label we were on. We are on Side One Dummy Records now and they are doing a fantastic job. I knew that this album would be like our debut for the whole entire world. To like communicate our whole message.

On the Unlimited Sunshine Tour how long are you going to play for and do you know which order you will be taking the stage?

I think, that we are playing an hour or 45 minutes set which is the half of our usual time. So it will be more condensed and a manic shot of espresso. Opposed to a bottle of cognac fused with adrenaline that lasts and hour and ½.

So you are not familiar with any of the other bands on the tour?

No!

Are you looking forward to checking Tegan and Sara and Cake out and seeing what they can do?
Absolutely! I am an information junkie. I am a DJ. I am addicted to traveling the world. Touring is not just about playing your own music but seeing what other people are doing and connecting the dots. I have found some of my favorite musicians like that.

Any chance you will get a chance to play with any of the other musicians on-stage?
We’ll see you know. But you gotta’ be pretty crazy to go on stage with Gogol Bordello! You gotta’ get some fucking gear on! We don’t want to be responsible for the end of anybody’s career you know!

It was great to see you doing work for PETA, can you tell me a little bit about how that all came about for the anti-circus awareness campaign?

It was very simple actually. You know my uncle is an acrobat in the circus back in the Ukraine. I have been on the inside of it as a kid and I saw how it always depressed me how brutal the whole thing is from the inside and the back door. As a kid I was never really excited about the idea of the circus after a certain point. Im excited about it even less now. Its only logical to understand that it is issues of liberty of beings. People think slavery is abolished but its not. Circus is not even the most horrible, think about sex trafficking. Its like these are things I cant devoid of consciousness. If there is something I can do to popularize more educated opinion. We were asked by MTV to put our music in a circus show, because they said our music is circus like. I don’t think our music is ANYTHING like that! It has nothing to do with that attitude. We are not hear to entertain by stupid tricks and juggling. This is much more challenging and aggressive. I refused to give out our music for that program and PETA found out about it and contacted us.

That’s cool that you did that, because a lot of bands would have done it just for the quick buck and the exposure

Oh, the quick buck mentality is the worst fucking poison. The worst thing you can do to yourself. Whoever wants to fuck themselves over like that they can be there own fucking guest you know?

It seems like you are going to take over Hollywood, starring with Elijah Wood etc, any future film projects?
There are, but I haven’t committed myself to anything yet. The most interesting one is by a German director. It would be the role of a Romanian gypsy, that would be interesting to me because I could play it with a certain authenticity to it. I’m also quite driven to bring out more truthful presentation of gypsy culture than its stereotyped that are floating out there. That’s something in my blood and I know a lot about.

What were your favorite albums or bands you heard last year?

There was a fantastic album produced by Manu Chau. You have to like go to the store and buy it right now. Its multicultural post-punk reggae. But its really just its own style. He has a long history from the band Mano Negra. He is from France. But he just did this great album from two blind singers from Mali, Africa. Its an album that did really well. He co-wrote and produced it. Find it in the world music section. I also really liked the album from Kulture shock. There was a bunch of good releases in Europe too.

So when are you heading down to Boston for the tour opener?

That same day. What the fuck else is there to do in Boston?!?

Well thanks again Eugene for taking the time for the Tegan and Sara blog, We’ll be front row at several of the shows!

Wicked man! Come up and say hi! Party.

Make Sure to Check out Reviews and Setlists from Gogol Bordello and Tegan and Sara on Unlimited Sunshine by Clicking here:

EXCLUSIVE Conversation with an Artist: The Tegan and Sara Blog Interview with Tegan and Sara's Webmaster and Art Director Emily Storey!

2006-06-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

It is truly an honor that the Tegan and Sara blog were able to do the first official interview with Emily "Emy" Storey of EE Storey Design. All of us fans know her well as she serves many important functions in the Tegan and Sara world. Each day when we visit the Tegan and Sara official website we see her incredible web design. Each time we pull out "So Jealous" to be played for the millionth time we see her brilliant art that accompanies it so well. Most personally though, each time we see Tegan and Sara play Emy is at the gig selling merchandise, talking with the fans, and of course setting up her awesome light brite! Below is the interview, make sure to check out her very cool EE Storey Design webpage here at http://www.eestoreydesign.com/

Let's start at the beginning. Tell us about your childhood. Where did you grow up? What was your family like?
getting personal... hmmm... well, i grew up in a small rural town, kinderhook, NY, USA. it's in columbia county, a really beautiful area. lots of rivers, waterfalls, farms... i grew up with my mom, dad and brother, my family is great. i attended a small school, there were about 120 people in my graduating class. i worked on farms and in high school drew the chalkboard signs at the local grocery store. like if there was a sale on salmon fillets i got to illustrate it. fascinating. i was an extremely busy young person; an over-achiever if you will.

Were you artistic when you were young? If so, how did you first begin expressing your abilities?
yes i was artistic. i drew in sketchbooks and watched those public television shows where they teach you how to draw cartoons and landscapes. my dad was a great artist and he worked as a graphic designer when i was a kid so i was always around old school graphic design stuff like letraset, paper samples, inks and stuff. i was really inspired by my dad's creativity. he especially liked building things, he could make just about anything.

How and when did you first start to show an interest in computers?
we had a computer around the house when i was pretty young, an APPLE of course --the first real graphic design work i did on the computer was my high school yearbook. that's definitely an ee storey design classic. collectible.

Did you go to University for graphic design or did you learn on your own?
i went to concordia university in montreal. i studied design there. though i found that my non-design, fine arts classes like drawing and sculpture shaped my style a lot more than my design classes.

How did you first become involved with Tegan and Sara? Had you known them before you worked on the website?
i met sara in montreal in february 2003, met tegan shortly after and i did the tegan and sara site and so jealous art in summer 2004. working on art with them was great because i could basically work for a few hours, call sara into the room and have her give input right away. for anyone who works with clients, that's pretty cool to be able to do because then you can avoid wasting time working on an idea that isn't good. a lot of the so jealous stuff i designed with her looking over my shoulder. this would probably make some people nervous. also, i was teaching her how to use photoshop at the time so it was a learning experience for her. i think that's why she paid such close attention.

Was your first version of Tegan and Sara's website created in September 2002?
oh i didn't do that design, i don't even know what it looked like! i'm sure it was beautiful. i've only been the art director since so jealous.
How did you make the transition from Tegan and Sara's web designer to being art director and handling merchandise responsibilities?
it was just sort of a natural transition, first i designed the so jealous artwork, then i did the website and i quickly realized that we were going to need lots of other designs. i wasn't totally prepared for all the work-- at the time none of us really new exactly how many tshirt designs we'd need or how many posters or whatever-- it turned out that i just had to keep producing this never ending stream of ideas. i started selling merchandise as a way to travel with the band and make money at the same time. so yeah, i took all the merch responsibilities partly because i'm a control freak and partly because there was no one else to do it! the T&S org is a relatively small collection of incredibly productive amazing people and everyone has lots of responsibilities. and yes, the merchandise is a huge responsibility!

Many people might take for granted the job of the "Merch Slinger" but as somebody who has had to do it I can vouch for how incredibly grueling, tedious, and harder it is than it might look, especially during the post-show rush. Which tours did you do this job on? Do you get to sneak away from the table and watch their set? How many Tegan and Sara concerts would you estimate you have seen (or been in the
building at)?
selling merch can be grueling and even when it's fun it feels a bit insane. tegan and sara fans are amazing though and so i rarely had to deal with horrible people. also i totally loved setting everything up and tending to details such as the lite brite, the displays and such. it was really cool too, as the person who created the designs, to see people get excited about shirts and such. in terms of tours, i was on every tour with them, selling merch, except for the australia tours, japan, unlimited sunshine and florida!!!!! poor me. i didn't usually have to sneak away from the table to watch the shows, i always tried to have my set-up inside the venue. dear god i have no idea how many shows i've seen. so many. loved all of them.

If you could share with us some of the most memorable stories that have happened at the table. From interesting fans to logistical nightmares, we would love to hear all of your favorites.
oh god, i don't know. i tired to block out all my merch memories. actually i was just visiting tegan in vancouver and she set up my bed in her storage room which was full of instruments, boxes and THE MERCH TUBS. needless to say--- nightmares. but my craziest most out of control merch night ever was in edmonton,alberta, i think it was in february 2005--at red's in the west edmonton mall. anyway, red's is like the shittiest venue and i there were about 1200 people there. it's basically a giant sports venue or something, a multi level restaurant with giant screens. we sold over 400 tshirts; kids were stealing; by the end of the night there was a mob at the merch table; someone dropped a cup full of beer on my head from the balcony above; craig, sara and i almost got into a fist fight with the manager and i cried. that's all the memories i can handle for now.

As someone with a front-row seat to this band, what did the monumental record that is "So Jealous" mean to you in terms of Tegan and Sara's evolution and how did it artistically affect you. Please ruminate on how all the "So Jealous" related art came about as well.
how did it artistically affect me? hmmm.....i mean, so jealous was great for my art, being the art director was an amazing opportunity, i think i really progressed as an artist/designer from the beginning of the record to the end, just the sheer volume of work does that to a person i think!.....in terms of t/s evolution, it was incredible, i mean i got to see them at every stage, from writing demos to rehearsals, to recording, mixing, touring---they are such sound artists, really inspirational.... i'm glad that the record ended up being such a success because they totally deserve that recognition. they work so hard, care so much and are so creative!

I think one of the greatest compliments an artist can receive is that they are an auteur, that is one who imbues a work of art with her or his distinctive, recognizable style. Artists as diverse as David Lynch, Neil Young, and Wes Anderson all can be called an auteur. Anyone familiar with your style of art would certainly classify you as an auteur, what is the distinct and recognizable aspects of your art that you see as making you fall into this category?
so i'm reading this question thinking "auteur, how complimentary!" as soon as i see the names David Lynch, Neil Young, and Wes Anderson i want to run away from this question. david lynch and wes anderson are like two of my favourite artists/filmmakers/visionaries ever! and neil... i would not put myself in the same sentence. i'm not sure that i would call myself an auteur either--i mean, i do have some distinctive elements and interests--a style, yes -- but i'm really not THAT original. maybe in a few more years i would reconsider this title! actually, sometimes i think that my "style" really comes out because of the content of my work-- the message/client tends to really inspire me and perhaps it's the fact that i pick interesting projects that makes me seem distinctive. but i do try to be smart about my design. i like things to be creative and entertaining. i also like illustration, coloring, hand drawn lettering, that kind of thing.

What are you contributing to Tegan and Sara's DVD "It's Not Funny, Don't Do It"? Any word on the release date?
trick question! the dvd is called "it's not fun, don't do it". oh my god, i'm so good at tegan and sara trivia. i designed all the art, menus, organized a lot of the stuff, took a lot of the pictures in the photo section.....it will be released this summer.

How did the idea for Tegan and Sara's DC Shoes come about? What is the status on the project? Can you give us any ideas to what the design will be like? Is a "Boys" version and/or size of the shoe going to be made?
well, DC asked us if we wanted to make a shoe so that's how it started and the shoe itself was inspired by sara's vintage red yellow and black shoes which have been immortalized in many a merch design.... the DC shoes are CRAZY they are so cool and totally weird. there won't be a boys version unfortunately-- that was sort of beyond our control.

Finally, What should we expect in the future from TeganandSara.com?
dear god, obscene glory.

Tegan and Sara's DVD It's Not Fun Don't Do It, COVER ARTWORK!!

2006-06-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

I love it! What do you all think?

Tons More Details on Tegan and Sara's DVD: It's Not Fun Don't Do It

2006-06-02T09:12:00.000-07:00

The most info yet comes from the great PlugInMusic!

"Tegan & Sara are set to release their first full length DVD, entitled It's Not Fun. Don't Do It!, on August 8, 2006 through Vapor/Sanctuary Records. The DVD is a treasure trove of Tegan & Sara vernacular as well as an in depth look at one of today's most compelling artists.

It's Not Fun. Don�t Do It! includes:
full live concert from Tegan & Sara�s performance at the Phoenix in Toronto
the making of So Jealous
a tour documentary shot by Tegan & Sara
all of Tegan & Saras music videos
a photo album highlighting Tegan & Saras career
endless commentary from Tegan & Sara

Over the past two years Tegan & Saras career trajectory has been on a dramatic rise. So Jealous was released in September 2004 to a wave of critical praise from The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, Spin Magazine, Village Voice, amongst many others. The album made Rolling Stone� Top 50 of 2004, and garnered late night television appearances on Late Night with Conan O�Brien,The Late Late Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live. Touring non-stop since the release of So Jealous, Tegan & Sara have sold-out venues across the country, opened for The Killers and were invited to perform at this years Coachella and Lollapalooza festivals. The first single off So Jealous, Walking With a Ghost, charted at alternative radio, and was recently covered by The White Stripes.

With the release of It�s Not Fun. Don�t Do It! latecomers and fans alike will get a chance to witness the band�s dynamic live show and their affable and often humorous - personalities up close and personal.

Tegan & Sara are currently in the midst of writing new material for their fourth full-length, expected in 2007.

Tracklisting:
�I Bet It Stung� - �I Know, I Know, I Know� - �I Hear Noises� - �Monday, Monday, Monday� - �Not Tonight� - �So Jealous� - �Where Does The Good Go� - �Speak Slow� - �Downtown� - �This Is Everything� - �Walking With A Ghost� - �Living Room� - �You Wouldn't Like Me�

DVD Extras:
"It's Not Fun. Don't Do It!" Tour Documentary * The Making of SO JEALOUS * Music videos for "Walking With A Ghost," "Speak Slow," "I Hear Noises," �Living Room,� and "Monday, Monday, Monday." * Photo Album from the Road *Commentary from Tegan & Sara

Tegan and Sara DVD: It's Not Fun Don't Do It Finally Has Release Date! August 8th!

2006-06-02T09:09:00.000-07:00

From MTV:
Tegan and Sara will release their first DVD, "It's Not Fun. Don't Do It!," August 8. Content includes a full concert shot at the Phoenix in Toronto, a tour documentary filmed by the twin sisters, the making of 2004's So Jealous and all the duo's videos.

From Rolling Stone:
Tegan and Sara Urge Fans "Don't Do It!"
Canadian twin-sister act TEGAN & SARA, part of NEIL YOUNG's Vapor Records, will release a DVD documentary entitled It's Not Fun. Don't Do It! on August 8th. Included on the disc will be a Toronto performance at the Pheonix in its entirety, a documentary shot by the folk rockers on the road, all the duo's music videos and the making of their 2004 album So Jealous, which has earned them spots opening for the Killers and performing at this year's Coachella and Lollapalooza festivals.

I Hear Noises #2, Continuing to expand our horizons, with Prince

2006-05-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the second edition of The Tegan and Sara Blog's new feature "I Hear Noises". If you did not catch the announcement about "I Hear Noises" make sure to read the prologue about why we are doing it here.
Also make sure to check out I Hear Noises #1 where we profiled the amazing rapper and MC, MF DOOM here. For today we would like to profile the man, the myth, the legend: Prince. Too often the media portrayal of Prince overshadows the musiscian. At his heart Prince is a BRILLIANT musician who has consistently been one of the most important American artists. If you want the whole history of Prince make sure to check out the incredible Wikipedia entry for him here. I would like to first start off with a video of one of his best songs, "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man". It has one of the finest guitar solos I have ever heard recorded. This is from the 1988 film and now DVD "Sign O' The Times". You can watch this incredible version over at You Tube. If you like what you hear make sure to continue expanding your horizons and get some of his albums.

Matt Sharp and The Rentals Record Tegan and Sara cover of Walking With a Ghost, MP3 Link!

2006-05-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

The great Matt Sharp who many Tegan and Sara fans know from his amazing work with the girls has recorded a cover of Walking With A Ghost:

Recently reunited alternative/punk/new wave outfit, The Rentals have announced a number of their plans for the coming year. The band regrouped last October and will be hitting the studio later this year to record a new full length for reelase in 2007. The revitalized band includes original members Matt Sharp (ex-Weezer,) Rachel Haden (That Dog) along with new members Sara Radle (vocals/multi-inst), Ben Pringle (synth master), Lauren Chipman (viola/vocals) and Dan Joeright (drums). The Rentals have also announced their first US show in over a decade, July 7th, at The Henry Fonda Theatre followed by two nights at the Yokohama Arena in Japan. A band that is often credited for opening the door for synth-punk bands like Motion City Soundtrack and Reggie and the Full Effect, The Rentals have remained dormant since shortly after their 1999 release, Seven More Minutes. At various times, it has featured members of The Decemberists, Weezer, The Special Goodness, and Saturday Night Live cast member, Maya Rudolph.
Earlier this month, the band released a new remix of Tegan And Sara's hit single "Walking With A Ghost," you can check it out here: "Walking With A Ghost (The Rentals Remix).

EXCLUSIVE Conversation with an Artist: The Tegan and Sara Blog Interview with Tegan and Sara's Webmaster and Art Director Emily Storey

2006-04-27T23:06:00.000-07:00

New Information on Tegan and Sara's Sweet Relief Musicians Fund

2006-04-27T23:04:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Scott for sending this in:
I wanted to let you know about a new Sweet Relief Musicians Fund
(www.sweetrelief.org) fundraiser, launching on April 28th and running till
July 28th, that will allow fans to purchase TEGAN & SARA'S rare b-side of
LOVE TYPE THING as a limited editon mp3 quality RINGTONE (called REALTONE).
This campaign is one of the first which will allow cell phone users to
donate directly to the organization while recieving this limited edition
REALTONE. Fans can also purchase the REALTONE through Sweet Relief's
website. Additionally, fans can stream LOVE TYPE THING for a limited time
through Sweet Relief's My Space page:
www.myspace.com/sweetreliefmusiciansfund.

Tegan DJ'ing in NYC on Sunday!!

2006-04-27T23:00:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jodi for sending in this flier about Tegan doing DJ work at Piano's Upstairs Lounge in NYC on April 30th.

Tegan and Sara Continue to do Great Work for Charity

2006-04-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

Endsessions CD - featuring a live T&S track

A live recording of "Walking with a Ghost" has been included on 'EndSessions, Vol. 4', released by Seattle Alternative radio station 1077 THE END.

The CD also features live songs from Gorillaz, Queens of the Stone Age, Oasis, The Strokes, and Death Cab For Cutie.

$10,000 from the CD sales will be donated to The Vera Project, a music-arts center run by and for youth.

For more info CLICK HERE

Trivia question, anybody know which show the live "So Jealous" is from?

Tegan and Sara Go out on the Associated Press Wire!

2006-04-07T11:47:00.000-07:00

I can't tell you how happy it makes me see that Tegan and Sara get recognized in such a mainstream article. I am so proud of our girls!! Right now thousands are reading about them! They sure are in great company!

Magic Numbers lead influx of bands keeping it in the gene pool
AUSTIN, Tex. (AP) - For an increasing number of bands, music is a family affair.
Many current acts are either partly or entirely composed of brothers, sisters, wives and husbands. The White Stripes have been all four. The British seem to specialize in bands of brothers. A few of their exports: Radiohead (Jonny and Colin Greenwood), Oasis (Liam and Noel Gallagher), the Futureheads (David and Barry Hyde) and Field Music (Peter and David Brewis).
Brothers and sisters are touring together as well. Fiery Furnaces is a duo of Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger, who even brought their grandmother, Olga Sarantos, in on their 2005 album, Rehearsing My Choir.
Twin sisters? How about Tegan and Sara. Half of the Swedish rock band Sahara Hotnights is also made up of sisters (Jennie and Johanna Asplund). Husbands and wives, too, are carrying their relationships into the workplace. Among them: Arcade Fire (Win Butler and Regine Chassagne), Viva Voce (Kevin and Anita Robinson), Mates of State (Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel) and Sonic Youth (Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon).It is not an entirely new development, of course. A few obvious predecessors include the Jackson Five, the Allman Brothers Band (Duane and Gregg), Van Halen (Eddie and Alex), the Kinks (Ray and Dave Davies) and, um, Hanson. "Recently I think the trend has been a lot more prevalent," says Doug Brod, executive editor of Spin magazine. "It has a lot to do with people growing up under the same roof. You tend to have similar influences and fewer creative differences." Though not to the extent of the Partridge Family, the identity of many of these current bands is inseparable from their family ties. Tegan and Sara are renown for their sisterly on-stage banter. The quirky, experimental pop of the Fiery Furnaces seems as though it could only be the product of a shared childhood playroom.
"A lot of these bands also obviously try to capitalize on (their relations)," Brod says. "With Oasis, it was all about the Gallagher brothers. For good or bad, it made for great copy." Jack and Meg White of the White Stripes took a different route by hiding their former marriage, and instead claimed to be brother and sister - which resulted in a provocative (and slightly deranged) sense of mystery.But perhaps the poster family band is the Magic Numbers. The British quartet is made up of not one, but two pairs of siblings. Smiling, they proudly claim to be the first such rock group ever. "We used to joke that we'd be like the White Stripes times two," says Angela Gannon, who plays the melodica and sings backup for the band. Her brother, Sean, plays drums. The Magic Numbers are led by singer and guitarist Romeo Stodart, a bearded 28-year-old whose genial nature is shared by his bandmates. His 22-year-old sister, Michele, plays bass. Their 2005 self-titled debut has won raves for its fun-loving, swooning melodies and shifting, lovelorn harmonies. Comparisons to the radiant '60s pop of the Mamas & the Papas have been rife; Mojo magazine also called them the best new band of last year. The Stodarts grew up, Romeo says, "surrounded by music." They were raised in Trinidad, where their mother once sang opera on a TV talent show. The family moved to New York when Romeo was in his early teens, and a few years later moved to London. Romeo soon became friends with Sean Gannon, 29; the two played in bands together for ten years before the Magic Numbers. Romeo says with a gulp, "You almost have to swallow those ten years." "It was a nightmare," he says. "We never had the right lineup, we never had the right people." In the end, the solution was right in front of them - or, more precisely, upstairs. Michele was steadily practicing her bass playing, and Romeo and Sean had played with Angela, 21, a few times before. So the two friends, out of other options, invited their sisters to join them. "For the first six months, I just kind of told myself that we were just filing in for the real band members," Michele says. "It was a little like that," responds Romeo, prompting a burst of laughter. Angela remembers going with Michele to their older brothers' concerts when they were 13-year-old fans. "They'd be down in front," says Romeo. Before playing their first show together, Angela says, "Me and Michele were down in the (bathroom) and we were like, 'We used to watch these guys!' Now we're playing with them!" The Magic Numbers turned out a good fit, and were signed almost immediately. Touring with siblings, they say, includes the inevitable fights, but their intimate frankness means less tension. The average band can suffer from anger that boils below the surface. "And then three years down the line, you'll be doing Some Kind of Monster, like Metallica," jokes Romeo, alluding to the documentary that chronicles the heavy-metal band's infighting and subsequent therapy.
Romeo says he feels more comfortable revealing new songs to the band, which can be a sensitive moment for any songwriter. Life on the road, also, can be a little less arduous."You miss home," he says, "so you have a part of your home with you."
After the yelping chaos of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's 2003 debut, Fever To Tell, their follow-up is a dumbed-down version of a great band.
Although it's good, it's nothing as special as they were. In places it sounds like Canadian duo Tegan and Sara - and while there's nothing wrong with that, you want the YYY's to be far more feisty.
There's a case for saying they've moved on and developed their sound - and the New York trio have certainly advanced more than most bands will ever dream of. But Show Your Bones is too grown up and refined.
It needs more bite to the lovely, lush textures. There are moments of lushness, such as the squally sirens of Phenomena, and the sonic spasms that frame Karen O's seriously sexy vocals on Cheated Hearts. Then there's the bland and silly stuff like Honeybear and flaky opener Gold Lion.With a look and style like theirs and some tunes to match, don't be surprised if the YYY's become pop music's most unlikely stars. This is an accomplished record and will be more appealing than Fever... , yet you long for more of the fiery and carefree rock'n'roll of old.
http://www.phantasm.com/hpages/Coscarelli_bio.html

Tegan and Sara Ringtones for a Great Cause!!

2006-04-04T10:40:00.000-07:00

MTV reports that "The Sweet Relief Musicians Fund is launching a new program in which cell-phone users can make $4.99 donations by texting the word "heal" to 50555. Donors will then have access to limited-edition ring tones by Pearl Jam (their memorable cover of Victoria Williams' "Crazy Mary"), OK Go, Tegan and Sara and others. ... "

All of this is going down on a April 25th. I got $100 bucks that the ringtones going to be WALKING WITH A GHOST. I would PAY $100 if the ringtone was WE DIDN'T DO IT. Glad to see that Tegan and Sara as always are doing good things for the world. They are so goodhearted no wonder such amazing music comes from their souls.

I am feeling a little less angry about the Juno's. At least UCLA lost to Florida in the NCAA championships. Not to mention Tom DeLay is resigning. Wow!

Sucks: Tegan and Sara not Awarded Juno Award goes to Broken Social Scene, UGH!

2006-04-03T18:05:00.000-07:00

This just plain sucks. The Juno for best Alternative album didn't go to Tegan and Sara. They decided to go with Broken Social Scene's Arts & Crafts instead of "So Jealous". I agree with Playlouder's review of it "Like The Polyphonic Spree stripped of all their faux compound dwelling arse wittery, this is an unambiguous shot of serotonin straight to your head and heart." The Juno Awards missed a HUGE opportunity to reward "So Jealous" for what it is, one of the DEFINING albums of this decade AND of Canada. Now don’t get me wrong I am biased, I do run "The Tegan and Sara Blog" but come on! I mean So Jealous was a PERFECT album. I call it Tegan and Sara's "Rubber Soul". The production was PERFECT, the songs were INCREDIBLE, and the instrumentation was GREAT. At it's heart this album was an album about LOVE. What kind of LOVE? That is up to interpretation. All I know is it still gives me chills today. So I say a sincere FUCK YOU to anybody who voted against Tegan and Sara and I hope the next album is Tegan and Sara's "Revolver". Oh and by the way Neil Young has never won a Grammy, so these awards are pretty ridiculous!

Great Video of Tegan and Sara Doing Hot or Not Interviews

2006-03-26T12:30:00.000-08:00

This is a great video that I had been looking for. Thanks for one of our great readers who helped us find this. Enjoy!

New Journal Update From Ted from Tegan and Sara

2006-03-26T12:28:00.000-08:00

From TeganandSara.com
Hey all, Ted here.

I'm slowly begining to accept the fact that I don't have a plane ticket booked anywhere and I wont be playing any shows looking at all your lovely faces for a while. I'm sure I'll be o.k.! (he says with confidence while inside he is churning feeling completely unfocused and unaware of his future for the next year)

But seriously, It's been such a pleasure to play shows for all the wonderful Tegan and Sara fans. You really are the best fans in the world!

We'll all be back in action before you know it and in the meantime I'll probably start like 8 bands covering all of Tegan and Sara's cast away songs. I'll keep you posted on how that goes!!

Thanks to everyone who made the last year and a half of my life such a great experience, I can't wait to do it all over again.

See you all soon!!

Ted

Tegan making appearances in Canada and the U.S.!!

2006-03-15T22:15:00.000-08:00

From TeganandSara.com
Hey People who live in Vancouver and San
Francisco.

On March 28th for the first time In VANCOUVER Vivek
Shraya(toronto) and Rachael Cantu(orange country/mars/boston) will honor us all with an unforgettable evening.

Its an early show, doors at 6pm, at the MEDIA CLUB March 28th.

Tegan will be there presenting these two very talented, cute, previous Tegan and Sara support acts. She’s doing this just for you! (So you should really try to be there…Vancouverites
get outside and get to the Media Club!)

Tegan won't be playing no matter how many pairs of socks you bring her!

ALso, on March 31st, Tegan will be in San Francisco doing a
DJ set...more details in the side bar here or on
www.myspace.com/teganandsara. Click on the latest
blog for details.

More Word on Tegan and Sara's DVD: "It's Not Fun Don't Do It"

2006-03-15T22:13:00.000-08:00

From the official site:
"We have been getting a lot of emails about our DVD- ‘its not fun, don’t do it’- It was supposed to have come out this Feb and we want to apologize for the delay we just HAD to get Sara’s hair right on the front cover. Now that we have fixed that problem we are just signing by a few x’s and o's and intend on releasing it
in stores and online soon...(summerish) Thank you so much for you patience and excitement. "

What is Tegan and Sara's "Under Feet Like Ours" Album

2006-03-15T22:09:00.000-08:00

Several fans have written in about getting Tegan and Sara's super early album "Under Feet Like Ours". Under Feet Like Ours is an independently released album by the duo , produced prior to the pair achieving commercial success and notable for its rarity. Originally released in limited numbers in 1999, a re-release in 2001 added an extra track. The album is currently out of print. It pops up on Ebay every once in a while and great record stores like Amoeba and Rasputin often have it. The track listing is as follows:
1. Divided
2. Our Trees
3. Come On
4. Freedom
5. Proud
6. More For Me
7. Hype
8. Clever Meals
9. This is Everything
10. Heavy
11. Welcome Home
12. Superstar
13. Frozen (bonus track included on re-release)

Great Tegan and Sara Review from Australia, 2/15/06, The Corner, Melbourne

2006-03-15T22:04:00.000-08:00

This is a great review by: Craven Moorhead at http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/gallery/tegan_and_sara_150206/

Here we go...
I haven't been to the Corner in long time and bang! Non-smoking? Holy shit. Who would have thought? Thankfully they haven't ousted any other rock element of a predominantly rock venue. You can see chain smokers faces go white when having to sit through a set more than an hour long. Anyway this was the first time I have ever been to a gig on my own (minor tragedy) and in an effort to combat my unavoidable loner status the first thing I decided to do was get a bit doused. Enter the flow of mountain goat pale ale. If my mates who were 'too tough' for Tegan and Sara and weren't going to keep me company then the goat would have to stand beside me.

Support band slop...
Iron On showed promise. They had the big bass and jangle guitar sound of nineties Aussie indie (sob) with smacks of Violetine, Spiderbait and Jebediah. I'm not sure if they will suffer from the lack of demand for this stuff and the fact that it has kind of had its day, but I can see them achieving as much as an independent Aussie band can, with a slot at falls being the apple in their eye. Even though they were using a tired blueprint, they seemed to inject enough big bits and imagination into the set that they kept me absorbed and interested. I couldn't help but labeling Iron On a 'Push/all ages/battle of the bands' type band, but I'm sure they would discredit this in a second if I mentioned it to them.

I wasn't in the mood for Sparkadia and wasn't picking up on any vibe so hit up the back bar. From my wobbly bar stool I noticed from the outset that the first few bars of most Sparkadia songs all sound like 70s hit songs. Is this a gimmick? Am I tripping? Or did I not get the memo? Well look where this style got JET.

Here they come...
I was already expecting a full-blown entourage of bi, lesbian, gay punters at the Corner due to Tegan and Sara being a pin up band for these folks. There was no disappointment on that front and I am glad to see different channel of unity is present for younger gay people other than sleazy gay bars. What I am having trouble swallowing is why T & S aren't a pinup band for every adolescent straight male across the globe. I was sold before they even strummed a chord. I've never wanted to be a lesbian so bad in my life.

The opening track didn't quite produce the 'shivers' I was hoping for but once they belted out the bangers I was trying hard to fight the flow of energy running through my spine. It almost seemed ironic that a 22-year-old bogan male with a strong upbringing of heavy metal could be feeling a bit gooey over this band. It's not that these girls ooze talent and stray outside the 'so overused it makes me sick' four chord musical structure, its just that they are charismatic, smart and unique singers. Each precious melody that screeches almost with pain from their vocal chords finds a warm pocket within…somehow. The whole deal is sealed and delivered with the oomph you expect from an international band by the guys who back up T & S. They played their instruments in a unique way that made the three chord wonders that the girls were belting out sound quite large and layered.

Oh so adorable...
The banter in between songs was refreshing. I will be quick to point out the sharp wit of T &S. Yes they were giving shit to all the token loud people in the crowd and even though their stories were only slightly amusing they made up for it by following these cute monologues with the songs we were anxiously waiting for. The girls left us grinning with a Bruce Springsteen cover, and played it with so much conviction they made that song theirs for that particular night. I saw many a lesbian sway and I admit I was swaying a bit myself.

Later on...
I left in a vacuum where all I could picture was my life being completed in holy matrimony with one of these girls, the only dilemma being that the chances of this happening are non existent and I can't decide who was the coolest out of the two. Thankfully this wasn't a gig full of cool kids and hair farming boot-clad rock stars like I've come to expect, just genuine misfits simply drawn to an icon of substance, beauty and style. Amen.

Tegan and Sara Monday, Monday, Monday Video (Australia Version)

2006-03-15T22:03:00.000-08:00

Everybody should definitely check this great clip out from Tegan and Sara performing Monday, Monday, Monday in Australia:

Great Tegan and Sara Video Advertisement for the Bowery Ballroom show

2006-03-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

I just found this great advertisement:

Tegan and Sara Get Some Love From The Village Voice

2006-03-08T10:06:00.000-08:00

Ratty Cool
TV hospital drama life unfolds to new new wave
by James Hunter
March 3rd, 2006 12:09 PM

On Grey's Anatomy, the ABC hospital drama about professionally and personally harried young surgery interns, life unfolds to new new wave. The series is set in a dank, woolly, feelings-mad Seattle that the script hypes over the Law and Order objectivity of New York. The possibility that anyone on the show hears—or even knows—Black Sabbath or Stravinsky usually appears remote. Instead, the Grey's people eat and fight and work and sleep to smartly refurbished U.S. songs faithful to the original late-'70s/early-'80s new wave's slurpy hooks and big rides. The cornerstone stylistic reference is the Postal Service's "Such Great Heights," uncut 2003 synthpop bold enough to start a movement.

On the show it does, what with tunes such as Maria Taylor's "Song Beneath the Song," where she (one-half of the duo Azure Ray) and Conor Oberst mate the rare subgenre of indie-soul to Heaven 17 and insist, throughout a sweet tune about subtext, that what they're singing about is "not a love song." In fact, as the Grey's Anatomy: Original Soundtrack collection proves, most of the show's new new wave songs are love songs, even though they emerge as professionally and personally harried as the series' young surgery interns themselves.

When, voicing cocked emotions worthy of X-Ray Spex, Tegan and Sara demand, "Look me in the eye/And tell me you don't find me attractive" in their genius "Where Does the Good Go," the narrative and tonal bleed into the show's docs talking in the halls about last night's mercy sex is exact. And when Psaap do "Cosy in the Rocket" (the show's glam theme music), mixing rainwear existentialism and Duran Duran programming, you hear possibly the sharpest marriage of pop and TV ever. Or is it a blueprint for a new nationwide radio format? Probably not. The Grey's Anatomy tunes—again, exactly like the docs on the show—seem so gone on their own slightly ratty cool that pursuing real superstardom would be moot.

Video of Tegan and Sara performing Where Does the Good Go LIVE from Spin Studios

2006-03-04T17:02:00.000-08:00

Enjoy this gem of Tegan and Sara from the "So Jealous" era. They have some hilarious banter about everything from wicca to other funny ramblings!

Touching Story About Tegan and Sara Fan With Cystic Fibrosis

2006-03-02T12:02:00.000-08:00

What a touching story about such a brave young girl and fellow Tegan and Sara fan. May she enjoy many more Tegan and Sara concerts.

She's not just treading water

Teen with cystic fibrosis turned love of swimming into Calhoun scholarship

In her yellow swimsuit, Katie DeVoe is a splash of sunshine glinting off the Aquadome's blue water. She glides across the pool with the technique of a professional. Master swimmers haven't shown for practice, but their coach, Gail Reinecke, watches the lone lithe figure split the water in a style that would make a mermaid blush. This time, Katie, 19, of Decatur is there only for fun and exercise. She was only 8, and already a two-year member of the Decatur Aquatic Club, when Reinecke became a coach. Reinecke retired recently, but instilled in Katie a love for an activity that is central to her life. It's a miracle that Katie swims. She has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that most commonly affects breathing and digestion. Diagnosed at 9 months old, she became as familiar with hospitals and surgeries as with swim caps and goggles. Despite the difficulties, Katie's drive and ambition — a lust for life and support from family and friends — keep her focused. And although she isn't taking ribbons and medals for the team anymore, the sport played a role in nailing a scholarship to Calhoun Community College. She has pulled an untold number of strokes under duress, including putting together her grant-winning project. Only 29 other high school and college students nationwide received a grant. Winners of the 2005 Creon Family Scholarship, sponsored by Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc., received $2,000 per year for up to two years of study and a one-year supply of medicine. The Huntsville CF Satellite Clinic, where Katie is a patient of pediatric pulmonologist Dr. Vinit Mahesh, gave patients a book of CF Web sites. One site involved scholarships, which Katie's mother, Joni, found the same July day that Katie returned home from sinus surgery at Huntsville Hospital. The deadline was the next day. "I had the same surgery when I was 12, and I probably handled it better then," she said. "The antiseptics made me feel so awful. Mom said, 'I know you feel bad, but it would be great if you did this.' I didn't feel like it, but I'm glad she encouraged me." Katie wrote about her swimming exploits and other activities, such as two years of 4H Club for home-schooled children. She created a poster, a collage of some 25 photos of family, friends — and swimmers. She believes it carried her to victory circle. Katie swam competitively for 12 years until last summer, practicing four or five days a week, year round. "Then I got sick a lot. It was a tough summer. Then I got busy with college," she said. "But it really is a good exercise for me. Swimming is fun and it really improved my health. I think that's why I'm so healthy now. I doubt I would be if not for swimming."
In August, a physician removed her gallbladder only to discover later that the problem was pancreatitis. Once more, Katie's grit surfaced. Her sister Mandy Benton, 25, who is in the Army in Darmstadt, Germany, with her husband, Greg, bought three tickets online for a Tegan and Sara concert in Nashville for Katie's high school graduation. "I got out of the hospital the same day. The doctor told me I could go if Mother went with me. She drove my friend, Maria Smith of Hartselle, and me up there," she said. "All of us had a blast." Later, she returned to the hospital for the third time of the summer, to repair a rupture from the gallbladder surgery, which doctors said was unrelated to the trip. No cure.There is no cure for CF, but advances in medical treatment and technology continue to improve the outlook for affected children and adults. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation said the median survival rate is about age 30, though some die in childhood and others live to age 40 and beyond. Progress in CF has helped make life easier for Katie since the spring of 1987, when wheezing and weight loss as an infant alerted her parents that something was wrong. She spent two weeks receiving antibiotics intravenously at Children's Hospital in Birmingham. Joni DeVoe and her husband, Arthur, took classes on how to care for a child with CF, what exercises to do and what medicines to give. Through it all, Katie never lost her sense of humor.
"I still have a cough," she said. "I cough pretty much all the time. And Mother used to beat me. I would lie on the floor and she would beat me, pretty much. If my lungs get too full of the mucus, if I can't get it up, I couldn't breathe. She did that twice a day from the time I was small. I got tired of being beaten, and Mother's shoulders wore out." Today, Katie uses The Vest Airway Clearance System. She straps it on, plugs it in "and it vibrates and shakes me up." Each morning when she awakens, she uses a Nebulizer to inhale her medication. Before she goes to bed, she uses it again. Each application takes 30 to 45 minutes. "People don't know how lucky they are to be healthy," her dad said. Katie's sister Cindy, 13, plans to write a letter of support and walk on Katie's behalf during the "Great Strides CF Walk-a-Thon" in Huntsville. "I think it's really sweet of her. It takes up a lot of her time," Katie said. Their brother, Patrick, 9, is eager to assist, when he isn't at swim lessons with Cindy. To keep her company, the family gave Katie a 3-month-old maltipoo named Bogart as a Christmas gift. "All she wanted was a pet," her mother said.
From: http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/060302/teen.shtml

Tegan and Sara thank Australian fans. So Jealous comes to a end.

2006-03-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

From TeganandSara.com
Hello!

we want to say thank you! thank you!! thank you!!! to all of our friends and fans in Australia who came out and supported our shows this month.

it was a fantastic way to end "so jealous" and we had a terrific time.

especially to those of you in Sydney, you made our "last" show amazing!

to our guests and support acts, IRON ON and SPARKADIA, thank you!

Tegan and Sara DVD It's Not Fun Don't Do It coming SUMMER 2006

2006-02-27T11:13:00.000-08:00

I think all of us had a feeling that this delay was inevitable. Hopefully they can use the extra time to make it even better. It is already sounding pretty great. They just put this news up over at www.tegandsara.com!

Tegan and Sara Journal Update from Rob

2006-02-27T11:11:00.000-08:00

From TeganandSara.com:
Date: February 26, 2006
Author: rob rob rob rob rob

So I was coaxed, or rather, I was Poxxed out semi-retirement for Tegan and Sara's Last tour of the So Jealous record. Australia was hot, sunny and full of shark stories and new swear-words that North Americans have never heard before. "Bint" anyone? According to Websters, it means a man with only one testicle and thus the inability to grow facial hair or become enraged over trivial, everyday annoyances.

So my Ugandan primate research came to a halt for what I thought would be a couple weeks. After Australia I was excited to get back to my monkeys when Tegan went ahead and recommended me for more drumming work. She feels like an aunt now. Aunty Tegan told her friend Ben Lee that I was his next drummer. So here I am, putting my monkeys and exotic dancing career on hold, yet again, inorder to tour the world playing drums. I guess.

Australia was fun as usual. Tegan and Sara fans, wherever you may be in the world, remain, in my heart, the greatest.

I'm a baby Gorilla, Ted's a Lemur, Chris is an Orangutan and Tegan and Sara are Chimps.

Love,

Rob

Tegan and Sara Journal Update Feb 22nd

2006-02-27T11:06:00.000-08:00

This Journal comes from everybodys favorite Merch seller Loisa!

Date: February 22, 2006
Author: loisa merch slinger

G'day Tegan and Sara fans,
Liisa here again. Or Loisa as they say down
unda. This time reporting to
you on my adventures in Oz. Yes the girls put me
in a plane (or 11) and
flew me almost all the way around the world and
back in the name of rocking
out the Aussies.
It was my first time in the land of Kangaroos and
Boomerangs. (even though
I didn't see any roo's but I did buy a 'rang)
Ah yes roo's and 'rangs. This brings me to how
fucking cute the Aussies
are. We are sitting on one of our flights and
the pilot comes over the PA
to apologize for the turbulence we had just
experienced. And this is how it
went,
"G'day everyone, I just wanted to say sorry for
all the niggly bumps we just
'ad. That should be the end of em."
And I thought to myself "NIGGLY BUMPS!" How
fucking cute is that, what are
god damm Care Bears flying this plane or what!
Does it say in an Australian
Air Nautical Book, under Turbulence "Niggly
Bumps"???!!!

However I have also learned that Quanta's Flight
Attendants aren't so cute,
well they certainly don't like high five'in
anyway.
After waking up after about 8 hrs into our flight
(yes that's right I'm one
of those annoying people who actually can sleep
on planes....it's all about
wearing your jammies...)
I get up to find the Flight Attendant and inquire
how long it might be until
I can get a cup of coffee, she replies that
breakfast is going to be served
in 10 minuets, I, super excited about this say
"all right!" and I throw up
my hand full extention to High Five her in
celebration, (a very common
Canadian move) she stands there staring at me
not moving her hand one inch.
Not one inch!!! So I'm left hanging with no
other choice but to pretend I
need to brush my hair out of my face with the
offending hand. And I slink
back to my chair to wait for my coffee and meet
the dirty looks from Rob who
is seething with jealousy that I have slept so
many hours. ( where was your
neck'illow I ask you Rob?)
Another really cute thing I saw on the way to the
Airport in Perth was
spider webs that were BIG ENOUGH TO CATCH A HORSE
RUNNING BY!!!!!!
When I shouted and insisted the gang in the bus
look out the window so they
too could have future nightmares, they replied,
"sure Liisa and next you're
going to tell us that there are deer like
creatures that hop, and big huge
fish with teeth that eat you too."

Now some of you may not know this about Rob and
Chris but they both have a
huge phobia of Sharks. Normally not an issue
living in Montreal or
Vancouver but we were in the land of the great
white and we were going to go
swimming. So I guess to ease their anxiety Rob
came up with a little game
for us to play when we got to the beach. He
asked us to swim out until out
feet could no longer touch the ground, then dip
our heads under the water,
open our eyes and pretend that A GREAT WHITE WAS
COMING STRAIGHT FOR YOUR
HEAD!!!!! Then we had to turn around and see how
fast we could get out of
the water which we all did and realized that each
and everyone of us would
have been dead in the water in about two seconds
flat.
It was a fun game, thank you Rob.

Well swallow me back leg it's time to say good
bye,
Thank you Tegan and Sara for another great
adventure and thank you to all
the Aussie fans who came by my merch table and
High Fived me after hearing
about my awkward Quantas moment.

Until next time
Loisa
xo

Tegan and Sara's In-Store to be shown on TV

2006-02-27T11:03:00.000-08:00

The Tegan and Sara Melbourne instore at JB HI FI will show on the Asylum tv channel 31 ( Melbourne ) at 11pm Feb 28th. It also airs in Adelaide and Sydney and New York.
http://www.asylumtv.com/

BREAKING: Tegan and Sara Nominated for Juno!!

2006-02-16T22:52:00.000-08:00

Wow! Just saw this on the News Wire: THIS IS AWESOME!!!

"Fellow indie acts HOT HOT HEAT, METRIC, TEGAN AND SARA, the NEW PORNOGRAPHERS and BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE are competing for Alternative Album of the Year. The Junos air April 2nd from Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the CTV network. COLDPLAY, Nickelback, Buble and BRYAN ADAMS are among the event's confirmed performers."

CONGRATULATIONS TO TEGAN AND SARA!!!!

Interesting Tegan and Sara Ebay Auctions

2006-02-15T09:06:00.000-08:00

As any Tegan and Sara knows Ebay can be a godsend or a curse. The good news is you can find that really rare single or ep, the bad news is ticket scalpers use it to legally rip you off with sold out tickets. Today I am going to highlight some of this weeks interesting Tegan and Sara Items.

Tegan and Sara Henry Fonda Poster: Click Here

Tegan and Sara Pocket Mirror: Click Here

Tegan and Sara All Access Backstage Past from the SO JEALOUS tour:
Click Here

Of course we reccomend that you only buy official merchandise from: TeganandSara.com

BRISBANE SOLD OUT...MELBOURNE ALMOST

2006-02-14T10:38:00.000-08:00

This was just posted on TeganandSara.com, better get your tickets if you are on the fence:

hello good people of Australia.
quick ticket update for you.
get them while you can!

Brisbane show has sold out!!
Melbourne is very close to sold out!
There are very few under 18 tix left for Sydney.

all for now,
thanks to all of the fans!

Tegan and Sara's Valentines Advice: "Put Something in the Punch"

2006-02-12T15:22:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a great reader who sent in the tip about this video Tegan and Sara shot for MTV U. It has Tegan and Sara answering viewers questions about all things romance! Of course they show off some of their really funny humor. The website is kind of annoying and doesent support some older versions of Firefox but check it out:
http://www.mtvu.com/
Click on the picture of Tegan and Sara on either the left or right side...

BREAKING:HE'S BACK! Drummer Johnny 5 OFF Australian Tour, Chursinoff Back In!!

2006-02-10T10:44:00.000-08:00

From TeganandSara.Com

"Sadly Johnny 5 drummer for Tegan and Sara was attacked by the POX...thats right..he down and out with Chicken Pox. We on the other hand are down under in Australia. Mr. Rob Chursinoff is back on the drums and we are looking forward to a wonderful tour in AUZZZ...See you soon!"

FLASHBACK: Tegan and Sara 2004 MTV Interview

2006-02-10T10:31:00.000-08:00

At Rock 101 etiquette school, one of the most elementary rules they teach you is "don't shoot yourself in the foot." Self-deprecation might be disarming, but let the critics launch the slings and shoot the arrows. Clearly Canadian imports Tegan & Sara were asleep in class that day. Sitting with acoustic guitars in their laps and performing in front of an audience of employees and channel programming execs at MTV, the self-effacing identical twins were anything but self-assured salespeople trying to sell their new video "Monday, Monday, Monday." "We saw part of [the video] today and I'm going to be honest with you — I was just like, 'No, we can't show it,' " Tegan stated matter-of-factly. "It's got animation and it's weird and we're just gonna hold off." Talk about burning bridges before you even get to the bridge. It's this beguiling combination of unassuming humor and humility that quickly captivates a room and endears them to audiences. Teeming with charming manic energy, the sisters speak at a mile-a-minute pace, spilling into shameless non-sequiturs and generally having a hard time taking any parts of their promotional appearance seriously.After a long and rather embarrassing rant about their mother's sex life, Sara tried to cut her sister off, but in her typically antagonistic fashion, Tegan resisted. "No! I've been on the road for two weeks and the only people I get to talk to are you and all those stinky people in our band, and I desperately need attention. And you just f---ing ruined it for me."Natives of Calgary, Alberta, Tegan & Sara began their careers by annoying their therapist mom, strumming their guitars too loudly in their bedrooms. After mom realized that writing songs and playing the guitar wasn't just a passing teenage phase for the duo, she encouraged them to go from their bedrooms to the garage, where they started working with their own P.A system. From there, the enterprising singer/songwriting team started borrowing audio-visual equipment from their school and recording their own material. After winning a battle-of-the-bands contest when they were 17, the girls' raw, punky-acoustic demo — reminiscent of an angsty Ani DiFranco — found its way to the legendary Neil Young and he quickly signed them to his Vapor record label. "It was really, really intimidating meeting Neil for the first time," Tegan said. "Just 'cause he signed us to his label and it was kind of like, 'I hope he likes us. I hope he's not doing this because he has to or something.' " Skillfully mixing punk, pop and folk to create driving songs about love and heartbreak, Young wasn't the only one who took notice of the sisters' talents. Soon the young women found themselves playing on prestigious tours like Lilith Fair, as well as performing with the Pretenders and Ryan Adams, who wound up developing a crush on Sara. "Ryan heard the record so he called us and asked us if we would play with him on his American tour," Sara said with a creeping smile. "So we said, 'No, absolutely not.' And then he called us and cried and begged and so finally we were like, 'OK, fine, finally we'll go with you.' " Although If It Was You, is technically their second record, there's some debate over where it falls exactly in their chronological discography. "This is our second record, kind of," Tegan said. "It's really our third record, but we're supposed to say it's our second record, maybe to appear younger than we really are, but there's no shame in being 38," she joked. Set in a zoo, the bizarre video concept for the duo's first single, "Monday, Monday, Monday," is better left explained by the women. "The concept is that there's this monkey 'Mush-Mush' and he used to be really popular, and then there was this baby walrus that was born 'Waldo.' The wonderful concept is Mush-Mush [is] no longer popular and Waldo steals all the attention," a straight-faced Tegan said. "Sara and I are zookeepers cleaning Mush-Mush's cage and [he] has a dream fantasy where he is playing in a band with all these other zoo animals." Don't worry. We don't know what that means either. "[So far] I saw a three-second clip of it and I was scared," Sara said. "Petrified more than I have ever been in all my life for reasons that I cannot explain within the constraints of this interview." Thanks to their similarly contagious pop hooks and their shared nationality, the siblings attract comparisons to Avril Lavigne, but in their perennially sarcastic manner, they insist that there's an elder statesman of pop that they find themselves more closely linked to. "We get Phil Collins constantly. It's unbelievable," Sara said wryly. "A lot of people that met Phil think that Tegan and I really ... I don't know if it's like a soul thing, [but] people think we share a soul with him." But one of the little-discussed facts about the duo is their understated sexuality. Both sisters are lesbians and have drawn dubious comparisons to T.A.T.U. despite clearly being anything but a manufactured pop outfit. "There's some pretty distinct differences," Sara said directly. "A, we don't make out with each other, b, we write our own songs, c, we don't have a really expensive record deal, d, we don't make out with each other."
"I think that also the other big focus about T.A.T.U. is their sexuality," Tegan said. "Sara and I don't [address our] sexuality because my mom watches TV and reads the Internet, [and] the idea of [my mom] discovering [my] sexuality along with me is almost worse than Sara's hot-dog breath. Almost." Although they don't necessarily endorse T.A.T.U., they do admit some good can come of their popularity. "I'm not much on the politics of these things, but maybe it's ... making people a little more open-minded. If 2 million people go out and buy a record with girls who are apparently together, maybe that's a step in the right direction towards equality." Having already won over critics and fans alike with If It Was You in their native land of Canada, their label has its sights set on the U.S., but the modest twins are characteristically skeptical. "I think that it's gonna take us longer than one record to break in the U.S.," Tegan said. "That's the feeling I get inside of me. I just don't see it happening like — Whoosh! — cover of Rolling Stone. I think we have too big a mouth. I think we're way too rude for that to happen. Sara can't kiss ass. She's unable to do it." "I'm not even talking. You're projecting on me!" Sara screamed in protest. "It's like you're talking [and] you have a big mouth. I'm not even talking!" Well, they might stand a chance in the U.S. — if they can stop squabbling first.

New Tegan and Sara Journal Update

2006-02-06T18:28:00.000-08:00

This one comes from Sonia:
As a child of the 70’s, I dreamed of being in a rock and roll band. My brief stint at drum lessons did not unearth a stunning talent but that did not prevent me from acting out my fantasies with friends in our basement apartment. These brief flashes of memory are currently accompanied with either deep embarrassment or possibly what I have come to know as a hot flash correlated with my gynecological age. I did not become a rock star - instead I resigned myself to marrying Jimmy Page - Led Zeppelin - and to the procreation of mini Jimmies AKA - Tegan and Sara. Obviously neither Tegan nor Sara are his children and so I assume they came by their enormous talent through my genetic offerings. Imagine then if you will, the enormous excitement I experienced when I received the invitation to accompany the Tegan and Sara band to Australia as their merchandise girl. Somewhere deep inside of me I know now looking back to that sunny day in June 2005, a still deep seated longing to be discovered as the real talent in the family cried out “YES, YES of course I will go”. There is little to be said at this juncture except – chronic tendonitis, aging, stiff and chronic muscle aches, sinus and ear (2) infections = rock and roll veteran. And so when the opportunity to join the girls on the UNLIMITED SUNSHINE TOUR came up with a promise of a bunk on the tour bus to make the trip from Phoenix to Las Vegas, I leapt at the opportunity. And so, I offer the wisdom I have garnered to those of you who are currently fantasizing about this glamorous lifestyle, waiting to be discovered, hoping to be signed, longing for the cries of your loving fans or are just pure and simple “Tegan and Sara fans”. 1. There are no “people” who take care of everything for you – if you bring a 50 pound bag there is no one who will lift it off the luggage carousal for you nor will there be anyone to carry it for you – if it is yours you carry it yourself along with everything associated with your position in the band – ******note to new musicians: try bass guitar there is less to carry******.
2. ***Note to future rock stars*** Those big fancy tour buses actually house 8-12 coffin-like structures called beds and if you experience night sweats, hot flashes, claustrophobia, anxiety symptoms or a full out panic disorder – you may want to reconsider your career choice.
3. *****Note to fans***** If you hate the opening band, they are paid to complete their full set and it doesn’t matter how many times you yell “You suck, get off the stage” they CAN”T. So the next time you are working at your job at the local Jack in the Box, think about how you would feel if I came in and sat at a table in your serving area and yelled at you “You suck get away from my table”.
4. *****Riders***** Those things journalists write about telling you how spoiled Mariah Carey is because she will only accept red M and M’s on her rider – well people you need to know she is paying for this service and if the promoter and club don’t want to get it for her they shouldn’t ask her what she wants. As consumers we have the right to get what we ask for and when you purchase a service you have a right to get what you pay for. So if you ask for Rice Milk and Luna Bars and you get rice krispie squares and milk – send them back.
5. Theatres are better than bars. Sitting down seems to bring out the best in fans whereas beer and standing……not so much.
6. Drunken people leave their brains at the bar and arguing with a loud obnoxious drunk is akin to an adult arguing with a child and losing. “Just don’t do it”.
7. When a band puts you on their guest list – say “thank-you”, this is not a freebie – they pay for your ticket – that includes all “industry people”. Remember nothing in this world is free.
8. ****Note to fans**** Cameras count as cameras and cell phones that take pictures are not cameras. And even if you are the mother of the band – some underpaid “just doing my job mam” child can still take your camera away from you while everyone around you can take as many pictures with their cell phones as they would like.
9. If you are smoking while your favorite performer is singing consider going outside but if you must – at the very least exhale away from the stage area and the performers faces – smoking and vocal performance do not make good bedmates – especially if the performer has asthma.
10. Club back stage areas are often the most disgusting and frightening expressions of the inner workings of the male psyche. The walls are filled with massive penis sketches and renditions of the “perfect female” nude with enormous breasts that if transferred to a real women would probably knock them flat on their face. It would seem in my opinion many of the so called “artists” are working through of some their possibly premature weaning mother/ son issues.
11. ***If you have blacked out from too much alcohol*** Remember “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas – except possibly the STD” Use protection – STDs and HIV are on the rise – be smart – play safe.
12. Finally - ***FANS*** if an artist does not come out after the show to sign autographs it may be that they are finished work for the evening or may be entertaining friends or family or might just be exhausted. It does not mean they are “too big” now, have “sold-out” or are unhappy with their fans.
Thank-you to the The Tegan and Sara band for making my trips with you so much fun and educational – without you all this new and immense wisdom would not be possible.

Don't Forget Tegan and Sara Australia Tourdates

2006-02-06T18:25:00.000-08:00

Feb 11 2006 8:00P
The Becks Verandah, Perth Concert Hall, The UWA Perth Perth,

Feb 12 2006 8:00P
Governor Hindmarsh Adelaide,

Feb 14 2006 5:00P
JB HiFi - Bourke Melbourne,

Feb 15 2006 8:00P
Corner Hotel Melbourne,

Feb 16 2006 8:00P
The Zoo Brisbane,

Feb 17 2006 8:00P
Gaelic Theatre Sydney,

I Hear Noises #1

2006-02-05T20:01:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the new Tegan and Sara Blog feature, "I Hear Noises", to learn about what the goal of this is read the below post.

1.MF DOOM: MF DOOM is a legendary rapper on the underground scene. He got his roots with the rap group KMD back in the early 90's. He is a rappers rapper, having fans such as Ghostface Killah among others. You probably wont ever here him on your local rap station, but he is truly incredible. The first song is "Vaudeville Villian" which is DOOM rapping through his alias Viktor Vaughn. Next is "Rhymes Like Dimes" which he usually opens his raging shows with. If you like what you hear make sure to check out his official site at: http://www.mfdoomsite.com/

I Hear Noises: Expanding Our Horizons #1, A Prologue

2006-02-03T12:19:00.000-08:00

The beauty of the internet is to be turned on to new and interesting things that you might not get from MTV or your Alternative Rock Station. Now dont get me wrong I watch the Real World as much as the next person, but to truly expand our horizons you must dig deeper. It is incredible to think that in Los Angeles, CA INDIE 103.1 FM gave and is still giving constant play to "Where Did the Good Go". I was so proud to hear it playing. Look a little closer and realize that INDIE 103.1 is OWNED by Clear Channel Entertainment the large entertainment monopoly and Bush supporter that contribute to ticket prices and charges at concerts being INSANE. Does this make INDIE 103.1 bad? Even though they play the best music in Southern California? That is a question, not an answer.

Let us now pause for a moment and think about steryotypes. They exist all around us. Few bands have more steryotypes than Tegan and Sara. How many articles or reviews have you read that talk about them being Lesbians and twins and women and musicians and associate all the steryotypes and falsities that come with those terms? It is of course sexist, and it is of course bad journalism. We have even seen Tegan and Sara themselves address this issue in interviews and commentaries. It does not just happen to them, Ani DiFranco deals with it on a daily basis, and Joni Mitchell of course has been dealing with it since we all were babies or not born.

I would like to welcome you to the first edition of "I Hear Noises: Expanding Our Horizons". It is going to be a forum to expose Tegan and Sara fans to music, writings, and philosophies that seemingly have no connection to our favorite Canadian twins. It is a forum to DESTROY all pre-existing steryotypes about music. I might offend you, I might put up music that you think is pure GARBAGE, but maybe, just maybe I can give you a band or song that you would have never heard before and like it or not, that is all I wish to do.

{UPDATE: I Hear Noises: Expanding Our Horizons #1 will be posted shortly}

Tegan and Sara DVD It's Not Fun. Don't Do It! Sold Primarliy through Best Buy?

2006-02-02T09:57:00.000-08:00

As most of you know the Tegan and Sara DVD It's Not Fun. Don't Do It! is going to be released on February 21st 2006 on Vapor/Sanctuary. I have gotten a few emails asking why it is not available for pre-order on Amazon. I am not sure about this but I do have something else to report. A friend who works at Best Buy's corporate headquarters in MN sent me an off the record email saying that Sancturary is going to be distributing it PRIMARILY through Best Buy because of the strong relationship they have with them. A recent Sanctuary release was the Bonnaroo DVD which sold TREMENDOUSLY well at Best Buy. As many of you know the success of So Jealous made a lot of industry and corporate people do a double take and Best Buy is fully supportive of the new T&S DVD. He said that they might do a promotion where you get a bonus disc or something of the like for buying it at Best Buy. Special packaging was talked about. It looks like it might even make it into the Sunday paper catalog ! Am I the only one who cannot wait until the 21st? Anyone want to wait in line with me overnight a la Star Wars!

New Tegan and Sara Album Not Till Early 2007, "More Alternative"?

2006-01-31T10:38:00.000-08:00

CHARISMA KEEPS SISTERS MOVING
By Jimmy Draper, San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, January 29, 2006

Given the cutthroat nature of today's music industry, which demands that new artists produce instant hits in order to keep their record deals, Tegan and Sara Quin should have been pink-slipped long ago. Signed to Neil Young's Vapor Records when they were teenagers living in Calgary, Alberta, the 25-year-old twin sisters suddenly found themselves sharing stages with rather high-profile acts -- including Young, the Pretenders and Rufus Wainwright, as well as performing at Lilith Fair -- only to have their aggressive folk-rock debut, 2000's "This Business of Art," fail to secure a wide audience. When 2002's poppy, airwave-ready "If It Was You" didn't perform significantly better, making a dent only in college radio, the Canadian duo's future looked uncertain at best. "Our agent at the time was like, 'All the stuff you did before was really great, but you're still going to be starting over all the way at the beginning next time,' " says Tegan, calling from her home in Vancouver, British Columbia. (Sara lives in Montreal, Quebec.) "We were like, 'Oh my god, that's horrible! We've been doing this for five or six years, like, what happens now?' It was really frustrating and discouraging." Fortunately, the third time proved the charm with the fall 2004 release of "So Jealous." A collection of infectious, guitar- and keyboard-driven rock songs, the album finds Tegan and Sara poignantly dissecting matters of the heart and, with help from Matt Sharp (Weezer, the Rentals) and the New Pornographers' John Collins, sharpening their pop hooks with thrilling results. In fact, it's the siblings' ability to craft increasingly catchy songs -- even at the album's darkest, most deeply confessional moments choruses and tag-team harmonies soar skyward -- that has made the past year their most successful. By late 2005, relentless touring, critical acclaim and surprisingly strong radio support helped "So Jealous" sell more than 100,000 copies in the United States -- a number undoubtedly buoyed by their opening slot on the Killers' sold-out spring tour and performances at the Coachella and Lollapalooza festivals. In December, interest in Tegan and Sara spiked even further when the White Stripes released a cover of the sisters' minor hit "Walking With a Ghost." All of which serves as a welcome reminder that slow, organic growth can yield far better results than the music industry's usual attempts at a quick buck. "Not many bands get the chance to put out three or four records anymore, so we feel really lucky," Tegan says. "With 'So Jealous,' it was like our training wheels got taken off -- that would be the terrible cliche to describe it. But after being a developing act for so long, it finally feels like we're actually doing it and getting big on our own terms." She laughs. "Our sparkling personalities just continue to attract people everywhere." Tegan and Sara's immense charisma, which is most apparent at their live shows, has certainly broadened their appeal. Onstage, backed by a full band, the sisters use the downtime between songs to share uproarious anecdotes about their family, tell jokes and bicker good-naturedly with one another. Both accessible and vulnerable, they make it nearly impossible for people to leave a show without feeling as if they just got an intimate glimpse into the sisters' lives. "Being talkative is how we break the ice at shows," Tegan says. "It diffuses the sort of shy energy we have. I feel like if I get you to laugh and make you like us as people -- and not just like the music -- then I don't feel uncomfortable being up there. We're presenting ourselves as real people, and so you sort of meet us at our shows. And by meeting us, you like us and are like, 'Of course I'm going to buy their next record because I know them!' It's creating a very personal relationship." When they come to San Francisco on Wednesday as part of Cake's Unlimited Sunshine Tour, it will be Tegan and Sara's eighth stop in the Bay Area since the release of "So Jealous." "We should've stopped touring months ago, for sure," Tegan says. "But in this current landscape in music, bands and fans both just burn out so fast. So when this Cake tour came up, we thought we'd give our fans a little extra by going out one more time." While happy to discuss the deep respect they have for their fans, an appreciation undoubtedly born from the years spent playing to less-than-capacity crowds, Tegan is not as inclined to sing the praises of critics who make lazy comparisons when describing her music. "Oh my God, can they not come up with someone to compare us to except for, like, the same four females -- Avril, Alanis, Ani and Jewel?" she groans. "Every girl who plays guitar doesn't sound the same. I think that our sound is naturally changing anyway. 'If It Was You' was pop rock and 'So Jealous' was alternative pop. This next record will be even more alternative." Tegan and Sara won't release that album until early 2007, but in the meantime they're treating fans to an exclusive iTunes EP, "5 Songs Live From the Phoenix Hotel," and their first DVD, this spring's "It's Not Fun, Don't Do It!" They're also looking for ways to make their shows more personal, better all-around experiences when they eventually hit the road again. "I want to play theaters next time. They're more intimate and the acoustics are usually better," Tegan says. "In loud clubs it's so insulting because, as we get bigger, there are more people who just get drunk and miss our whole show. I'll be onstage and think, 'It's so annoying that there are people standing at the back of the club drinking and leaving early.' " She laughs. "But I do the same thing when I go to shows. I'm the person I hate. That's why I'm going to spend my entire life feeling insecure onstage, trying to make people like us, as I watch the doors open and see drunk people leave before I'm done. Being a musician is my own punishment."

Celebrity Theatre,Phoenix, AZ Set List and Review and Picture

2006-01-31T08:03:00.000-08:00

Tegan and Sara
Cake Unlimited Sunshine Tour
Fri 01/27/06 Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre

Picture and the great review from dnizzze at TeganandSara.ca
"got to phoenix on friday morning, went to the place i was staying and i desided i wanted to get to the venue early so after a little rest, and a coffee, i got ready and i got a ride to the venue. I got there 2 hours before the doors were opened. I got really bored because i was going by myself but then i got to meet a couple of nice girls who i talked with and it was all good. then we got into the venue, they didn't allowed cameras but i managed to sneak mine:twisted: . then i got a good seat and bought some merch. The Show started with Eugene Mirman, he was alright, he's a really funny guy and he had some funny stuff but i had heard them before. It was a good icebreakcer though. Then Gogol Bordello came out, and i was surprised. I liked it alot, mainly because of the whole crazy show they put up, their music is good too, i like all the instruments, the acordeon (sp?) and the crazy guy was really funny. They played a short set, but they got the audience all hyped and ready for T&S . Then when everybody was expecting the girls, the funny dude comes out again, it wasn't that fun anymore, somebody shouted something about T&S and the dude was like "yeah they're coming out un a moment..." After waiting a lil bit more finally T&S came out, i was soooo excited, then they played, now i don't even remember how many songs or which ones they played but i'll take a wild guess and say they were like 6-8 songs. I remember they played WWAG, Mondayx3, So Jealous, When I Get Up, I Bet It Stung. They also played "a song they haven't played in a really long time" which (if i remember correctly) was Want to be bad. It sounded really different and really cool, Tegan on the keys, Sara on the guitar, it was just awesome. I took some pics all along the set, not too many because the security guards were kinda looking me weird so i decided to keep it on the down low. I wanted to get a video of Want to be Bad but i had a security guard really near so i couldn't. I got 3 videos though. Anyways they didn't talked alot in the show, i think that it was because it was a short set. They talked a lil bit about how their mom flew down to get to the show and told us to say hi to the mom so we said hi. Then Tegan told a story which you might have heard about. Remember their old bio that said that acroding to an urban leyend their first word was fuck? yeah well that one. I think there wasn't any recording of this one but i got it on video. So well back to the show then T&S left and Cake was next, they took a while to get to the stage and they played a good set. They played alot of songs, i dont know the names of most of them but they were really good, they made the audience sing along and stuff. They closed the set with Never There (one of the few songs i knew). Then after they left the audience cheered and shouted until they got back and played an encore. Overall it was an awesome show, my favourite so far. Even though i didn't got to meet T&S because there were too much people i had so much fun. Seeing the girls live was awesome, they looked alot better than in the photos. Even Though I am an Equal Liker I gotta say that Tegan's new haircut and look and overall on-stage presence was amazing and it made me like her a lil bit more (i still like Sara, But Tegan was just TEGAN) so now i'm leaning a lil bit to the T-team. "

Fillmore Auditorium,Denver, CO Set List and Review

2006-01-29T18:29:00.000-08:00

Tegan and Sara Set List from the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, Colorado
Cake Unlimited Sunshine Tour
1/25/06
Living room
Speak Slow
Monday x3
I know x3
We didnt do it
Where does the good go?
I've got you
I bet it stung
So Jealous
Take me anywhere
Walking with a ghost
You wouldnt like me

Setlist and Review courtesy of Shymer from www.teganandsara.ca

"I get in and gracefully weasel my way to the front, as it was almost 7pm and the show was going to start soon. My first impressions of the filmore when I went in was something like this "Jesus fucking Christ Almighty, this place is huge" I apologize if I offend anyones senses by taking the lords name in vain, but Jesus Christ the filmore is HUGE compared to the other venues in Denver. The comedian guy was alright, imo he should have relied on actually doing stand up comedy rather than playing a taped recording of something or a movie of him being wierd. The other opening band, Gogol Bordello was f'n awesome. The chick with the big drum thing that marching bands have, she all jumps off the stage and goes over to the crowd cheering behind the security fence thing, gets them to hold up the drum on one end and she climbs on the other side and balances on it f'n hitting it and trying to stay on, and the lead singer is all standing on the rail using the security guards to hold him up. I punk rock shows, real ones, not the crap good charlotte kind that mothers feel safe taking their 12 year old daughters too. I just have to say this right now, Tegan and Sara just didnt really fit in between Gogol and Cake imo. I have really only been to TnS shows where they are headlining so seeing them as an opener just doesnt have the same flavor. The people who got the best of the best spots were stupid boy cake fans that were really tall and wouldnt budge. When they headline there is just so much more of a TnS vibe of energy. The music was good, not much banter, I snuck in my digital voice recorder and I am trying to upload all the songs onto my computer but it doesnt want to right now cause its being stupid. You could tell who the Tegan and Sara fans were, we were having a good time. The other people just weren't that into it. They liked it and everything, but with Gogol, a band most people had never heard of, they got the crowd rocking. Technical note, both Tegan and Sara broke gutair strings while playing, Sara first on her acoustic, then Tegan and her electric. Sara just stopped playing when the string broke and sang, but Tegan made a valiant effort to continue with the electric. Chris stood there, and played bass, just doing what he is good at. We love him for it. Ted, teddy is always adorable, always. This was my first show with Johnny, he had big shoes to fill and did wonderfully. There was some banter in there. After Tegan broke her guitar string sara said that they usually travel with a guitar tech, jacuzzis, and crack when they are headlining. And they wonder why we think they are on drugs when we get new journal entries."

New Journal Entry from Tegan: "Nobody Knows Who We Are"

2006-01-25T15:29:00.000-08:00

Date: January 24, 2006
Author: tegansan

Hello from Kansas City.

Yesterday we were in St Louis and Kim and I went to the Gateway Arch… It was frightening. But worth the $10, for sure if you happen to be there Sometime. Someone wrote to our fan mail and suggested that my journal entries appear to be Written by me under the influence. I assure you and that person that I take no part in drugs and Never write under the influence. The other night in New York after the show At the Hammerstein Ballroom I played some of our new songs that we have Recorded for an assortment of people that work for us and hang out with us.Everyone thought that I might be drunk because we don’t usually do that sort Of thing, but no, I wasn’t. This tour and this past 6 months has just left me feeling very open to sharing And enjoying the company that fills the space around me. The cake tour is going well. We like them very much. It is hard to get up and Open all over again….to start from scratch. Though there appears to be some Tegan and Sara fans in the audience I do believe there are a lot of people who have No idea who we are…which is good. We are all very thrilled to be heading to Australia in just a few weeks. Liisa our trusted Tour manger is coming to sell our lovely merchandise. All the same faces onstage Will be present and we think everyone will love the 2 opening bands we have Chosen to support our tour. Though this is our last tour with Craig we have enjoyed Working with him so much. We can’t wait to have him back for the next record. We have a new guy out with us named RL. He is doing monitors and stage managing. I think you would all like him very much. He is very polite. Kim who some of you Know as the myspace master is out with us selling merchandise. She said a lot of People have been asking for Emy. Poor emy. She is stuck in Canada, now a Conservative country. How sad. For all of us really. Thank to everyone for all the emails around Christmas and over the holidays. It was Our first Christmas without our gramma and that was sad. Having time off Really allowed me to reflect on our epic year and this record.
Thanks to everyone. Truly.
Tegan

Uptown Theatre, Kansas City,MO Set List and Review

2006-01-25T14:48:00.000-08:00

Tegan and Sara Set List from The Uptown Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri
Cake Unlimited Sunshine Tour
1/24/06
living room
i bet it stung
where does the good go
we didn't do it
not tonight
i hear noises
so jealous
speak slow
walking with a ghost
you wouldn't like me
Time Running

Setlist and review from StingerJ at TeganandSara.ca
"Ok, that went well. The show went off without a hitch, despite me worrying Sara wouldn't make it back from Canada after the election thingy. I left home about 7:15 and after making a wrong turn in Iowa, got to the venue about 3:00. There were these four gypsy punks that had driven from Chicago (sorry Jodi, I wish I knew, they could have given you a ride!) to see Gogol Bordello that had gotten there at 1:00, so I was fifth in line. Getting inside, we made a wrong turn, but still got against the security barrier (I hate those things) pretty much on center. Two comments on Gogol Bordello: That was weird, and being a gypsy punk is no excuse to not shower. I picked up their album, and it's not bad. Good "driving at 3AM music". The gypsy punks moved back after Gogol Bordello and helped me take their spot, so I ended up pretty much right in front of Sara during T&S. Tegan and Sara played pretty much the same set they did the past few nights, but no Dancing in the Dark or Monday, Monday, Monday. There was this group of very excited, very nice girls on my left who noticed my shirt said "Tegan and Sara" on the back (I took off my coat for that reason, it worked!) and we talked before and after the set a little. On my right were three equally nice Cake fans (one girl, two guys). After the set, the girl told me she was going to buy all of T&S's albums, so I told her to make sure she got UFLO that night. I hope she did. I helped them get my spot just like the Gogol fans helped me get theirs. It was a good system, and everyone was really nice. Tegan totally did a Radiohead start to Where Does the Good Go, meaning it was screwed up from the start, so she stopped and restarted it. There were a few other booboos, too, but whatever. Last time I saw Bruce Springsteen, he screwed up, too, and he's the freaking Boss. If the Boss can screw up, I'll let T&S screw up, too. Both of them seemed a little pissed off. Right at the start, Sara's standby switch on her amp was off, and she made one of those faces at the sound guy as she flipped it on in a pissy way. How can you flip a toggle switch in a pissy way? Trust me, you can. Tegan just seemed a little out of the groove, or whatever. Nothing major, and their set was still enjoyable, well worth the looong drive and wait outside. They played You Wouldn't Like Me, Sara checked her watch and seeing they had a little more time, finished with Time Running. If I could have made any one request, it would have been to not end with YWLM, because after hearing that song last for so long, it was starting to depress me. I stayed for four of Cake's songs. I was never a big fan, and I decided this during those songs: You have to respect a band that uses a trumpet, and if they had some out in 1970, they would have been hailed as groundbreaking and would be legendary today. However, it's 2006, and I thought their sound was a little stale. After those four songs, I went to see (along with some of those girls who were by me, sorry, I forgot their names) if Tegan and/or Sara were at the merch table. The nice lady (was that Kim?) at the merch table told us they'd already left to get some sleep since they had a long trip to Denver for the show tonight. She said this has gotta be the last tour before they start working on the new album. They were supposed to be done already, but this popped up, and since it wasn't a headlining gig, it was a little less work, so they took it (I'm glad, thanks!)."

House of Blues, Cleveland, Ohio Set List, Pictures, and Review

2006-01-25T14:35:00.000-08:00

Tegan and Sara Set List from The House of Blues
in Clevaland, Ohio
Cake Unlimited Sunshine Tour
1/22/06
living room
i bet it stung
where does the good go
we didn't do it
not tonight
i hear noises
so jealous
monday monday monday
speak slow
walking with a ghost
you wouldn't like me

Pictures courtesy of Karyn B. and Maysonite at http://teganandsara.ca/

Setlist and reviews courteousy of Maysonite at http://teganandsara.ca/viewtopic.php?t=1855&start=30

"got there. the first 3 groups of ppl there were ALL t and s fans. we froze our butts off for 3.5 hrs. So they open doors, and there are already like 2 rows of ppl. apparently if you spent 10 dollars at the restaurant, you got in early. pft. anyway, i stood with kc8szr and his friend. First up was the comedian. he was pretty funny. then it was Gogol Bordello. let me just say their fans are freakin CRAZY and RUDE as hell. About 6 of them just pushed their ways to the front and were jumping on people. not a good time. then the comedian went back on then tegan and sara. they did a little bit of talking, but not much. I forget their setlist, but they started with living room lol. they played a buncha new stuff (including we didnt do it) and old stuff. The girls didnt hand their setlists out after the show. johnny did, and one of the tech guys did. They totally rocked. It was a GREAT set. And the best part was that the first 2 rows were nearly full with nothing but T and S fans. it was awesome. andd during not tonight, there were two cake fans in front and sara told the crowd to raise their hands and sway. those two girls didnt', so she goes, 'i can see you, get your fuckin hands up...im not playing til you put your fucking hands up'. heh. then after the song she does the "im watching you" sign...funny stuff.

Then after their set, a few t and s fans made a train to try to get thru the crowd. Many gropes and evil eyes later, we were out. We went to buy merch from Kim (she said emy isnt on this tour because of immigration issues and she cant get out of canada). a few minutes later, tegan and ted came out. Sara had to head back to the hotel right away and catch a flight back to canada for that election thing. So we got our stuff signed and pics taken with tegan. and i shook her hand..and humped her...just kidding about the humping *sigh* then we went back to the bus to look for sara, but she had already left, so we got pics and autos from johnny, ted, and chris (i didnt get chris, but maybe you guys did?) anyway. the 4 hr drive, it rained the whole time lol. not fun."

9:30 Club, Washington D.C. Set List and Review's

2006-01-24T11:52:00.000-08:00

Tegan and Sara Set List from The 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.
Cake Unlimited Sunshine Tour
1/21/06
living room
i bet it stung
where does the good go
we didn't do it
not tonight
i hear noises
so jealous
dancing in the dark
monday monday monday
speak slow
walking with a ghost
you wouldn't like me

Seem's like people have REALLY been hammering the girls on acoustics and sound problems. Not to mention the entire tours sound production. I think they need to get a new sound engineer to help them out. Maybe Paul Lanquedoc from Phish is available now that Phish has ended. I really think they need to address this problem because good acoustics are pretty essential to a good Tegan and Sara show! I dont think sound should be a problem at the Wiltern though considering Neil Young called it "one of the best places to play a show" on his 1999 tour.

From http://www.belch.com/~blog/?p=29
"Tegan and Sara were okay. There were many technical flaws to their performance, but this was due to the lousy accoustics and what seemed to be a rookie soundman at the mixer board. Sara’s microphone was way too low, and her guitar was way too loud, and the reverb off of the walls really muddled their sound. I am not a big fan of their music, but they did cover their hits."

From
"Tegan and Sara followed up, which their sound was a little off, but what the hell ever, they're still one of the most awesome set of Canadians twins I've ever seen, not that I've ever seen any others, but they're awesome."

Conservative Party Wins on Election Night in Canada

2006-01-24T11:37:00.000-08:00

Well, in case you did not know the Conservative party beat out the Liberal party by about a 6% margin. This is hardly a majority or any sort of mandate. I can only assume Tegan and Sara are a little depressed by this. The CBC suggests that it was because of a rift between rural and urban voters. As a political scientist and philosopher living in the United States it is interesting to examine the similaritites between our last two elections. It must be the end of an era, with Mario Lemieux retiring as well, it feels like the end of a generation! CNN is reporting that the election likely means closer Canada, U.S. ties. I would love to know what the great liberal Canadian political philosopher and theorist Charles Taylor is thinking about right now. I am still looking for a video clip of Sara appearing on the CBC on election night. Feel free to send in a report of it to wanttheocean@gmail.com

Make sure to check out the CBC's great coverage on it: Here

Also check out Charles Taylor Here or Mark Redhead's incredible Charles Taylor Book "Thinking and Living Deep Diversity" by clicking here

Hammerstein Ballroom, New York Set List and Review

2006-01-22T15:17:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Jrs and EmptyinBetween from the great http://teganandsara.ca/ for this:

Tegan and Sara, Unlimited Sunshine Tour, Hammerstein Ballroom, January 20th, 2006
Living Room ("trashcan end")
I Bet It Stung (sara count)
Where Does The Good Go
We Didn't Do It
Not Tonight
I Hear Noises
So Jealous
(Dancing In the Dark was on th set list, but was cut and they played I Know x3 later on.)
Monday x3
Speak Slow
Walking With A Ghost
You Wouldn't Like Me.

Doors opened last night at 6:00 and Gogol Bordello or whatever they are called didn't take the stage until 7:45. Right before them, Eugene Mirman, the comedian who is on the tour came out and did like a 5 minute act (which I had already seen before), which many of the crowd seemed to enjoy. At this point the venue was nowhere near filled. I could have easily been in like the 5th row, but I was lazy and sat off on the floor to the side.

The Bordello band was weird, not my thing, but lots of people enjoyed it. They did a lot of performance/showsmanship up on the stage. These girls kept running across the stage each time holding different instruments, and the lead singer kind of walked on top of the crowd. I guess maybe they played anywhere between 35-45 minutes. All their songs sounded similar to me.

It took forever for T&S to come on next. Before they did the comedian came back and showed some stupid, misogynistic video and the crowd boo-ed him. I'm actually surprised that Tegan and Sara follow something like that.

I was able to slither my up to the 3rd row in between the change of set for Gogol and T&S. A lot of people moved during that time (and this was sold-out so you should be able to sneak up close too). All the people around me knew nothing about T&S, I was the only one singing along. I did hear people say good stuff about them once they were into their set. Some a-hole behind me kept yelling for them to play Walking With A Ghost because it's their only good song. What an ignorant moron, like he even knew any of their other songs.

The girls only spoke to the crowd on two occasions and it was very short. Once Tegan said they ususally talk a lot but since there were so many people in the crowd she was thinking about vomiting if she did (yeah right, I mean they played Lollapolooza). Another time Tegan said how they've played NYC like 400 times already this year.

Some other random notes: The best song to take photos during was Where Does the Good Go, the lighting was the best then. Tegan messed up on I Know I Know I Know, though she pulled it off so only a T&S fan would have noticed. They also really sped up that song; I didn't like how it sounded. It's such a great pop song and they kind of destroyed it. That's pretty much my only complaint.

Had it been 1997 I would have stayed for Cake, but I haven't dusted off Fashion Nugget in like 8 years so I left. On the way out I bought So Jealous and some pins. There were only three t-shirts - the green lightning bolt, the yellow baby pic t, and the grey one with the roses. They were all $20. There was one hoodie - the one with the sneakers and it was $40.00 They had the same 2 posters as the fall tour. And they had had every cd except This Business of Art. SJ was $10. and the others were $15.00 I'm pretty sure that was it for merch. I didn't wait to see if they came out. As I was leaving I took a promo poster off the wall. It's actually pretty nice, on one side it's the cover of the So Jealous cd and on the other it's a photo of both girls, the one with that yellowish sort of background.

Worcester Palladium Set List and Reviews plus Tegan's Eye Poked?

2006-01-21T13:00:00.000-08:00

Tegan and Sara Set List from The Palladium in Worcester, MA
Cake Unlimited Sunshine Tour
1/19/06
living room
i bet it stung
where does the good go
we didn't do it
not tonight
i hear noises
so jealous
dancing in the dark
monday monday monday
speak slow
walking with a ghost
you wouldn't like me

Set List courtesy of: http://community.livejournal.com/tegan_n_sara/470061.html
It looks like the crowd in Worcester at the Palladium was rowdy:
From: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=36675985&blogID=79690046
"after t & s were done with their set, eugene merman came back on again. at this point the crowd was getting really rowdy and boo-ing and yelling "you suck!" at eugene. he was like, "hey, i just want to show a video and introduce cake. so i'll show you the video and then we'll have some cake." i felt so bad for him because it's such poor manners "
"then cake came on (again, sound was crap) and we were having a good time when in between one of the songs someone decided to throw the top of a pineapple at the lead singer and hit him on the head. we didn't know what it was at the time since it looked like a little tree, but the lead-singer guy was like "oh, you guys are so cool. we'll be coming back to worcester real soon." the eventually found the punk-ass bitch that threw the thing and kicked her and her friend out. so that incident kind of killed the excitement for the band in my eyes and they just carried on to finish the set. and then, when they were singing "no phone", some one threw their cell phone on stage. so they called someone and continued to the last song, and afterwards the lead-singer said, "good night, except to the fucking retards who throw shit at us." and they went off the stage. oh, and he also mentioned that tegan poked her eye as they were loading equipment off, so hopefully she's ok."

Here is some more from http://community.livejournal.com/tegan_n_sara/470061.html:
"i saw tegan and sara the other night with cake in worcester, mass.
they played amazing.
dancing in the dark, downtown, ive got you, etc. not mostly from so jealous, like last show.

i met tegan after their set outside.
we talked for a little bit about the show and where theyre going next on tour and such.
i asked her if sara would be coming out anytime soon.

this is what she said:
"um, yeah, no, i dont think she'll be coming out. i accidently made her eye bleed.."
i was like "what? what did you do!"
she then told me how they were packing up and tegan picked her guitar up off the stand and the stand fell over and hit sara in the face.
tegan said she didnt know whether or not she cut saras eye or under it but "she was bleeding"
my bffe michelle was like "...i dont think eyes bleed i think they ooze.."
and my response was "good job ripping off her cornea" hahahah"

BREAKING: CONAN O'BRIEN CANCELLED!

2006-01-18T11:06:00.000-08:00

Aw man, this really sucks. Good to see Sara is as excited for Unlimited Sunshine as we are. Is it too early to dream of a Tegan and Sara/Gogol Bordello collaboration?

From TeganandSara.com:
hello friends!
i am sitting here in montreal, my flight has been cancelled, and there seems
to be no hope that we will be in new york tonight to tape conan. tegan has now been re routed to boston. and shortly, i will be on my way to meet her there. i guess it was not meant to be (conan). i told a friend earlier that the world will have to wait to see my new tv outfit. (or just be in boston on thursday)so, i am sorry sorry sorry, for those of you who were popping bags of popcorn in anticipation, and for those of you who were planing on coming down to see the show live.....
but we are looking forward to seeing all of you on the CAKE tour!
one final thing. those of you who live in canada, please get out and vote!!
also, i will be appearing on CBC on election night (jan 23). so if you
needed a reason to be political and watch the CBC- now you have one.
although you shouldn't have just one reason, you should have many reasons!
get informed! vote! january 23rd!!!

travel safe! see you all soon,

sara

Gogol Bordello Interview with Eugene Hutz from Cake's Unlimited Sunshine Tour

2006-01-13T20:40:00.000-08:00

EXCLUSIVE Tegan and Sara's Set Time and Length on Cake's Unlimited Sunshine Tour

2006-01-13T14:23:00.000-08:00

I wanted to repost this just in case anybody missed this, it is important...

I got word from T&S's manager today giving us the info on what everybody was requesting. We have very good news to report. Tegan and Sara will take the stage each night directly prior to Cake. This is good news because T&S can convert a bunch of new fans who have not heard them before. (This could be a bad thing too..We dont want T&S playing stadiums anytime soon j/k) They dont know what time the bands will play make sure to call the venue each night. The other good news is that T&S will be playing a 50-60 minute set each night!!This is great news because we arent getting a 20 minute opening slot a la the Neil Young tour. Tegan and Sara are going to get a genuine oppurtunity to rock the crowd! This has made me even more jazzed for Unlimited Sunshine than I was before. Make sure to pick up your tickets at the box office to avoid the ticketmaster/ticketbastard charges, they are around $35 for four bands! Sounds like a great deal to me. 7 more days till the Japan tour, curious to see how the shows go, we will have up to the minute info on them. Below are the tourdates if you STILL have not picked up tickets for Cake's Unlimited Sunshine tour:
Thu01/19/06 Worcester, MA The Palladium
Fri01/20/06 New York, NY Hammerstein Ballroom
Sat01/21/06 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
Sun01/22/06 Cleveland, OH House Of Blues
Tue01/24/06 Kansas City, MO Uptown Theatre
Wed01/25/06 Denver, CO Fillmore Auditorium
Fri01/27/06 Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre
Sun01/29/06 Las Vegas, NV House Of Blues
Mon01/30/06 San Diego, CA House Of Blues
Tue01/31/06 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern LG
Wed02/01/06 San Francisco, CA SF Weekly Warfield

Free Amoeba Show Cancelled

2006-01-11T12:35:00.000-08:00

I talked with somebody at Amoeba today and they said it was talked about but as of today it does not look like it will happen. Heres to the future! Maybe when the new Tegan and Sara DVD "It's Not Fun. Don't Do It!" comes out on February 21st.

Vapor Records Webmaster Interview

2006-01-11T12:25:00.001-08:00

As many Tegan and Sara fanatics know consistently one of the best places for up to date news and tour dates is Vapor Records Tegan and Sara website. For those that do not know about Vapor it is the brainchild of the great Neil Young and his longtime manager Elliot Roberts. It is a label for artists by an artist. To think that an independent label has Jonathan Richman AND Tegan and Sara is just incredible. We had the pleasure of getting to interview Vapor Records webmaster Jonathan Krop to talk music, technology, and about his friend Brian. Make sure to check out his really cool business site: http://www.atomicpopmonkey.com you wont believe how many webpages he has designed!!

I know the Atari 400 was responsible for getting you involved with computers, but can you talk about learning web design and how you learned about that?

About the time the web started to be noticed as the "next big thing" (1995-97), I was working at San Francisco's Academy of Art College in the Mac Lab as a tech. My job was to keep the computers running, and help students with their homework. The school had just started offering html and web design classes, so it was part of my job to be able to tutor and help students with it and I had to learn some basics. Edward was a fellow tech and was heavily into html, so I picked up some basic knowledge from him. He coded my first site for me, last I heard from him, he was the web master for the UMAX site. Websites were still quite new, and as a result were very barebones. Animation was mostly done thru .GIFs, and Flash was just acquired by Macromedia. I already had a solid background in design and in using programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, Painter!, some 3-D modeling, and knew a little about video and using Director for interactive multimedia things, so it was just the next thing to learn.I taught myself a lot from http://www.webmonkey.com . It's part of my nature to just jump in and find resources to teach myself something when I am interested in it. I was also fortunate in having that job at the time, and the opportunities that came along with it. My boss Paul Montwillo and I would get invited to go to companies like Macromedia and be given free tutorials/demos from the folks there. From there, things just kept (and keep) progressing, with the web and technology, and in my ability to use that technology and combine it with design.

You mention the 14.4 modem and AOL on your bio. Its incredible to think that many people on-line today have no idea what a 14.4 modem is today. Can you talk about how you feel the Internet and technology and computers in general have changed since those days and how it has altered web design?

The quick answer: it's the difference between being able to drive a car to go shopping vs. riding a bike to do the same task ... how long does it take you, and how much can you bring home? The verbose answer: A 14.4 modem at the time was the fastest internet connection you could own (scary to think there were slower ones). You were actually charged by the MINUTE back then too. We've literally gone from dots and dashes (ones and zeros) to full screen video and audio in real time - that's really amazing when one realizes that it all happened in the course of about a decade. I can't even begin to imagine what milestones the next one will bring. It does keep things interesting. The first several months I was online, there were no web browsers, all that was available were usenet groups; you had to type in codes much like you do in UNIX to access these boards, and you could read and respond to messages, and in some instances download images and files. In this case, a small jpg file would actually be broken down to perhaps a dozen or so MIME files you had to manually download, then use another program to combine the pieces and extract them, and if you missed a piece you got a corrupt image. The whole process required several programs, knowing how to use them, and could take you a good 20-40 minutes to get a 68k jpg transfered. I'm sounding like someone's dad complaining about having to walk miles to school in the snow, but that's really how the internet worked just 13 or 14 years ago. I joined AOL, and it was a really new and excited thing. There were a lot less people online than there are now, since no one really knew what the internet was, computers at homes were not very common, and if they were, they were rarely wired to the internet. I was hooked, I saw so much potential in this new digital wild west. AOL broke a lot of ground for me at the time, and the music forums were a very cool area. There was a HANDFUL of people online, and there was a very different vibe then. There was no SPAM, the people that were online tended to be people who were maybe a little more intelligent and there was also lot more trust in the people you met online as a result. It was a smaller community, there was less riff-raff. The pay off was that it was expensive, slow, and often buggy. Web design was far more limiting at that time, there was no such thing as an MP3 file, Quicktime and video in general were new technologies, and at most you'd download a short 20 second clip of something the size of a postage stamp and that would take you an hour and half to download. Most computers only displayed 256 or on the high end, thousands of colors, so keeping to a web safe color palette was far more essential. It wasn't very pretty, but it worked, and was evolving. A little later the 56.6 modem was top of the heap, and it seemed so much faster, but the rule still was that a web page and all of it's related files should total 70k or less in file size. Web designers spent far more time using programs like Debabelizer to make image files as compressed as possible, and to ensure the colors would look the same on different platforms. It was a lot more limiting, it was a lot more challenging in those regards. I take for granted now that I can be working in a dozen programs at once, having a live video conference with iChat, burning a CD all at the same time. Back then RAM was very expensive, and you would have to quit the program you were in in order to be able to open and use a second or third one. Thus, the whole process took longer on every level - from creating and designing, to the end user's experience, and it was far less media rich. There were less file formats, and in some ways it was a lot simpler. Since hardrives were much smaller, you maybe had 5 megs of space alloted, 10 or 15 was considered generous. A web designer had to make the most out of very little. It's moving a lot faster now, not just over your browser - but in it's evolution too. Online copyright issues were far more forgiving then as well. There have been tons of changes in many aspects of the web.

Most people reading the T&S blog will be curious to know how you got involved with Vapor Records and what your day-to-day duties are with maintaining the site?

To fully connect the dots, it goes back to my relationship with the band Redd Kross www.reddkross.com . Once I had done their site, their friend Danny Benair (who was the drummer of The Quick and The Three O'Clock) asked me to do a site for his music licensing company (Natural Energy Lab www.naturalenergylab.com ). Danny then referred me to his friend/client Blair Tefkin ( www.blairtefkin.com ), and I did a make over of her site. Blair's guitarist, Bernard Yin had seen the work and we did a few projects together (Stonegarden Records being one of them.) Vapor knows Bernard thru Jason Yates. Bernard played guitar with Jason’s band following the release of Jason’s album on Vapor and he knew Bonnie at Vapor Records. That's really how I get most of my work, is by word of mouth, it works out really well for me and I tend to work with a really cool, nice group of people as a result. I already had a history of working with a few indie labels such as Rykodisc ( www.rykodisc.com ) and Charlotte Caffey ( the Go-Gos) & Anna Waronker's label Five Foot Two Records ( www.fivefoottworecords.com ), and it was really an honor to add Vapor to my roster. I am a fan of Neil's as well as their catalog, and that always makes the experience much more pleasant and inspiring. Vapor was interested in bringing their site up to date and making it function/look better. Bernard is a really great guy, and a guitarist who plays with several bands, such as The Migs, he's finishing up a solo record that should be out sometime in 2006. He acted as project manager, with Bonnie letting him know what needed to be done, and then Bernard collected the pieces and worked directly with me. The site is hosted by a friend of Vapor Records, his name is Nels Johnson (http://www.downrecs.com/). There's not much as far as my daily involvement with the site, when it's appropriate, Bonnie will get a hold of me to update the news and tour dates. I'm sure as soon as there are some new releases in the new year, we'll be adding that as well. Once in a while I'll get an email from a fan asking about Tegan & Sara or Jonathan Richman, and I'll pass it along to the appropriate person, but really that's about it.

Have you had any contact with the labels owners Neil Young and/or Elliot Roberts?

I really wish I would! I've been a Neil Young fan since my late teens, and really respect him as an artist, musician, and human being. It would be amazing to have lunch with him or talk on the phone. But to date I've not been in touch with him at all. I do wish him the best in his health, and hope for him to be around and prolific for many more years. He's a viable and important artist and musical force, a legend. I still don't know what Neil thinks of the site or if he's really ever seen it. (hint hint!)

You did a great job on Vapor's design while staying artistically
visual but not crashing peoples browser with unneeded flash animation and java, what instructions if any did you get on how to design Tegan and Sara's portion of the site?

Thank you so much. I have to confess, that there is a very subtle Flash animation on the site, in Chester (The wolf in Vapor's logo). His eyes blink and his paw and tail move every now and then just a little. There's a lot of cool things Flash and Java/Javascript can do, but if it's crashing people's browser - what's the point? If something is so buggy or limits the available audience, that's when one needs to make the choice, and it's good to be reasonable. I'm really over the long flash intros to sites, and I think most people are as well. When I go to a site, I want the most important information right there, not have to click thru or wait while something stalls me for several minutes. I think a lot of people feel that way - give me the news and the most recent information first, and then make it easy to find what I'm looking for. I dislike having to hunt on a site trying to figure out that clicking on the third mysterious celtic symbol is the link to the tour dates page. If using a website becomes an Easter Egg hunt for the user, it's not being effective, it's disenfranchising and frustrating to the audience. That doesn't mean it can't be aesthetic, artistic or visually appealing, I think the two can coexist; and that's what makes for a really good web site. Vapor gave me the basic content; their logo, the copy and some general direction as far as design. Due to the label's name they asked for something dark, somewhat earthy, can 'vapory' - which gave me the idea to use the trees which were some photos I had taken. We did several rounds of comps, experimenting with colors and layouts, the purple comes mostly from their logo, and the sepia-tan was chosen for it's earthy vibe. We ended up taking the aspects that Bonnie and the Vapor staff liked best and merged them into what's online now. It actually came together fairly easily. I had offered a few suggestions like a mailing list form, but they wanted to keep the site free of those. As far as Tegan & Sara's section, they and Jonathan Richman were to be the 2 main artists featured on the site, the label gave me all of the content and photos, and it's rather clean and simple. Our approach was to provide the essential information, and let the band's web site provide their fans with the details. I had quite a bit of creative freedom to explore styles and looks within some basic guidelines. That tends to be the best situation for me. If a client has a general direction, and still gives me the room to explore freely, and we share a common sense for aesthetics, it doesn't feel like work at all to me, it's becomes a very enjoyable experience.

Does it help or hurt you that T&S have their own official site?

My opinion on this is that it helps. I can't stress how important it is for artists to control their own sites. I would be more than happy to work with T&S on their site, but I think their site works and looks fine, and that's the way it should be. Some labels end up hijacking the artist's domain name and then put up a label built site that only offers the music available from that specific label, neglecting any other projects that band may have done. I think in most cases, it puts more of a barrier between a band and their fans than building a bridge. The whole point of the internet is to connect, not distance. I think labels should build sites to market and promote the releases they have done, but I don't think they should own the artist's official site. Being under a record contract shouldn't mean a label owns the band and rightfully controls all the channels that band has to the public. Musicians and artists are free souls by nature, and need to have control of the outlets that connect them to their fans. A good band site should operate more like a fan-club than just be seen as a sales tool. Why do I feel that way? Well, going back to Redd Kross, their initial site back in 1996 was done by the label, and it was about 3 pages - a bio, 2 small videos from the new album, and a buy link - that was about it. It wasn't so much that time's technical limitations as the lack of artist's control and input. Here was a band that had some 18 years of history behind them, but the site reflected none of it. Since the band and I started their official site in 2000, we have done things like having an online radio show (well a year before iPods or Podcasts) that was updated weekly and provided via Real Player, we did an online variety show called "Bitchin' Ass" - 2 years before the advent or concept of video podcasting, and Steven had an idea to do a free online "art project" where he took the White Stripes CD "White Blood Cells", and added bass to the entire album, mutating it into "Redd Blood Cells" which was celebrating as being highly innovative and daring by the creative commons and tens of thousands of music fans http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/getcreative/ . We released 2 MP3's a week (with Jack White's blessing). All of these ventures came organically from the band, and got us press, praise and increased web traffic. The fans enjoyed it as well. Many label run sites wouldn't take those sorts of risks or put in that sort of investment without promise of some sort of monetary reward making it worthwhile. Redd Kross and I provide those sorts of things on their site for free, it's a way for us to be creative and to share it with their audience. The "Redd Blood Cells" online album from Steve got some 50,000 visits in one day (crashing the server) after it was written up in the New York Times and Entertainment Weekly. I've worked on a major label project advertised during the Superbowl that didn't get traffic like that. It just proves to me that a cool idea that starts as a whim with has no financial promotion can outperform something literally millions of dollars went into promoting. That's one of the many reasons why I think it's vital to allow artists creative freedom and empower them to operate their sites. Though there are musicians that don't care about the web or web sites, so for them a label run site might be the only option. That's fine in that case, but please allow the visionaries to be visionaries. After all, that's what makes things exciting, and is the environment where the next hip thing develops from. Cheers to Vapor for allowing T&S their rightful freedom and opportunity, and to all the labels out there who realize the same thing. The ones that don't are potentially suffocating their musicians, and might be missing out a wider fan base.

What contact if any have you had with T&S or managers?
To date, none whatsoever.

What can we expect from the Vapor site in the coming year? Any chance for interview pod casts or anything else new?

Bonnie would be the person to ask, I think there are things like podcasts, and ecards/media players that are almost expected from new releases these days, and I'd enjoy working on any of those if asked. I think podcasts are a great way idea to give people more insight into a band, or a label, and flash media players and eCards are a nice inexpensive way to do some viral marketing, and is far cheaper of a means to allow people to sample before they buy than say pressing and shipping promo CDs. Ultimately, it needs to be good artists making good music being able to connect with their audience. But as far as any major updates or Vapor related projects, I don't have anything booked at the moment.

One final question, you mentioned that you worked on your high school newspaper with the great Brian Poshen, as a Mr. Show fanatic can you tell us any interesting anecdotes or stories about Brian in high school? Do you still keep up with him?

Brian and I go WAY back, in 1983/84 we both were on our highschool news paper and wrote the music column together. We did a lot of the usual things high school kids do, and we were both heavily into metal and punk music. The Brian you see on TV is very much the same guy I went to highschool with, and it's good to know that fame hasn't changed him. We still keep in touch, I just got a Christmas card from him, and he's scheduled to be in San Francisco in February and hopefully we'll be able to hang out. He lives in LA, and I'm in the Bay Area, so we don't hang out that much in person. The last time I saw him was at the PunchLine Dec 2004, and that was fun, we talk on the phone every few months, email and such. It was great when Mr. Show went on the road a few years ago, and he put me on the guest list, so I did get to meet David Cross, though Bob wasn't around at the moment. I think it was the year I graduated when a few of us went to Santa Rosa together. Brian was driving this old car (I think it was a faded brown Maverick), and I was in the back with our friend Mike. Mike had just bought one of those high powered water guns, and we were messing around squirting people with water (this was before this sort of activity would actually get you arrested or shot and we don't recommend anyone doing it in today's world.) We were having harmless summer fun, and Mike squirted a blast into the open window of an SUV next to us at a red light. The driver started yelling at us, and as soon as the light went green, Brian gunned it, the SUV chasing after us in hot pursuit, we were going down side roads and such but couldn't shake him. Brian ends up pulling over and the angry guy stops behind us and started walking up to Brian's window. Brian looked at Mike and told him he'd have to deal with it since he was the guilty one. Mike was a smart ass and said "Uh-uh No way man!". Just as the guy got to our car, Brian floored it and we had made or escape! Well the following day, Brian woke up to an angry mom who just got off the phone with a Sherif in Santa Rosa, it seems the squirted party was the son-in-law of a police officer, and got Brian's license plate number and hunted him down. Brian got out of that by apologizing, it was really just some extremely bored kids out to have some fun after all, none of us had any malicious intent. The whole ordeal really played itself out like a bad 80's teen age B-movie. Remember kids - don't try this at home! Another story is actually documented! For my Humanities class in college, we had an assignment to make a movie. I ended up being the one of the two actors in what essentially was Brian's film debut. The 5 minute short was called "Dummy-lip Afternoon", and was a rather bad Wayne and Garth/Bill and Ted like movie where I break a guitar string and end up in a pot smoke filled closet with Brian and Billy the puppet from Pee Wee Herman. It was mostly improved, all done within two hours or so. I've threatened to blackmail him with it if I ever find it again. We ended up getting ourselves in a lot of mischief and mishaps back then, but not all of them are appropriate for this forum. Sonoma was a very boring town to live in as a teenager, so we had to find our own means of entertainment. I have fond memories of going to various rock shows, parties, and record shopping sprees with him, and I've got to say, Brian is very much the same guy now as he was then. I'm really proud of him and his accomplishments, he's worked really hard to get where he is, and he's really stayed true to himself.

EXCLUSIVE Tegan and Sara's Set Time and Length on Cake's Unlimited Sunshine Tour

2006-01-02T11:12:00.000-08:00

I got word from T&S's manager today giving us the info on what everybody was requesting. We have very good news to report. Tegan and Sara will take the stage each night directly prior to Cake. This is good news because T&S can convert a bunch of new fans who have not heard them before. (This could be a bad thing too..We dont want T&S playing stadiums anytime soon j/k) They dont know what time the bands will play make sure to call the venue each night. The other good news is that T&S will be playing a 50-60 minute set each night!!This is great news because we arent getting a 20 minute opening slot a la the Neil Young tour. Tegan and Sara are going to get a genuine oppurtunity to rock the crowd! This has made me even more jazzed for Unlimited Sunshine than I was before. Make sure to pick up your tickets at the box office to avoid the ticketmaster/ticketbastard charges, they are around $35 for four bands! Sounds like a great deal to me. 7 more days till the Japan tour, curious to see how the shows go, we will have up to the minute info on them. Below are the tourdates if you STILL have not picked up tickets for Cake's Unlimited Sunshine tour:
Thu01/19/06 Worcester, MA The Palladium
Fri01/20/06 New York, NY Hammerstein Ballroom
Sat01/21/06 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
Sun01/22/06 Cleveland, OH House Of Blues
Tue01/24/06 Kansas City, MO Uptown Theatre
Wed01/25/06 Denver, CO Fillmore Auditorium
Fri01/27/06 Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre
Sun01/29/06 Las Vegas, NV House Of Blues
Mon01/30/06 San Diego, CA House Of Blues
Tue01/31/06 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern LG
Wed02/01/06 San Francisco, CA SF Weekly Warfield

TAS Walking With A Ghost In Paris Mash-Up

2005-12-30T23:31:00.000-08:00

Kind of a cool Mash-Up of WWIAG with some techno music. It kind of reminds me of Tricky or Paul Oakenfold but with our girls rocking the vocals! Check it out:
Walking With A Ghost Mash-Up

Tegan and Sara at UC Berkeley

2005-12-30T22:47:00.000-08:00

Somewhat annoying review of Tegan and Sara performing at UC Berkeley earlier this year. Sometimes it feels like they send critics who do not like the band on purpose! At least its not Rolling Stone, Spin, or Entertainment Weekly. I would have liked to make it to this show. TAS's liberal views probably fit in well with the campus that helped spurn the New Left in the 1960's.

http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=20078

Flashback: Pitchfork Media's Review of So Jealous

2005-12-30T22:40:00.000-08:00

I love how Pitchfork's reviewer tried to sound so smart and clever in his review. I am sure he wouldnt talk bad about WWIAG if he knew Jack White and the White Stripers were going to cover it. I dont get how a critic could dig the Pixies, The Killers, Shins, or whatever and not like TAS!

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/t/tegan-and-sara/so-jealous.shtml/

Tegan and Sara: Most Unmentionable bands of the Decade?

2005-12-30T22:13:00.000-08:00

I dont know what Coolfer was trying to prove when they posted this odd commentary. I think they read too much into Jack White covering WWAG. WWAG is a great rock song, and Jack White is paying tribute to it. You can read some of Coolfer's rediculous and delusionary remarks at the link.
http://www.coolfer.com/blog/archives/2005/11/why_cover_songs.html

Tegan and Sara Live at Amoeba Records in San Francisco

2005-12-30T21:03:00.000-08:00

I was talking to a friend in the Bay area and supposedly TAS might be doing an in-store appearance at the great Amoeba records in San Francisco. It is probably going to happen in the early afternoon on February 1st before the Warfield gig. Her friend who works at the Amoeba said that it might be to promote the new DVD "It's Not Fun. Don't Do It!". If anybody has any further info on this post a comment or shoot an email. I only wish they would do one for the Los Angeles show too. I checked Amoeba's website and the schedule is clear for San Fran but not for LA.

Another Opening slot

2005-12-30T20:52:00.000-08:00

Dont forget to pickup your tickets for Tegan and Sara's opening slot on Cake's "Unlimited Sunshine" tour. It is going to feature Cake, Gogol Bordello, and Eugene Merman. As all us dedicated TAS fans know opening slots are one of the main ways to see the girls do their thing. I am going to be curious to see how long their set will be. I am hoping it is at least an hour, but with a bunch of other bands on the bill who knows. Anybody have any insight on this?

Thu01/19/06 Worcester, MA The Palladium
Fri01/20/06 New York, NY Hammerstein Ballroom
Sat01/21/06 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
Sun01/22/06 Cleveland, OH House Of Blues
Tue01/24/06 Kansas City, MO Uptown Theatre
Wed01/25/06 Denver, CO Fillmore Auditorium
Fri01/27/06 Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre
Sun01/29/06 Las Vegas, NV House Of Blues
Mon01/30/06 San Diego, CA House Of Blues
Tue01/31/06 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern LG
Wed02/01/06 San Francisco, CA SF Weekly Warfield

Tegan in the Bathroom and Sara Fainting

2005-12-30T20:00:00.000-08:00

The great Dodge who has a great blog with mp3's and streaming music, has some awesome pics of T & S in Indiana along with an encounter with the girls

http://myoldkyhome.blogspot.com/2005/10/tegan-sara-bloomington-indiana-october.html

Also dont miss the minute by minute recap with photos of the illfated Lollapalooza gig

http://myoldkyhome.blogspot.com/2005/07/lollapalooza-2005-day-two-photo-recap.html

Also make sure to check out this great essay on political theorist and theory guy Brian Barry. It is on his book called Multicultural Equality, check out this article at Daily Kos: Brian Barry http://www.dailykos.com/tag/Brian%20Barry Make sure to click "There's More"

TO SEND SUBMISSIONS TO THE BLOG EMAIL WANTTHEOCEAN@GMAIL.COM
tegan and sarah so jealous

The Tegan and Sara Blog

The Inevitable Backlash Sex for Safety EP art by Emy Storey!

Sanctuary Closing, Could this affect Tegan and Sara and Vapor?

Tegan and Sara THE CON July 24th 07. YAY!!!

Tegan and Sara's New Album Has a Producer!!

New Tegan and Sara Album Info!!! YAY!!!

Has Tegan Always Wanted to Be a Musician?

Tegan and Sara Producer Howard Redekopp Strikes Again at Warehouse Studio

Our favorite Sara, From Tegan and Sara Blogs her heart out!

Tegan and Sara Contribute to America's Newspaper

Tegan and Sara: SO JEALOUS: Random Memories

Opinions are Like Assholes....Everybody's Got One!

God Help Us: Pitchfork weighs in on Tegan and Sara's DVD It's Not Fun Don't Do It

Tegan mentioned on STAR PULSE about Kinnie Star!

New Tegan and Sara T-Shirts from the great Emy!

Tegan and Sara do ANOTHER podcast!

Tegan and Sara: The Next Outkast? They want to do "Love Below/Speakerboxx" Style Double?

Tegan and Sara featured on a Podcast on CBC

Even more Info On Tegan and Sara's DVD It's Not Fun Don't Do It from Vapor Records

Here Come The Reviews: Tegan and Sara DVD It's Not Fun Don't Do It

BREAKING: Tegan and Sara join Music Today + even more DVD info for It's Not Fun Don't Do It

It's Official, Tegan and Sara DVD It's Not Fun Don't Do It being released in August

BREAKING: Tegan and Sara DVD It's Not Fun Don't Do It NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!!

Kinnie Star and Tegan to collaborate

Gogol Bordello Interview with Eugene Hutz from Cake's Unlimited Sunshine Tour!

**EXCLUSIVE** Conversation with an Artist: The Tegan and Sara Blog Interview with Tegan and Sara's Webmaster and Art Director Emily Storey!

Tegan and Sara's DVD It's Not Fun Don't Do It, COVER ARTWORK!!

Tons More Details on Tegan and Sara's DVD: It's Not Fun Don't Do It

Tegan and Sara DVD: It's Not Fun Don't Do It Finally Has Release Date! August 8th!

I Hear Noises #2, Continuing to expand our horizons, with Prince

Matt Sharp and The Rentals Record Tegan and Sara cover of Walking With a Ghost, MP3 Link!

**EXCLUSIVE** Conversation with an Artist: The Tegan and Sara Blog Interview with Tegan and Sara's Webmaster and Art Director Emily Storey

New Information on Tegan and Sara's Sweet Relief Musicians Fund

Tegan DJ'ing in NYC on Sunday!!

Tegan and Sara Continue to do Great Work for Charity

Tegan and Sara Go out on the Associated Press Wire!

Tegan and Sara Ringtones for a Great Cause!!

Sucks: Tegan and Sara not Awarded Juno Award goes to Broken Social Scene, UGH!

Great Video of Tegan and Sara Doing Hot or Not Interviews

New Journal Update From Ted from Tegan and Sara

Tegan making appearances in Canada and the U.S.!!

More Word on Tegan and Sara's DVD: "It's Not Fun Don't Do It"

What is Tegan and Sara's "Under Feet Like Ours" Album

Great Tegan and Sara Review from Australia, 2/15/06, The Corner, Melbourne

Tegan and Sara Monday, Monday, Monday Video (Australia Version)

Great Tegan and Sara Video Advertisement for the Bowery Ballroom show

Tegan and Sara Get Some Love From The Village Voice

Video of Tegan and Sara performing Where Does the Good Go LIVE from Spin Studios

Touching Story About Tegan and Sara Fan With Cystic Fibrosis

Tegan and Sara thank Australian fans. So Jealous comes to a end.

Tegan and Sara DVD It's Not Fun Don't Do It coming SUMMER 2006

Tegan and Sara Journal Update from Rob

Tegan and Sara Journal Update Feb 22nd

Tegan and Sara's In-Store to be shown on TV

BREAKING: Tegan and Sara Nominated for Juno!!

Interesting Tegan and Sara Ebay Auctions

BRISBANE SOLD OUT...MELBOURNE ALMOST

Tegan and Sara's Valentines Advice: "Put Something in the Punch"

BREAKING:HE'S BACK! Drummer Johnny 5 OFF Australian Tour, Chursinoff Back In!!

FLASHBACK: Tegan and Sara 2004 MTV Interview

New Tegan and Sara Journal Update

Don't Forget Tegan and Sara Australia Tourdates

I Hear Noises #1

I Hear Noises: Expanding Our Horizons #1, A Prologue

Tegan and Sara DVD It's Not Fun. Don't Do It! Sold Primarliy through Best Buy?

New Tegan and Sara Album Not Till Early 2007, "More Alternative"?

Celebrity Theatre,Phoenix, AZ Set List and Review and Picture

Fillmore Auditorium,Denver, CO Set List and Review

New Journal Entry from Tegan: "Nobody Knows Who We Are"

Uptown Theatre, Kansas City,MO Set List and Review

House of Blues, Cleveland, Ohio Set List, Pictures, and Review

9:30 Club, Washington D.C. Set List and Review's

Conservative Party Wins on Election Night in Canada

Hammerstein Ballroom, New York Set List and Review

Worcester Palladium Set List and Reviews plus Tegan's Eye Poked?

BREAKING: CONAN O'BRIEN CANCELLED!

Gogol Bordello Interview with Eugene Hutz from Cake's Unlimited Sunshine Tour

**EXCLUSIVE** Tegan and Sara's Set Time and Length on Cake's Unlimited Sunshine Tour

Free Amoeba Show Cancelled

Vapor Records Webmaster Interview

EXCLUSIVE Conversation with an Artist: The Tegan and Sara Blog Interview with Tegan and Sara's Webmaster and Art Director Emily Storey!

EXCLUSIVE Conversation with an Artist: The Tegan and Sara Blog Interview with Tegan and Sara's Webmaster and Art Director Emily Storey

EXCLUSIVE Tegan and Sara's Set Time and Length on Cake's Unlimited Sunshine Tour

EXCLUSIVE Tegan and Sara's Set Time and Length on Cake's Unlimited Sunshine Tour