Hear 'Em Roar
Le Tigre's JD Samson and Johanna Fateman have become DJs -- and Men
”Come out and dance with us. Come out and dance with Men,” JD Samson says, a bit playfully. Samson, a lesbian, is definitely not a man. Neither is Johanna Fateman, one of her two cohorts in the fun feminist dance-punk trio Le Tigre. But together they are Men, a new DJ and production duo. Men will spin this Saturday for the bimonthly Garutachi party at H Street NE’s Rock and Roll Hotel.
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”You can expect to have a good time and dance a lot, in the spirit of a Le Tigre show,” Samson says. For their DJ nights, the women of Men play ”as many women as we can for sure. And we try and play as many gay people as we can.” Among songs from The Gossip, Yo Majesty and Kid Sister, Samson says they’ll throw in ”old jams to get people going,” hits from the likes of George Michael and Sylvester, as well as JJ Fad and Missy Elliott.
Just don’t expect to hear Le Tigre. ”Sometimes we play remixes or mash-ups that we’ve done, but we try not to play Le Tigre a lot because I think that’s kind of self-congratulatory.”
”We can’t just be JD and Johanna from Le Tigre forever,” the 28-year-old Samson says. So in the past month she and Fateman became Men. The name came to them in context of a new guiding philosophy of theirs, ”What would a man do?”
”As a woman a lot of times you feel like, okay, I’m not going to start a fight,” Samson explains, referring to getting cut off standing in line, or being asked to perform for — and just generally getting paid — less than one’s worth. ”We decided to take it an extra step and call ourselves Men — to think like we have as much power as men think they have.”
Men will DJ this Saturday, April 21 at the Rock and Roll Hotel, 1353 H Street NE. Doors open 8pm. Cover $10. Vist www.rockandrollhoteldc.com.
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