Wiki
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Release Date
1 January 2004
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Length
13 tracks
This Island is the third and final album by American dance-punk band Le Tigre. It was released by Universal Records on October 19, 2004. The album was the band's only one for a major label and reached number 130 on the Billboard 200. As of 2008, the album had sold 90,000 copies.
Following the conclusion of the Feminist Sweepstakes touring cycle in 2002, the band envisioned a different approach to their recording. They decided to remove studio deadlines, and instead of going to North Carolina to record material (because New York recording studios were too expensive), the band used their touring money to set up their own individual home studios with Pro Tools in Manhattan, New York, and were switching around hard drives of music while working on the record. "It’s done so much", JD Samson commented on the new recording approach. "One thing is that it lends it self so well to the bands music and it's a non-linear process where we can just patch stuff up and also having the time. But plus it made us stuck for years on the record because we were so picky."
As there were no deadlines for studio times or pressures from their label at the time, Mr. Lady, the band had the ability to polish their sound beyond the DIY sound of their previous records. “It’s slightly more produced", Kathleen Hanna commented on the record's sound. "Just because we spent a lot more time on each individual song and made sure we had all the frequencies covered." The band chose Nick Sansano as the album's producer, due to his work mixing Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock's "It Takes Two"; "It pretty much sealed the deal for us", Johanna Fateman commented.
This Island has been described as poppier than previous Le Tigre records, and was something the band had been developing since their last album Feminist Sweepstakes. "The writing was emerging as poppier and accessible", Hanna said in an interview to The Guardian. "I remember saying to the others, 'All the songs I'm writing are pop songs. What are you writing? Because if we're going on a major label, let this be the record.'
"It was time for a change for us. I was bored doing the same thing over and over and kind of exhausted from 15 years of touring with no help. I'm 36 years old so I'm kind of like tired of driving the van myself and not getting enough sleep. … It was like, 'We have to make a big change or we're going to break up.'"
Kathleen Hanna discussing why the band signed to Strummer/Universal.
In 2004, the band's label, Mr. Lady, notified the band ahead of time they were going to stop releasing new music. After some discussion, Le Tigre decided signed to major label Universal Records through Strummer, an imprint label run by Gary Gersh, the ex-president of Capitol Records.
The band decided to sign to a major label due to the band's exhaustion of touring with no support, and because it would have given the band's politics and message greater exposure into the mainstream. "It's about time a feminist group got a little love from the mainstream,", Kathleen Hanna said, defending Le Tigre's move to a major label. "It made sense on a lot of levels, and all of our friends and close fans have been incredibly supportive."
The band promoted the record through tours in North America and Europe from 2004 to 2005. To support the record, Le Tigre appeared at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2004. They were also scheduled to appear at Lollapalooza 2004, but was cancelled due to the festival's poor ticket sales. The band also made an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, performing "TKO" on April 15, 2005.
Le Tigre also released a remix album, This Island Remixes, in 2005 on Le Tigre Records.
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