From The Desk Of...Mr. Lady [Reissue]

Kathleen Hanna is an individualist refraining from anything catchy. However, she and her outfit, Le Tigre, draw outside the lines on their seven-song EP From the Desk of Mr. Lady. They don't shy away from electronic samples, making for a delightfully quirky indie rock appeal. Of course the riot grrl attitude is still apparent, but it's not so in-your-face. Songs such as "Get Off the Internet" and "Bang Bang" are brilliantly amusing, poking fun at corporate society and its obsession with right-wing norms, especially the power of technology. New wave synth beats are lackluster, but that's also part of the attraction. They are a little generic, reminiscent of a Casio. "Gone B4 Yr Home" is frisky; Erasure-esque club/dance aesthetics make this one of the more jaunty tracks on the album. Le Tigre frolics with ambient pop, and the intense punk rock snarls that made Hanna a critic's target in the early '90s is still seeping through, but this time the effort is much more attainable. Le Tigre's musical art is certainly a sign of the times, and is unafraid to move in the direction embracing the rising force of new millennium electronica. [In 2004, Touch & Go reissued From the Desk of Mr. Lady with a remix of "All That Glitters" by Rachael Kozak and footage of the group's performance at the Trocadero.] ~ MacKenzie Wilson