Tegan and Sara Quin.
They worked hard to get to where they are. After ten+ years of being in a band together (which, by the way, if I had to be in a band with my sister, I would kill her before ten years went by) they toured with Paramore last summer. They chose the slow crawl to success rather than selling their soul to the record company. They have great control over what they produce and are really quite talented. Tegan is known to be fairly political and march along other people at protests and rally's. They're both extremely intelligent and Sara has said on multiple occasions that she would rather stay in eating Goldfish, drinking red wine, and reading (her words) than going out to industry parties. I could never agree more.
Do you know who this beautiful lovely lady is?
This is Amanda Fucking Palmer. She has a solo career right now but she also had a band by the name of The Dresden Dolls. She is so insane. But that's her. She does what she feels. She is who she is and she doesn't care if you don't like that. I recently had the pleasure of finally watching the DVD she put out along with her CD and, as an extra feature, there was a 15 minute video called "Amanda Speaks." Here, she talks about why she does it. Why she makes music, why she goes out on tour, why she meets the fans. She talks about how we, as humans, have ruined the world around us that was once so pretty with strip malls and a Starbucks every fucking mile. But then she admits to going for a walk that morning to get some coffee. It's there and we have to deal with it but when did it ever happen and why? She felt so lonely on this walk and it called to mind why she does what she does. Because people need other people to reach out to, human connection. And she wants to create this space where it feels okay to do that, where "we all know how fucked up this is." Words have never rung more true.
You know who this is. This is Joan Jett. The Godmother of Riot Grrl. The one who picked up an electric guitar when everybody said girls weren't allowed to sing rock and roll. She stands up for what she believes in and lets people talk. Because people and their words don't make up what she is, she does. Joan Jett is talented and pretty fucking smart.