Tegan & Sara Boxed a Set: 3 Films + 1 Live Record x Our Hearts = “Get Along”

Hey y’all, Tegan and Sara are releasing some new swag, this time in the form of a CD/DVD set called Get Along. The two-disc set includes a live record as well as three films titled ‘States,’ ‘India’ and ‘For the Most Part,’ which follow the girls on tour, selecting clips from their 12-year career. I don’t really like promoting merchandise ’cause it makes me feel like a big trend pimp, but I also feel like I would be doing you a disservice if I failed to mention that the deluxe edition also comes with three limited edition posters and four bonus digital tracks.

i hope i never figure out who broke your heart

So, besides being a huge lesbian stereotype/fangirl, why should you care about these new T&S items? Well.

I was 17 in 2007 when Tegan and Sara’s fifth album, The Con, dropped. It was more or less the summer of my coming out, and consequently, my first experience leading the double life of a newly-outed gay. By day I was a slightly awkward, maybe bisexual camp counselor plugged into The Con on repeat on the bus to and from upstate New York every day. At night I would peruse the Internet attempting to make sense of my intense, and seemingly inexplicable, attraction toward this band’s music. This summer, by no small coincidence, was also the summer that I developed an affinity for bandanas and skinny jeans, which is another story entirely. This was also two summers before the birth of Autostraddle (we we ever so young?), and that year, all Google searches of Tegan and Sara led to once place — saraandtegan.ca. For the next year, I lived on this website. After school, on weekends, all night, meeting and talking to girls across the country and around the world (including, of course, one Miss Emily Choo). I never told anyone in ‘my real life’ except for my then-girlfriend, and even then, not until months had passed and my ties to these people had become undeniably real.

Becoming a fan of Tegan and Sara and the process that it took me through was the first time I was ever exposed to any sort of queer community — and the first time that I realized that community is something real that can be found online. In that community I found a support group, a core group of friends, and – cheesy as it may sound – power and identity within myself. I knew for the first time that my sexuality was valid, that I was not alone, that there was a future for me (and girls like me), and that that future was going to be huge.

nobody likes to but i really like to croy

It’s been almost five years now, and what was once that future is now our present. These friends that I’ve made, we watched each other grow up. We who were once a huddled mass of closeted and confused high school kids are now becoming the most talented, passionate, interesting, diverse, and self-assured individuals I have had the privilege of knowing. We don’t talk every day anymore. Some of us don’t talk anymore at all. But we grew up together in a small slice of our generation. We came out to ourselves and each other while listening to the same songs.

And even though this experience has been something personal for me, I hope the feeling is not exclusive or unique. I’m not sharing this necessarily because I want you to own this box set, but because you too were a babygay once. Maybe you still are. I just wanted to post this up as a reminder that the things in our past are really important to us, and the things and people who helped us discover who we are never really leave.

[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDxAAJlzEHI&feature=player_embedded’]

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phoenix

phoenix has written 64 articles for us.

50 Comments

  1. True story… I got home from my softball game last night & for some odd reason, went on to T&S’s website. Within the amount of time it took for me to find my debit card, I’d purchased the deluxe edition. When it comes to Tegan & Sara, for some reason I lose my mind.

    Any ideas how I can find the money to put in my account to pay for it? :)

  2. Tegan and Sara’s last DVD was great. These girls know how to treat their fans. Packed full of actual content and craftsmanship, their bonus releases always feel sincere and not like money making tactics. Props to their graphic designer (Emy, I think) who does amazing work, their visuals are always interesting.

  4. I’m so excited for this DVD, it looks awesome! I also love that there has been a Tegan and Sara post two days in a row on here : ) They are pretty much my favorite people that I don’t actually know.

  5. i love tegan and sara because they are from my hometown!!! whats also funny is that about 80% of the lesbians i know in calgary went to the high school they went to…..coincidence? I THINK NOT.

    also me and my brother have hung out with them before and i would like to say that they are LOVELY in real life. so down to earth and fun. me and sara shared a box of wheat thins and i asked them to sign my nancy drew book (i dont know, it was 3 am)

    IM EXCITED, THANKS FOR THIS ARTICLE, THATS ALL.

  6. Ohmygod, Ohmygod, SO EXCITED!!! I’m still in that babygay period and Tegan and Sara are basically everything good in my life. Deluxe edition please :)

  8. I LOVE TEGAN AND SARA.

    That being said, does the poster make anyone else uncomfortable? It’s sort of glamorizing domestic violence. Didn’t Heather Morris just get some flack for doing a photoshoot like this?

    I will probably still buy the deluxe edition. I think it will be my reward for myself if I don’t fail my midterm tonight.

    • To me, it looked like they had been in a fight. So glamorizing violence, not domestic violence. In Heather Morris’ case it was specifically domestic violence. Parsing the little things, and I don’t love it, but it feels different to me.

    • I don’t like anything where people look injured. But the comparison to the Heather Morris shoot is unfair. Those photos had her dressed/posed like a housewife. I know it might sound like splitting hairs to say “but this could be from a different KIND of violence.” But there IS a difference between having someone pose as a sexy domestic violence victim and someone just posing standing around with a black eye. I’m too tired to be eloquent or perhaps even clear so I’ll stop there.

    • my initial reaction to it did include discomfort, but i do think this is different because it’s in context. the title of the DVD ‘Get Along’ references their previously antagonistic dynamic, which included the occasional physical fight. so the black eyes symbolize that part of their history. iirc, the heather morris shoot had no point except to be “glamorous” and included pretty graphic details.

      • I’m feeling so torn about this! I agree, this image might be indicative of another kind of violence. But does that really matter? I mean, even if this poster is supposed to be of two sisters having beaten on one another, and not of a housewife who has been beaten by her husband, we’re still looking at bruised women. Even if that violence has come at the hands of another woman, outside of a sexual relationship, isn’t it really troubling that we’re being called, as fans/viewers/whatever to look at female bodies that have been the site of physical assault? It makes me wildly uncomfortable that Tegan and Sara have produced this poster. Which is heartbreaking.

  9. You know what I would like? For Autostraddle to make a Best of Tegan and Sara playlist, bc I want to see if I like their music. Also, seeing as they’re so influential here, we should just have one of those anyway. :)

    • I will make you one of these. But not right now, because I have a midterm in 27 minutes. But later tonight, if no one else has gotten around to it.

  12. oh man the filming (cinematography? idk about these things) looks amazing. every time i think i am finally over my t&s obsession they come out with something new & i start all over.

  13. ahh tegan and sara. the adorable girls responsible for so many uncomfortable feelings that was the beginning of me realizing i like girls :p

  14. Pingback: Autostraddle — Tegan & Sara Boxed a Set: 3 Films + 1 Live Record … | ALNOORIANS

  15. Didn’t one of them have a baby? EW there is no such thing as “going back to girls” its called BI. Turn OFF. IM OVER THEM.
    The lesbian should go solo.

  19. I was so excited by this that I bought it 15 minutes after the announcment on twitter while studying in the law library. I may have even shrieked a little.

  20. what i love so much about this post is how much i relate to your description of knowing you are gay somewhere but honestly having no conscious awareness of that gayness all at the same time. for me, it really began with brandi carlile (although my love for t&s runs deep too). i was SO OBSESSED and my little gay heart just could not let go of her face or her music and after seeing her in concert it hit me OH MY GOD IM SO GAY. and then everything made so much sense. i think my love for queer female musicians had more of an impact on my ability to be self-aware and open to my true identity than anything else ever did.

    • I feel the exact same way about Brandi Carlile! Listening to her music (and adoring her every move and trying to soak up everything she said) really illuminated my own gayness and made things make sense.

  22. I screamed like a little girl when I read about the DVD on twitter and then went into “I HAVE TO HAVE IT” mode lol. They are the only band that make me do crazy things, like flying (from South America) to NYC for a weekend just to see them in concert. It was so worth it

  26. Fuck me sideways –

    “Becoming a fan of Tegan and Sara and the process that it took me through was the first time I was ever exposed to any sort of queer community” and the rest of this sentence epitomizes my life.

    – T&S led me to Autostraddle. Autostraddle led me out. Being out, I found more peace in life than I’ve ever felt elsewhere.

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