The Con is the fifth studio album by Canadian rock band Tegan and Sara, released on July 24, 2007 (February 18, 2008 in the United Kingdom). Guest performers on the album include Jason McGerr of Death Cab for Cutie, Matt Sharp of The Rentals and formerly of Weezer (on Sara's songs), Hunter Burgan of AFI (on Tegan's songs) and Kaki King.Katie Hasty, , Billboard.com, March 18, 2007.

The album is dedicated to Rita Clement and Burt Harris.

The song "The Con" is featured in the video game Rock Band 3.

Background

The album was written during a period of intense emotional turmoil for both Tegan and Sara. Sara was struggling with Canadian immigration to get her American-born girlfriend a working visa so they could live together, while Tegan was dealing with the break up of a five year relationship.

As announced on their MySpace blog, a special edition CD/DVD was released at the same time as the CD-only version. The CD/DVD release has a parental advisory warning for profanity on the DVD, although the CD contains no explicit content.

"Back in Your Head", the first single, and the second single, "The Con," were used heavily for promotional purposes. The vinyl release of this album includes a promotional copy of "The Con" on CD. "Call it Off" is the third single from the album. The music video for "Call It Off" was released September 15, 2008.

According to the DVD edition of the album, Sugar, Spell It Out was a tentative album title. The DVD also reveals the title track "The Con" was tentatively titled "Encircle Me" and "Like O, Like H" was previously titled "SOS."

EE Storey, the band's artistic director, designed the album artwork.

For the United States portion of their world tour of this album, they have posted a series of videos called "Trailer Talk" on their MySpace profile.

1,500 copies of The Con demos were sold for charity at concerts.

Critical reception

The Con received positive reviews from the media, scoring 80 on review aggregator Metacritic., MetaCritic. Retrieved June 16, 2008. The album debuted at number 34 on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling about 19,000 copies in its first week.Katie Hasty, , Billboard.com, August 1, 2007. On week 2, the album fell out of the top 50, at #69, selling about 10,000 that week, totaling at 29,000.

Filter magazine calls The Con "a startlingly dark, yet characteristically vibrant offering, featuring a band that's learned to harness the energy-highs, while tempering pretty (even pastoral) pop-folk with a new, deeply-affecting brand of melancholy." PopMatters gave The Con a score of 8 out of 10, calling it "very, very good. To be more precise, it is one of the best albums so far of 2007 and one of the best recent pop releases." The A.V. Club says that "ultimately even The Cons failings work in its favor, providing a macro version of what the best Tegan And Sara songs do, by stumbling along recklessly, then falling together."Noel Murray, , avclub.com, July 24, 2007

BestEverAlbums.com lists The Con as Tegan and Sara's best album, ranking at number 786 in their list of the best albums ever and number 190 in their list of the best albums of the 2000s.http

DVD features

*The Con: The Movie (Making of the album)

*Extras

**Ptosis: Explained

**Ptosis Outtakes

**Duct Tape Dreads

**Feelings Report

**Video Chapters

Personnel

*Tegan Quin – guitars, keyboards, piano, vocals

*Sara Quin – guitars, keyboards, piano, vocals

*Christopher Walla – guitars (6, 10), keyboards (12), organ (6), shakers (6), cymbals (5), tiny guitars (5, 14), bass (4, 9)

*Ted Gowans – guitars (2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14), keyboards (2, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13), organ (13)

*Matt Sharp – bass (1, 2, 6, 9, 11, 12) on all of Sara's songs

*Hunter Burgan – bass (3, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14) on all of Tegan's songs

*Kaki King – lap steel (4), guitar (11)

*Jason McGerr – drums, percussion

References

Artist/Band Information

Tegan and Sara are a Canadian indie rock/Indie pop/New Wave/Alternative band led by identical twin sisters Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin (born September 19, 1980). Both Tegan and Sara play guitar and keyboard and write songs. The band has released six studio albums since 1999, most recently Sainthood in 2009.

History

Tegan and Sara Quin were born September 19, 1980 in Calgary, Alberta. They began playing guitar and writing songs at age 15. They initially played as Plunk without a drummer or bass player. In 1997, they used their school’s recording studio to record two demo albums: Who's in Your Band? and Play Day. In 1998, they won Calgary's Garage Warz competition, using the studio time they won to record their first professional demo, Yellow Demo, which was followed by Orange Demo and Red Demo.

Two songs from Red Demo appeared on their first album, Under Feet Like Ours, which they released independently in 1999 under the name "Sara and Tegan". They changed their name to "Tegan and Sara" because it was easier to pronounce and later reprinted the album using that name. Neil Young's manager signed them to Young's Vapor Records label, and they released This Business of Art through Vapor in 2000. They have toured extensively since then.

In 2002, the band released If It Was You. Their fourth album, So Jealous, was released in 2004 and led to wider success. This album was released through both Vapor and Sanctuary. One track on the album, "Walking with a Ghost", was covered by The White Stripes, who released it on their Walking with a Ghost EP.

Their 2007 album The Con was released by Vapor and Sire because Sanctuary chose to no longer release new music in the United States. The album was co-produced by Chris Walla. Jason McGerr of Death Cab for Cutie, Matt Sharp of The Rentals and previously Weezer, Hunter Burgan of AFI, and Kaki King all appear on the album.

On October 27, 2009, Tegan and Sara released their sixth album Sainthood, produced by Chris Walla and Howard Redekopp, as well as a three-volume book set titled ON, IN, AT, which is a collection of stories, essays, journals, and photos of the band on tour in America in the fall of 2008, writing together in New Orleans, and touring Australia. The photographs in the book are by Lindsey Byrnes and Ryan Russell. While recording Sainthood, Tegan and Sara spent a week writing songs together in New Orleans. The song "Paperback Head" appeared on the album, making it the first song on any Tegan and Sara album that they wrote together. Spin magazine gave Sainthood four out of five stars and wrote, "Tegan and Sara's music may no longer be the stuff of teens, but its strength remains in how much it feels like two people talking."

Personal lives

Tegan lives in Vancouver, BC, while Sara lives in Montreal, Quebec. Both Tegan and Sara are openly gay.

Touring

Tegan and Sara, 2005 interview.jpgthumbuprightTegan and Sara being interviewed at the 2005 Coachella.

Tegan and Sara began touring after graduating from high school in 1998, traveling by car or Greyhound bus. In 2000, they toured with Neil Young and The Pretenders. Their onstage banter, including stories and commentary about their childhood, politics, and life on the road, has become an indispensable part of their live shows. Other notable touring mates include Ryan Adams, Ben Folds, Gogol Bordello, Cake, City and Colour, Communiqué, Death Cab for Cutie, Hot Hot Heat, Kadawatha, The Killers, New Found Glory, Paramore, Rufus Wainwright, and Weezer.

They have performed at festivals including Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair 1999; Coachella, Lollapalooza, and SXSW 2005; Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo, Falls Festival, Sasquatch!, and Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour 2008; Southbound 2009; and Glastonbury, Lilith Fair, and Sasquatch! 2010.

In December 2010 Tegan and Sara supported Jack Johnson in New Zealand and Australia.

Other work

In 2009, both Tegan and Sara worked as producers for the first time. Tegan worked with char2d2 on the 2009 Small Vampires EP, while Sara worked on 2010 debut albums albums for Fences and Hesta Prynn.

Collaborations

In 2007, Tegan sang in Against Me!'s song "Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart" and Sara sang in The Reason's song "We're So Beyond This", as well as appearing in these music videos.

In April 2008, Tegan wrote and recorded a song titled "His Love" at the request of Augusten Burroughs as a contribution to the audio version of his book A Wolf at the Table. The two headlined Spin's September 2008 Liner Notes benefit for Housing Works, a New York non-profit.

In addition to their own set, Tegan and Sara performed with DJ Tiësto during the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival on June 13, 2008. Tegan and Sara appeared as guests, providing live vocals for Tiësto's remix of "Back in Your Head". Tegan and Sara also collaborated with Tiësto on the song "Feel It in My Bones" from his 2009 album Kaleidoscope and appeared in the music video for this song.

Tegan and Sara are featured on Margaret Cho's 2009 album Cho Dependent on the track "Intervention". They are also featured in Margaret's video for the song.

Tegan and Sara released an "Alligator" remix album on iTunes in 2010. Contributors included Doveman, Passion Pit, Ra Ra Riot, and VHS or Beta.

Sara is featured on rapper/songwriter/producer Theophilus London's track "Why Even Try" from his 2011 Lover's Holiday EP.

Both Tegan and Sara appear in Sara Bareilles' star-studded music video for her song "Uncharted". The video premiered in March 2011 and also features, amongst others, Josh Groban, Ingrid Michaelson, Pharell Williams, Adam Levine, Ben Folds, Keenan Cahill, Jennifer Nettles, and Vanessa Carlton.

NOFX's song "Creeping out Sara" is about the two sisters.

Television and film

Tegan and Sara have appeared on American, Canadian, and European television shows, including Jimmy Kimmel Live (2005), Jonovision, The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn (2004), Late Night with Conan O'Brien (2005, 2007, 2009), The Late Show with David Letterman (2000, 2008), The NewMusic, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (2008), and ZeD.

Tegan and Sara songs have been featured in the films Monster-in-Law, Sweet November, and These Girls, and in the television shows 90210, Being Erica, Ghost Whisperer, Grey's Anatomy, The Hills, Hollyoaks, jPod, The L Word, Life Unexpected, Melrose Place (2009 series), One Tree Hill, Parenthood, Rookie Blue, Vampire Diaries, Veronica Mars, and What's New, Scooby-Doo?.

In 2006, Tegan and Sara performed in The L Word episode "Last Dance" (season 3, episode 11). In 2008, they appeared on the kids music television show Pancake Mountain where they acted in a skit and performed their songs "Back in Your Head", "Hop a Plane", and an acoustic version of "Walking with a Ghost". In 2010, they appeared on CBC's Mamma Yamma, revising their single "Alligator" into a children's song.

In 2011, Sara Quin was a panelist on Canada Reads defending Jeff Lemire's graphic novel Essex County. The book was voted off after the first round.

Band members

Detroit-hq14.jpgrightthumbTegan Quin at a concert in Detroit, Michigan

Current

*Tegan Quin – vocals, guitar, keyboards

*Sara Quin – vocals, guitar, keyboards

*Edward "Ted" Gowans – guitar, keyboards

*Shaun Huberts – bass guitar

*Johnny "Five" Andrews – drums

Former

*Dan Kelly – bass guitar

*Chris Carlson – bass guitar

*Rob Chursinoff – drums

Discography

* Under Feet Like Ours (1999)

* This Business of Art (2000)

* If It Was You (2002)

* So Jealous (2004)

* The Con (2007)

* Sainthood (2009)

Awards and nominations

References