Yuksek is coming out with a record on February 2nd, and I shouldn’t have to mention how blog-ticipated it is. I just found this remix he did of French band The Shoes. Yuksek breathed some much needed life into queeros Scream Club by throwing them on top of The Shoes’ hard synths. What we are left with is a nice electro-rap that would fit in nicely at your next queer dance party.
I haven’t blogged too much about Antony & The Johnsons since before the new record came out. And if you haven’t been able to “get over his voice” then it’s your loss. Antony Hegarty will go down as one of the greatest musicians in modern history. The Crying Light brought me to tears the first time I heard it, and he’ll be in Chicago in February. You bet your ass I’ll be right in front. In the above clip, he talks about loving the Cocteau Twins, radical hopefulness and sings “Epilepsy is Dancing” and “Another World.”
AND, in some queer fierceness, he had this to say about the movie Milk:
“It’s like blackface to me … it’s a continuing Hollywood minstrel show, co-opting queer stories and perversely building up the careers of these heterosexual bastards with the plumage of effeminacies, that they can wear this plumage of effeminacies without having to really be accountable”
…and then later this:
“I want to apologize to Sean Penn for appearing disrespectful in my recent comments in New York Magazine. It is not with him, or his virtues as an actor, or his embrace of gay causes, with which I take issue. Rather it is a Hollywood industry that has not yet evolved to a point where it can allow gay and transgendered actors to represent themselves and their historic icons on screen. What a sense of pride this would instill in the minds of gay and transgendered children everywhere, to know that there are dignified roles for them in the acting profession and in the world.”
A little while ago, I tossed off some news about Chicago’s best indie-pop band, Office, breaking up. Since then, much has unfolded in the way of she-said-she-said, drama-blah and break-up crap. There was an interesting interview with band leader Scott Masson over at Gaper’s Block, and basically Office lives on. The big “but” is that Office has always been Masson’s project and the band’s building success was taking over the group’s dynamics. Masson let the other band members go and moved to Michigan where he is currently working on the next incarnation of Office. THANK GOD, because this last record, Mecca, is the band’s best. Chiming pianos, strong drums and the best vocal lines Masson has ever written. You can still get it for free but Mecca will soon be available on good ol’ vinyl and itunes. Stay tuned at Masson’s blog for updates. Listen to/download Mecca’s killer opening track below.
Doesn’t seem like too long ago that Reg Vermue was touring as a hired hand with the Hidden Cameras. Then all of sudden the Torontonian moved to New York, had a bit part in Short Bus, and now his band Gentleman Reg has a few songs featured at RCRD LBL. Deserved, of course, as Gentleman Reg’s songs have always had more going on than your average indie-pop. Check out his latest over at the myspace and get some download action at RCRD LBL.
I was over at PLD’s sister blog, Wicked Phobica and found the above text exchange. I was laughing for quite a while, mostly because I hate Lady Ga Ga’s music, and this would be my worst nightmare. Wicked Phobica is an mp3 blog that is also “an ongoing audio-visual playlist aimed at retracing the origins and culture of dance music while connecting the dots between eras.” Read: fierceness, fashion, art, vogue. Would love it if they posted more, but I’ll take the quality.
Anyhow, please remember that if you insist on making requests from a DJ, bless their hard-working hearts, money talks. Last time some guy paid me $10 to play Journey and he got it quick…then when it was a (hot) remix and not the original, he wanted his money back. Ugh. Unless you are at a wedding, you must be nice to your DJ!
That’s this Thursday, January 29th at evilOlive in Wicker Park, 1551 W. Division Street 6-10pm. This monthly event has grown since its first show, now including resident DJ Greg Haus and a revolving cast of panelists. From the press release: Atomic Sketch Event consists of a panel of featured local artists. The panel will be sketching, painting, etc, throughout the night and offering those works for sale at affordable prices! (One featured artist will also have a show of artwork displayed through the following month at Evil Olive.) ASE is also a place where any artist can drop in, make some art and then post it up on the wall for sale.
Confirmed panelists for January are Ethan Hutchinson, Margaret Page, Michael Frank of Tell Tale Heart Studios, SUPAQOOT, jolly of Metamorph Studios, Carlos Arteaga, Michelle Mashon, Emelson, Emmy Star Brown. For more information about how you can get involved, send an email over to atomicsketch{{@}}gmail.com
I normally try to keep things clean around here, and by that I mean not shitty. One example of that effort is by keeping nudity to a minimum. Not that I don’t love porn, because I really do love it (mostly straightsploitation with no music). But judging by the weekly Monday spike in hits, y’all are checking this at work. I came across superherofan.net “Objectifying Men in Pop Culture.” and couldn’t help but appreciate the audacity-of-nerd that this glorifies. This person watches a lot of television and then posts screen caps of any and all shirtless scenes with the hot guys. That’s it. Their taste is a little narrow for me, but the endless energy for live-journalismz is pretty impressive.
Seeing Hercules & Love Affair this past summer was quite an experience. A party band to the core, the queer energy bounced off that stage like healthy balls. Who knows what is in store for H & LA? Only the greek gods know, but it’s not surprising that we now have a side project from Hercules singer Nomi and some of the other band members. No, Andy Butler or Antony are not anywhere near this, but familiar it is (and that’s a good thing). Deep Red has two songs up on their myspace and have been playing some NYC shows. I’m hoping they can un-smooth the sound a little, but with one of their concerts featuring only Sade covers, that might not be in the tranny cards.
For all I pretend to be objective about music, if a band has a queer member I will for sure try to like them. Enter Abe Vigoda, a not-so-newish L.A. band that has been getting some love for their fun vids and spastic take on punk. Stuff not unlike early Mae Shi and Deerhoof, I must admit I ignored them until the gay grapevine inevitably made its way over to TPR headquarters. Juan Velasquez‘s pink and brown disposition might not be the focus of the band, but he sure has my undivided attention. Their new EP, Reviver will have a cover of Stevie Nicks’ Wild Heart. Juan was also one of the subjects for Rudy Bleu’s underwear project.
But I laughed a lot anyway. Head over to failblog.org for other fantastic failiures in life, love and the pursuit of laughing at other people’s problems.
