Bob Mould first found renown as the singer-guitarist in punk trio Hüsker Dü, then fronting ’90s alt-rock faves Sugar. Richard Morel is a DJ-producer with A-list remix credits (New Order, Depeche Mode, Nelly Furtado). But putting either of these openly gay men in a neat little stylistic box? Impossible, especially after listening to the self-titled debut from their collaborative recording project, Blowoff.

The album kicks off with “Hormone Love,” a jolt of electric guitar and vocal harmonies reminiscent of ’60s acts like the Byrds, propelled by a sensual midtempo beat. From there, the dozen originals keep making twists and turns, moving through the slow and trippy “Lemonade” to the percolating “Saturday Night All the Time,” which layers husky singing over a low-slung, groovy melody that’s equal parts sinister and summery.

Sony Music Label Group U.S. / Columbia Records and Wilderness Media & Entertainment, the gay media and entertainment portfolio company owned by LOGO founder Matt Farber, have announced the first two signed artists as well as two compilation CDs to be released by Music With A Twist, the first major record label dedicated to identifying and developing lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) artists.

Music With A Twist's first two signed artists:

* The Gossip, a rock band based in Portland, Oregon, composed of lead singer Beth Ditto, guitarist Brace Paine, and drummer Hannah Blilie. Their music is raw, punk-inspired rebellious rock and roll, but with catchy hooks and the incredible power of Beth Ditto's unique lead vocals. The Gossip have developed a huge following based on years of touring, and recently landed the opening slot on the Scissor Sisters European tour.

* Kirsten Price is a talented new singer-songwriter musician, originally from the U.K. but now making her home in Brooklyn. She has a soulful voice that sounds like it comes from a smoky room late at night. Her songs are a creative fusion of rock, soul, and blues. She is equally adept at playing her songs on a piano or guitar.

Both of these artists will be recording their debut CDs to street in 2007.

DAN GILLESPIE, lead singer of THE FEELING, has come out of the closet in spectacular style.

And the group’s charismatic frontman has revealed he had a fascinating upbringing.

Dan explained: “I was brought up on the gay scene because my mum is gay and so is my uncle.

“I’ve been going to Pride marches since I was about four. We were a super right-on family.

“Not only did I have two lesbian mothers but my mum was in a wheelchair.

“We assumed the position of a kind of poster family for civil liberties organisations.

“There is a picture of me when I was six holding up a banner saying, ‘My mum’s a lesbian and I love her.’ It was at a Pride event and was used a lot in the newspapers.

“In the library at school there was a text book sociology students used that had the picture in it and a chapter on us.

“Most of the kids at school seemed to know I was gay a long time before I knew myself.

“I had a slightly effeminate air — and children are very intuitive, aren’t they? They spot things. It’s obvious, really. But none of my siblings are gay.”

Speaking of coming out, The Feeling’s single Love it When You Call is released on Monday — I think it’s got huge No1 potential.

Jay Brannon has two new tunes out. Both are featured on his web site, or you can watch them at YouTube here and here.

BTW, have you ever heard of Kids on TV?

They are Canadian, unabashedly queer, and apparently have a propensity to get nekkid on-stage.

Apparently they were just playing a CBC-sponsored concert the other night on the east coast, got nekkid and did "unmentionable things" on top of the CBC logo in the studio. LOL I laffed when I heard that!

I had not, actually. Thanks for mentioning them. Experimental Punk Disco House Techno sounds just about right.

And a propensity for getting nekkid can't hurt.

http://www.kidsontv.biz/
http://www.myspace.com/kidsontv

LOL. I liked the hankie code.

(Hmmm... you've gotta click into the website first before you can see it though, I guess... the URL above doesn't take you directly to it.)

LOL

I remember that one. It's a re-invention of it though, not the original code from the 70s.

A benefit of Mozilla is that it will let you escape frames like that.

http://kidwithcamera.com/friends/kotv%2Dfinal/hankycode/content.html





PS... John Caffery, the bass player for KOTV, has a cameo in "Shortbus." I'm being stalked by musicians that appeared in "Shortbus."

Not that that's a BAD thing.

Our boy has done it again. New YouTubage. Jay's profile now has five clips in it. One of the new ones, "Soda Shop," appeared in the film Shortbus and is already starting to generate cover-versions.

Somebody needs to sign this boy up to a label.

Just ran across a good one. You might know it already, but it was new to me...



Get your own copy...

(Just enter the 3-numbers at the bottom, click submit, it'll make you wait 31 seconds, then click on the green "Download File Now!" button to download it).

New to me as well.

The homepage of the old band: http://www.tomrobinson.com/trb/index.htm.

Well then, I'm glad I posted it.

Hmmm...U Canuks have totally out-homoed us Yanks. Good Job. I love it when another country makes us feel stupid. Come to think of it, that's not all that difficult, is it?

Garneau doesn’t completely shed his skin, though. The singer-songwriter is gay, but adamant about never using his sexuality as a marketing ploy for his music. Therefore, he only broods along the periphery of the subject, such as in “We Don’t Try,” where he could be describing the taciturn relationship that frequently exists between parents and a child struggling with their sexuality: “And we’ll work everything out / Even all the stuff we don’t talk about.”

Chris Garneau is not for the faint of heart. His work, though utterly brilliant, may drain out any remaining happiness from your already bleeding heart.

...

If there were any justice in this world Chris would be named solo artist of the year. Sadly, we'll all have to wait as his debut album Music for Tourists (produced by Duncan Sheik) won't be released until January 27th, you can however, preorder a copy from Absolutely Kosher Records now, and I highly recommend you do so. Right now.

Beth Ditto is not fashion-model skinny. She is brashly witty, ferociously loud, radically feminist and proudly, openly gay. She is in many ways exactly what the music industry doesn't want to sell: a personality that rips up the mainstream's patronizing notions about female entertainers, how they should look, what they represent, and what opinions they can voice.

Yet after seven years of exuberant record-making and touring in the punk underworld, Ditto and her band Gossip find themselves newly signed to one of the biggest purveyors of mainstream music: Columbia Records.

Gossip's inaugural release will be on Columbia's Music With a Twist subsidiary, advertised as "the music industry's pioneering first LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender) record label."

"I'm very pig-headed and stubborn," Ditto says with a charming Southern twang and a laugh when reached at her Portland home. "I thought there's no way I would be able to butt heads with these people on major labels. But we got approached about being on this all-gay label, the first time it's ever been done on a clear major. The people we met there weren't that much different from the people we met running the indie labels, and they basically said, 'Do what you do. We don't want to change you.'"

It's easy to understand why Columbia wouldn't want to mess with Ditto and her bandmates, guitarist Nathan Howdeshell and drummer Hannah Blilie. The band scored a hit last year with "Standing on the Edge of Control," a self-empowerment punk manifesto that filtered into the dance clubs with its addictive disco groove and a stentorian Ditto vocal worthy of Gloria "I Will Survive" Gaynor.

The track will kick off the inaugural Music With a Twist release, "Twist Revolutions," a compilation coming out April 17. The band releases its own album for the label later this year.

GLBT Label Music With a Twist Announces First Two Signed Artists

Openly gay Persian singer Firouz turns some of his darkest memories into an inspirational message for everyone on his debut single "Warchild." Firouz came to Europe after leaving his beloved country of Iran to live a life of freedom. He now lives in Hamburg, Germany where he is a successful model, dancer and aspiring singer.
...
Firouz is currently writing songs for his debut album that serve as a soundtrack to his memoir The Story of a Warchild. "Warchild" has been remixed and is available on iTunes in the U.S. If you'd like to hear the original version of "Warchild" and more of Firouz' tracks, head over to his MySpace page. More of my interview with Firouz soon. (A big, big thank you to Firouz for allowing me to post this track.)

Rufus Wainwright has always been pretty direct. He's generally frank in interviews, has been openly gay from day one, and comes clean with dirty laundry pretty happily. And, as he'd tell you himself, he can be a demanding diva. "I don't think I mince words on this album," Rufus says in the press notes for his forthcoming Release the Stars (due in May). "Whether it's America, or my best friend, or my lover, I'm specific about what my demands are." Trust. And if you've seen Rufus in concert, you know he's also funny and flip, and likes to make fun of his fussy self, too.

That's why I kind of think he's partly serious/partly just being intentionally overdramatic in his new single (leaked online today[b]) "Going to a Town." In the tune, he sings poutily about how he's "so tired of America." He evidently wrote the tune really quickly, almost on a whim: "I wrote that in about five minutes. I remember distinctly that I was waiting to go to dinner and I had about twenty minutes to spare. I off-handedly said, 'I think I'll go down and f*ck around on the piano' and all of a sudden that song was finished. It sort of arrived. Those are always the best ones; they're from some nether region that you have no control over."

You can download [b]"Going to a Town" here (via Stereogum via Hard to Find a Friend). Indeed, it's languid and mopey and melodic and lovely and self-indulgent. And Martha (his sis) is singing backup. If you love Rufus, you'll like it. If you're not a fan, this probably won't change your mind.

As of tomorrow morning, Toronto will get a chance to hear just what a gay radio station sounds like. Claiming to be the world's first commercially licensed radio station to specifically target the gay, lesbian and transgendered communities, Proud FM 103.9 hits the local airwaves at 6 a.m.

...

And once they're on the air, what will they sound like? Gay artists such as Elton John and stereotypical gay-community favourites like Madonna and Cher will be part of the Proud playlist. But Torontonians hoping to hear prominent, catchy local queer acts – the church-folkies in Hidden Cameras and the Polaris prize-winning Final Fantasy come to mind – will probably be disappointed. The current promos don't make Proud sound all that different from stations like Mix 99.9, using the so-called "hot AC" format – uptempo pop for the adult-contemporary market.

...

"Do we have to go `we're gay, we're gay, we're gay!' Wouldn't that be just as annoying as someone saying `we're straight, we're straight, we're straight!'" says James Collins, Proud's music director. "We all like the same music. It's not different – we might like a bit more kitschy stuff. We're a little more liberal than what the average station will play. Yes, we'll play more dancey stuff, and we're playing lots of openly gay artists and closeted gay artists, but it's just not discussed, like no one says we're playing Erasure, he's gay."

...

For listeners, it's a chance to hear how different sexual orientations sound. Or to find out if it sounds different at all.

As of tomorrow morning, Toronto will get a chance to hear just what a gay radio station sounds like. Claiming to be the world's first commercially licensed radio station to specifically target the gay, lesbian and transgendered communities, Proud FM 103.9 hits the local airwaves at 6 a.m.

Does a gay radio station have to go `we're gay, we're gay, we're gay'? Ummm... yes.

in truth a straight and a gay culture are existing side by side

“More than a language, Polari is an attitude,” says Baker, one that demonstrates how gay men “reconstruct their world and themselves from new perspectives, making sense of experiences that have no existing labels in mainstream culture.”

Freddie Mercury: Magic Remixed is a pretty awesome look back at the Queen-y rock star's life and his legacy. Folks like Elton John, George Michael and Robbie Williams (who goes on and on and on about Mercury) offer their two quid about how influential and fierce Freddie was. And better yet, the doc sheds light on Mercury's background, family life (he was Indian), and talks to his family members, which is pretty rad. You'll not want to miss hearing Freddie's little old lady mom talking about her nice son who morphed into one of the biggest gay idols and rock titans of all time.

The documentary airs in a week or so (Saturday, April 28th at 9pm) on Logo...

This coming Wednesday, our very own associate editor Brian Juergens will sit down with Rufus Wainwright to talk about the songster's new album, his participation in the upcoming True Colors Tour with Cyndi Lauper, and whatever else you want to know about the pop star. If you've got a question you've been dying to get answered, drop us a line at editor@afterelton.com with RUFUS in the subject line. We'll choose the best and report back to you what Mr. Wainwright had to say!

25 Apr 2007 - AZ Conni --- Dresden, Germany

26 Apr 2007- Rote Sonne --- Munich, Germany

27 Apr 2007 - Crossing Europe Festival -- Linz,
Austria

28 Apr 2007 - Donaufestival -- Krems, Austria
w/ ESG, GANG OF FOUR, & FELIX KUBIN

29 Apr 2007 - Club Bordo (tbc) ---- Prague, Czech
Republic

30 Apr 2007 - Tsunami Club ---- Cologne, Germany

02 May 2007 - Le Theo ------------ Toulouse, France

04 May 2007 - Razzmatazz -- Barcelona, Spain

05 May 2007 - ELASTICO Flexiclub --- Madrid, Spain

It seems more than a few people end up at Gay Republic Daily in search of KidsOnTV's European tour.

The Scissor Sisters have just finished filming their new single Kiss You Off.

[...]

Ana Matronic takes lead in this Blondie-esque anthem to breaking up "I think it's one of the most polished and professional looking things we've ever done but don't hold that against us; it was so much fun to do. We hope you like it," says Ana Matronic.

Since hitting the airwaves nearly three years ago, Bayliss has charted a course for San Francisco's only independently owned radio station that has enabled it to turn a profit and become the most listened to dance/electronic radio station on the West Coast.

"The gay community, which makes up 15% of the San Francisco market and represents $670 billion in consumer spending, has a passion for dance music, but no one was playing it. So we launched Energy 92.7FM Pure Dance," said Bayliss. "We took an old-fashioned approach to our business model: local, live personalities and grass roots community involvement and went to work."

Bayliss and his team put together a radio line up of the hippest dance club music available with dynamic on-air personalities that today includes America's first all-gay morning radio show. Additionally, the Energy team began supporting local non-profits and taking an active role within the community. "We wanted to be the kind of station that not only played great music, but was there for the community 365 days a year," added Bayliss.

I'm just asking if anyone here assembled wishes to wager some imaginary pink dollars against the proposition that the number one reason this concept wasn't put together by Gays is that "my orientation is just one small part of who I am."

It's hard not to love Owen Pallett.

It's the music that gets you first. There is a fiercely compelling quality to the songs penned by the Toronto violinist. And once drawn in, small tastes of Pallett's personality — during live performances or radio broadcasts — has most listeners hooked. Deeply personable and amusingly self-effacing, the young musician is quite willing to spill his guts on all the biggies — whether music, sex, religion, cooking, pop culture and social theories.

Pallett's solo project Final Fantasy (a tribute to the Japanese videogame series of which he is a fan) eases in and out of melodramatic baroque pop. Amidst the swells of evocative strings, the lyrics are intimate, sometimes confessional and always part of a bigger concept.

Still, to dissect Pallett's music is hardly to do it justice. What it comes down to is this — somehow, despite the melodrama of the songs and Pallett's quavering voice, the music is touchingly beautiful.

[...]

Pallett believes that, like it or not, he is defined by his sexuality. The Final Fantasy sound, which is his appeal, has everything to do with being gay.

"I do have a theory," he says. "I think that the gayness of the artist is reflected in the art, whether or not it's political or sexy or has anything to do with gay sex. There will always be that whiff of anti-traditionalism."

Still, as many have said, being gay is not enough. But virtuostic ability plus the creativity of an untraditional life — is the key to Pallett's music.

Pallett's own music is the farthest thing from traditional and he likes it that way. And having toured internationally, Pallett is grateful that he lives in a country where his offbeat art really stands out.

"Canada is very privileged in the gay culture scheme of things. We're both accepting of homos and yet still pretty conservative, which, for gays and lesbians, is the perfect mix. I have this theory that one of the main goals of homosexuals is to be in constant opposition to the mainstream — to always remain counter-cultural. Right? So, Canada has it good for gays. We're accepted here and can marry. But at the same time, the culture is pretty conservative, with our try-hard-to-be-cutting-edge architecture and our pedestrian film scene."

[...]

Incredibly, the 2006 album, which took the eight schools of magic in Dungeons & Dragons and translated them into lyrical day to day phenomena, managed to win the 2006 Polaris prize. Many were not surprised. Pallet apparently was.

Chosen by music journalists the Polaris Music Prize is an award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. Pallett is still not reconciled to his win. "I don't think I really deserved to win and so I harbour strange, bipolar feelings about the experience. I'm not being self-effacing. I just can't believe that a roomful of people thought He Poos Clouds was better than Destroyer's Rubies."

Toronto.
(appearing with Do Make Say Think)
Harbourfront Centre.
Sun, Jul 1.
www.harbourfrontcentre.com.

Winnipeg.
Winnipeg Folk Festival.
Sat, Jul 7.
Sun, Jul 8.
www.winnipegfolkfestival.ca.

Ottawa.
Bluesfest — Black Sheep Stage.
Mon, Jul 9, 9:15pm.
www.ottawabluesfest.ca.

Calgary.
Folk Festival — Prince's Island Park.
Fri, Jul 27.
Sat, Jul 28.
Sun, Jul 29.
www.calgaryfolkfest.com.

Pallett believes that, like it or not, he is defined by his sexuality. The Final Fantasy sound, which is his appeal, has everything to do with being gay.

"I do have a theory," he says. "I think that the gayness of the artist is reflected in the art, whether or not it's political or sexy or has anything to do with gay sex.

In 2005, at age 27, Bédard encountered the driving force behind his music — and his move to BC. "I fell in love with a boy and I moved to Vancouver for him," he gushes. "It was life-changing, that's for sure.

"The whole record was inspired by my relationship with my boyfriend," he continues. "The cheerfulness and the playfulness of the record come from this amazing relationship."

"Best Boy Electric," a boy-on-boy duet, narrates Bédard's romance. "It was a refreshing experience to sing along with another guy!" he says. The pop track's theatrical arrangements, redolent of musicals he admires, capture his childlike joy and refusal to take things too seriously.

"It was the first time ever that I allowed myself to be silly," he says. "I like laughing, and I didn't want to fake it by being intimate and tortured and serious."

[...]

For Bédard, to compose songs with an air of joy to them was a deliberate choice. "Real happiness is never represented anywhere. It's taboo to be happy... you're supposed to be miserable. There are serious things happening, I understand. But if you want your life to be happy, there's nothing stopping you."

"This record is about allowing yourself to be happy," he continues. "People keep things inside too [often]."

Bédard's writing comes from a more trusting, benevolent perspective. "I think people can find a lot of warmth and comfort in it, because that's how I felt when I was recording it."

[...]

Going Places.
Montag.
www.montag.ca.
www.myspace.com/montagmontag

The front man of Toronto rock band the Cliks bares a turbulent tapestry on his arm: a dragon leaping through flames and waves, two guns bearing wide wings, and the word “Survivor.”

“This is all to commemorate what I went through,” says Silveira, who is transgender. “Fifty percent of trans people commit suicide. I went to that place, and I know where that comes from. I felt so lucky that I got through it that this was to commemorate the entire ordeal.”

Silveira is the first out transgender artist to be signed to a high profile label, Tommy Boy’s gay-friendly imprint Silver Label. These days he is trying to build a career as he rebuilds his life as a biological female who identifies as male.

The Cliks were featured on the recent gay-oriented True Colors Tour, playing alongside Cyndi Lauper, Erasure, and Debbie Harry. This spring they released Snakehouse, an emotional, guitar-driven album. Their single “Oh Yeah” spent several weeks atop a musical countdown on Logo, the gay-themed cable network.

Performers who defy the status quo face a challenge: how to live up to the hype on an artistic level that their identities generate. Sometimes these acts rely on novelty alone for sales and popularity. Conversely, Silveira hopes his artistry will eventually outshine a gender identity considered edgy in the pop mainstream.

At first glance the singer, who declines to give his age, looks like a petite tomboy with stylish, cropped locks and thick, lush eyelashes. While shopping for sneakers in downtown Manhattan (”I love shoes, man,” he gushes), salesmen offer him women’s sizes even though he asks for men’s. Silveira knows he looks more female than male; on his records he sounds like it too. He sacrificed the male attributes hormones offer to maintain his singing voice. Instead, he underwent a double mastectomy to feel more comfortable in his skin.

“People are like, ‘How opportunistic of you. Is this a gimmick? Do you think it’s stylish to be this way?”’ he says of skeptics. “And I am like, ‘Yeah, I am really, really into having a double mastectomy for fashion.”’

"... the Cliks music kinda sounds like what might happen if Chrissie Hynde and the Murmurs Leisha Hailey fell in love, got Bowie to help out with insemination and gave birth to an indie rock love child. It's all kinda raw but sweetly melodic, with a ballsy cabaret swagger." -SARAH LISS, NOW Magazine

Singer Ivri Lider is a household name in his native Israel, having sold over 160,000 albums and being named Male Singer of the Year in 2005 by Israeli radio stations. Ivri recently contributed to the soundtrack for (and appeared in) the 2006 film, "The Bubble"; he performs a song entitled, “The Man I Love.” Somewhat surprisingly, considering his mainstream popularity, Ivri is also openly gay. He famously came out in 2002 and has stayed at the top since then.

Avoid Thursdays...they play rap music and dancehall on that day.

Outmusic is a network of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered musicians and supporters. Performers, composers, lyricists, producers, recording artists, activists, promoters, press/media and even non-musicians who believe in LGBT music have joined Outmusic over the years.

Outmusic was founded in 1990 when a group of musicians met at Dan Martin and Michael Biello's East Village apartment to share music and experiences. This became the open mics, which are still held monthly in New York.

Since its founding, Outmusic has participated in the community in many ways. Some years the organization sponsored festivals, other years there have been compilation CDs or special events. Of course, through it all there have always been the open mics, where new and seasoned musicians still come together with goals not unlike the original sessions: to share music and experiences in a safe and welcoming space.