Lee Teka is also a comic artist (often under E.L. Tedana), and you can help support them by buying this wonderful anthology of their work from ABO Comix: https://www.abocomix.com/store/p303/bodeofwork.html
Why? Her music captures this amazing tension between delicate and powerful that holds one in the place of unresolved liminality. Not to mention, one of the few artists who has really coalesced what I want most from goth music.
(NOTE: I'll be taking a break from the fedi for several months after this, just want to leave you all with some great music in the meantime)
Artist: Farewell Utopia (Nikita, she/they)
Why? Because her music hits a lot of diverse synth vibes - chill synth, 80s horror synth, experimental noise - and is an amazing listen! Also...I may be dating her and she is brilliant and beautiful and creative, and go give her a listen already!
My favorite album of hers is "Indecision" (https://farewellutopia.bandcamp.com/album/indecision). It is heavily inspired by 70s and 80s horror soundtracks, reminding of the Goblins and other synthesizer heavy horror musical artists.
Why? Because Laura Jane Grace's music has been a companion to so many of us over the last decade, and she just released a new album!
Where to start?
"Dysphoria Hoodie" has quickly become a favorite of a lot of trans people, speaking to those days when shit is hard and we reach for our most comforting wardrobe item. https://youtu.be/miGIgIqcsXA?si=lF7OM95fzC49W7ZE
I'm also really loving "I'm Not A Cop." Really speaks to the way we start policing each other in leftist and queer communities, and reinstitute the same crap. https://youtu.be/nk5UnxIqgRQ?si=wPKtgzjXe7LdSJ6r
Been a hot second thanks to a month of starting two different jobs and personal ups and downs.
Kicking this one off with a folk punk playlist inspired by preparing for my teaching about what the prison-industrial complex does to LGBTQIA+ folks.
Artist: Left at London
Song: Do You See Us?
Why? This line lives rent-free in my head, "Fuck you and the slavers that you work for! This songs for the people you killed!"
Artist: Ezra Furman
Song: Point Me Towards the Real
Why? The song is about someone being released from detention at a psychiatric hospital and what it means to reenter the world afterwards when you've been left behind by the world and have to start over.
You know, I'm still baffled by the fact that Dorian Electra released a Hyperpop album in 2020 where they collaborated with Pussy Riot, the Village People, and Rebecca Black (helping launch her comeback) to satirize and roast incels, edgelords, conspiracy theorists, and tradwives.
And it honestly had better analysis of the online far right in it than many of my academic colleagues had in their papers and activism.
If you haven't, go listen to it and just imbibe the campy genderfuckery that is Dorian Electra's "My Agenda."
Je veux attirer l’attention sur une pionnière du synthétiseur, Wendy Carlos. Compositrice de musique classique née en 1939, très tôt attirée par les tous nouveaux sons du synthétiseur. Elle a eu beaucoup de succès dès ses débuts, avec l’album Switched-On Back, une interprétation des musiques de Bach au synthé, qui fut l’album le plus vendu en 1968 (qui est quand même l’année de sortie du White Album des Beatles, et autres gros titres). Elle a ensuite fait les bandes son de Orange Mécanique, The Shining ou encore Tron. Voilà ici une playlist de ses grands titres et une interview d’elle en 1989. Et puis si la théorie musicale vous branche (branché, synthé- vous l’avez ?), voilà une vidéo chouette qui explique comment fonctionne sa musique. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuT6Y53LYH4
"Book of Our Names" is like a gospel hymn for the sacredness of trans lives. It is hard not to see it both as about the ritual so many of us perform on TDOR every year, the reading of names and a candlelight vigil, and as a call to faith that we will endure and overcome.
Give yourself a few minutes today to just listen and feel this song.
Artist: G.L.O.S.S a.k.a. Girls Living Outside Society’s Shit
(Corey, Sadie Switchblade, Jake, Tannrr, Julaya)
[NOTE: Does anybody know pronouns for all members of the band?]
Why? Legends of hardcore punk, G.L.O.S.S. showed up on the scene when so much of the US alt/punk scene had become dominated by manchildren singing about beer, cars, and the girls they mistreat. While they were only around for a few years, they flipped the table over, challenged sexism and transmisogyny, and helped foster “safe and tough” queer punk spaces. Their sound is all over many of my favorite trans fem bands today, speaking to how they changed the scene.
Where to start?
“Trans Day of Revenge” feels like one of those old DIY hardcore riot grrrl cassettes you happen upon in a record shop. It charges headlong into confrontation with fucked up world, short but with unrelenting energy that doesn’t stop to take a breath.
As with any hardcore band, I think you will always see them at their best live. The set below came after they were thrown into a shitstorm by transmisogynist jerks in a different band, and it captures perfectly the moment.
Much like Bikini Kill, they lead into their set by declaring a transfemininst manifesto that slaps:
“They told us we were girls
How we talk, dress, look, and cry
They told us we were girls
So we claimed our female lives
Now they tell us we aren’t girls
Our femininity doesn’t fit
We’re fucking FUTURE GIRLS, Living Outside Society’s Shit!”
Also, a little note for my #TransMusicMonday followers, I'm going to be reboosting and sharing my trans music posts from the entire year for #TransAwarenessWeek! So keep an eye out in your feeds throughout the week for more great #Trans and gender diverse artists!
While finally getting all my blog posts published on my newly updated website, I realized most of the followers I now have probably didn't read those first posts. It's amazing to reflect on how much the community I'm a part of here has grown since I began publishing these in February! And heck, doing some light proofreading and editing as I uploaded the piece, I realize my voice as a writer has grown too!
My second ever #TranspiringConsiderations essay is now edited and published on my site! This one was about what Laura Jane Grace and the album "Transgender Dysphoria Blues" meant to me once upon a time.
Why? Today is something a bit different: an anthology cover album for trans rights! The indie label FADER has brought together a bunch of artists, including trans and queer artists I've shared here before, to raise money for the Transgender Law Center, Mermaids UK, and Rainbow Railroad. Buy it on bandcamp to support these organizations!
Where to start?
I mean, if Ezra Furman is doing something, I’m probably going to talk about it. This is probably one of her folksiest tunes, a cover of “12,000 Lines” by Big Thief.
Just a reminder, you only have until December 1st to purchase FADER & Friends as part of a fundraiser for trans rights! It's a collection of covers by a bunch of amazing trans and queer musical artists, often of other queer artists!
So if you got some spending money, really encourage you to go out and purchase this wonderful effort that is helping fund the work of those fighting for #TransRights
I've got a new song out for the first time in nearly two months! mostly because I found myself being a perfectionist with regard to actually finishing it, and I find that's the time when I just need to pop an end on the damn thing and release it 😅
anyways, you might be able to broadly categorize this one as dreampop, though there's influences from all over the map here 😌 artists/albums I had in mind include the dream academy, sigur ros, slowdive's just for a day, and a couple of my usual touchstones: disintegration/wish-era the cure and ulrich schnauss. anyway, hope y'all enjoy! <3
Why? Mykki might be described as hip hop with riot grrrl edge and queer joyous exuberance. Her lines and sampling remind me of the best of 90s hip hop, while pushing past genre into something wonderfully fresh.
Where to start?
The GucciGig video highlights how fluidly they move between brilliant rap and into melodic ballad and hip-hop, with rapturous artistry abounding. https://youtu.be/TXqSIs-i_h8
Gonna feature Mykki Blanco first for reboosting #TransMusic for #TransAwarenessWeek! Check out her amazing lines and the rapturous energy of their sound.
Welcome to the first Trans Music Monday! Need something fun or cathartic to ride into the weekend? Don't have enough trans genius in your playlists? I got you!
Artist: Dorian Electra (Genderfluid, they/them)
Why? You need to have your brain exploded by multimedia genius. Burning edge of hyperpop and playing with genre. Can invert your presumptions on gender and sexuality on a whim.
Where to start?
I suggest their song, "Career Boy"
Did you know my first ever #TransMusicMonday was actually on a Friday? In case you weren't following me then, go check out the reigning monarch of hyperpop: Dorian Electra. Especially because they released a new album last month, "Fanfare," and it is soaked in sodomy, sex, and satirical critiques of rainbow capitalism and the music industry. Definitely worth your time to give it a try: