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.
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.
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
This week's queer country playlist features Joh Chase, Autumn Nicholas, Izzy Heltai, Jenny Owen Youngs, Lizzy Lehman, Lydia Loveless, and Shadwick Wilde! Crank up your speakers!
I sometimes feel despair / dysphoric about my voice, as a singer songwriter. Like I'm never going to reach the people I want to reach because I don't sound like the kind of person I think they'd listen to. It's often triggered by listening to cis women sing...
I've been surprised to find that performing live is a pretty effective treatment. The people who show up are exactly who I want to reach.
oh hey, it's the first Bandcamp Friday in ages! so it's time once again for me to plug the fact that I make electronic music 😁
you can pick up lossless copies of my debut album Nonbinaural, and my darker, more experimental EP Eclipse, right now for just $2 total (or more if you're feeling generous) right now on my Bandcamp page: https://rachelunderspoon.bandcamp.com
this track grew out of the desire to craft something more song-based, and the vocal melody popped into my head while arranging the opening part with the crunchy synths. this is the first time that I've been, let's say, not dissatisfied with the way my singing turned out.
influences here include early NIN and Thrill Kill Kult, HEALTH, Kidneythieves' "Trickster" and The Smashing Pumpkins' "Machina."
hi, everyone! my new EP, eclipse, is out today on bandcamp!
the idea for this project came about because I felt the need to explore a few darker themes that didn't really fit on nonbinaural. I don't like to engage in too much doomerism or trauma-dumping through my music, but a lot of what's present here is part of my story. and I don't feel as though I can earnestly express joy and love without also relating, in some form, the concurrent sorrow, anger and anxiety. any other approach would be succumbing to toxic positivity.
so, with that in mind, I present to you my eclipse - a momentary lapse into shadow.
what's included:
"autoflagellate" is the most distortion-heavy thing that I've composed to date, and it also features some basic (non-spoken-word) vocals. to say that I'm uncomfortable as a vocalist would be an understatement, but I also feel that it's important to challenge myself as an artist. I think the end result turned out... not too badly?
"drone" is a minimal techno-influenced track that I'd initially wanted to add words to and ran into writer's block at the time of its original SoundCloud release. here, I've repurposed it to tell a true story.
I originally wanted to include "rising oceans" on nonbinaural, but I couldn't find a place for it on the album. someone once called it "apocalyptic donkey kong country music," and I like that description enough that I'm running with it.
the title track is the last complete song that I composed before escaping an abusive household. it's one of the most experimental things I've ever released, and also includes a short, surreal poem that I'm fairly proud of.
I completed the bulk of "what she left behind," my "synthwave epic," last june, then promptly shelved it for some reason that I can't quite remember. then, last week, I finally dusted it off, added a bunch of overdubs, and rewrote and re-recorded the spoken-word part. this final version is much closer to how I'd originally envisioned the song, and I'm glad that I waited this long to release it.
additionally, your purchase of the EP at $1 or more gives you access to instrumental versions of "autoflagellate" and "what she left behind," as well as "sunset cliffs," a downtempo track that I composed for fun to see if I could liberally thieve from a certain german electronic artist.
and either way - even if you just stream the EP - thank you so much for listening! <3