My first impression of the band was as sort of a thrashier Arch Enemy, but they’re a lot more diverse than that, splashing across several variations of metal after the explosive opening track. Here’s a track that highlights multiple aspects of what they can do.
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.
Also...yes, this is blatant trans lesbian nepotism. Pretty girls that kiss me get featured on trans music monday. Especially when I am very gay for her.
And yes, I am stoking another discourse - it's time we all talked about ethics in trans music hashtags and the blatant nepotism of one of the people that unpredictably shares trans music on the fedi. I expect you all to start a crowdfunding website tomorrow to create a documentary that proves that I am an evil, schemer coming for the straight boys music to trans it up....because that would be fucking metal as hell 😈🤘
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
It’s #TransMusicMonday y’all. Created by @JoscelynTransient and brought to my attention by @VestigialLung recently. Today I’m posting an artist I saw a couple of years ago that really blew me away. This is P1nkstar, originally from Mexico and now based in Austin, TX.
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.
I just noticed a musical hashtag I haven’t seen before, from @JoscelynTransient via @VestigialLung. It’s #TransMusicMonday and my first entry is local Denton/Dallas artist Dahlia Knowles (she/her) and her band Lorelei K with their newly released single
Having discovered Ada Rook through Backxwash, and thus the 60s on my list being largely owned by various Black Dresses-adjacent projects, #TransMusicMonday this week is another project from Devi McCalion, specifically one of her collaborations with Katie Day. Of her three albums (on Spotify) under her own name, the first is sort of an industrial drone thing; then the following two are sort of an industrial dance situation.
#TransMusicMonday this week is going to be Fire-Toolz (Angel Marcloid, she/her)
This is an odd project. Most songs will center around the juxtaposition of black metal or industrial-style fry screams up against EDM, vaporwave, and/or 80s/early 90s “adult contemporary” pop hit sounds. It’s a core that creates an interesting dynamic, as the songs often feel at odds with themselves in a way that has to be deliberate. Well worth checking out.
For #TransMusicMonday I present the album you all have heard about by now, made recently available on BandCamp as not to punish listeners that use that platform.
Our #metal masterpiece born of trauma, despair, hope, and wonder, this is Salvation.
It’s a gory look into a life lived in the fringe, torn apart by the evil in this world. But it also serves as a statement of a soul that refuses to die.
"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.
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!
Why? A pioneer that shaped the sound of R&B in the 1960s (esp. the Toronto Sound), helped cultivate Toronto’s early queer community, and influenced glam rock and funk.
Where to start?
“Sticks and Stones” probably sums up her ethos best, as a trans woman who lovingly presented her queerness on stage. https://youtu.be/u00HYZXxxOA
Remember the transcestors during #TransAwarenessWeek! Boosting Jackie Shane, a pioneer that broke ground on the R&B sound that would inform so much of modern music. She was an out and proud trans woman at a time when it was illegal to be us. Go through this #TransMusicMonday thread and listen to her amazing voice. Connect with the legacy of creativity our trans elders have gifted us. 💖
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: