#TransMusicMonday (KatieDavies, she/her)
The year is 1999, Norma Jean is the heaviest, most abrasive thing I’ve ever heard. It’s 2024, and I’ve finally heard a band that challenges that. Their second album is slightly softer than their first, more of a sonic punch in the face vs a punch in the throat, but the introduction of conceits such as dynamics and melody tend to make the brutal bits feel even harder.
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!
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.
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
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!"
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.
"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.
#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.
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.
Artist: The Cramps (Lux Interior, he/him; Poison Ivy, she/her)
Why?
For Halloween, I decided to do something a bit different. The artists today never identified as trans as far as I know, but were so campy in queering gender and aggressively gender non-conforming that they embody the wider meaning of transgressing the gender binary.
Today, I am going to give you a crash course in THE CRAMPS!
The lead singer, Lux Interior (he/him), and lead guitar, Poison Ivy (she/her), fell in love over their shared passion as record collectors of classic blues and rock-n-roll, as well as a love for B-movie horror films. This led them to get married and form a band that basically created the genre of "psychobilly," also cementing other subgenres like "punkabilly." I think it's also fair to credit them with inspiring the aesthetics of later goth and emo scenes, as well.
Artist: PowderPaint (@powderpaint), which is Shonalika (@shonalika, they/them) and Hazel (@hazel, they/she)
Why? Have you ever wondered what would happen if time-traveling goth queers went back to the 80s to start a synth-pop band? Powderpaint is all this and more, and are perfect for navigating the cyberpunk dystopia we all live in.
Where to start?
Their most recent single is an absolute banger and hits me in the trans feels hard. Also, in the music video, it's a hoot seeing Shonalika switch out their usual black clothes for white and Hazel's bright aesthetics for black and red. 😁
Why? If you're like me and in a bit of a mood, Superknova's music often captures that perfectly. It's like walking under an umbrella through the streets of a city on a rainy day, mixed with the angst of queer struggle.
Where to start?
"Glitter and Blood" is one of my favorites and a good introduction to her music. Honestly, kinda what every bit of writing I do feels like to me, "painting the walls with glitter and blood."
Hehe, I'm glad to see others are starting to join in for #TransMusicMonday ! @VestigialLung had joined me early on, but it makes me happy to have as much music by trans, non-binary, and gender expansive artists shared as possible. 🤩😊