"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.
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.
Why? Because this is the kind of folk-y emo punk that I can't help but come back to again and again and again. Unapologetically queer and feminist, with lyrics that you can't help but let turn into earworms. You can also hear how she keeps working on her sound as the years have gone on.
Where to start?
"Gender is Boring" is the kind of awkward, ranty song that the trans heart can't help but sing.
As someone who didn't grow up knowing she was actually a girl, the first verse always hits hard, which ends with:
"Gender never really meant that much to me
Til' people started telling me how it was supposed to be
Til' the people that I loved started to say
Boys don't talk that way
Boys don't dress that way
Boys don't act that way"
Aside from metal, I sometimes listen to softer music, jazz and ambient most of the time. So I stumbled on this artist while listening to non-metal music. She is Anohni (born Anthony), singer of the Anohni And The Johnsons, a soft jazz experience with alt rock influences. Definitely deserves more than a listening. Your heart will be grateful.
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. 😁
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.
Because I need to "keep my body moving" as Tunde says, and their music helps me move on a Monday morning.
Where to start?
The song that told me I would fall in love with Tunde's music was the first song on their album of the same name, "Transgressor." They sing about breaking through walls, but keeping a brick to remind them of things they've done. If that's not trans power, I don't know what is.
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.
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
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
(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 😈🤘
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
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.
#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.