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!
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.
Importantly, this anthology album is a limited time fundraiser to support trans rights. So give it a listen today, and pick it up before it disappears!
Listening to this all day and probably going to be highlighting some of my favorite tracks for #TransMusicMonday
Because I am a sucker for synthesizers, I am probably listening to blackwinterwells' cover of "Honest Mistake" on repeat for a while....holy cow, she makes this her own and I think it might be the only valid version of this song for now on 🤩
Okay, now that I stopped listening to that on repeat, continuing my listening of the FADER and Friends trans rights anthology fundraiser, and so many of these are amazing.
And Free Range blue me away with this cover of "Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks. It was always a song I thought was just alright, but the flourish of their vocals just really brought the feels of this song alive.
I think Hedra Rowan just broke my heart with her cover of "You Don't Love Me When I Cry" by Laura Nyro. She really shows off the startling and powerful range that trans voices are capable of. If you need a moment to sit with your feels, give this a listen today:
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.
My first encounter with the Cramps was the music video for "Garbageman." While this is a cover, it was an invitation into music that coins the idea of "punkabilly" and if Lux's extreme vocals and Ivy's groundbreaking guitar don't put a spell on you, I don't know what will.
"Ultratwist" will give you a taste of how they developed their style and sound with one of their later ablums. It also features all the wonderful campy horror vibes in the music video that define their aesthetic.
To truly understand the magic that these two brought into the world, you gotta watch them live. Have you ever wondered what the acoustics of a man singing while fellating a microphone sound like? Well, you will find out as Lux gyrates and lurches in uncanny and animalistic fashion across the stage with leather pants so low you can see his pubic hair while performing "I Was a Teenage Werewolf"
You can also get a taste for their kinky queerness in "Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon," as Lux performs in leather thong and high heels. CW: music video starts with a scene depicting a bloody demonic birth of a grown man
Thing is, Lux and Ivy were brilliant and unapologetically transgressive, while also deeply loving art. One of my favorite examples of this is one of the only songs I know about a Dada/Cubist painting. "Naked Girl Falling Down the Stairs" is about encountering Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nude_Descending_a_Staircase,_No._2) in a museum. The music video also highlights once more Lux's amazing ability to perform in stiletto heels and a latex jumpsuit:
The Cramps infamously also decided to build on Johnny Cash's recording of performances at prisons by playing the Napa Valley Mental Hospital in 1978. Mental Hospitals were still pretty rough back then, but this is clearly a welcome bit of fun and liveliness for the patients, as they dance and even join onstage, and Lux and Ivy seem to be having a blast with them all. I think things like this endeared them to outsiders, weirdos, and folks living with mental illnesses like myself.
Lastly, I also want to suggest people check out a video essay about the Cramps by A Grrrl's Two Sound Cents. It really highlights what was amazing about this band, how absolutely brilliant and hypnotizing Poison Ivy's guitar virtuosity is, and the abosolute unrestrained play of Lux Interior on stage.
I think it's interesting the way their journey maps onto so many queer people's stories. Lux was from Ohio but escaped to California for college where he met his brilliant and beautiful wife and bandmate, Ivy. They brought their musical circus to New York in the late 70s and were a core part of the emerging punk scene, blowing open the possibilities of what punk could be. They later settled in West Hollywood, where Lux started wearing heels and breaking gender.
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. 😁
I also want to highlight their song "Constellation," which I'm pretty sure is a tribute to polyamorous queer love. The idea of my extended polycule as a constellation...gives me such heartwarming joy:
"in my constellation these are my stars
and we know where we are
so don't be afraid to make the sky brighter
cos what's another light in the dark"
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."
Her most recent release, "Seatbelts," really feels like a tribute to the quiet, vulnerable love of the long-distance t4t relationship so many of us experience. It also brings me back to the moments of longing and heartbreak I've gone through in the last month or so, in a good way.