Tender and heart-breaking, yet fierce. Venus de Mars is a star more people should know about. Love that Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! features on one track. Inspirational.
Submitted by Lee. Photo taken by Leah Corbett Photography.
“This is the photo featured on the album cover for Anjimile’s upcoming LP entitled ‘Human Nature.’
Anjimile is a queer non-binary black musician from Boston, and this album is a colorful, chaotic, melodic journey into the labyrinth of thoughts and feelings that we call the human condition. What does it mean to feel the body, the mind, and the soul fully? How does it feel to be a human being? What is the feeling? Anjimile explores these themes in an album written in 3 parts: Act I (You Were Born), Act II (You Will Be), Act III (You Will Die).
CN Lester — You Anti-queerphobia music video from a genderqueer artist
I’m a UK trans/queer activist and artist, and my latest music video is a collaboration between friends and fellow activists to challenge the slurs we’ve been saddled with throughout our lives.
I wrote the song ‘You’ for my audiences as a thank you — so it made sense to make a video that would try to do the same thing. I was bullied badly all the way through school – biphobia, transphobia, and just in general – and I wanted to make something that addressed that head on. It’s a very simple concept — everyone in the video shows the viewer a word they’ve been called and hurt by, and then shows the camera a word that ACTUALLY describes them — but I think there’s something powerful in having to hold someone’s gaze as they tell you how others have tried — and failed — to dehumanise them.
There’s an Irish/Scottish ballad called “Donald, Where’s Your Trousers?” about a young man who is questioned/heckled for wearing a kilt instead of trousers.
Well, I’m a transguy, and my name’s Donald, and I guess I just loved the fact that there was a song like this out there.
And we all love kilts here, so I thought I’d share!
DebaserZ takes on heteronormativity and the gender binary with an arsenal of hilarious, queered-up pop song covers. Check out “Fuck Heteronormativity,” an awesome deconstruction of “You Belong With Me.”
“And you’ve got a smile that could light up this whole town, but it doesn’t come out much when you’re getting mispronouned…”
Just a few days ago I’d discovered a band from the 90’s called Magnetic Fields and have been listening to them a bunch.
I was surprised to see a song of theirs posted on my youtube feed from Domino records. The whole song can be summed up by a single line: “The only girl I’ll ever love is Andrew in drag.”
NB: The video features brief nudity. There is also a music-only version.
Indochine have quite a few songs about being gender-variant, including Playboy, 3ème sexe (literally translates to “third sex”), and Ladyboy. Revolution is kind of about gender. Juliette’s Silences and Unisexe are somewhat about gender, but focus more on relationships.
Indochine is an incredibly gender progressive band. Unfortunately, they do only sing in French. Still, their songs have a pretty clear meaning!
@katebornstein: “New song by me on YouTube: ‘Tranny of Assisi.’ Art by @relaxmammal, music by @Songify. http://t.co/GC8LskV #cute #pug #puggle #cats #dogs.”
With more than a few characters left in her seven score limit (not to mention the draconian firewalls at my nine-to-fiver), I almost didn’t click on that link. Known more for her staging than her singing, I thought it a bit unceremonious, too, for our most decorated “transgender warrior” to drop such a thing out of nowhere. Barely a minute long, perhaps Col. B. didn’t think it warranted any real shock ’n’ awe.
But boy-oh-lady-boy, did she ever undersell it.
Unlike many in the elder guard, Auntie Kate has always had her finger quite abreast on whatever it is the kids are up to nowadays. Produced entirely on a dollar store App(le) for geniuses on the go, this li’l ditty is a delightfully vocoded roll call of her many four-legged friends: a pug, a puggle, twothree kitties, and one shy, but friendly turtle.
Turns out, St. Francis of Assisi — founder of the Franciscan order, known mostly for receiving the stigmata himself — is also the patron saint of animals and the environment. (Raised Catholic, but molested Baptist, how was I to know?) Even more fascinating, Bornstein orchestrated this whole paean while on a plane to Ireland.
So, while the momma cat’s away from Twitter, mouse on over yourself…and just push play.
Hey Genderforkers! I’m a femme transsexual man who has been making music for years. I write gender-fierce anthems, songs about being a survivor, ballads about navigating transphobia, queer teen love songs, and pop duets with myself.
Coming out as trans and starting HRT forced me to put my art on the backburner for a while. But I’m diving back into my art now and very excited to share it!
It’s a lovely, sweet song about being who you are with someone you love. It’s all about how okay it is to be androgynous; that there is someone out there who will love you for it, that one day it won’t matter what gender you are.
Schmekel is Queer Jewcore from Brooklyn — 100% Transgender, 100% Jewish! Their music offers a Bar-Mitzvah buffet of punk, klezmer, jazz, rock, and polka influences, while their lyrics combine bawdy humor and critical awareness; encouraging audiences to laugh at butt jokes while deconstructing systems of oppression. Schmekel’s bespectacled transsexual singer-songwriters are guitarist Lucian Kahn and keyboardist Ricky Riot. Bearded bassist Nogga Schwartz yells loudly, and genderqueer drummer Simcha Halpert-Hanson carries two big sticks. “Schmekel” is Yiddish for “little penis.”
Eurovision 2012 has been and gone, but while clicking around the videos I came across this — which was only narrowly beaten to being Austria’s entry for 2012.
Conchita Wurst’s blend of masculine and feminine presentation is particularly interesting, and they are adored by the Austrian public. Worth a look!
CN Lester is an amazing alternative singer-songwriter, classical mezzo-soprano, AND an out trans artist/activist/blogger, and their very first album comes out on February 9th. Wonderful music. Great person. Check ’em out. :)
Rachel Stamp is a rock/glam/metal band that bend the rules of Gender from the off. All of the band members are gender-ambiguously glam, and I always found David Ryder-Prangley absolutely AWESOME (so much so that when I was lucky enough to meet him and I couldn’t put two words together). With hits such as ‘Stealing Clothes From Shelley Barret’, Dead Girl(“When I was thirteen years old, I dressed in my girlfriends clothes, all they boys at school wanted to punch me and all the girls wanted to get in my bed) and the infamous ‘Home Made Sex Change’ what’s not to love about this quirky little group? Especially when the music is so brilliant!
In the age of quick-fix internet consumption, I fear for the extinction of the art of the full length record album. Shawna Virago’s album “Objectified” gives me loads of hope (and evidence) that great musicians are still making great albums!
From beginning to end, the personal, political, and raw “Objecified” takes the listener on a rockin’ journey of a fierce gender-f*cking pioneer. To boot, each song is a masterpiece in its own right. Ms. Virago’s lyrics are whip-smart, and all kinds of profound; and her tunes are a complex mix of roots, punk, and glitter-twang. Seriously gender-forkers, check it out and see what I’m talking about!