The Gay 90's: Roseanne

So, I've moved into a new apartment and for the first time since 2006, I have cable TV. I've reached a new level of laziness and I love it. AND my new favorite thing to do is making a pot of coffee and watching the mini-Roseanne marathon that comes on every morning on Oxygen Network. If you don't like Roseanne, I probably will not like you. I totally forgot how crazy gay that show was. And unlike other shows nowadays where gay is just a passing breeze, Roseanne actually put a spotlight on issues of homosexuality in the 90's with an honest compassion that no show has really touched upon since. Remember Nancy's coming out? She didn't even really come out. The bitch strutted out of whatever closet was around and gave a finger to her haters. Leon was the first gay person on TV I ever saw get married (hint hint America: get over yourself goodbye). Plus come on, the dude married Fred Willard. Match made in Gay Heaven. And let's not forget Beverly Harris joining the dark side in the later seasons. Roseanne really was a show that spotlighted the stereotypes, oddities, and beauty of gay culture.

First up: Nancy! My first encounter with lipstick lesbians! On TV! PLAYED BY SANDRA BERNHARD! One of the fiercest bitches on TV, Nancy should be more of an icon. She got sick of men and started dating MORGAN FAIRCHILD. Nancy just loves love and it don't matter who it's with cause she didn't give a fuck about what other people thought about her. Then again, she was also kind of really narcissistic but that was her charm. There was also the episode where Mariel Hemingway played her girlfriend who planted a big kiss on Roseanne. The entire episode was full of gay panic. But it really threw people's paranoia about homosexuality back into the public's faces. We will not settle for anyone. We are not trying to turn straight people gay (although we dream of many. Is Nick Jonas 18 yet?). We are just like you. We pee, we fart, we all love to hate Heidi Montag.

OMG, I love that Leon (played by Martin Mull...remember him? In CLUE! SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH! He even has an elementary school named after him on Family Guy) ends up getting married. Because I see my awkward gay self in him. Cute not hot. Full of zingers. I'm just not white. Or bearish. But he ends up marrying Fred Willard. Proof that even the bitchiest dudes deserve love. And remember when they end up adopting a baby? Cute. I remember watching that episode with my mom and she told me no matter who the parents are, every child deserves a loving family. Go mom!

And remember Jackie and Roseanne's first trip to a gay bar? Priceless.



Of course, little did we know, the gayness would seep into real life. Turns out Sara Gilbert aka Darlene is a big dyke! And BFF's with Spiderman. Also, in a weird twist a la St. Elsewhere, we find out that the entire show was an exaggerated memoir. In real life, Roseanne's sister was a lesbian (like Jackie really needed more things to be neurotic about) and her momma was straight. Also according to Wikipedia (so reliable), the inspiration for introducing gay characters and story lines into the show was inspired by Roseanne Barr's real-life gay siblings.

But all in all, regardless of whether there were gay characters or not, the show pushed a message of love. Love yourself. Love your family. Love your friends. And don't judge shit if it doesn't affect you. Because they may end up becoming a shareholder in your loose meat sandwich restaurant.

BONUS CLIP: Dan and Fred in love.



And in unrelated topic, here are some jams for summer driving. I sort of took a giant break from blogging and forgot there was actual music coming out this summer:

The Pipettes - Call Me
Toro Y Moi - Leave Everywhere
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Lost Saint
The Aislers Set - Through The Swells

Gay Pride

Of all the pop stars and performers associated with mainstream gay culture, Madonna is the only one I have ever (or will ever) LOVE. I've loved her since I was 10 years old and will continue to love her no matter how much she starts looking like Jocelyn Wildenstein, and despite all of the culturally inappropriate things she's done or will do. Madonna's obviously not a perfect person...(show me someone who is) but I'll fight to the death with anyone over her being the greatest female pop star ever to live.

So here's the point: even though I don't feel like I have a lot in common with mainstream gays and don't share a lot of the thoughts that seem to go along with gay pride, our common ground is Madonna.

In other words, to my mainstream gay friends: I might not agree with you on gay marriage, or think that pride should be about corporate sponsorships. And no, I don't want to donate money to HRC and yes, I actually do hate Lady Gaga. Let's put aside our politics and take this gay holiday to bond over Madonna. You're gay, I'm gay, we love Madonna so let's have a drinking outside good time.

So when you hear Madonna this weekend, please rage extra hard and hug the nearest gay fagging out to "Vogue" for me!

Keep it together.

Madonna - New Music - More Music Videos

King Night

In the "blogosphere" waiting a day or two to post about something might as well be a year, but I needed time with this one. I like Salem quite a lot but "King Night" just didn't hit me right away. It sounds kind of messy and unnecessarily loud and I just haven't been listening to this kind of stuff too much lately, so I didn't give it much thought after first listen. But then I listened again. And that made me wanna listen again. And again. Using "O Holy Night" is pretty much genius, and the song IS messy and unnecessarily loud but that's actually why it's great. It's dirty and rough and kind of perfect. Now I'm super excited to hear the whole King Night album (on IAMSOUND) this fall!

If you haven't heard it already give it a listen (or 20)!

Salem - King Night

Creep remixed Memory Tapes

We've posted pretty much everything we could get our hands on from Creep in their short existance, and everything has been good, but this Memory Tapes remix is one of the best things I've heard from them so far. It extracts the best parts of the original song and adds (intelligent) horror movie atmosphere and sparse beats to create one of the most "sophisticated" sounding "witch house" songs I've heard to date. I'm definitely excited to hear more from Creep and I think they're gonna take this genre to the next level.

Check Creep's "Green Knight" remix and Memory Tapes' original version below!

Memory Tapes - Green Knight (Creep Remix)

Memory Tapes - Green Knight

Crystal Castles Celestica Video

Maybe it's the sunshine, but there's something less dark about this video than I would have expected. I guess I didn't really know what to expect from an official video from Crystal Castles II, but I can say this one is not as awesome as the unofficial "Paris is Burning" video for "Empathy". This one features lots of Alice Glass looking as if she couldn't be more bored, along with some Ethan Kath with makeup or dirt all over his face, and some kids practicing violin in an overgrown cemetery. Maybe it is what I would have expected after all. (But that's not a dig, I'm loving their new record!)

Check it out!




Crystal Castles - Celestica


Crystal Castles - Celestica (Thurston Moore Remix)

Where's the love?

Over at stereogum there is a terrific op-ed piece on Cocorosie, focusing primarily on the love certain folks have for this band & the glaring omission of their work from much mainsteam music press. Antony (of Antony & the Johnsons) had this incredibly on point, feminist analysis:

"I have concluded that the reception of CocoRosie in the US reflects the denial of a greater feminist issue, an ecological issue, a racial issue, a spiritual issue. If we cannot face that our collective brokenness in these areas is the rockbed of our crisis as a virulent species, then we will continue in our blindness to dismiss our American art revolutionaries who are out in the field, working through exactly these issues. For me Cocorosie’s new album Grey Oceans is perhaps the most important new music coming out of the US this year. It is no surprise that as the sea turns black in the gulf with no end in sight in the midst of the biggest ecological disaster in US history, CocoRosie are the only ones to hit the zeitgeist with an album filled with psychic omniscience, entitled “Grey Oceans.” And yet it seems to be the album the indie US press doesn’t want to talk about. Bianca and Sierra Casady paints pictures of lost children across a broken land, feral, elemental spirits who roam the dreamscapes of our world, naming perpetrators, painting their memories, recovering and reclaiming power. They are unafraid to manifest their vision that the application of magical creativity could be a balm for aching souls in a struggling world. They take risks that no other artists in the scene dare to, and the (predominantly white hetero male) music press punishes them for it. In the artistic community, CocoRosie are treasured. Their costumes and visual aesthetics are a vital part of their expression, revealing further illustration of their ideas and their inspirations and creating a striking format for the shamanistic shapeshifting that occurs in their live performances (in many ways they are the feminist branch of a voyage that Animal Collective in their boyish and heralded way have undertaken in parallel) and yet as women Cocorosie are dismissed because their visual presentation frustrates many male writers’ abilities to sexualize them. Who are you assigning to think on your behalf?"

Read the rest of the op-ed (featuring JD Samson and Yoko Ono, amongst others) here.

"I Can Change" Stereogamous Remix

It's June and you gaybos know what that means...gay pride month. Since I generally hate tacky gay pride events I want to celebrate queer people with some taste. Today we will be celebrating that with Stereogamous' amazing new remix of LCD Soundsystem's "I Can Change". James Murphy's song is for sure a brilliant starting point but the Stereogamous boys gay disco it up just enough to make it something I want to listen to on repeat. Now if only I could hear music like this during the pride parade maybe I wouldn't want to leave town for the weekend.

Check it out!

LCD Soundsystem - I Can Change (Stereogamous Remix) by theinsound

Prayers for Children Issue 2: Ugly Ducklings Come Home

Ugly Ducklings Come Home, the second issue of the queer art journal Prayers for Children, has climbed out of its roost and is ready to enter yours. The new issue is available at www.prayersforchildren.be and features work by Elijah Burgher, Dunstan Christopher, Elan Dia, Zackary Drucker, Jason Fritz Michael, Gay Orphans, Ghoulz, Luke Gilford, Amanda Kirkhuff, Laura Makinen, Jacqueline Mary (of Young Creature!), Murphy Maxwell, Michael McConnell, David Meanix, Sergio Ortiz, Michelle Wolfie Rodriguez, and Robbie Sweeny.

Show Me Your Stuff

Here's a new video from Toronto's Diamond Rings. Do you think he timed it's release to coincide with the NBA Finals?

Check out the video and remixes of "All Yr Songs" from Green Go and Gobble Gobble!




Diamond Rings - All Yr Songs (GOBBLE'S GOBBLE'S Wings for Eyeliner remix)


Diamond Rings - All Yr Songs (Green Go Remix)

JD Samson & Queerer Park DJs at Beauty Bar!

Seems like our friends Black Gold and Barbara Butch & Unisexy of Queerer Park are all over the place these days! Coming off the First Pride event at the Toyota Creative Lounge and a super fun night at Berlin's Stardust party, they're now taking their roving dance party good times to Beauty Bar for Hot/Mess with JD Samson! Everybody already knows that JD's DJing keeps things live...but besides being in for a fun time, JD's appearance at Hot/Mess is also a benefit for the Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois. TJLP is an organization fighting for gender self-determination, prison abolition, and transformative justice, so go out and dance for a good cause!

Friday, June 18
10 PM - 2 AM
HOT/MESS
with JD Samson and Queerer Park DJs Black Gold and Barbara Butch & Unisexy
Beauty Bar
1444 W. Chicago Ave


To get you excited, check out this mix JD made!

JD TAKE BACK THE NIGHT MIX 2009

Tracklisting:

2 UNLIMITED/YMCA INTRO
A CAUSE DE GARCONS- YELLE (STA REMIX)
LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE BOY- DENIECE WILLIAMS
HOT DOG- SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO
FINALLY- CECE PENISTON
GREAT DJ- THE TING TINGS (CALVIN HARRIS REMIX)
FAR AWAY- CUT COPY (HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS REMIX)
WE ARE THE PEOPLE- EMPIRE OF THE SUN (SHAZAM REMIX)
BREAKING IT UP- LYKKE LI (PUNKS JUMP UP REMIX)
RHYTHM OF THE NIGHT- DEBARGE
D.A.N.C.E- JUSTICE (MSTRKRFT REMIX)
ONE MORE TIME- DAFT PUNK
HOLLABACK GIRL- GWEN STEFANI (DIPLO BALTIMORE HOLLERTRONIX REMIX)
CREATOR- SANTOGOLD (SCOTTIE B REMIX)
A VOLTA- N.A.S.A FEATURING SIZZLA, AMANDA BLANK & LOVEFOXXX)
CROSS THE DANCEFLOOR- TREASURE FINGERS (DESIGNER DRUGS REMIX)
NOT GONNA TEACH YOUR BOYFRIEND HOW TO DANCE...- BLACK KIDS (THE TWELVES REMIX)
THIS BOY'S IN LOVE- THE PRESETS (LIFELIKE REMIX) WITH TO PROTECT AND ENTERTAIN- BUSY P
YOU BELONG- HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR (RITON REMIX)
YR MANGLED HEART- GOSSIP (LINUS REMIX)
JOHNNY COME HOME- JEPPE
SEND HIM BACK- POINTER SISTERS (PILOOSKI REMIX)
NEW IN TOWN- LITTLEBOOTS (FRED FALKE REMIX)
MOVE- CSS (FRANKMUSIK REMIX)
YOU'VE CHANGED- LAUREN FLAX FEATURING SIA

Pictureplane-Fusion of the Masculine & Feminine Energy Mix

Pictureplane, one of my total faves, just did an awesome new podcast for XLR8R! The mix features everything from Modern Witch to Black Box to Alicia Keys and is a great representation of everything I love about Pictureplane. Witch house, totally gay sounding acid, crunky hip hop, and 90's jams all in one place!

Check out the mix and look for Pictureplane's new EP True Ruin Light Body later this month!

Here's the tracklist:

01 House Hallucinates -Prisoners of XTC (Hype)
02 Underworld - Scribble
03 Black Box - Ride on Time (Groove Groove Melody)
04 Atari Teenage Riot - Activate (Digital Hardcore)
05 Lancinhouse and the Stunned Guys - We Are the Dynacore (Very Hard Unresistable)
06 U96 (a.k.a. V69) - I Wanna Be a Kennedy (Carinco Neue Medien Ag)
07 Nika and Rory - The Choice
08 Love Fine - Temperature Rising (Laton)
09 Gucci Mane feat. Lil B - Break Yourself (Diplo Remix) (Mad Decent)
10 Matt Shadetek - Funny Cats (Dutty Artz)
11 Modern Witch - Your Life a Movie (Disaro)
12 Tearist - Lo-V
13 Alicia Keys "Unthinkable (Physical Therapy Real Heavy Vibe)"

Download it at XLR8R!

Josh Peace Mix for Young Creature!

Chances are if you've had the most fun ever at a party in L.A., Josh Peace has been DJing. Josh Peace is a co-resident and founder of the long running queer/weirdo extravaganza known as Mustache Mondays (at La Cita) and he's the resident at Mr. Black L.A. and Cherry Pop, two of the biggest WeHo gay parties. Basically, he's a busy dude. With all the residencies (and one-offs at Pride and everything in between) he somehow found time to make us an awesome mix!

The mix features a great selection of old and new, familiar and not and is EXACTLY why we asked Josh to make a mix for us! He's a super nice guy and a great DJ so we're super excited to bring you this mix.

Check it out!

DJ Josh Peace - Young Creature Mix - June 2010

Tracklisting:

ABC - HOW TO BE A MILLIONAIRE (ACAPELLA)
CROOKERS FEAT. ROISIN MURPHY - ROYAL T
DUBBEL DUTCH - DEEP UNDERGROUND
FAGGOT FAIRY'S - SAMO TI (ZOMBIE DISCO SQUAD REMIX)
FUGATIVE - SUPAFLY (A1 BASSLINE REMIX)
KILLER ON THE DANCEFLOOR - GRINGO OBA OBA (ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE & KASSIANO REMIX)
BURAKA SOM SISTEMA - BUFFALO STANCE
JESSIE ROSE - WELL NOW (SAVAGE SKULLS REMIX)
ZOMBIES FOR MONEY - KOLKATA (STICKY VERSION)
OLA JOYCE - WINDOW SHOPPING (SAVAGE SKULLS REMIX)
SIA - CLAP YOUR HANDS (DIPLO REMIX)
STICKY K - CLUB PERSH (MALENTE & JAY ROBINSON REMIX)
DAN BLACK - SYMPHONIES (HOT CITY REMIX)
GEENEUS FEAT. KATY B - GOOD LIFE
HARDHOUSE BANTON - REIGN (ROSKA REMIX)
GRACE JONES - LOVE YOU TO LIFE (DUB VERSION)

This summer is gonna be SICK

Dear readers:

I am SO sorry for my like, beyond a month disappearance. You can blame it on me moving, not having internet, not really listening to music, and hustlin to make that money. Real life sucks. I'm over it. But I am finally back, refreshed, and ready to ruin your everyday lives with whatever posts I put up.

In the time that has passed, I've been stricken with the Bieber fever, got a new tattoo, lost a shit ton of weight and have actively been trying to gain half back, got my ass goosed many a times post-Blackhawks Stanley Cup win (the only time a straight dude will touch me) and uhhhh regretted seeing Sex and the City 2 (which should really be called "Old Bitches On Vacay").

Anyways, it's summer. The music has been coming out faster than I can keep up with. I want to know for a fact that all you bitches are having the sickest summer ever. SICKEST SUMMER EVER. Therefore, I present to you some songs of 2010 I've been shaking my butt to on the 22 Clark bus (WAY friendlier than the 36 Broadway). At least people on the 22 bus keep their shit to themselves or are too drunk to formulate a sentence.

<3 tae young


Dominique Young Unique - War Talk


Washed Out - You and I (ft. Caroline Polachek)


Uffie - Ricky

Daggers at the Moon

Hey you, check out this awesome new video from Hawnay Troof! Shot by Justin Kelly on VHS, with costumes from Ari Fish.

I love VHS. And Hawnay Troof is pretty sweet too.

Check it!

Hawnay Troof -- "Daggers at the Moon" from Justin Kelly on Vimeo.

via Big Stereo

New Kingdom track

Atlanta based DJ Rob Wonder just put out a mix featuring an unreleased Kingdom track. As Rob Wonder puts it, "This collection of sounds was put together to move minds, hearts and feet" and is a promo for his new Scion radio channel called No Static At All. The mix also features songs from Bok Bok, B.Rich, and Klever...so there's lots of good stuff besides Kingdom!

Check out Kingdom's "Pathfinder" and jump over here to download the whole comp!

Kingdom - Pathfinder

The Corin Tucker Band

We posted a while back about Corin Tucker's upcoming solo record but today Kill Rock Stars confirmed they are putting out the record on October 5th. Corin and her new band mates (Sara Lund and Seth Lorinczi) will also be playing some shows on the West Coast! You darned West Coasters get all the cool stuff.

Mini-Tour Dates

10.7 Portland, OR - Aladdin Theater
10.8 Seattle, WA - Showbox
10.9 Eugene, OR - WOW Hall
10.11 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
10.13 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey

Carrie, where you at?

Sleater Kinney - More Than A Feeling

Sleater Kinney - Write Me Back You Fucker

(from Move Into the Villa Villakula)

Get the whole awesome comp at Soul Ponies!

Synthsplosion!

Bored? Check out SS Freeware, a tumblr blog that has begun collecting/posting a bunch of free software synths for you to download! The selection ranges from (seemingly) pretty easy to use emulators of 80's Casios all the way to old analog synths that were routed with patch cables, aka stuff that's out of my novice league. As far as compatibility goes, a few of them are specifically listed as working with both Mac and PC, but it seems the majority are for our Windows friends only. :(

As a note, if you aren't that familiar with VSTs and the like, you'll need Ableton, Logic, Pro Tools or some other sort of audio editor to use these.

Bedroom producers and time wasters this way ------------> SS Freeware

Goldfrapp "Alive" video

Not sure how I've missed this for like weeks, but if you haven't seen it either it's Goldfrapp + Xanadu, a little bit of "Thriller", a lot of "Twilight", Juggalos, and Occult (and/or Witch House) symbolism . Mostly Xanadu though.

Enjoy!

Olivia Newton-John & Electric Light Orchestra - Xanadu

Sam Sparro remixes O'Spada

There's something in the water in Sweden that breeds pop artists. I'm convinced. O'Spada are a group of Swedes who make 80's r&b/funk influenced dance pop that's kind of a kin to Chromeo but less goofy and male...but just as funky and fun. I've read that their press release says “a bastard child between Prince, Jackson 5 and Justice”, which is pretty dumb to say, but seems fairly accurate. I've also read things comparing them to Nu Shooz, which is probably even more accurate. I'm not really sure what's crossed with what to create O'Spada, but I like what I've heard.

If that hasn't sold you, maybe the fact that Sam Sparro & Golden WERQ have taken their latest single "Pay Off" and remixed it into a kind of disco/kind of electro dancefloor number will get you interested?

Check out the Sam Sparro remix (and buy it exclusively on Beatport) and check out O'Spada's Myspace if you like what you hear.

O'Spada - Pay Off Sam Sparro & Golden WERQ remix by despotz

BONUS JAM!

Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait

Hollagramz

Check out this awesome new video from "4th dimensional over/warp rave-lazerz danse shit" maker Hollagramz! There's something totally mesmerizing and magical about Hollagramz' music and this video is a great visual representation of that. Great job, Sterling Crispin!

Watch the video and check out the original version of 4:44 below!

Hollagramz - 4:44 Space Place Refix from Sterling Crispin on Vimeo.

Hollagramz - 4:44