Profile: Athens Boys Choir

Reasons to love Athens Boys Choir:

1. He's a hot, out transguy
2. He doesn't take himself so seriously that he can't write songs such as "EZ Heeb."
3. He toured with Ani Difranco
   
4. He's a southern boy.

While visiting some friends a couple weeks ago, I got the chance to listen to some more songs by Athens Boys Choir than "Fagette," which I first heard earlier this spring.

God help me, the man makes me like rap.
I don't have a lot to say on this subject because, frankly, I'm still getting familiar with this artist. Six months from now, I may hate him.

But right now, I kinda love him. He's an awesome, notable transguy who talks about being trans in his music. And he's not half as depressing as Lucas Silveira can be in his lyrics at times.

I mean, just look:
I rest my case.

Profile: Tegan and Sara

So lately my blog has been devoid of pictures- as well as profiles, as I'm trying to keep up with everything after the tire accident of doom.

Plus, I was having trouble picking a group/person to profile this week. And then I stumbled across this picture:And I squealed like a fan girl. The thing I like about Tegan and Sara is that they are big- an internationally known band that gets their music on TV and in the movies. A band that has sold out shows.

And they don't have their asses hanging out of miniskirts to do it. In fact, most of the time, they look a bit like androgynous indie boys. Which, you know, is kinda my ideal image.Plus, they've never made any exceptions for themselves in their music and have been open about their sexualities. They're lesbians, and they admit it without guilt. They have cds that you can buy even in little podunk towns like mine, and open the case to find pictures of women who are not femmed-up, eroticized superstars. Hello, role models.

I had a couple songs off the "So Jealous" album, but it wasn't until I read Tegan's introduction in Kate Bornstein's Hello, Cruel World that I began to take an interest. She discussed growing up feeling different, being bullied, rising above it.There's a reason for all the hype around these ladies. And, if nothing else, if you can't handle the PC idea of them being *gag* role models, remember: pretty twin lesbians singing pretty awesome music. Enough said.

Profile: Lucas Silveira of The Cliks

Lucas Silveira is probably the most well known FTM transgendered musician in rock music today.

Never heard of him? Exactly.He's not particularly well known in the music scene at large, and it sometimes feels like the media is using his transgender identity as a focal point rather than his music.

You know, kinda like I am. And I will get to the music. But first, I have to point out how open he is about being transgendered. In the about.com interview listed below, he says that he welcomes questions about his gender, but can only speak for himself. Very PC.

Plus he talks about his choice to not take testosterone. I have a friend who considers this a cop-out, but I disagree. I see it as being similar, on another level, to my longtime desire for a lip piercing. Yes, I want my lip pierced. But I'm also a music major who plays tuba, and I know that a lip piercing will seriously set back my playing to a point that I may not recover.
Of course, taking testosterone is more than something cosmetic like a piercing, but I still see his view. He loves music and is willing to deal without testosterone rather than risk that which he loves. Kinda romantic, actually.

His music? Not so much. Granted, I've only listened to Snakehouse in full, but I've heard a couple songs off Dirty King. Aside from the sweet acoustic track, "If Not for You" and the loyalty promised in "Whenever," most of Silveira's songs are darker and a little on the disillusioned side when it comes to love.

Which means he's now my idol. His voice does sound a little awkward at times, but I like the sound of it overall. And he wins points for comfortably singing higher than I can.

One thing that concerns me is that he runs through band lineups so quickly- I mean, every album has had a different backing band. He's admitted that he's a perfectionist, which I get, but I can't help but worry that, with a little fame, he could become a diva.

But then, maybe he just doesn't play well with others- I know how that goes.

Overall, I recommend his music for good pissy rock-out-in-your-bedroom-with-an-air-guitar evenings, and I recommend the man himself as a rolemodel for trans rock musicians.
About.com Interview
Another blog's interview
Spinner Interview
Dirty King Music Video

Profile: Davey Havok of AFI

I'd like to begin this with a warning. Remember around 2004? The hordes of girls obsessed with the band AFI, particularly their lead singer?

I, uh, I was in that horde. Still in that horde, actually. I even have the t-shirt for it. So bear with me. I'm talking about an idol here.

Davey Havok has been slowly cutting his hair shorter since 2003, which makes me terribly sad since, when I first fell in love, he looked more like this:The lead singer here was an idol for me in terms of playing with gender. Sure, lots of guys in the rock scene wore eyeliner, but few did it with the elegance and, well, feminine style that Davey Havok did.Not to mention the fact that the man used to walk around Warped Tour with a parasol, or that his hair, when it was long, looked utterly gorgeous.

But lately, Davey Havok has seemed to become more masculine, cutting his hair shorter, letting his eyebrows grow out- cutting down on the fabulous glittery eye shadow:And the masculinity doesn't end there. I purchased AFI's latest album ( Crash Love from September 2009) and, while I loved the music instrumentally and was pleased to hear Havok's voice improving a little since his surgery to remove vocal cord nodules in 2004, I was also disappointed in the lyrics.

Davey Havok has a reputation for writing vague lyrics rich with imagery. And Crash Love doesn't stack up to his previous works in terms of lyrics. His lyrics are more blunt and obvious, less interpretive and, well, pretty.

The little hipster kid inside me wants to say that Havok is trying to assimilate into mainstream culture and is dropping is genderqueer ways to gain popularity. But really, he reached the height of popularity when he was covered in glitter with waist length hair, so I think his change in fashion is just a progression of his own tastes. Besides, if you look at photos of Davey Havok going back, you realize he's the Madonna of his scene, reinventing his look every few years. I mean, the photos I used here are from the past six years alone, and AFI has been together off and on since about 1993. Who knows, maybe five or six years from now Davey Havok will return to his pretty boy ways.

Until then, I have to stay a faithful fan, particularly when he says things like

Q: Actually, a lot of your fans don't know what to make of your sexuality.

A: It is a huge topic. I've found that at times that question and the dubiousness that I seem to exude has given people something -- not simply gossip or whether God is going to smite them for liking our band, but actually they've found strength and become more comfortable with who they are as a person. It's pansexual, that sort of reach. It's a wonderful side effect of what we're doing, to give someone the strength to come out of the closet to their family, or simply present themselves aesthetically in a way they feel happy with, whether or not their friends are going to be allowed to like them anymore. So it's actually a really cool side effect to all the rumors.
-From an interview originally posted on Buzznet

Profile: Elly Jackson of La Roux

I have mixed opinions about Elly Jackson. On the one hand, I like her group's music. I spent all day Sunday with “Bulletproof” stuck in my head. And she wins points for being cute.

Aaaand the positive stops right about there. Bless her heart, but Elly Jackson has a way of sticking her foot in her mouth in interviews. I don't hold it against her too much. I mean, we're around the same age, and God help me if half the things I've said were in print, without my chance to say “Oh shit! Don't say I said that!”

For the most part, it's her attacks on other musicians that irk me. She picks on members of Erasure for their taste in music and calls them, supposedly, “mutton dressed as lamb.” Of course, the singer, to whom this quote was attributed, brushes off the comment saying “it's probably the sort of thing I would have said when I was her age.”

Yes, that's all fine and good, but there comes a point when you can' t keep hiding behind your age as a defense for stupidity and rudeness. Maybe it's my Southern showing, but part of any business is maintaining connections with other popular people in your field, and Jackson keeps taking a machete to these connections. She may think she's being “honest” and establishing herself as not another blonde girly-girl who's all sugar and spice, but really she's coming off as a rude brat.

And all of this culiminates in her June 2009 interview with The Quietus, in which she says:

"[Using a sexuality designed to just appeal to men is] really patronising to women. I know that there's far more ways to be sexy than to dress in a miniskirt and a tank top. If you're a real woman you can turn someone on in a plastic bag just by looking at them. That's what a real woman is, when you've got the sex eyes. I think you attract a certain kind of man by dressing like that. Women wonder why they get beaten up, or having relationships with arsehole men. Because you attracted one, you twat. It's a funny culture, it's definitely a funny culture. Those women are just insecure, but they'll turn round to me and say 'you're just jealous 'cos you want a tan and you want big boobs, stupid boy-looking girl'. You can't win, they wouldn't believe me for a second."

She makes some lovely points in regards to how women can be sexy without being Eva Longoria. And then she makes that comment about attracting certain men by dressing a certain way. I'll admit, the clothes can send a signal, but women (or just people, for that matter) are never responsible for being beaten up because they are “dressing like that.” Fail, Elly Jackson, fail.

Having said that, I will admit that she wins back a few points with her statement in Starpulse:

"I don't have a sexuality. I don't feel like I'm female or male. I don't belong to the gay or straight society, if there is such a thing. I feel like I'm capable of falling in love with other people. I'm not saying I'm bisexual, I'm just sexual!”

Amen! It's very pomosexual of her, and while the whole “I'm not gay, not straight” thing is being picked up by various female singers these days, her statement that she feels in between genders makes me feel a little better. Now, if she can just keep her foot out of her mouth more often, I'd consider her to be an excellent rolemodel, in addition to an interesting musician.

Bulletproof Music Video

Sources:

The Erasure Jibe

The Quietus

Starpulse