If hearing Johnny Mathis sing “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” endlessly for the last month did not blow your skirt up, the 19-minute Homo for the Holidays may be just the cure. This Christmas CD features five original songs written/performed/produced by local queer artists and manages, handily and without cynicism, to put heart, romance and queer cheer right back into the holidays.
The lone cover on Homo, The Iceberg’s “Rudolph is in a Hole” (a reworking of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”) is steeped in a diaphanous spooky goth atmosphere while “Broken Banks,” by Beast II, sounds like sassy-gay-boy glam rock circa 1973. If serene Bauhaus cheekiness and T. Rex guitar and lipstick slinging ain’t your thing, then Bill Chill’s “Not Coming Home for Christmas” is at once sentimental, sweet and romantic and is the stuff that lovers reminisce about decades after the fact. Hearing Chill sing such a simple song with such an uncomplicated intent makes you wonder what Mel Torme, at his finest, would do with it. (Yes—it DOES make you wanna cry.)
“Winter Time,” by Night and Gale (aka Anna Holmquist), is so sincere, naked and enchanting that it conjures images and sounds of a perfect snow-laden scene in an isolated forest that can only exist in the movies. Bear Down’s “All Along the Pines” pushes all that warmth and sentimentality to the margins with her lazy vocals and the song’s slightly confrontational edge. The recording is certainly not “sweet” but Bear Down, by her tone, makes a point that she is not buying the holiday hype with any degree of patience. For those who like their Christmas stockings stuffed with something with a little more meat and an in-your-face charm, you get Honey Hole Johnson crooning “Cruisin’ On Christmas,” which is naughty (rather then ‘dirty”), goofy and packed with the queer joy of finding happiness in butt-naked romping.
If all that Christmas cheer (stank, wet eyes, and romance) rubs you wrong and you lust for where the “wild scruffy queers” roam, then the traditional monthly queer shindig known as Glitter Creeps is what you really need. The year’s first installment of Donnie Moore’s homo blowout took place on Jan. 14 at its home The Empty Bottle, and this edition was focused on estrogen laced hard rock and roll.
Glitter Creeps’ line up is all about local LGBT bands (or bands with LGBT members) and, this time, Hollow Mountain opened the show with a set of crunchy noise rock. The headliner, Swimsuit Addition, was an overload of punch and slinging guitars (did I forget to mention the tambourines?) that had the boys dancing with boys and the girls dancing with girls.
The second band, Bleach Party, whipped up something else entirely. Between Meghan MacDuff’s pointed and abrasive yowl (think of a caffeinated Grace Slick without the righteousness), frozen guitarist Bart Pappas’ stinging guitar and the positively hellbound thunder of the rhythm section of Kaylee Preston (drums) and Richard Giraldi (bass), Bleach Party was all about a distinct ’80s “wave/’Surfing Safari’/crush/groove thingy” going on. Yeah, “Fizzy Free” and “Surf Chicago” were tasty and addictive but they didn’t prepare the dancing crowd for a feral rip through Led Zeppelin’s “Communication Breakdown.” This is a band that has put the notion of having a barefoot punk/wave beach party in my head and suddenly I can’t wait for summer to get here or feel the hot sand between my toes.
After literally conquering the nation with a sellout tour, a critically adored album (Transgender Dyshoria Blues, Total Treble Records) and “tasteful” front-page media coverage, Against Me!’s front woman Laura Ann Grace settled down for a rare solo acoustic set as the opener of The Both at The Athenaum Theater as part of The Tomorrow Never Knows Festival on Jan. 14. It hardly mattered that the theater was a third full or that Grace was the opener. What did matter was that her longtime fans let her know they were there and that Grace’s between-song patter made those in attendance feel embraced. As one of the few trans individuals in the global spotlight, Grace managed, seemingly without difficulty, to make her journey embraceable to this crowd as well as to the world at large.
Enough already about her impact since this show was really about the music, and Grace wisely offered a mixed bag of old and newer material while giving all of it a fresh perspective. “True Trans Soul Rebel” and “Transgender Dysphoria Blues Rebel” were blunt hard acoustic rockers that had far more bite in this naked setting than their recordings with a full band. An anecdote about Grace’s first divorce led through a hard-edged bounce through “You Look like I Need A Drink,” while Rowland S. Howard’s “Shivers” was unnerving and raw. The kicker for this short set was Grace’s re-possession of Against Me!’s “Pretty Girls,” which Tom Gable wrote when he began to recognize Laura Ann Grace as the vision that he wanted to see in the mirror. Grace noted that Gable neutered the lyrics because of the fears that the true nature of the song and the desire for transformation would freak out the audience.
Truth be told, I love being a guy and I never wanted to be anything but that. I do also love loving guys with all their muscles, hair and “funny” ways, so the concept of gender reassignment or transformation is alien to me. My point is that Grace’s reinterpretation of “Pretty Girls” made me understand this different perspective while filling in some blanks in a big way. I don’t think Grace was interested in “converting” anyone … but by singing “that” particular song in “that” particular way, she shed some light in my skull. After all, that is what music, in all its forms, is supposed to do.
Heads-up: The next installment of Glitter Creeps is on Wed., Feb. 18, with Mr. Ma’am, Meat Wave and Nervous Passenger on the bill. You can get your very own copy of Homo for the Holidays by contacting Berserk Records through their website.