Welcome then to the second installment of Queercore Now and Forever More! I regret to am thrilled to inform you that the last BitchTapes devoted to contemporary queer music was incomplete. Limited to under 20 tracks with links flickering to former + side projects, there is so much more queer music to share with you reader/listener! Plus, after Not Enough! and the self-motivating cultural ripples the Portland-based queer arts/music festival creates, a heap of queer projects in the Northwest alone have started up since the last mix 10 months back. Check out the latest tracks from Queercore's lesser-known-soon-to-be-faves as well as established contemporary artists:
This surfy post-punk four-piece is made up of queer superheroes. Reason 1). Members Sheana Corbridge and Jen Nigg organize Not Enough! every year with their friends. Reason 2). The above-mentioned also run queer feminist label Punkstartmyheartwith their friends. I'm guessing the other two band mates are doing wicked shit we should all look into immediately.
She may be in MEN now, but Queercore original Tami Hart is still finding time for her dancey+dreamy solo project, Making Friendz, in her tour-saturated schedule.
3. Lovers - No Regrets
Honestly, I was never a diehard fan of Lovers…no, not until their latest anthemic record. WARNING: if you haven't done so already, you will ruin Dark Light for yourself and anyone in earshot if you succumb to the 24-hour-7-day-a-week playing schedule that this record seems to suggest is a good idea.
This track is off Black's upcoming record Tears Of A Clown out this April. Poetic and heavyhearted in a refreshingly candid way, Black's solo work looms large beside his former acclaimed art-hop project, Bunny Rabbit, and is bound to blow up this year.
6. Xiu Xiu - Hi
If you've never experienced a decently sized one, Xiu Xiu's live shows tend to draw packs of young queer boys and men in a tightly wound ring of extra strength emotion around the stage. A must-experience. Hi is off their new record Always out this March.
Not the easiest project to track down and not the easiest listening either (but totally worth the cassette player purchase to play). If self-made small pressings of noisy underground hits make you squeal, Nic Hughes a.k.a. N.213 is your god. If checked “yes” above, look at all the releases on Hughes label Isolated Now Waves. Eeeeee!
Is an intricately melodic psych track off an LP, Past Time, packed full of others. Let's hope this band has as much longevity as the listenability of this record.
10. Baths - Flux
As much as I love indie hip-hop put out by Baths' record label, Anticon, they have not one woman in their whole artist stable (someone please prove me wrong). I'd like to think Anticon is taking steps to amend this disparity by signing queer artists…truly though, homophobes would sign this band they're so good.
Chinawoman is a solo recording artist from Toronto, ON. Not suitable listening for the overly cheerful.
12. Rae Spoon - Are You Jealous of the Dead
This track is off Spoon's brand new and cleverly titled record, I Can't Keep All Of Our Secrets. Keep watch for Rae Spoon on tour (extensively) in Canada, and with a few US dates in February.
13. Tyler Holmes - Gilded Shells (Slutmix)
I'd like to think that Holmes was at the same or equivalent Xiu Xiu concert, went home that night, wrote a song that eventually became part Ghost Album EP and/or his four other gorgeous records. Even if he isn't a Xiu Xiu fan, I'd still like to see him and Jamie Stewart high five.
A likable track by the kind of stand-up band you know will be dependable listening in a variety of locations, activities, and life circumstances. I discovered and free downloaded Very Okay on Soul Ponies “a home for lost and wayward queercore and riot grrrl music.”
Truth is there are two bands called Fucking Lesbian Bitches living in Portland, OR. These FLB's are my favourite. Bandname(s) aside, isn't it the best when you can hear an older band's influence on a newer band? Two sacred words apply: The Need.
Thanks for listening and to all my friends and artists who contributed to this BitchTapes! What queer music are you listening to these days?
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