Australian artist Sia Furler was fortunate enough to have two grand unveilings to American audiences. Though she has been releasing music for years, both as herself and as a vocalist for Zero 7, she made a colossal splash in the population at large when her track “Breathe Me” was used to underscore the depression-porn final minutes of HBO’s Six Feet Under. To queer music fans, though, she became an eternal icon/object of jealousy two years ago when news spread that Sia was dating former Le Tiger, and current MEN, member JD Samson.

Sia’s next album “We Are Born” is slated for release this spring and she will be touring the world in support of it. (DC, keep May 4 open.) In the interview below, Sia is her usual unspoken self on the subjects of the music industry, gay rights and the things that she and JD are going to do with David Byrne’s “slippery people.”

The Superions’ “Who Threw That Ham at Me,” if you ignore it’s title, starts out like any other FischerSpooner-influenced electro track. It would be easy to ignore it altogether until that voice kicks in. It’s not quite talking and not quite singing. It makes you think of rock lobsters and joining the deadbeat club. That’s because the vocals are helmed by none other than The B-52’s frontman Fred Schneider. After their 2008 career renaisance restarter “Funplex,” Schneider has focused his energies onto his side project, The Superions. Though they don’t have the fanbase (or budget) of his better-known outfit, and record mostly on ProTools, their debut EP has that offbeat (and pro-vegetarian) sensibility that distinguishes the elder statesman of eccentricity from the rest of the lot.

Though he may come off modestly in the below interview, 33 year-old Joel Simkhai is responsible for the biggest change in gay hookups since the hanky code. His iPhone application Grindr functions as a sort of real-life gaydar, where a user can see a list of gay men in his area, how far away they are (to the foot!) and what they look like. Couple that with a chat function and you have a sort of gay sci-fi future where men can plug in anywhere and at any time to see if their next date, mate, or cum-drenched illicit gang bang is just around the literal corner.

Joel was nice enough to give me some time on the phone with him. Check out his opinions on sex, friendship, lesbian Grindr and much more in the paragraphs below.

TNG Chicago Editor Adam got to interview Family Of The Year’s guitarist Brent Freaney on being the gay member of the band, living with six people and how the band was formed.

Javelin have been around for a bit, but 2009 brought them some huge exposure. From hitting pages of the indie haven Pitchfork, to playing shows where Damon Dash shows up, Javelin are having a massive year. They recently released a now out-of-print 12” I covered a bit back in a Weekly Music Round up, on Thrill Jockey records, as well as curetted some mixes for the Luaka Bop label, which they can now call their home. The group made up of two cousins, Tom Van Buskirk and George Langford, are currently on tour supporting The Phenomenal Hand Clap Band.

A bitter winter wind keeps whipping through DC, trundling brown fallen leaves through the city streets. One can hardly find defense outside from its icy wheezing. Luckily this weekend, however, someone well acquainted with cold December climate is coming to town with some tools to help us heat up the holiday season! AASECT certified Sexuality Educator and ACS certified Sexologist Megan Andelloux has been recruited by WholeDC to give two back-to-back workshops Saturday, “How to Please a Woman in Bed” and “How to Please a Man in Bed.” A resident of Pawtucket, Rhode Island (home of Hasbro; the people who brought you Jem, Mr. Potato Head, and My Little Ponies) and a self-proclaimed “sex nerd,” Megan is extending an invitation to all genders and orientations to come learn some new ways to get warm[wink]!

Philip Clark, The New Gay’s former columnist, will be releasing a book he co-edited with David Groff entitled Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS (Alyson) later this month. The four-year project collects the work of poets across genders, ethnicities and languages, all of whom succumbed to AIDS, from the first epidemic to present times. A number of promotional events are planned for the book’s release, including a reading at the DC Center on December 10. Clark took time from his hectic schedule to discuss book his work on the book with The New Gay, and his future research projects.

The Jesus Lizard are a band from Chicago. From 1989–1999 the Jesus Lizard ripped up every venue they could while releasing some of the harshest but still most awesome music around. This year marks their twentieth anniversary, and to celebrate the band has reformed for a set of special gigs.

What kind of man was Fletcher Hanks? Paul Karasik, a cartoonist who edited both of his collections, I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! (2006) and You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation! (2009), has done a considerable amount of detective work these last few years in piecing together his life. He met his son, Fletcher Hanks, Jr., six years ago and therein learned a few basic, unpleasant facts. Hanks was a brutal man, a drunk who severely abused his wife and children. He walked out on his family in the middle of the Great Depression before settling into an apartment in Brooklyn where he did his work for Eisner. The comic book culture of the Golden Age was famously youthful and mostly populated by white ethnics. As we popularly remember them, they were generally weak, nerdy creatures imagining themselves as supermen. Hanks was a different breed. He was in his early 50s when he sat down to tackle the form. And he was a muscular rough man from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Karasik does not know why he walked away from comics in 1941. And he still doesn’t know what journey he went on in the next four decades that led to his death, frozen on a park bench, in 1976.

 If anyone out there procrastinates, they might understand why I recorded an interview with Tegan and Sara’s Sara Quinn at the Austin City Limits music festival last September and am just posting it now. If you aren’t a victim of the putter demon then I’ll just say that I saved this interview for the release of queer twin sister duo’s new disc, “Sainthood.” I think more queer people could stand to see that they can be successful in their chosen field without having to treat their queer identity as a secret.