Someone order a Norwegian sandwich? (L-R: Torbjørn Brundtland, Me, Svein Berge.)

Before I can really talk up Royksopp, the Norwegian electronic duo that will melt your eyebrows, I have to say a word about their singer Anneli Drecker. Though she isn’t a (stateside) household name like collaborators Robyn, Lykke Li and The Knife’s Karin Dreier Andersson, she is incredible. Her vocal chops show clearly on tracks like “You Don’t Have A Clue” (one of my all-time favorite songs) and, live, she takes the seemingly unenviable task of filling in for the aforementioned superstars and making it look like child’s play. Whether dressed in Mumm Ra rags and dancing like St. Vitus, making “The Girl and The Robot” all her own in a space helmet or doing a pitch (and hand motion)-perfect version of Kate Bush’s “Wutheing Heights,” Drekker is one of the most consistently-overlooked forces of nature in live music.

Ok: that said, I wouldn’t know so much about her if she wasn’t attached to Royksopp. The duo of Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland are one of the rare acts who can make electronic music fun, interesting and evocative. Whether heard at the 9:30 Club or your computer speakers, there is a great depth to tracks like “You Don’t Have A Clue” or “The Alcoholic” that makes it just a wee bit difficult to view Robert Miles the same way afterwards.

The group popped through DC in March to tour in support of their new instrumental album Senior. The followup to 2009′s incredible, vocals-filled breakout Junior can be a little bit of work at first, if one misses the vocals, but definitely rewards multiple listens… or the purchase of concert tickets. Having seen them once in DC and once in New York, I can safely say that the musical prowess, lights-extravaganza and frequent costume changes of a Royksopp show are the reason god invented weed.

Check out the interview below, and know this: I asked these guys to play Wuthering Heights while in DC, and they did. Royksopp, will you marry me?

***

The New Gay: Last year you put out Junior, an album full of buoyant, uplifting pop songs. This new one is the darker and fully instrumental. Is there a sense that pop music with vocals is somehow less grown up than the stuff you put out with Senior?

Svein Berge: I think it certainly demands a bit more of the listener. It doesn’t necessarily say that one is better than the other or more mature, but it demands a different thing of the listener. Traditionally,  at least,  one would suggest that a vocal song can point out where it’s going. It’s easy for people to get. A person is saying “I love you and I wanna blah blah blah,” its easier for the listener to grasp what it’s about. Whereas if you only hear a guitar doing doo doo doo you have to use your head or make your own little story.

TNG: The listener has to fill it in themselves?

SB: Yeah, kind of. I think it demands a bit more involvement.

TNG: For something like dance music that is so visceral, something you go to club and experience, do you think listeners are up to having an album they fill in themselves?

Torbjørn Brundtland: In all honesty we made this album without being arrogant or anything just because we wanted to make it. It’s a project more than anything… I don’t know what more to say for us. It felt right to do such a thing. If we had our more cynical glasses on we would have made something completely different in the vein of Junior,  but we wanted to make this simply because it was more fun.

SB: It is music that doesn’t have a function.

TB: Unless you’re on smack…

TNG: The night is young….

TB: And it’s not made to impress anyone. When people think of impressing music they think of something that’s in your face. But you can impress people with various means, none of which have been implemented in Senior.

TNG: There’s such a link between electronic music and powerful female vocalists and you put together a virtual “who’s who” of vocalists for Junior. What is your process for finding them?

SB: It’s many things.

TB: It’s a word-of-mouth thing. You pick up on things. We’ve never used anyone that is majorly famous at the point we started working with them. Lykke Li for instance, she’s probably not considered famous in the sense…

SB: She’s more of a next big thing.

TB: She does have a bit of attention in certain channels…

TNG: She’s on the cover of Spin right now, so she’s getting there…

TB: When we started working with her some years ago she didn’t have anything apart from a few songs on her MySpace page that were just her and her piano, probably in her living room. Very basic stuff.  It’s fun to work with someone of that caliber who has that hunger and is not necessarily  attached to anything when it comes to the image that they have. When people can see we’re working with someone and it’s a bit like “I don’t have a totally clear image of who that person is,” we enjoy that the most.

SB: There is an element of scouting, finding the right voice and the right voice can be a different thing from song to song. The key we look for is a voice with certain identity, a voice that stands out in some way.

TNG: Speaking of identity and image, Karin Dreijer Andersson has one of the most notoriously  detailed onstage identities. How is it working with her, and how is it taking a track like “Tricky Tricky”that is so attached to her voice and reworking it instrumentally? Do you lose something?

SB: You make something different. Obviously if you look at “Tricky Tricky” and “Tricky 2″ I find that “Tricky Tricky” is quite basic in many ways, but again due to the pure raw energy of Karin’s voice, and the lyrics, it gives so much to me. “Tricky 2″ is more of a connoisseur kind of thing. Tobin spoke  about not trying to impress anyone, but there is a certain element of skill involved in that for a specialist ear. In terms of programming and how the rhythmical structures are, it’s an interesting journey. Although they have the same basic structure, in the beginning, they definitely represent two different things. I don’t see one being better than the other. It’s just two different songs.

TNG: Is she as nuts as she might appear?

SB: I don’t know what nuts is.

TNG: She doesn’t wear monster masks while she’s having breakfast?

SB: You asked how we picked vocalists.  We just work with people we can relate to, get along with. You are to sit down and write music with them. For us it won’t be enough to make a song and glue a vocal on top. We have to blend it together.  Personality is something we look for when putting  a song together.  You have to click with these people. I wouldn’t say any of them are nuts or anything.  They are equally as strange as any other person, as we ourselves are.

TNG: Yeah, I know that you two have such distinct onstage personas. How much work do you put into creating what you’re like onstage?

SB: How to say this…. We put in work, but I find whatever we do we want it to be… it sounds like we’re lazy now… We want it to be the whole approach to music, music videos, song. We want it to be effortless, natural.

TB:  Particularly the stage thing. That’s something we never planned to do the way we planned to make an abum. Our philosophy has always been that it should be an experience in the moment where we have fun with the audience together. It’s based on that. You go and you show emotional energy and hopefully the audience will show something back.

SB: Just like you would do at a party. You have to communicate with people , have a few drinks, do what other people are doing and be part of it.  You wake up the next morning and go “Oh fuck,” and you move on. You might have regrets or brilliant memories, but you ramble on. That’s the way we see the live show as well. It’s all about  a specific moment. If you play the wrong notes or spill your Vodka Redbull on the keyboard, it doesn’t matter. It only adds to the experience.

TNG: A few more quick questions. Is “This Must Be It” a sequel to “What Else Is There?” It seems that the first one asks a question and the second one answers it… [Note: And they both feature vocals from Andersson.]

SB: We dont want to abbreviate too much. We have quite a strong vision when we make music, we have certain imagery and stories and so on, which is very evident when we sit and make them. We make tracks like “The Alcoholic” from Senior, we sit in the studio and we tell each other what it’s all about, what’s going on…

TNG: Like Peter and The Wolf?

SB: You have this thing in your head. We see all of our music as Royksopp as interwoven, it’s one continuous thing…

TB: We dont expect for everone else to have the same…

SB: Exactly. As much as if you watched a movie by David Lynch, let’s say Mulholland Drive, some people find it is all sbout this thing and others think its all about that thing…

TNG: And it would ruin all the fun if David Lynch came out and said…

SB: Yeah, listen,  it’s all about prostitution and Diet Pepsi.

TNG: To  back up a bit, I actually voted “This Must Be It” as my number one song “Queerest Indie Song of 2009.” The idea that there must be something else and there isn’t, on top of a disco beat… If you’re out in the community you probably know that feeling. So thank you.

SB: Thank you! I think that Karin, one of her strengths is wording. That kind of  conundrum is one of her best skills.

TNG: Speaking of gay stuff too, you do a great cover of “Wuthering Heights” in your live shows. If your playing a dance show this big and you drop “Wuthering Heights,” you get a lot of exited gay men. It would be remiss of me not to bring that up.

SB: We could try that and see if we can pull it off [tonight.]

TNG: It’s gonna be sixty percent gay tonight [Ed. Note: It basically was] so if you pulled it off I’d be so excited. And why Kate Bush, before I leave you?

SB: There’s many reasons why.

TB: She’s a pioneer.

SB: She was that in so many ways. In terms of songs and visuals. So may things.  The people she worked with, the production side of it, how she sings. Why we chose “Wuthering Heights?” Because  it sticks a bit out. It’s not what one would expect us to do. It has a strange time signature. It’s just good music. We don’t want to intellectualize too much about it, but it’s a rewarding track to listen to.

TB: We definitely like to not intellectualize about our gigs, but then spend half an hour talking about high-end programming.

TNG: Programming  is the one thing I can ask questions about.  No computer skills here. I’ll let you go. Thank you! TNG

In the last decade Alago has stepped out from behind the scenes and gotten behind the lens. His new book, Brutal Truth, is a pictorial examination of the brut gay male body. Alago’s work is erotic, thought provoking, and tastefully distasteful in the best way possible. One photograph will leave one hand scratching the head with the other hand heading south.

Recently I had the opportunity to speak to Alago about his life and career.  Enjoy.

The New Gay: You’ve had quite the colorful and varied creative life and career.  Clearly, it’s been a passion for you as much as a job.

Michael Alago: Music has informed my life as long as I can remember. Listening to AM radio, watching Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and going to my first concert when I was 14 and seeing Alice Cooper all that changed my life forever.

TNG: You were instrumental in the careers of Metallica, White Zombie, and Johnny Rotten. Was the fact you are gay ever an issue with these “macho” acts?

MA: My sexuality was never an issue with any of the artists I worked with. I worked hard and did my job well and that was the most important thing.

TNG: You’ve been operating out of NY for decades. Is the city as magical now as it was for you in the early 80s? Were those times really special or just glorified by time and memory?

MA: I am 52 and have lived in NYC since I was 17. For me beginning in the late 70′s the city was magical. I was a curious gay teen that visited the art house movie theaters. Went to Max’s Kansas City. CBGB’s, the Anvil and the Mineshaft (a few times with Mapplethorpe) as well as the porn theaters and the abandoned piers on the west side highway looking for sex. It was a glorious time for a wild child like myself exploring Manhattan and all it had to offer. In the 80′s AIDS changed the landscape of our lives and how we lived and moved forward. Today the city has been gentrified and I feel list it’s edge but it is NYC and it still has all the best things a major city has to offer.

TNG: Your new book is a photography book called “Brutal Truth.”  With its photographs of gruff and uber “masculine” men I see where the word “brutal” comes from.  Explain why you used the word “truth” in the title?

MA: I use the word “truth” as part of the title of my book because I feel when I take a photograph and it works and the audience responds to it both the subject and I have completed our job and we have revealed a bit about the man in the photo and there lies the “truth.”

TNG: Did your switch in focus from music A&R to photography have anything to do with state of the entertainment industry or just personal creative evolution?

MA: Both. I was an A&R executive for 23 years and discovered and worked with extraordinary artists. At some point I noticed the overall change in sales or lack of sales and everything was shifting and of course the Internet was very powerful and record companies were not paying attention to all the changes so I thought it’s time to leave and start a new career.

TNG: You work incorporates the concept of the gay “daddy.” What is it about the bodies of brut men that is enthralling to your creative eye?

MA: I love a big daddy for his overall strength size and masculinity.

TNG: What would you like the viewer to walk away with after seeing your book?

MA: I like that the viewer walks away with a sense of erotic excitement and that I am an artist with an edge sharing what excites me and I hope it excites the audience too. So I guess a sense of passion lust and accomplishment.

TNG: With being gay more acceptable in the mass culture, is it easier to operate as a publicly gay artist than thirty years ago?

MA: It is easier to operate and be open about the erotic work these days in one sense but in another there has become less and less venues to showcase work and the little boutique shops across the USA like A Different Light are closing down so we must be resourceful and continue to find alternative spaces to show our work.

TNG:  You were a fly on the fall for some of the most outrageous behind-the-scenes rock and roll times.  Give us one fun accolade you’d like to share.

MA: There are so many stories. I remember moments like sharing a drunk kiss with Johnny Thunders of the NY Dolls at Max’s and when the punk group Chelsea came to the states taking their singer Gene October home with me for a roll in the bed. [Laughs.] One infamous night at the Ritz when I booked a PiL show that turned in to a notorious disaster. It made all the international newspapers and we were backstage laughing and snorting all night long and ready to do it all over again. All the other fab stories will be in my memoir.

TNG:  You helped Cyndi Lauper with publicity on her last album “Memphis Blues.” Lauper has always been a gay icon. Did you know Cyndi in the early Blue Angel days?

MA: I was the A&R executive on Cyndi ‘s last two records “Bring Ya to the Brink” and “Memphis Blues.” I met her when I was the booking agent at the Ritz and booked Blue Angel there but only got to know her years later and absolutely adore her.

JG:  With such a varied life and career. What can we expect next from Michael Alago?

MA: You can expect more erotic photography from me. I am currently writing a new book of poems and observations once again with Keith Mina Caputo called “Today Is The Day” and am working on a memoir about my crazy wonderful years in the music business and what I am doing now. Thank you for asking. Bye for now.

Find out more about Michael Alago here.

The newly engaged lesbian musicians talk about how they inspire one another.

Megan Ouchida of The Mnemonic Sounds and Kay Bertholf of Candy Claws are something of an indie lez match made in heaven. The pair met over the internet, Megan based in Portland, OR, Kay based in Ft. Collins, CO. After a whirlwind long-distance relationship Megan asked Kay to marry her last month. Both women are musicians and songwriters in their respective hometowns.

In part one of this two part interview, I spoke with Megan about her band, The Mnemonic Sounds, her Christian music roots, and what she loves the most about Kay.

In part two, I spoke with Kay about her band, Candy Claws, the big engagement news, and how Megan inspires her. Check out below!

The New Gay: First of all, congrats on your engagement! How are things shaping up with your move to Portland?

Kay Bertholf: Thanks! My move to Portland is looking good so far for where I’m at right now in school. I’m planning on graduating in the summer next year and immediately moving to Portland if I can find a graphics or web design job. So hopefully everything will work out well in the job field.

TNG: Where did you get your start playing music?

KB: I started taking violin lessons when I was super young, but then when I got into middle school I wanted to be a little more rebellious against mainstream stereotypes as a girl, so I started taking drum lessons and taught myself guitar (I never saw too many girls playing those instruments). My drum teacher, Ryan, and I became best friends and we started making music together. The two of us are now the founders of our band Candy Claws.

TNG: How did Candy Claws begin?

KB: Candy Claws sprouted from our love for nature. Our first album was written entirely with the thought of the ocean in mind, and the second album with the forest in mind. Ryan and I wanted to make song that would remind people of the sea or the forest. They aren’t necessary anthems. We just wanted to invoke genuine feelings in listener’s hearts about nature.

TNG: What inspires the band? What inspires you?

KB: I don’t want to speak for the rest of the band, but personally, I’ve been strongly influenced by a whole bunch of bands. To mention a few, Radiohead, Bjork, Sigur Ros, and Avalanches.

TNG: Do you plan to continue playing music once you get to Portland?

KB: I’m still planning on making music as Candy Claws once I move to Portland, but it’s going to be very different. Right now, all six members in Candy Claws live about ten minutes away from each other so it’s no hard thing getting together and practicing and creating things. I’m getting ready for my relationship with the band to be mostly digital through emails and file sending. I keep telling myself IT CAN BE DONE!

TNG: How has the queer experience been in small-city, middle-America?

KB: Fort Collins is a really great place to live, no matter how you identify or who you are. In the queer community there is a lot of support in our city. CSU (Colorado State University) has a great GLBT resource center. We throw a drag show twice every year and more than six-hundred people have been recently attending. We also have many awesome GLBT organizations off-campus as well that take part in rallies and marches. It’s really swell!

TNG: What is your favorite thing about Megan?

KB: Ooooooo… favorite thing about Megan? I have so many favorite things about her I can’t even…. I guess the first thing I noticed about her that I really loved was how active she is in her relationships with the people around her. She’s such a great friend to others and she thinks of everything when it comes to making people feel welcomed, loved, and comfortable. I think she is secretly a super hero because she’s so good at it. She has super vision to see every angle of a person’s needs. Its quiet strange but thoroughly amazing!

TNG: What is your favorite thing about being a member of the queer community?

KB: The best thing I have experienced being part of the queer community is being accepted and flamboyantly welcomed into a family. All of my queer friends are super cheery and loving. They just reach out and grab you and say, “You’re my friend now let’s hang out!!!” It’s always super fun hanging out in a room full of queers.

TNG: What else would you like TNG readers to know about Candy Claws? Any upcoming dates?

KB: Thanks for reading and check out our website: candyclaws.com. We have a new episode every Friday on our main page! Also, Candy Claws will be playing at the Gothic Theatre in Denver on June 11th (Megan will be there!) and for the Film On the Rocks event at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, CO on July 5th! See you there!

c. Lindsey Byrnes

Submission by Kaysey  Crump, TNG music columnist

Megan Ouchida of The Mnemonic Sounds and Kay Bertholf of Candy Claws are something of an indie lez match made in heaven. The pair met over the Internet, Megan based in Portland, OR, Kay based in Ft. Collins, CO. After a whirlwind long-distance relationship Megan asked Kay to marry her last month. Both women are musicians and songwriters in their respective hometowns. In part one of this two part interview I spoke with Megan about her band, The Mnemonic Sounds, her Christian music roots, and what she loves the most about Kay.

The New Gay: Last year was a pretty big year for Mnemonic Sounds after releasing your first album. How has 2011 been for you guys?

Megan Ouchida: Since the beginning of the year, we’ve received a lot of positive feedback about our first album, Muscle Memories. Our music has been featured in a number of commercials, including a Herman Miller Press Release and a Canadian ad for Shoppers Drug Mart. We’ve had the opportunity to share bills with bands like Phantogram and Macintosh Braun. More recently, we’ve been working on commission songs as per our publisher’s request to submit for the upcoming movie Breaking Dawn, which is the fourth movie in the Twilight Saga, as well as a song for the season finale of Grey’s Anatomy. We won’t find out for a couple more months whether or not our submissions were chosen, so our fingers are crossed!

TNG:  What were you doing prior to joining the Mnemonic Sounds?

MO: I did some solo stuff. When I was seventeen I released a solo album and another album in 2008, and the Peter (Suk) got a hold of me and said “Hey, let’s do some music,” and I said “Alright!” We’d known each other from a few years back. We went to the same church and we just started from there.

TNG: Did you grow up in Portland?

MO: Yeah I did, I live in Milwaukie (OR).

TNG: So did Peter just know that you had been playing music around?

MO: Yeah so when we went to the same church I was like twelve and he was a few years older than me, maybe eighteen or nineteen. We didn’t talk much. He went off to college, came back a few years later and found out I had been doing music on my own. I guess he liked it so we collaborated.

TNG: How do you two write songs together?

MO: For the first album we would take turns, like he would write six instrumentals and give them to me and I wrote six instrumentals and gave them to him for each other to write melody and lyrics to.

TNG: That’s really cool.

MO: Yeah! It got kind of experimental by the end. He wrote a song by himself and I wrote a song by myself because we were like, “ahhh, we need songs quick!” So yeah we kind of just do half-and-half. But for the EP, what we’ve been doing for the last couple months is that we’ll be in practice with the rest of our band and we’ll try to come up with ideas together, record them, and then go home and try to turn that into a song. We’ve done that with one rough song that we have right now. We’re just playing with a bunch of different things.

TNG: What inspires your writing?

MO: Let’s see, lots of different stuff. I think mostly relationships and stuff. People that have influenced my life, Kay for sure.

TNG: Do you think that the queer experience has had anything to do with your writing?

MO: I think that some of the new songs are kind of written about being with Kay, I guess that’s really just my experience as a lesbian. But it’s not what I would necessarily call a “queer song.”

TNG: Yeah, it’s still human.

MO: I mean it’s music and it’s about me and I happen to be gay. It’s influenced some of the lyrics for sure.

TNG: How did you meet Kay?

MO: We met online actually and we dated for like two months before we met each other. She flew here (Portland, OR) and visited over Thanksgiving and we hung out for a week and it was great. We’ve been together for seven months now and a couple weeks ago we got engaged.

TNG: Congratulations!

MO: Thanks!

TNG: Do you have any plans for her to move to Portland?

MO: Yeah she has one more year of school and then she’s moving up to Portland. So yeah…

TNG: Well, congratulations again. Big announcement!

MO: Yeah!

TNG: What is your favorite thing about Kay? I’m going to ask her this, too.

MO: There are way too, many but I would say the first thing that I noticed about her that kind of caught me off-guard was that she’ll speak her mind and not really care what you think about it. Or she’ll just say what she’s thinking and not give a thought about whether you disagree or agree. She doesn’t really care she’s just, like, real. I really appreciate that about her.

TNG: Do you guys play music together?

MO: We haven’t, we have the idea of maybe doing some songs together when she moves here but you never know. That’s a long way down the road.

TNG: Has it been tough to do the long-distance thing?

MO: Yeah it’s pretty tough. We make sure to take turns flying to each other every month or so or as often as we can. But since she’s busy with school and I’m busy with work and music it gets tricky sometimes, we make sure to see each other once a month. When we’re not skyping with each other we’re texting with each other, and when we’re not texting we’re skyping. That helps.

TNG: Who are your musical influences?

MO: God, there are so many bands that I’m sure have influenced me in one way or another but some of the bands I listen to a lot are Death Cab for Cutie, Copeland, Tegan and Sara, there’s a lot.

TNG: Do you remember the first CD you ever purchased or were given?

MO: Yes I do! I was raised in a very conservative Christian home so I was only allowed to listen to Christian music until I was like fourteen, and then for Christmas my mom gave me an NSYNC cd and I went crazy with that. I was, like, the biggest NSYNC fan just because I was like “Oh my god, this isn’t Christian and my mom’s letting me listen to it!”

TNG: We have similar music histories. I was very Christian too and then I was obsessed with NSYNC and in love with Lance Bass haha.

MO: Yeah, haha. Justin Timberlake was my guy. But ever since I was allowed to listen to “secular” music I just went crazy with it.

TNG: Did you listen to Jennifer Knapp?

MO: Oh yeah.

TNG: That was a big announcement last year.

MO: Oh yes, I heard. That’s great.

TNG: Any final thoughts or information you would like to share with the TNG readers?

MO: Check out Mnemonic Sounds and Candy Claws!

Don’t miss the rest of the interview tomorrow, when Kaysey Crump talks with  Kay about her band, Candy Claws, the big engagement news, and how Megan inspires her.

On March 12, Public Works hosted SPEAKER, a benefit for the GLBT Historical Society that also doubled as a retrospective of the evolution of San Francisco’s queer disco scene. It was fitting that Fabus presided over the music along with fellow journeyman discaire, Bobby Viteritti, and the entire event was co-hosted by the legends-in-the-making DJ collective known as Honey Soundsystem. Now that the glitter dust from the party has settled and the mirror ball put away, The New Gay caught up with Fabus and Honey Soundsystem co-founder DJ Ken Vulsion to retrospect over the retrospective and the state of today’s underground.

The New Gay: Let’s start off by getting a little background and history about the SPEAKER party that took place this past March. What was the concept behind it, and how did it come to involve the GLBT Historical Society?

Steve Fabus @ SPKR

Steve Fabus: I was brainstorming about doing a fundraising event for the GLBT Historical Society a number of years ago. My concept for the event was a big dance party combined with a gallery exhibit showing the history of San Francisco queer club culture. Last year after playing a night at Honey Soundsystem, I talked to Ken Woodard [a.k.a. DJ Ken Vulsion] about the idea, and he said Honey was already thinking about doing a similar kind of event so we decided to work together on the project.

Ken Vulsion: The idea for Speaker came at a Honey Soundsystem meeting around Robert Yang’s (Robot Hustle) kitchen table. We wanted to have a benefit for the GLBT Historical Society that traced the lineage of certain sound systems that powered Queer dance floors in San Francisco. Initially we focused on five venues: the I-Beam, the Trocadero Transfer, The EndUp, the Box, and 177 Townsend. Steve Fabus, besides being Honey’s Disco Godfather, was a natural choice as a collaborator and curator, as he had been a resident discaire at three of those discotheques.

Vintage Photos from SPKR

SF: Our vision for Speaker was to present a time line of San Francisco queer club culture. There would be a special emphasis on the Disco Era showing how it was the beginning of that culture and iconic in the way it was interwoven with the social and political fabric of the 70′s. Speaker would show how the House, Techno and Rave scene evolved from the roots of Disco, leading to the modern scene today. We chose to do the event in the new big club space, The Public Works, which has a gallery space in close proximity to its main room dance floor. A time line of queer club culture would be presented in the gallery with a multimedia exhibit that included rare photographs and posters. Recorded audio oral histories of artists, deejays, promoters and other luminaries would be heard through vintage speakers hanging in the gallery. In the main room, Bobby Viteritti and I would play together again, as we did at the Trocadero, and musically create the spirit and vibe of that time.

TNG: I liked the crowd that showed up at the party. I was expecting hipsters, but there was a good mix of older and younger guys, bears and the usual dance crowd. I got there a little after 10 PM, and there were already guys puking in the bathroom sink. Was the turn-out what you expected? How did you get the word out about the party?

SF: The turn-out made us all happy. It was a big crowd and it was pretty diverse, except we probably could have done without the pukers, haha! And yes there was a good balance of older and younger. We got the word out in the media, blogs like Joe.My.God, Comfort & Joy, and sites like SF Station. We sent out personal emails, put up posters and did Facebook, of course.

TNG: Thinking about all the vintage flyers, posters and photos from San Francisco’s old underground disco scene– obviously it was cool to get back to our roots, but it also made me feel like I’m still in the middle of a story being written. When you look back at these artifacts today, do you feel like there is a narrative being told that perhaps wasn’t so obvious while you were living it?

SF: During the disco years, sometimes I thought the scene was too good to be true. How are we getting away with this? Big clubs were open all night every week. People would dance at the Trocadero until 8 AM and then continue partying at The EndUp, Balcony and a number of other places around town. The big gay clubs were an underground experience that mainstream America didn’t have a clue about. I knew at the time that this was something unique and there was nothing like it before. It was the start of something big!

TNG: Through the eyes of someone who’s been a part of this since the 1970s, how do you think the underground scene has evolved in San Francisco?

Fabus @ Go BANG!

SF: Well, it’s always important to remember that the 70′s party scene developed from the free love movement of the hippies and the sexual revolution that began in the sixties. The baby boomers were all young, huge in numbers and active. From political action to pursuits of pleasure, gays were celebrating new found freedoms. San Francisco was the storied mecca in those days and people were coming here in droves to satisfy their desires. It was an incredible time. It was the norm for large numbers of people to find better things to do than sleep on a Saturday night, and they would pack the Trocadero and other clubs and dance until the morning light.

San Francisco has always been known as a place with innovative nightlife, but there have been low points. I think the city is going through a bit of a renaissance right now with clubs like Honey Soundsystem, Go BANG!, Dial Up, Viennetta Discotheque, Hard French and Bus Station John’s parties.

TNG: Five years ago when I just moved to San Francisco, I was told that one of the best parties was the Trocadero Transfer even though it was no longer around. Does this nostalgia surprise you? What is it about the club scene that’s lacking these days?

SF: The nostalgia doesn’t surprise me. There is nothing like it today. The Trocadero was a big club that was open all night every weekend. People would dance until 8 or 9 in the morning on a Saturday night. In the Disco Era, a resident DJ was the star of the club and would be identified with a night and play every week. Most of the time only one DJ would play the whole night—two at the most. Bobby Viteritti and I would share the booth on Saturday’s. People came to the club religiously every week to be taken on a trip all night. What’s lacking today is that there isn’t any big Trocadero-sized gay club that’s open consistently every Saturday night.

TNG: One of the great things about living in San Francisco is that the gay community is diverse. The fact that you can have an underground dance scene as an alternative to circuit parties is pretty amazing. I lived in Atlanta for 10 years, and everyone went to the same clubs and danced to the same shitty Madonna remixes. What is the difference between circuit parties and today’s underground scene?

SF: There was a point a number of years ago that a sizable group of people started to reject the circuit scene because it became so mainstream, predictable, generic. The circuit scene is downsized now so maybe it would be a good time for it to reinvent itself and be open to new ideas. There’s more energy and feeling in the underground clubs.

TNG: Any predictions about where San Francisco’s underground scene goes next? Do you see any new trends developing on the horizon?

SF: I think the underground will be doing more big room parties.

TNG: Lastly, 10 years from now how do you think this time will be remembered? Will Go BANG! and Honey Sundays join the lineage that I-Beam, The Endup and Trocadero Transfer started?

Honey Speedos

SF: I think this time will be remembered as the time when there was a transitional shift from the 20th Century to the 21st Century. That’s why there’s a new generation that’s looking back to move things forward. I definitely think Go BANG! and Honey will join the lineage, and the lineage will expand to include others, like Bus Station John. We’re not going to forget him!

KV: It is every discotheque’s dream to “last the ages.” As we approach our 4th year as a weekly, and 5th year as a group, Honey isn’t stopping anytime soon, not until the dance floor says so. We are at the Holy Cow (which was the Stud until 1986) each and every Sunday. We are also selling the infamous Honey speedos on our Facebook page!

Details:

Steve Fabus

DJ Steve Fabus spins every last Saturday at Go BANG! at the Deco Lounge and makes regular appearances at Café Flore and the Tubesteak Connection at Aunt Charlie’s Lounge. But check your local club listings—chances are he’s a guest discaire someplace else in the city!

DJ Ken Vulsion

Ken Vulsion and Honey Soundsystem

Honey Soundsystem hosts a weekly Sunday dance party at the Holy Cow. Their music can be found on their own Honeytrax label, and a new record label called Discaire was launched by DJs Robot Hustle and PeePlay with queer collaborators from New York, London, and Berlin. Honey discaire, Josh Cheon, continues to put out impeccable releases on his Dark Entries label.

Honey just made its debut appearance in Wachington D.C. at the monthly RAW party. She will also appear for the first time in Chicago, during Market Days, at Berlin on August 11 along with Steve Fabus and DJ Sergio.

• Honey Soundsystem on Facebook: www.facebook.com/home.php#!/home.php?sk=group_30692295205
• Honeytrax: www.deejaypeeplay.com
• Discaire: discaire.com
• Dark Entries: www.darkentriesrecords.com

Shortly after they began playing small shows in New York, The Postelles chased The Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr. down the sidewalk and begged him to come see them. Amazingly, he did, and then continued on to produce five tracks on The Postelles’ self titled debut album. Hammond’s touch is unmistakable, as is his plug in-and-play attitude that the new Manhattan four-piece has adopted so well.

TNG got the chance to talk to lead singer Daniel Balk about the debut album and the upcoming tour that kicks off in New York on June 7^th, with a stop in D.C. on the 11^th. (Full tour dates can be found below interview.) Also discussed: Manhattan versus Brooklyn, killer families in Oklahoma, Mariah Carey, and poop – the latter two not being mutually exclusive.

The New Gay Scott: I’ve read from various sources that you guys are from Manhattan, and other sources that say you’re from Brooklyn.

Daniel Balk: The places that say we’re from Brooklyn are wrong.

TNG: In terms of how music is generated, is there a difference between the two boroughs?

DB: There’s definitely more of a scene in Brooklyn and there’s something cool going on there. But in the last decade I think there’s been a newer scene in Manhattan, as well, with bands like The Strokes and all that. There is one problem though. Some bands may come from Ohio or whatever and then say they’re from Brooklyn. That’s sort of a cop-out in my mind.

TNG: Your upcoming tour kicks off in Manhattan, right?

DB: Yes. We’re from New York so we’re doing two hometown shows starting June 7^th. We’re very excited.

TNG: Aside from NY, what’s your favorite city to play in?

DB: It depends a lot on the venue and the crowd. DC’s really cool. We’ve played some really good shows there. Chicago, too. And Austin.

TNG: Were you at SXSW this year?

DB: No, but we were there last year. It’s fun. I think it’s getting a little corporate, though. Everyone’s BBM-ing people they work with. That’s a little annoying, but it’s a great event. And I love Austin – the city.

TNG: You’ve opened for some pretty big names like Vampire Weekend, Interpol, and Kings of Leon. Do any of these guys, or others, stick out as being particularly fun to tour with or open for?

DB: Most of those were bigger tours so we didn’t get to hang out as much. We were usually either on the bus or just playing. That’s why smaller bands and smaller shows are usually much more fun. We toured with this great band called Free Energy and we played in little bars, just getting drunk every night and telling jokes.

TNG: Speaking of touring, I read that you got shit on by a bunch of pigeons in St. Louis last year?

DB: Yea, it happened in St. Louis when we opened for Kings of Leon. That was fun. It was only John – the bassist – that got shit on.

TNG: And you played the whole set?

DB: Yea, it was such an amazing experience playing for Kings of Leon. There were like eight or nine thousand people there. If someone had shot me with a gun I’d finish the set. We were that excited about it.

TNG: The Postelles have a reputation for some great live shows. Any preshow rituals?

DB: Besides drinking as much as possible? Well we all sing a Dylan song together just before we go on. “I Shall be Released.”

TNG: You mentioned that you prefer to just plug in your instruments and play, no synthesizers or computers.

DB: We really love rock n’ roll. Chuck Berry didn’t learn how to play music on a laptop. He spent years perfecting his craft and mastering his instruments. So just downloading a program instead of learning an instrument is a little bit of a cop out I think. But that’s just my opinion.

TNG: So does hearing someone remix your music, like Chris Taylor did on “Sleep on the Dance Floor,” turn you off? Or are you guys on board with it?

DB: What Chris Taylor did was not exactly turning on a computer and pressing some buttons. He put a little more effort into it and he definitely worked out of a real studio. Having said that, remixes are really nice and cool, but it’s not exactly my cup of tea. I don’t think I would ever be doing remixes for bands.

TNG: Albert Hammond Jr. from The Strokes co-produced your most recent album, right? What was his level of involvement on the project?

DB: He was very involved. The guitar sound was his biggest thing. He’s a bit of a perfectionist, actually. I didn’t expect that because from a Strokes record you would think he’s a plug in and play kind of guy. That had a huge effect on us because we can be lazy sometimes.

TNG: +1 is a new label for you, right? How did you get hooked up with them?

DB: They were our managers when we were on Capitol. When we left Capitol, we got a lot of offers from other labels, but we felt that +1 had built a good strategy with us, and they were already our mangers so why not let them release the record?

TNG: Is there one song, any song, which you love so much you wish you had written it yourself?

DB: There’s probably a thousand songs. But just one? Oh man … uh … ”Brown Eyed Girl,” by Van Morrison. It’s just sort of a perfect pop song. From a band that I love, I would say, I wish I wrote … um … ”Could This Be Love,” by Bob Marley.

TNG: Where did the name The Postelles come from?

DB: There’s really not a great story behind that. After we got the band name we realized there was this family in Oklahoma that murdered a bunch of people whose last name was Postelle. So that’s a little weird.

TNG: You ever think about just making that the official story behind the band name?

DB: Haha, well I’m not a very good liar but maybe I’ll suggest that to my publicist.

TNG: Any musical guilty pleasures? Whitney Houston? Mariah Carey?

DB: I really like the Christmas song by Mariah Carey. (singing) “All I want for Christmas…” that’s a really, really good song.

TNG: What’s next for you after the tour?

DB: We’re recording a lot of new songs right now, which we weren’t expecting to do. We got a month off so we went into the studio. We’re probably going to release a new song in July, maybe August. And we’re doing a festival in Southampton – Escape to New York.

TNG: Well, thank you for taking the time to talk to TNG!

DB: Thank you!

Tour dates:
06-07 New York, NY – Mercury Lounge

06-08 New York, NY – Mercury Lounge

06-10 Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie

06-11 Washington, DC – Red Palace

06-15 Toronto, Canada – NXNE Festival

06-17 Chicago, IL – Schubas

06-18 Milwaukee, WI – Summer Soulstic Music Festival

06-23 San Francisco, CA – Popscene at Rickshaw Stop

06-28 Los Angeles, CA – The Echo

07-07 Boston, MA – TT the Bears

08-05 – Southampton, NY – Escape to New York Festival

Portland, Oregon-based queer synth-rockers Lovers is known for music that can be at once melancholic and exhuberant. As they wind their way through the South on tour and on their way to DC, I caught up with lead singer and song writer Carolyn Berk, with whom I lived years and years ago in a magic house in Somerville, Massachusetts, we used to call “the Clarendon Palace.”  You can check out tour dates, songs and video on their MySpace page.

The New Gay:  I lost track of you way back in, what, 2004? 2005?  Help me catch up.  What’s new?  How has life changed since last I saw you?  I’ve had 2 boyfriends since then, and lived in Boston, Brussels and now DC.

Carolyn Berk: I moved out to Portland and started playing music with these two rad gals and bosom buddies, Emily Kingan and Kerby Ferris. And I’m about to become an uncle.

TNG:  I know your first two albums, “Starlit Sunken Ships” (2002) and “The Gutter and the Garden” (2004) almost by heart, but I am less familiar with your more recent work.  How would you say is your latest work like that on those albums?  What’s the biggest difference in your opinion? Figure 8, and Boxer, both on your latest album, both have a slight electronic sound to them.  Would this be a fair characterization of your more recent music compared to from the early 2000s?

CB: I’m a more present person and the work reflects that. I’m able to more fully realize my creative visions as I get older and become more confident, and as I work within a feminist community. There’s a really deep sisterly feeling between the three of us, and that has been so helpful for me, I really can’t express that enough.

TNG: You and I used to live together in Somerville (aka Boston to people outside Massachusetts).  I’ve never been to Portland, Oregon.  How would you describe it in contrast to Boston?

CB: The energy is totally different. Portland is much more feminine. Boston feels very macho, very masculine.

TNG: I hear you had a band-altering experience in South America.  You might remember that I was born in Ecuador, and am planning a trip there for June to visit family and explore the country as a tourist.  Where did you travel in South America?  And what was your experience like?

CB: I’ve been to Argentina twice, and also to Uruguay and Brazil. I met Kerby in Sao Paulo, where she was living at the time. My trips there were consciousness-expanding and challenging.

TNG: One of the first songs I ever heard you sing, and which has stayed with me all these years, was “Ginger.”  I’m not sure but I think it was at a lesbian bookstore in Cambridge, Mass. that no longer exists. Do you still perform these older songs?  Or will your audiences in your current tour hear mostly newer stuff?

CB: We’re playing mostly all new stuff.

TNG: As I admitted to you recently, not too long ago I had a surprising reaction to unexpectedly hearing a song of yours (winter takes a lover) and could not help crying.  I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s reacted this way to your music, especially during times of longing or heartbreak.  Have you heard others ever admit this to you?  Or am I just a crybaby?

CB: I can’t think of anyone ever telling me they cried to my music. But it’s good to cry. Release the beast.

TNG: Who are you listening to these days?

CB: My favorite live bands are ones we play within the burnt-out warehouse art spaces in the Midwest and it’s like some girl and her drunk friend and they are singing jingles and kicking things over. I like The Knife. I like Light Asylum. I like Toro Y Moi. I like Arcade Fire. I love Sinead O’Connor and I love watching k.d. lang performances on Youtube. I love songwriters like Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan and REM and Paul Simon. I love The Indigo Girls and I love The Eurythmics.

TNG: Any questions for me and TNG and DC?

CB: Not right now, I need to run and take a shower.

****

Catch Lovers play in DC Friday May 27th at 8 PM for A Beat-City Pre-Party/Fundraiser

to benefit The Washington Peace Center

Chief Ike’s Mambo Room

1725 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC 20009

$7 presale, $10 at the door.

http://beatcitypreparty.eventbrite.com/

If you’re a frequent reader of TNG you’ve probably come across Jeremy Gloff’s column “Cynical and Southern.” It turns out that Gloff is not only a wonderful queer writer, but he also has quite the musical resume. Gloff has been playing and writing music for almost twenty years and this month marks the release of his seventeenth album, THIS. THIS is a danceable, humorous, and honest album with many exciting guest appearances including queer rapper Shunda K.

Jeremy answered some questions about his new album, the evolution of the queer music scene and why his manager has had him on Facebook lockdown.

The New Gay: How did you first hear about TNG and what made you want to contribute?

Jeremy Gloff: I believe I was complaining the vapidity of gay culture on Myspace and my friend Kyle messaged me and said…”hey…why don’t you check this site out?”  That site of course was TNG. After browsing around for an hour or two I felt like TNG was something I had to be part of. I was so enamored and impressed by the voices on the site I felt driven to add my own.

TNG: You have been writing and performing music for almost twenty years now, in your experience how has the queer music scene changed?

JG: I’ve always been on the outskirts of any scene so I’m not sure I can answer accurately. I will say I think the MUSIC scene has changed. When I started in the early 1990s people really tuned in to emotions and lyrics. Now people almost exclusively seem to tune in to good beats and good hooks. It seems that even people starting out who are in it just for the heart of it quickly fall victim to trying to fit industry prototype. Glossy press kits and bullshit generic band bios abound.

As far as the queer music scene…it’s so sadly divided. There’s no cohesion. There’s no glue. The folk singers don’t know the dance singers. The OUTmusic New York crowd exists with little connection to the Atlanta Mondohomo queer fest crowd. I love the queer underground hip hop and electro scene, good supportive people.

I tried doing an interview series once to try to help different queer artists get to know each other. Sadly, barely anyone took any interest in any of the columns but their own. So I stopped.

TNG: Do you feel there are more opportunities for queer performers now that there are more openly gay high-profile performers like Rufus Wainwright and Melissa Etheridge?

JG: I’m not so sure how much of an impact Rufus or Melissa had on the industry. They certainly didn’t use their high profile success to try to nurture and promote younger gay artists. Imagine the whirlwind of excitement if Melissa or Rufus organized their own queer version of Lollapalooza? Despite the success of Rufus most gay men I know don’t listen to queer musicians. They listen to Lady Gaga. I’ve yet to see gay men embrace one of their own…unless they’re drunk at a club mentally jerking off to Cazwell’s ice cream video, what an embarrassment.

TNG: You are very open and honest in your music. Have you witnessed a change in how fans respond to that over the years?

JG: People who enjoy my music enjoy my loud mouth. That was the same in 1993 as it is in 2011. Truthfully my current manager put me on facebook lockdown in the months leading up to the release of the new album. Sometimes things I post online cause such a fervor he didn’t want anything to detract from the release of THIS.

TNG: Your new album THIS features so many wonderful guests. Did you set out to make a collaborative record? How did it all fall into place?

JG: Most of my albums have a lot of collaborations. I enjoy sharing my music with my friends. There’s always such a fun and positive atmosphere in the studio when I record. My intuition signals to me who should be on what song.

I tend to downplay my notoriety but when I set out to make THIS I said to myself “alright Jeremy, you just have to get all your cult famous friends on this album…don’t be shy,” and so I did.

TNG: How did you meet Shunda K? She seems like she would be a blast to work with.

JG: I met Shunda when we did a show together years ago. Shunda is a blast … she’s in it for the same reason I’m in it. To be expressive. To connect with people through words. And to make people sweat between the legs because they’ve been dancing so hard.

TNG: Who would be involved in your dream collaboration?

JG: My dream collaboration already happened. Since I was young I was enthralled with the music of Jill Jones, one of Prince’s protégés who went on the have her own colorful cult career. (Jill was one of the girls in Prince’s “1999” video who sang “I was dreaming when I wrote this forgive me if it goes astray…”  She was also the waitress in “Purple Rain”.)

In 2001 I heard Jill’s album TWO and I knew that we had to become friends and that we had to write together.
As fate would have it, we did become friends. One of Jill’s people saw my review of her album on Amazon.com. This led to a long friendship that culminated with us writing songs for her next album when I stayed in New York last fall. Incidentally, Jill’s daughter Sena co-wrote one of the songs with me on THIS.

TNG: I appreciate the humor in your music, for instance songs like “Small City” are hilarious yet touching. What inspires your writing?

JG: These songs really come from out of nowhere. Quite often it’s unresolved feelings. Longing. Confusion. When I write a song I’m negotiating my way through an idea. When the song is finished hopefully with it comes a moment of clarity.

Writing for TNG actually had a big impact on the writing of THIS. Doing “Cynical and Southern” (my TNG column) unlocked a lot of bravery in myself. I dig deep inside and search for unspoken truths. With the courage and boldness of writing the column came a new courage and boldness in my songs. THIS would never be what it is had I not been given the opportunity and freedom to be as daring as I am on TNG.

TNG: Speaking of “Small City” what brought you to Tampa?

JG: I wanted to kill myself living in Western New York (literally.) I had a friend moving to Tampa and she needed a roommate. On impulse I threw all my stuff in her U-Haul and told her I’d be down in four months. It was either get out of New York or probably die of depression

I did indeed arrive that October in 1998…and I’ve been in the same apartment since.

TNG: Is there anything else you would like the TNG readers to know about THIS?

JG: THIS is the best queer pop album ever released!  Check it out on iTunes or Amazon.com.  You can find me at jeremygloff.com.  Thanks for taking the time to coverTHIS!

The New Gay – You are touring in support of the Black and Blue EP with Nocturnes set for release this summer?

Leisha Hailey – That’s our plan, we’d love to have it out this summer. I believe we just worked out an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show. So we will try to have out our pre-sale out at about the same time.

TNG – Do you feel your audiences interact with you and your music differently than when you were supporting Common Reaction and the I See Red EP? Black and Blue has a much different sound.

LH – No, when people get behind a band, hopefully they are along for the ride. You grow and change. That’s whats great about the music. We have definitely grown as a band. Gotten to know each other and our sound has changed.

TNG – When the band started in 2007 you were still filming the L Word. How does it feel to be focused on one major project?

LH – I like it. There was definitely a point where I was overwhelmed time-wise just balancing things, flying back and forth. I actually enjoy just doing one thing at a time. It actually works for me.

TNG – On a scale of openly hostile as a 10 to totally indifferent as a 1 where irked is a 5, how do you feel about people calling you Alice?

LH – I don’t know, I can’t even put a number on it. I can tell you I think it has gotten a lot better. I think the people there are there for the music. But, a lot of people wouldn’t have known about our band otherwise, and I’m grateful for the exposure. The only thing is: I’m not a character.

TNG – So from what I’ve read you and Cam (Camila Grey – vox and keys) weren’t super well acquainted when you started the band. How did you come to name the band after PJ Harvey’s album? I’m imagining late night beer sesh over a box of records…

LH – No, we were a three piece at the time, Alicia Warrington on drums, and we couldn’t agree on a name. We would all come everyday for weeks with a list of band names and no one liked each others. I think we found it in a book. It just fit. I can’t even remember whose list it came off. And it fit. It kind of a relief. We had our EP finished and the record company was like “we need a name!”

TNG – So you’ve had a lot of exposure from the L Word. Is it weird to have fan girls? In my experience, queer girls tend to be very devoted to their musical icons. MEN were in town a few weeks ago and I’m pretty sure the audience would have changed all the tires on JD Samson’s van if given half a chance.

LH – Uh – weird no, what? I mean, without anyone in the audience, you’d be playing to no one. It is fantastic, we are so thankful, and seriously it is an amazing thing. I think the audience is changing….we even have boys in the audience now.

I don’t think it is specific to queer girls. I think as a music lover you become invested in the music. You feel it and it becomes a part of your life.

TNG – Do ya’ll design your own merch? I’m specifically enamored with the “Heartless Robot Tee”

You Buy For Me Please?

LH – We usually have people throw ideas out. If we can agree on something we go with it. It takes Cam and I a while to agree on that. Someone else did Heartless Robot and then it became a competition. That was the one I liked and Cam picked the one with hearts all over it. Hers won though. It sold more.

TNG – Are you still running Plaid Records? How does being on your own label  shape who you are as a musician?

LH – Well Plaid is our record label and it makes sense because it has everything we need to run our band, and as an indie artists it’s an ideal situation.

I think it’s incredible to self release records and tour through our own funding. It helps you grow as a band because you grown through so much together. It’s a daily struggle and exciting. When you are on a label things are being done around you and you don’t have any say and you kind of lose touch and things just kind of happen. When you are making every single decision you feel a more a part of it.

TNG – You had your rainbow tattoo removed…. Tell me more….

LH - Well I got it when I was 23 or 4 and uhm and I never intended it to be a gay rainbow. I really loved stars at the time and I really loved color. I still love color. I wanted it to be the most colorful tattoo that ever existed. And the tattoo artist went over it twice, so it was really inked on there. After a while, I couldn’t stand that it was an armband more than anything. I felt like Nick Lachey.

Two of These Things Are NOT the Same

TNG – You are based out of L.A. So – Prop 8. How important is the repeal of Prop 8 and DOMA to you?

LH – (Politely demurring) I’d rather not talk politics.

TNG – Okay. When you were the Murmurs the digital “online persona” aspect of being in a band seems like it must have been totally different. Have Facebook and Myspace become the new “street team”?

LH – It is completely different. With street teams back in the 90s you would meet people that were hanging your posters and flyering records stores for you. It was very hands on. Such a different world and it’s really exciting . You can do so much now and you are so connected to your fans.

I don’t know if you know about this, we ran out of money on Nocturne. We ran out of money but we need to mix it, and we had this offer from our friend Tchad Blake who agreed to do it for a really low price. So we had an online auction and sold all the things we made, and all the money that we made went back into the album. Almost to the dime it was exactly how much we needed to finish the album.

——-

I awkwardly thanked Leisha for her time, expressed how stoked I was for the show on Monday, and slowly typed this interview into coherence. See you Monday! Be sure to get there just a bit after doors to see the opening act – Diamonds Under Fire.

Chris Robinson is a 22-year-old born again New Yorker. He enjoys bedroom intellection and public urination. He can often be seen at the Limelight, dancing by himself 22 years too late.

Photograph by Chris Robinson: Michael on 34th Street: Braving the rain for a Bike Ride to Macy's

Michael Musto has been chronicling New York social life for over 26 years. He’s a rare stalwart in a scene often characterized by high turnover rates and even higher rates of self-destruction. All the while, he has exuded gayness—a bright rainbow gauge of all that’s germane to gays. We had a chance to talk with him about the state of homosexuality, his history in New York gay culture, and the interstices of the “new” and “old” gay.

The New Gay: What was your entrée into gay New York?

Michael Musto: I grew up in Brooklyn and knew I was gay at an early age, but had no idea there was a gay culture out there, because I grew up at a different time and had no access to the kinds of resources and information that the younger generation has these days. But when I went to Columbia College, I started going to parties and events where I was meeting out gay people that gave me an example of what I could be.

I was also covering theatre at the Columbia Spectator, getting to see all these Broadway shows—the first versions of “A Chorus Line” and “Chicago” in 1975 — which was not gay culture necessarily, but certainly helped form my gay cultural sensibility.

TNG: What’s the gayest thing you’ve ever done in New York?

MM: Well, I had a big party last March for the 25^th anniversary of my column, and I got up with a Judy Garland impersonator in front of literally hundreds of people and sang the old Judy Garland/Barbra Streisand duet, “Get Happy/Happy Days”. I used to have an old Motown cover band, so I actually have some experience singing. I was a white, male version of Diana Ross. Some would say that Michael Jackson already did that, but he was more of a white, female version of Diana Ross.

Vintage footage of Musto as a white, male Michael Jackson:

You know, I’ve pushed gay, gay, gay at every turn, so everything I do has been the gayest thing.

TNG: Do you have any resistance to always being typified as a “gay” figure”? For instance, when I did a Google search for “Michael Musto is…” the only suggestion Google offered was, “Michael Musto is gay.” Does that bother you?

MM: No, not at all, it’s been a good shtick for me. I have suffered from it careerwise in certain ways, but it’s how I’ve made my name, so I can’t turn back on it now.

I want to act as a counterpoint to every person in show business who says, “I don’t want to be identified as gay…talking about me being gay is just like talking about my hair color…why should it matter?” Hair color is something you can change, but being gay isn’t. It’s an identity, and it’s who I am, so it’s been everything to me.

TNG: Our friends over at Gawker have quoted you as saying that “Everyone under 30 is a retard.” Would you like to elaborate?

MM: I’m sure I was using hyperbole. I feel that the gay community has a good cross-section of smart and hopeless. I never want to be a Larry Kramer type, criticizing the younger generation for not being as culturally aware as we are or whatever. I actually think the young kids are smarter than we ever were, because they have access to so much. I just feel there’s a lack of curiosity about the history. Not that somebody who is 18 has to know everything in the world, but there should be at least some curiosity about the history of people like themselves. I think people are more sophisticated now than they used to be. Growing up, I had no information about gayness—I read that it was a sickness and had to be cured. But now, young people have access to much better information.

TNG: Do you feel that something’s lost with young people now going through this process of gay self-discovery through the Internet and books and isolated experiences, rather than having to find a community of other gay people, as you did at Columbia?

MM: Well, for one thing, now there’s no sexual urgency in clubs because of Manhunt—they’ve already had sex because of Manhunt, and they can go home and have sex because of Manhunt. When I was growing up, if you wanted to hook up and have sex, you had to go out to a club and find someone to do it with.

TNG: Ok, let’s play a game. You recently wrote about comparing the worst of today with the best of the past, for example, “Snooki is no Katharine Hepburn.” We here at The New Gay like to be optimistic, so let’s compare the worst of today with the worst of the past. Ready?

MM: Well, the thing is, no one remembers the worst of the past—like Lupe Vélez movies or Sonja Henie. But sure, I love playing games.

TNG: “Real Housewives” dance singles are the new…

MM: Justin Bieber, because they probably use so much Auto-Tune that they break the Auto-Tune machine.

TNG: MiMa (Middle of Manhattan) is the new…

MM: I don’t want to demean the tragedy of the Holocaust in any way, but… Auschwitz. You can call it whatever you want, but nobody wants to live there.

TNG: Where do you live? Downtown?

MM: I’ve actually always lived in Murray Hill. I like Murray Hill, because it’s a little bit generic. My life is so crazy that I like coming home to something a little bit bland. It’s the Switzerland of New York.

TNG: You recently wrote about a contestant at the Mr. Philadelphia Gay Pageant that confessed to you on stage that his best friend had come out as bisexual because of your column, and that she had later committed suicide because she couldn’t handle the homophobia. This shift back and forth between celebration and tragedy seems unique to gay culture. How do you handle it?

MM: It’s bizarre, because it is in a way the most celebratory culture, and the most fun one to be a part of. I don’t think they’re not interrelated. We’re wickedly witty and we like to party. Yet we’re the only culture that’s still ok to bash, both physically and with words. I was really horrified to hear about this woman who couldn’t go on. Fortunately, in Manhattan we don’t have to hear these stories too often, because we have a community of support.

TNG: How do you bear the weight of all the tragedy? I know you’ve seen a lot—a lot more, hopefully, than this generation will see—so how do you deal with these stories?

MM: I want to reach these kids in whatever way possible. It really does get better. I would say—come to New York, get your ass here, find your way here, you’ll find some place to live, maybe in the outer boroughs, but you’ll find a community. These young people suffer from a wrongful sense of being alone—they don’t know that there’s a world out there. Growing up, I felt the same way. But once I went over that bridge, it was a whole new vista.

TNG: What would you hope that this gay generation accomplishes?

MM: Don’t take any shit. Just like Lady Gaga wouldn’t take shit from Target when it supported anti-gay issues. We don’t have to take bullshit anymore. We don’t have to compromise. Young people should realize their own power and take control of the bus, and not sit in the back of it. It’s our parade now. Don’t ever stop fighting. It’s going to take this young generation to lead the fight. They’re the ones with the energy and idealism and the access to really change things. I’ll be on the sidelines with my pom-poms doing my little cheers.

TNG: What do you think of gay marriage as the rallying cause of the gay rights movement today?

MM: It’s always weird to me that we’re fighting for the right to be in the military and the right to marry, because those were both things that I never wanted in any way for myself. I think we should set our sights higher and try to gain equality in every way. It seems like we get hung up on those issues—and they’re important. But let’s be mindful of all the equal rights we deserve. It’s awful to have to fight for the right to be human. It’s absolutely insane. People are going to look back on this as science fiction, but we’re in the middle of this, and we have to do it. You have to constantly strive for validation. But I know from being around for so long that things have really changed so drastically.

I’m still waiting for an openly gay person in the White House.

TNG: Who would it be?

MM: Ricky Martin. Well, he would be First Lady. Clay Aiken would be President.

TNG: Final question: What’s the best thing for a gay person to do in New York City right now?

MM: I had a good time at the opening of District 36’s Rockit party last Friday. Tuesday’s Beige at B Bar has been the go-to gay party for ten years or so. Now that the weather’s getting nicer, it’s going to be the place to be for the summer. I also like going to bars like Pieces in the Village or Marie’s Crisis piano bar or Barracuda or just hanging out at dives, where you can make your own fun.

I don’t drink—that’s why I’ve lasted so long. I just enjoy watching everybody destroy themselves.

Michael Musto’s new book—his fourth—entitled Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back is slated to be released on September 1st of this year. In the meantime, check out his daily bloggings at La Daily Musto, and his weekly column in the Village Voice.

The New Gay: Hello, honey! Let’s start out with an easy question or two. How did Go BANG! get started? And what was the inspiration for the name?

The crowd at Go BANG!

Sergio Fedasz: In general, the disco scene is a friendly, sweaty, dancing crowd. As I went to many parties, I made friends and became a fan of some amazing DJs with great parties, including Nicky B (from Gemini Disco), Stanley Frank (from Viennetta Discotheque) and Ken Vulsion (from Honey Soundsystem). One day someone asked if I wanted to throw together a last-minute party. I called on a few friends and we all quickly formed a party consisting of a “super group” of DJs from other parties coming together to play together: Stanley, Nicky, Ken, DJ Flight, Eddy Bauer, and Stanley’s friend, Stephen You Guys, as our host and doorperson.

We all brainstormed a name and “Go BANG!” made sense given the party’s goal of gathering all our friends at once to DANCE and SWEAT in a safe, friendly, positive environment. And the reference to the classic Arthur Russell-produced song of the same name also was a great bonus. Taking inspiration from the classic Dinosaur L. song

“I wanna see all my friends at once
I’ll do anything to get a chance to
Goooo BANG!”

TNG: Local DJ legend, Steve Fabus, is a frequent collaborator, and Go BANG! usually features a rotating cast of local talent in its DJ line-ups. How do you choose who to work with?

SF: After the first party, we have evolved and grown from that “super group” concept to now regularly showcase guest DJs and occasional live and drag performances.

Also, since the start, our family has also evolved and grown to include:

• LEGENDARY DJ Steve Fabus. Steve Fabus has been a huge help with how the party has evolved, has quickly become one of my most beloved and trusted friends and collaborators, and he and I handle most of the day-to-day Go BANG! decisions. Steve Fabus was one of the first nationally recognized US DJs from the West Coast! He began his career playing loft parties and the baths of late ’70s San Francisco, whose guest list included pre-disco Sylvester, then a member of the radical drag troupe “The Cockettes,” and Harvey Milk. While playing the city’s infamous all-night loft party, Boiler Room in 1977, Steve was recruited to spin San Francisco’s first large venue disco, The I-Beam. Trocadero Transfer opened shortly thereafter where Steve shared the booth with Bobby Viteritti. In 1980, Steve became a resident of San Francisco’s legendary EndUp. His shift was the 6 AM to 2 AM slot on Sunday mornings and many people credit him for starting what is still known to this day as “Church”. He has DJed continuously since then and is still an AMAZING DJ and person with a wonderful heart and great energy.
• New hotshot East Bay DJ and Production Duo Tres Lingerie – Jordan Presnick and Johan Churchill. These guys are very great, and it’s so great to see a group in its early stages with such great potential and with their star rising. They often do live performances with a great lead singer, James Anthony. They are the type of contemporary straight dance music youths who I admire– they are professional, responsible, talented and very comfortable in their own skin and with who they are that they can easily navigate any scene and be comfortable in any type of environment, from yuppie straight scenes to sweaty and funky queer-mixed scenes such as Go BANG!
• Ronald Johnson as our Decoration Guru– for the past 6 months he has handled the monthly conceptual and decoration aspects of the party and is immensely talented.
• Darwin Bell and Monty Suwannukul as our photographers
• Alexandra Munson and Jon Avery as our coat check queen and king.

We also have a strong cast of unsung family and friends – Ericka Yanina, Amy Woloszyn, Stacy Lucier, Emily Coalson, Lel’Ephant, the Hard French crew, Doc Sleep, Eddie House, Andre Lucero, and more– who help us in many aspects of the party.

TNG: Was it easy to establish a club party at the Deco Lounge in San Francisco? How do you differentiate your party from the rest?

SF: Our party did not really get its feet under it and a reputation built up until a year after it began. Because Ron Rios and Roger Klein (as well as Paul Xavier and the other Deco Lounge owners) saw that we were investing a lot of our time to promoting, decorating and had a very specific and loving approach to the party, they gave us a lot more time and leeway to get our party off the ground. When it did finally hit its stride in January 2010 (after starting in November 2008) it has been a wonderful ride since then, with us all being successful and having fun and each month bringing a different type of excitement. But at least now– due to our loyal audience and friends and the positive reputation and goodwill we’ve received by the scene and the press (including The New Gay)– we know it’ll be a rager, it’s just what kind of a rager will it be now? :)

To more directly answer some of your questions. It is VERY hard to establish a club party and get it successfully going. Without Deco we would not have had the success that we do. We choose who to work with and differentiate our party by having a very strong personal connection with our dancers and guest DJs and make it a very family type of feel. That personal touch is what has helped us grow, and what keeps people coming back for more. I think that is a very important thing that many parties I respect do, but not a lot of parties do in general.

TNG: Retro soul, funk and disco is your forte. What is it about this type of music that appeals to you?

SF: I first started DJing on KALX 90.7 FM in Berkeley in 1997 (I still do), and I began live club DJing a couple of years after. As I continued to DJ, and especially after reading Last Night a DJ Saved My Life in 2000, my “musical vision” crystallized into wanting to present the spectrum of dance music– disco, house, funk, jazz, boogie and more– while preserving and paying respect to the vibe of the legendary clubs of Disco’s Golden Age.

DJ Sergio

A major reason I love this music, is that it is fairly reflective of my not-so-common type of personality and energy. I love that the music is bombastic, tambourines and divas yelling, sexy and sleazy and upfront and loud! The funky tunes, with often-sexual or suggestive or double entendre lyrics are so cool! It’s the music that has joy and whimsy and just puts a smile on your face. As you delve more into its gay, latino-and-black roots, you realize that this is the music that helped a disenfranchised community gather in a positive and joyous way to be themselves, to celebrate life, to find acceptance where they otherwise may not. And when AIDS struck, it was how people could be together to celebrate life in the midst of tragedy, and be together as a family even if that’s all the family you have. And that socio-political aspect of the music, and especially how that evolved in San Francisco, is one of the most wonderful things about it.

TNG: You’re not gay, but you’re obviously very friendly with the gay community. Do you feel any stigma associated with being a gay club party?

SF: While I may not be gay, my energy is different than most straight men’s, and its been through being in the gay scene that I have found the most acceptance of who I am, no matter what I am. Jim Provenzano of BARtab called Go BANG! a “queer-mixed” party, and we proudly wear that title.

When Go BANG! first started, there were one or two instances where some people or parties asked to not be associated with us, but that’s their insecurity and problem. And, frankly, anyone who is into any form of dance music who is not comfortable with it gay roots does not really understand the music, and I have no respect for them. I strongly believe in living life in the way that makes you happy and if someone throws you some negative vibes, just not to deal with them. As time goes on, their own negativity will be their own demons to deal with.

TNG: So where does Go BANG! go from here? Do you have any plans to mix up the formula? Any upcoming DJs that we should be looking out for?

SF: Well, I’m very excited about this month!

This month is an all-vinyl edition! We do those on occasion. We have a strict NO COMPUTER DJ policy, and if it weren’t for us liking to play new disco edits by our friends which we can only get on CD, we’d always be vinyl-only, to keep the aesthetic pure.

We are SO PSYCHED to have a Gemini Disco reunion at Go BANG! Nicky B is a Go BANG! Founding Father and has played with us since the very first Go BANG! until April of last year when he left the city. He is still away, but coming back to visit in April!

We’re also featuring the San Francisco Premiere of Atlanta’s DJ Osmose. He’s great, and is proudly vinyl-only when DJing!

Tres Lingerie will be rocking it as usual!!

And it will be the first time that me and Steve Fabus DJ in public as a duo. We’ve DJed together when he’s guested on my KALX show, but we’re gonna start tag-teaming in the nightclubs a bit more regularly as a fun way to mix things up for Go BANG! and also in preparation for the first time Go BANG! goes national! We have some gigs lined up which we can’t divulge yet. However what we can say is that Steve and myself will be traveling to Chicago with Ken Vulsion in August for Market Days! It’ll be a “From San Francisco with Love” Tour, and we know some San Francisco folks will be going, so stay tuned for more info on that! As time goes on, we do hope to have other Go BANG!s established in other major cities. Presently, we’re focusing on getting more bookings for the Go BANG! Residents on a national level, in order to further get our name and concept out there. So get in touch with us for tour bookings! :)

Looking forward to Go BANG!, we’ll have guests including Paul Goodyear, DJ PeePlay of Honey Soundsystem for Go PRIDE!, LaBerge, Munga!, Marke B of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Mattski, Phillip Mezzatesta, Allen Craig, Glenn Rivera, and stay tuned for Go BANG!’s New Year’s Eve blow-out!

Presently, we’re focusing on getting more bookings for the Go BANG! Residents on a national level, in order to further get our name and concept out there. So get in touch with us for tour bookings with the email address gobang@gobangsf.com!

Details:

So ya wanna Go BANG? Check out the club party every fourth Saturday of the month at Deco Lounge. The next edition is this Saturday, April 23. Special guest DJs include Nicky B and Derrick Love of Gemini Disco and featuring Atlanta’s DJ Osmose’s San Francisco premiere. Resident DJs Steve Fabus, Sergio and Tres Lingerie’s Jordan Presnick and Johan Churchill will also be manning the decks.

Saturday, April 23
Go BANG!
Deco Lounge
510 Larkin Street @ Turk
Doors open at 9 PM
Free before 10 PM, $5 after

Listen or download DJ Sergio Remixes:

• Soundcloud
• Electronic Music Bears

Singer-songwriter Tom Goss hails from Kenosha, Wisconsin, a small city about an hour north of my own hometown – Chicago. A multi-talented musician on tour supporting the release of his third full-length album, Turn it Around, Goss’s speaking voice embodies the tone of the humble, sweet, and hard-working person that the Midwest is known for producing. Then again, he may have hinted at the fact that he had been napping when I called for this interview.

In the midst of the Midwestern portion of his national tour, he was edging his way north towards Oshkosh, Wisconsin as we spoke over the phone.

The New Gay: Last year, around the time of heightened tension regarding DADT, you did a music video to your song “Lover,” which depicted a gay soldier coming home to his lover. How does politics play into your musicianship?

Tom Goss: You know, I’m not really a very political person. I like to write songs of love that are uplifting and full of passion and full of hope. “Lover” is a love song and with the exception of a political EP I put out, I don’t think that any of my music is very political. But I think it’s perceived as being very political because I’m writing these love songs about a man.

My inspiration is not politics. I don’t like politics. I’m not interested in being a politician. I’m interesting in being a musician and spreading a message of hope and reconciliation.

TNG: Your last album was called Back to Love, and this one is titled, Turn it Around. Both suggest this idea that something is being reversed. What has made that a recurring theme?

TG: Last year I put out a political EP, which had some slower stuff on it and that’s what people were really resonating with. People were looking to me for this political and philosophical message. But as I said, I don’t really like politics that much and doing this heavy stuff ever really started to weigh on me. I felt like I had lost some of the spark and charisma that makes me stand out as a musician.

As I was writing this new album, I wanted to have the same messages of love and hope and reconciliation, but do it in a way that was more fun. I want to have a good time and I want people to be happy.

TNG: And I think the title track really reflects this feeling. It’s very fun and upbeat.

Yea, and I call it “Turn it Around,” because we all have this stuff that’s weighing us down and we’ve all got these reasons to be angry but at the end of the day we really have to take these things that are pulling us down and turn it into something positive. And that’s what I really wanted to stay focused on in this album.

I wanted to have something bright and fun that we should all shake our booties to a little bit.

TNG: I read that you attended a seminary school, which is what brought you out to D.C., correct?

TG: I got out to there because I decided that I wanted to be a Catholic priest, so I came to study theology and divinity. And yea, that didn’t work out so well. That being said, it’s how I got to D.C., which I’m happy about. But at one point in time I wanted to be a priest.

TNG: What is it that drew you to that?

TG: I wanted to reach out to people that were alienated with the Church, or with their family, or with themselves. Especially with gay Catholics and divorced Catholics.

You know, it’s funny when people ask me about that. They say something like “Oh, I really wish I would’ve known you, it would’ve been interesting to see how different you were.” But not really much has changed. I still feel interested in doing the same thing and sending the same message. Now I just have a different platform for doing that.

TNG: How do you feel that that new platform – music – has helped you achieve those things?

TG: You know, for me music is less about art and more about communication. So when I write and when I perform, it’s about storytelling and establishing a real connection with the audience. Through my music I’m telling the stories about my life and the things that touch me and the things I find beautiful as a result.

When I’m writing a love song it’s about a man, so that in and of itself makes it political. But what I’m really hoping is that my music gives the LGBT community a sense of normalcy.

TNG: And how do people respond to this on the road?

TG: I think it’s helping, especially in rural communities and the less populated areas. People come up to me after the show and thank me. To have a love song written by one man about another man is really touching to them.  When the general LGBT community is, or has been alienated by their sexuality, writing songs that bring normalcy to their relationships and highlight the beauty of those relationships I think is healing and a conversation starter.

TNG: You recently got married correct?

TG: Yea, I got married back in October. We were together for about five years before that so things aren’t much now than before. But it’s amazing, and I’m very lucky, and I’m very happy. I’m happy that I’ve been able to dedicate my life and my love to him.

TNG: Does he tour with you?

TG: No, but he meets me out on the road when he can. We’re trying to do the West Coast together. We really like travelling together. We have this big map in our house and we do this silly thing where we draw little black lines between the places we’ve driven together. It’s nice.

TNG: Are you still involved at all with Charlie’s Place – the D.C.-based non-profit that serves breakfast to the homeless?

TG: Yes, I’m the program director, which means I do all the writing and the fundraising, all the donor relations. It’s great. Charlie’s Place gives me the ability to be connected with social justice and with a larger community, while still falling on my passion as a musician. It’s good to be grounded in the reality that we still need to solve some of the greater problems that we face together as a community at large.

Turn it Around is now available via iTunes, as well as his own site.

Will & Grace and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy are the reasons behind my Xanax prescription and gym membership. #beingayisgay

c. Ryan O'Connell

About a year ago I saw an update in my Twitter feed that read, “Gay friend for sale on ebay! Tells funny blowjob jokes and will say if your ass looks fat in your H&M dress. Comes groomed!” It was then followed with the eponymous hashtag, #beingayisgay. Now, with nearly 7,000 followers, the satirical Twitter account has become quite a hit. The tweets, which are usually nothing short of hilarious, poke fun at aged stereotypes of gay men. Promiscuity, alcoholism, and concern with fashion all color what can best be described as a caricature of the young and bitchy urban homosexual male.

Creator Ryan O’Connell, a 24-year-old California native, sat down with The New Gay at what he deemed a very “broish” bar in the East Village.

The New Gay Scott: How did the account develop? Where did this idea come from?

Ryan O’Connell: BeingGayIsGay came from my frustration with the media’s depiction of homosexuality. What it means to be a gay man today, I think, is really complicated. I grew up with images of Jack McFarland on Will and Grace being this promiscuous slut that we never saw kiss anyone. So not only do gay men get called whores, but we don’t get to see them make out. Isn’t that the rudest?

TNG: How do you think this stereotypical representation has affected not only the gay community, but also society as a whole?

RO: When society presents something that people aren’t really comfortable with they kind of have to take it to its simplest form in order to make it digestible. I think that growing up gay in that that kind of environment and culture fucked with everyone’s head a little bit. What does it mean to be gay if I don’t have a gym body or don’t connect with Lady Gaga. What does that mean for me as a gay male? Do I not have value just because I don’t have a six-pack? Do I have this obligation to promiscuous or say that bitchy joke?

Ok, I just went on this whole spiel and you’re like “Oh, that’s what it’s about? I just thought it was about dick jokes.”

TNG: But the tweets do pander to a certain stereotype of gay men. For example, one tweet reads “We broke up because he didn’t want to talk about Lady Gaga anymore. I get it but like, I DON’T get it. #beingayisgay”

There are stereotypes for a reason. I like, connect to Britney Spears’ Blackout album. But I think that as gay men …there’s always been this interesting combination of “I’m here and I’m queer” and “I’m proud to be gay and it’s a really great time to be gay.” But there’s also this hint of self-loathing that I think every gay man has. I think there’s a duality there. It’s confusing. And teasing it apart is interesting. Hopefully for someone reading between the lines on Being Gay is Gay they’ll see that.

If it walks like a straight and talks like a straight, it might still be having sex with men off Craigslist. #beingayisgay

Ryan’s Being Gay Is Gay not only satirizes popular gay stereotypes, but it also calls out the darker, muted parts of homosexuality. References to Grindr and Craigslist appear often, as do references to the “straight” guys who use them. While it’s certainly no secret in the gay community that many self-described straight guys use this term loosely, it’s an image that is hushed and hard to come by in popular media. Ryan once detailed his admittedly “porny” experience with a straight guy who looked like James Franco.

TNG: A lot of Being Gay Is Gay also captures the stuff that’s not really talked about…like having sex with straight guys.

RO: Yeah, or getting fucked over by them. But it’s like a rite of passage to get involved with a straight guy who just fucks you over and fucks you up in the head.

Straight guys are fucking weird. Even the ones that are really straight. I’ve hooked up with a guy who was legitimately straight, but just got off on gay men wanting him. He had no interest in my genitalia. So that was really weird. I’ve kind of experienced the gamut of straight guys.

TNG: So would you say that your material comes from real experiences?

RO: Some of the things are totally ripped from my life. But some of the things are me poking fun at gay stereotypes and exactly what I despise about gay culture.

TNG: My favorite tweet was “Why do they call it ‘cumming’ when everyone just leaves afterwards?”

RO: Yea, like I said, some of it is straight up from my life and some of it is poking fun at gay stereotypes.

I’ll tweet something that I think is so disgusting that will get like a million retweets. People will be like “Oh my god, that’s so me!” and I think, “Ew, how unfortunate.” Love my fans, obsessed, but Jesus Christ. You’re not supposed to relate to that.

I moved to New York City to have brunch with my friends and talk about dicks. #beingayisgay

Besides Being Gay Is Gay, Ryan writes and edits for a new blog called Thought Catalog. The blog’s articles span the gamut of literature and take submissions from just about anyone, so long as it’s well written. Ryan’s writing in particular focuses on sex and relationships, as well as pop culture. Some of his funnier article’s are titled, “What it feels like to get f*cked in the ass,” and “The 10 Commandments for Friends with Benefits.” But some of his most Facebook-shareable articles are the sentimental ones that speak to what Ryan calls the “personal, but universal.” “Here’s to Getting Older,” is one particular gem.

TNG: What are your goals with for your articles?

RO: For me, I write about a lot of personal stuff. But I won’t write about things that people don’t care about. I always have the audience in mind. I think that what I go through as a twenty-year-old is so universal. I’m not narcissistic enough to think that my experience is so special. I’m just another boy navigating his way through New York.

TNG: And what are your goals for Thought Catalog, in general?

RO: When I came on full time I thought, “Ok, I want to make this more about feminism and sexuality and pop culture and I want it to be personal, but universal.” I wanted it to have a more cohesive editorial, so hopefully that’s what I’ve done.

TNG: Who submits?

RO: We really do have all kinds of people submitting. We have, like, housewives in Ohio, which is great. I feel like Thought Catalog is…liberating. We don’t have strict guidelines for publishing. If you can’t get it published anywhere else you can probably get it published here. As long as it’s well written.

And I’m really proud of that because I think there’s a lot of people who aren’t getting published because they don’t have a name or they don’t have experience and that’s bullshit. So I think what Thought Catalog tries to do is give those kinds of people a forum to showcase their writing. I’m really happy to be a part of that.

Jessie Farmer is one-fifth of the Minneapolis band Sick of Sarah. She also brings the gay to the group (we’re still not sure if any of the other band members are card carrying queers). Sick of Sarah released their new album, 2205, earlier this year and have been non-stop touring ever since. Jessie took some time out of her busy tour schedule to talk to TNG about her bandmates, music, and love of riot grrrl guitar goddesses.

The New Gay: How has 2011 been treating Sick of Sarah?

Jessie Farmer: 2011 has been amazing! We have been really busy touring and pushing our new record. We decided to go out on a limb and release our whole album on a website called BitTorrent for free download. We are the first label backed band to ever do that. who knew it would be downloaded 1.3 million times?! Also we got picked up for this year’s Warped Tour, and we are touring in Canada and the UK for the first time. We are very excited about all of this!

TNG: How has the 2205 tour been?

JF: The 2205 tour has been a lot of fun.  We are currently two-thirds of the way through. Just got done with three shows at South by Southwest. We first did a showcase supported by Maurice’s clothing store with our friends The Bangles, followed that same night with a Girl’s Rock Camp showcase with The Bangles again and one of my personal faves The Sounds.  It was a great day for us. Then the next day we played the Minneapolis based First Avenue showcase. Had to give home some love! We celebrated a couple of birthdays this tour, mine was in February. We were in Las Vegas and my girlfriend surprised me and flew out there, even though she kinda let it slip the night before, I still loved every second of it. And our bass player Jamie and producer Evan had birthdays while we were at SXSW. But we didn’t party….(wink, wink) not at all……just sat there and looked at each other…

TNG: How and when did Sick of Sarah meet and form the band?

JF: We all met through mutual friend back in 2005. We were originally a four piece and expanded to five when we pulled in our bass player Jamie in 2008 and our “new” drummer Jessica in 2010.

TNG: Do you all take part in the songwriting process?

JF: We all bring ideas to the table. I guess primarily Abisha (our singer) and myself write/structure most of the songs but the song “One Night Stand” on our 2205 record was all written around Jamie’s bass line and it’s one of our favorites.

TNG: What are you favorite things to write songs about?

JF: Women. Just kidding but not entirely. We write like most people do, about personal experiences, heartache, life. etc.

TNG: Who are your major musical influences?

JF: Well it’s no big secret that Joan Jett and Nancy Wilson are guitar goddess’! They are my main influences. But I also was/am inspired my Kat Bjelland (Babes In Toyland), Donita Sparks (L7,) The Mamas and The Papas, and The Beach Boys.

TNG: Who are you listening to at the moment?

JF: I like to listen to my ipod on shuffle, so I can be listening to The Sounds one second then Tegan and Sara then the XX and all of a sudden NSYNC. Yes I have NSYNC on my ipod. Don’t act like you don’t, haha.

TNG: This is a queer blog, so I have to ask, which members have some queerness going on?

JF:We like to keep our personal lives personal, But I’m as gay as they come. Some of us are and some of us aren’t.

TNG: Have any members of the band ever dated, and if so, did it create tension?

JF: PIZZA! I LOOOOVVVEEEEE PIZZA!

TNG: What does Sick of Sarah do to pass the time during those long hours spent on the road?

JF: Have you seen our youtube videos?! I don’t know what they do while I’m asleep but while I’m awake I do impersonations to make everyone laugh. Watch our youtube channel and you will see.

TNG: Anything else you would like the New Gay readers to know?

JF: Check out our website sickofsarah.com for merch, tour dates, s.o.s news, and videos. And check out our new record 2205! In addition to that if you’re gay and you know it clap your hands………..(clap clap)

It’s tempting to be offended by the above video for Josie Cotton’s “Johnny, Are You Queer.” It caused quite a stir when first released in 1981. The California pop/punk vamp says below that the gay press was torn on it. While she got a warm reception on the West Coast, the East Coast was not so pleased. For example, The Village Voice published an article called “Josie, Are You A Bitch?” She got it bad from the right wing too, who were probably just displeased that all pop songs weren’t called “Sally, Are You Enjoying Being Married and Pregnant at Age 19?”

I know guys like in the video above, who are so shy and awkward that they are either super cute closeted hipsters or, well, just shy and awkward. Sometimes I try to kiss them and half the time it doesn’t end disastrously. 30 years removed, though, I find the song quite appreciable. My biggest problem with the contemporary queer discourse is that well-meaning people are discouraged from asking questions lest they say the wrong thing or inadvertently cause offense. The narrator of the song never judges Johnny. She seems to genuinely care for him and just wants to know if she’s barking up the wrong tree. I kinda suspect she’d be the first to take him out to The Roxy if the answer was “yes.”

Josie Cotton is back these days. Her new album “Pussycat Babylon” comes replete with a slew of original cuts and a new “dancefloor” remix of “Johnny,” though I thought the old one was pretty damn dancey as it was.

Josie was nice enough to give us some of her time to discuss Johnny: The song and the person. Check it out, and feel free to enter the “make your own video” contest for “Johnny.” It sounds like great, queer fun.

***

The New Gay: After all this time, why come back now with a dance remix for “Johnny, Are You Queer?”

Josie Cotton: I’d always wanted to bring that song back in some capacity and do a remix and this situation presented itself. If there was ever going to be a time this was it. It was a bit of a distraction, though. My record was finished, I was ready to go like a racehorse at the gate, but I think it was the right decision to embark on that Titanic ship again.

TNG: Did the reintroduction of “Johnny” have anything to do with current gay visibility in mainstream culture? Figures like Lady Gaga and Glee are everywhere right now and it seems these topics are less taboo.

JC: Not really, it just seemed like a really good song of the 80′s. It was a dance song. It was not contrived by me to hit anything in particular but it has seemed to have gone in that direction and struck a chord in the gay press, which was great. My interviews and what not have been really fun so far. I’m very happy and comfortable in that world.

TNG: Hmm… contriving songs to hit chords? Any chance you’re referring to “Born This Way?”

JC: I did this interview last month, that I will live to regret, in which I said that I really do think it’s corny and boring when people are trying to make a statement. I don’t want to ever be thought of as someone who is trying to say something… I like the subtle approach, that’s why I liked “Johnny.” It said so much without saying anything. It was so innocent and let everyone interpret interpret it the way they saw it. I’m more of that ilk. You don’t wave a flag or try to force your ideas onto people. That’s just my personal take on things.

TNG: How have things changed since gay press’ initial reaction to “Johnny” in the ‘80s?

JC: At the time it was not funny, it was tragic for me.  The East Coast press, the gay press, The Advocate, Village Voice, they really took a sense of the song and that it was homophobic. That’s shocking to me. I couldn’t understand how they couldn’t know which side of the battleline I was on. The ironic thing is that the religious right was also after it. They were joined together to take me down which was odd and interesting to observe.

On the West Coast the gay press loved it. It was more like an anthem. So in terms of now, I think there is a lot more receptivity to it. The word [queer] has been desensitized in our culture to a certain degree. I think that a dialogue is starting again that never actually happened back in the day. Everyone was just freaking out, there was no real dialogue and I’m happy there can be one now. The thing I regret was not doing the song, but the fact that nothing came out of it that allowed people to walk away and see what happened. It’s like a giant wreck on the highway and no one could see what happened. It’s clear now that the song just goes on and on. I’m just the messenger. Don’t kill me.

TNG: I’m probably the millionth person to ask you this, but I really need to know: Who was Johnny?

JC: It’s funny, I don’t think there was a particular Johnny in mind. But my keyboard player, his name was JB, Johnny, so everyone thought it was inspired by him. He had this giant blond pompadour, very Flock of Seagulls, but he was not “the” Johnny. I first took this song to a small record label call Bomp. The artwork  came back and it was an animated cartoon of Johnny coming out of a bathhouse. At the time it was so prevalent in gay culture. He had all these handkerchiefs in all these colors. Johnny was kinda skanky in the first artwork, he was looking for trouble. We had to clean up his image. He s just an innocent guy, the 80’s was innocent like that.

I’m sure there’s a lot of Johnny’s out there tortured by that song. I think it spoke to a lot of guys who were on the fence.

TNG: How would you imagine Johnny today versus how we was in ’81?

JC: He wouldn’t have the strange haircut , for sure, but he’d probably look very similar. I never really envisioned him per se, but I think he would have a lot more options. It wouldn’t be such a confusing thing for a kid now, although it seems to be a really difficult time for a lot of kids. It’s ironic, it’s both things. It’s a lot easier and it’s a lot harder, so I don’t know how to put those things together in a way that makes sense. That’s just what I observed.

TNG: Was Johnny actually queer, or just confused, or what? What was going on with him?

JC: I think Johnny was well on his way to falling in love with someone very similar to himself, meaning another guy. He was, I would say, really prone to go in that direction. I would say if the guy doesn’t really know, he probably is. You what I’m saying? If they’re that confused…

Yeah, so that’s my, very probably politically incorrect, answer to that question, but it seems to be the right answer at this moment.

***

PS, Confidential to DC: Josie and I chatted a bit after the interview and she is really fond of our city. She had this to say about a gig here in the ’80s:

“[We] had the best show in DC. The audience screamed so loud we couldn’t hear our instruments.”

So now you know. And should check out her new single. That’s all.

That’s what the students behind the HU Queer Press, a small group of anonymous gay and lesbian students at Arkansas’s deeply conservative Harding University, were hoping for when they published The State of the Gay at Harding University earlier this month. While this in and of itself is notable, as being openly queer at Harding is an offense punishable by expulsion or conversion therapy, what really brought people’s eyes to the site was the administration’s decision to block students from accessing the zine.

While a lot has been written about the words in the publication and the university’s response, the story behind how the zine came together in the first place and the impact it may eventually have is an equally compelling one.

“A few of the original contributors first started having informal conversations about our experiences being gay and lesbian at Harding,” explains one of the mag’s founders, who for obvious reasons has asked to remain anonymous. “Once we decided to initiate some sort of project several of the original contributors contacted other individuals within the Harding community who they know to be gay or lesbian. We contacted them to see if they were interested, everyone said they were, so then we decided to formally work as group.”

As for the actual format of the project, that was a matter of both experience and necessity: “Several of the contributors had previous experience with zines and fully believed in their potential to spread one’s story and words… We also knew that the University would immediately put a stop to a hard-copy distribution as soon as they found out, so we also knew an electronic copy accessible via the Internet was crucial if we were to reach the entire Harding community and beyond.”

And reach people they did. While reactions have been predictably mixed, they’ve also been surprisingly positive.

“Current students, faculty, and alumni have contacted us with their support and encouragement, as well as thanking us for doing what we did. On campus there was quite a buzz,” says one of the members. “One main target audience was those who were unsure of how they felt or how to treat someone from the LGBTQ community and many have responded positively. At the very least, students were upset at the fact that speech was stifled and the administration seems afraid to have this discussion.”

“My first reaction was, ‘I wish I’d had the courage to do this when I was at Harding,’” says Scott Lybrand, a Chicago resident and a 2003 graduate of Harding University who began his coming out process in his Junior year. “After I was kicked out of the Church of Christ, I started a blog about my experiences.  I was out of Harding and had already been kicked out of my family, but I still kept the blog anonymous because of what I learned at Harding: whatever you do, keep it secret.  The impulse to hide is hard to overcome, but these students put everything out there in the light of day.”

“I am incredibly proud of the students who put the magazine together,” Lybrand continues. “The finished product is compelling, heartbreaking, funny, stylish, and theologically sound.”

The question now is: Where does the HU Queer Press go from here? If nothing else, it’s clear that the zine has made a statement, in more ways than one. But it is unlikely, however, that the school is going to change its policies anytime soon. Lybrand speculates that, “The only effect I imagine this will have on the administration is that it will be a wake up call that in the age of iPhones, Facebook, and Twitter, they no longer have control over the information Harding students can access. Blocking the Queer Press’s website was not the slightest bit effective.”

Jennifer Thweatt-Bates, Harding University Class of ’98 and a feminist theologian who just earned her doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary, agrees that the impact of the HU Queer Press will probably be subtle, but real.

“The overall message of the zine, as I read it, is to let people know that — despite what they may think — gay students are a part of that community,” she says. “Once someone you actually know is gay, you’re confronted with the necessity of reevaluating what you thought you knew. That’s the sort of moment I think these narratives can create for people, and while those moments can be painful, they are also the moments that offer the potential for spiritual growth. I think that this will happen for at least some members of the HU community, and hopefully, those individuals will be able to make a real difference for gay students at Harding.”

As for the members of the HU Queer Press? They’re keeping their option open.

“The reason we established a group is because we wanted to leave open the possibility of us doing future projects together or even letting other individuals or groups publish something with the support of HU Queer Press,” a contributor says. “Much is left to say about the state of the gay at Harding University.”

Every fourth Saturday of the month, GirlSpot Bar invites Boston lesbians to congregate at a typically straight establishment for some lez-centric drinking and dancing.  With this month’s party happening on Saturday, TNG Boston sat down with GirlSpot Bar organizer Angela Rappoli to get the skinny on one of the city’s fastest growing events for gay girls.

***

The New Gay – Boston: How did GirlSpot Bar begin?

Angela Rappoli: The idea for GirlSpot Bar was spurred by the lack of lesbian events in Boston.  Back in 2006-2007 there were a handful of regular, well-attended nights and then they all kind of died.  [W]e were left with limited nightlife, and the same number of lesbians in the area.  There was a need for a new night in Boston that offered something to everyone and would stay fresh each month.  GirlSpot Bar debuted in July, 2010 at An Tua Nua in the Fenway area.

TNG Boston: How often do the events take place?

A.R.: The night takes place once a month at a different venue each time – every last Saturday of the month from 9:30pm to 2am.

TNG Boston: Who should come to GirlSpot Bar?

A.R.: GirlSpot Bar welcomes anyone, but is mostly geared toward the LGBT scene, and more specifically women – similar to Guerrilla Queer Bar, which is mostly attended by gay men, we are mostly attended by lesbians, but really welcome all!

TNG Boston: What do you look for in the venues for GirlSpot nights?

A.R.: [W]e try to choose bars that are easy to get to, have great music, room for dancing, and inexpensive drinks.  Lately we have been choosing bars that are a little outside of the city – like Cambridge or JP.  We’ve hosted a couple nights in downtown Boston, which have been really fun and still well attended, but after talking with some guests, we found that it’s more effort to get down there than they would prefer.  Consequently, we’re trying to find bars that are more convenient for more people.  The announcement of the venue is posted on the Facebook page and website every Wednesday before the Saturday of the event.

TNG Boston: About how many girls show up to your parties?

A.R.: We generally get 100 girls at each event, but have found that it’s growing more lately.

TNG Boston: Aside from GirlSpot Bar, do you host any other events?
A.R.: GirlSpot Bar also co-hosts G.T.L. (Gays & Trivia in the Lounge) at the Tommy Doyle’s in Harvard, every Thursday night.  Trivia goes from 8 to 10pm and from 10pm to 12am DJ LeahV spins and it turns into a dance party.

TNG Boston: Where will this week’s event take place?

A.R.: The next GirlSpot Bar will be hosted at Spirit Bar at 2046 Massachusetts Ave in Cambridge from 9:30pm to 2am.

***

EVENT DETAILS:

(This) Saturday, February 26

Spirit Bar

2046 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge (5min walk from Porter Square T stop)

$5 cover, plenty of drink specials – cocktail, beer, and shot.

GirlSpot Bar website and Facebook page

Lowkey electronic music? Not an oxymoron? While Caroline Lufkin (who records simply under Caroline) won’t get you dancing with her album Verdugo Hills, it does bear a big resemblance to yesterday’s AASG subject Aska. The electronic tones are simply used to provide a subtle backdrop to a gorgeous voice. It’s rare that anything could be potentially featured on both Pitchfork and a lullabye compliation, but it’s to Caroline’s credit that she does both. Especially considering that she gave up a lucrative, star-guaranteeing major label contract in Japan to put out something that is less chart-grabbing, but probably much more fun to listen to.

Caroline does not have any tour dates coming up, but she was nice enough to answer our questions about being straight. Check ‘em out!

The New Gay:  When did you first realize you were straight?

Caroline Lufkin: When I met my first gay friend in 9th grade. I saw that she went through this realization/confusion period as her hormones were leading her to the same sex. As a straight person, I never had to go through this period of confusion.

TNG: What is your least favorite stereotype about straight people?

CL: I try not to think about stereotypes. I live the way I want and build my own surroundings to make myself happy.

TNG: What obligations, if any, do you feel that you have to the gay community?

CL: Make sure I do everything in my power to protect their human rights. That means voting and stopping anyone that uses “you’re so gay” as an insult (yuck).

TNG: What are the biggest challenges faced by a straight person in today’s culture?

CL: Straight or gay, we all share similar daily struggles (social acceptance, financial stability, health, etc.) and face the same global challenges (poverty, population, pollution, etc.)

TNG: If you had to “go gay” for one member of the same sex, who would it be?

CL: Kazu Makino from Blonde Redhead. I just played a show with Blonde Redhead and I like that fact that Kazu goes to sleep at a reasonable hour.

TNG: Given the seemingly endless number of “indie” artist in existence today, how do you think you set yourself apart from the crowd?

CL: Oh no! I don’t set myself apart from the crowd. I think every human has something to share and we all resonate with different music and art. Thank goodness for the endless number of art out there.

TNG:  Finally, why should people come out and see your show?

CL: I have the cutest guitar player in my band.

Brick City

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Brooke Barnett, the fiery defense attorney involved in some of the key legal battles facing the show’s subjects.  She shared some thoughts about the show, about her private life being filmed (including her relationship with her partner Maggie), how her sexuality affects her professional life, and about her relationship with Newark.

The New Gay: How did you get involved with Brick City?

Brooke Barnett: It started about four years ago.  I represented Dashaun Morris on an unrelated case.  At that time his book hadn’t yet come out but it was on its way.  Through my involvement with Dashaun I met Mark [Benjamin, the show’s director] and he introduced me to Jayda.  From there, things played out pretty much like you see them on the show.

TNG: What’s your impression of the second season of the show?

BB: One of the developments that I like about season two is that they really get into the hearts of the individuals (I can’t say characters because obviously we’re real people), who were on season 1, and shows their private lives.

TNG: That’s definitely something I was wondering about – were you comfortable letting cameras capture not just you professionally but also you in a relationship with another woman?

BB: You know, at one point in my life I was engaged to be married to a man.  That obviously ended, and a while ago, but I knew that when this show aired people were going to have questions.

Maggie and Brooke (courtesy photographer Julia Willoughby Nason)

TNG: About your relationship with your partner Maggie?

BB: Yes.  Look, I have two kids who have been the most caring and supportive kids that you could ever ask for through this whole process, and if they can do that then that’s all I really need.  My relationship with Maggie has changed so much for me, and definitely for the good.  Before her my attitude was “either you’re coming along for the ride or you’re not” but now it’s much more of an “us” consideration.  So would people watch the show and try to use my relationship to put me down?  Maybe, but that’s not what’s important.

TNG: Have you experienced a negative reaction to your relationship before?

BB: Yes, at some times it has been an issue in the past.  My [law] partner at my previous practice and I split, and unfortunately I can’t say that my relationship with Maggie didn’t play a role in the division.  On the other hand, we live in the tri-state area and we think of this region as being so progressive, but my partner is Polish and when we went home to visit her family I had a lot of concerns about how we would be received but they all couldn’t have been more accepting and kind.

TNG: I’m surprised to hear that you being in a relationship with a woman became an issue for you at work – should I be surprised, or am I just being naïve?

BB: Law is a conservative practice by nature, and sometimes people in the practice (including all of its players; defense attorneys, prosecutors, and judges alike) can be judgmental.  But the truth is, people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.  As conservative as the practice of law can appear, everyone has a personal life.

TNG: How about with your clients, does your sexual identity come into play with them?

BB: With most of my clientele they are aware that I am in a relationship with Maggie – I mean, she’s not just in my home life she’s my office manager, she receives every verdict with me, so she’s a huge part of my professional life too.  But for a lot of the people I work with as a criminal defense attorney, forget my sexuality, the huge thing is just that I’m a girl from Marlboro, New Jersey but that I’m able to get down with these guys, and I earn their respect that way.

TNG: So they don’t seem to mind your sexuality?

BB: For the most part I actually think that it helps me rather than hurts me.  It’s an extremely unfortunate stereotype but I think people, not just my clients but society in general, may accept me more readily because I’m what some people might term as “femme”.

Brooke and Dashaun (courtesy Sundance Channel)

TNG: Brick City clearly treats its subject city, Newark, as the primary character.  How do you relate the city?

BB: I’ve been practicing in Newark law since I was 18 years old.  Now my practice takes me all over the tri-state area, but Newark is unquestionably a unique place.  As much as I love it, and I do, I also fear it for many of the same reasons.  Even from a strictly legal perspective it’s very different.

TNG: How so?

BB: Well, you’re in front of a very different group of people when you are trying a case in front of a Newark jury.  If you’re in the suburbs you might have a predominantly white jury who are more predisposed to immediately place unquestioning faith in the law and in police.  People in Newark are more in tune with the injustices that can happen on the street.  They know that a cop can lie just like any other person can.

Produced by Forest Whitaker, the show is now in its second season and airs Sundays at 8 pm on Sundance

Below, check out Boccari’s opinions on gay inc., the “queer band” label, “sucking tits” and so much more. It’s great to be reminded that a sexy video often comes backed up by a lot of thought. I reccomend checking out this band’s other videos and encouraging them to tour sometime in the very near future.

***

The New Gay: Tell us the basics of Naked Highway. What makes you tick? How’d you get started?

Sy Boccari: Naked Highway is basically my baby. Members have come and gone but I’ve kept it going as the main singer, songwriter and producer. I started out playing bass guitar in various NYC bands and working in several recording studios. Once I gained confidence in my abilities I started creating my own material and finding like-minded collaborators along the way. It all happened very organically.

TNG:  You tend to have provocative videos. Is Naked Highway as sex-influenced as those videos would make us believe? Is it hard to separate the songs from such memorable videos?

SB: Our hyper-sexuality comes from our live shows. The NYC music scene is extremely competitive; you’ve got to separate yourself from the pack with catchy lyrics, hot beats and an attention-grabbing look. We work hard to put on a unique show and that carries over into our videos. For us, having come of age in the MTV/YouTube generation, music is visual not just aural.

Making videos has become an art unto itself. Naked Highway, for me, has been about unleashing the beast within. Writing and singing publicly about my sexuality has allowed me to become completely comfortable with it and so I love casting relatively “normal” folks in our videos and watching them explore the depths of their sexual identity before the camera. You never know what’s going to happen on a Naked Highway shoot. Power outages & cops to uncontrollable tears & full-on spontaneous sex on-set, we’ve seen it all.

“Pussy Police” is pretty straightforward and one of our most simplest videos. Originally, it was going to be very high-concept with sexy Pussy Police officers interrogating the band in a dark room. I felt that was a bit too obvious. I decided to pull back and go for a less-literal interpretation of the song. With the “Pussy Police” video, Josh Nece lying all hung-over and heroin chic’d in a tub is a captivating visual, so much so, that the song becomes subliminal. The video requires repeat viewings for one to absorb of the subtle nuances of the action and without realizing, the song seeps into your brain. It’s the same effect we used with our previous video “In & Out.”

TNG: How has living in New York, the veritable gay mecca of the US, affected you as a gay musician?

SB: NYC is mecca for all musicians, gay or straight, so there were/are many opportunities to break into the music scene and find an audience.

Having been born and raised in New York, I feel like I don’t have as many hang-ups as someone who might have grown-up in a small town that is hostile towards LGBTs. Well, I guess I have different hang-ups…

TNG: How do you think you fit in, or are separate from, the current “queer music scene?”

SB: I don’t think there is one “queer music scene.” Queer music is not confined to a particular genre, I’d like to think it’s more of a mind set… after all, there is granola music, queer rap, queer core punk rock etc. Queer music has always existed. There was no “queer music scene” when Cole Porter was writing songs, nor did such a scene exist when groups like Bronski Beat, Soft Cell, Frankie Goes to Hollywood or Erasure came out in the 80s. The “Queer music” tag was something invented by record companies and event promoters that, in the end, hurt artists by pigeonholing them into a specialized niche, which is very hard to grow from.

I personally feel completely alienated from the “queer music scene.” Naked Highway has constantly been rejected from LGBT events because of our lyrics… mainly pride events where we’d be “allowed” to perform if our lyrics were to be “altered” which I would never do. I get a lot of criticism for writing songs about vagina. I mean, yeah I’m gay and I identify as gay, but that doesn’t mean I’m not curious about any heterosexual feelings I may have. I enjoy making out with girls and I like sucking tits. And while I haven’t had sex with a woman that doesn’t mean I never will.

The mainstream LGBT media has such a rigid,  narrow-minded agenda that if you don’t fit into it, they want to suppress you.  That is very hypocritical and is hurting the advancement of LGBT people in our society. Naked Highway is not a queer band, we’re just a band where I’m the singer and I just happen to be gay. And besides, it’s kind of unfair to label us as a “queer band” when other members of the group are not.

TNG: And finally, when can we expect a tour? A lot of people around the country would love to see you play.

SB: Soon! We’ve had a bit of a lineup change. Both Kimberli (live synths/guitar) and Cake (live synths/vocals) have gotten engaged/married and are relocating. I’ve met many great musicians from the sessions for the Most Hottest album, so I’m in the process of putting together an all-new live show. The great thing about working with new members is that new material is pouring out from us so we’ll be debuting several songs during our upcoming set.

The Hard French Crew

One of the best things about living in a San Francisco is that no one here is afraid to let their freak flag fly. And people party like you wouldn’t believe. If you’re queer, there simply isn’t any better place to call home. [Ed. Note: The Advocate disagrees.]

The year 2010 saw the emergence of one of the most foot-stomping, hell-raising, fuck-you-if-you’re-still-partying-like-it’s-1999-I’m-partying-TODAY club nights right smack dab in the middle of the Mission, hipster central. Christened Hard French, and named the country’s best queer dance party by TNG, the Hard French crew’s viewpoint was simple: “This is a party for everyone– a party where drag queens mingle with lesbians, leather daddies soul dance with cholas, sharps share hot dogs with activists, jocks make out with twinks, brown meets white meets purple meets gay guy meets ladies meets Q and everyone leaves excited to come back next month.” And they weren’t joking.

The line stretches down a half block to get into the cozy El Rio bar where Hard French calls home. Get there early. Inside, the crowd is everything they describe it to be, and then some. And Hard French wants to kick off 2011 even harder. On January 29, the first annual Hard French Winter Ball debuts in the Santa Cruz mountains. On the eve of the Winter Ball, The New Gay caught up with the Hard French crew– two DJs (Brown Amy and Carnita) and four promoters (Devon Devine, Tina Faggotina, Jorge P., and Amos G.) to talk about partying, dancing, partying, dancing and partying. And did I mention dancing?

The New Gay: Let’s start off with an easy question for the attention-deficit impaired folks out there (you know who you are). Can you pick three words to describe Hard French to someone who hasn’t had the good fortune to check it out yet?

Hard French: “Sweaty babes dancing.”

TNG: Now really, tell us a little more about Hard French. How did the idea come about?

HF: Tina Faggotina said he wanted to hard french someone at a party and we just thought that was so funny. Then El Rio had an open Saturday afternoon for a monthly party. Then we said we’ll take it! And we we decided to call it Hard French cuz it made us laugh real hard that one time and no matter what we do– we wanna do it hard. And then we did.

TNG: What I really love about Hard French is that it’s diverse. But at the same time, it feels like it has a point of view. This could’ve been another dance party with go-go boys in underwear and cheap flavored vodka cocktails. How intentional is it to set yourselves apart from that?

HF: I don’t think we really had to intend for it to become what it is. We’re a very diverse group of people with a very diverse group of friends. And there was never really any risk of it becoming a run of the mill party because we don’t really work at that mill. Hard French definitely has a bit of each of us in it and it was born more of a community that already existed rather than of an attempt by a few people to manufacture a successful party. We knew that people would come because we knew what people wanted because we are those people and those people are Hard French.

TNG: The soul vibe and DJ sets are fabulous! In San Francisco, at least in the gay party circuit, you have DJs like Go BANG’s Sergio and Viennetta Discotheque’s Stanley Frank regularly spinning this genre of music. Then there are the soul clap dance parties. Is it possible that deep down inside all of us, there’s some kind of repressed Motown queer? Where is the inspiration for this type of music coming from?

HF: I think deep down everyone, regardless of their musical preferences, is a Motown queer. It’s the root of so much of the music that we all listen to, from disco to hip-hop to R&B to punk and on and on. Everyone has memories of dancing along to oldies in the backseat of their parent’s car, and when they hear those same sort of songs come on now it brings up that same sort of carefree and happy reaction. For us personally, these were the songs we grew up listening to every day. At backyard BBQs, on family road trips, on Sunday afternoons. These songs have always been associated with the happiest times in life and that is what we want to share with others.

TNG: And speaking of Sergio, he was the one who clued me in to Hard French. How is it that a city as small as San Francisco can manage to sustain so many different parties?

HF: Hard French only exists because of the amazing events we have been dancing at for years now. We are truly inspired by this city and the full on creativity and memories we have experienced at all of these parties– from Go BANG! to Tubesteak Connection to Honey Soundsystem to Stay Gold to Some Thing to Ships in the Night to Thursday Nights at the Eagle to the now defunct Macho, Blood Sweat and Queers and Hole in the Hot Pants (remember when we used to do shots at Hole in the Wall then dance it out at Hot Pants?)… Hard French is doing everything we can to use our event to create community in the same ways we have experienced all the events that have influenced us.

TNG: At what point did you decide to take Hard French on the road? Have these parties had the same success compared to San Francisco?

HF: One thing you should know about the Hard French crew is that we love to vacation together, love to party together and love to party on vacation together. After Business Women’s Special (a party) asked DJ Carnita and Brown Amy to share their dance-inducing powers with Toronto, we had an epiphany. Vacation!?! Party on Vacation!?! Make our own Party on Vacation? Yes! The crew decided that we would dispatch the DJs to Toronto to represent us, and the rest of the crew would work on a party in for NYC. Toronto was a raging success, and New York was equally as amazeballs! We had nearly 400 guests, got covered by the Village Voice, and made tons of new friends who have requested our return. San Francisco is our tried and true for sure, but like true Hard Frenchers– we love to share.

TNG: Any stories about the crowd that will remain forever etched into the history of Hard French?

HF: When DJ Carnita’s parents came and his mom danced her ass off with a broken foot, meeting John Cameron Mitchell in NYC and then having him guest DJ with us in a rainstorm in Golden Gate Park for Bring Your Own Queer, Joie de Vivre looking fabulicious in her purple dress, a beautiful moment of watching a bi racial couple in their 50s dancing it out and telling us this was the “best party we’ve been to in a loooong time, honey,” being afraid of heights and peeking over the edge of the roof while we took the aerial photo for our November flyer, the whole NYC trip, raising over $1,800 for non-profits through our photo booth, and overall the feeling we all get looking out at the crowd and the happy sweating dancing people knowing that there is a little bit of magic in the air when everyone sings along to their favorite songs.

TNG: So this season has ended, but in January we get The First Annual Hard French Winter Ball. Later, when the parties start up again in 2011, what can we expect? Do you plan to tinker with the formula or will it just be more of what we’ve come to love—eating, drinking, and dancing? Hard.

HF: You can definitely expect it to be as hard. Maybe a little harder. We certainly have some surprises up our sleeves. We may have a few more themed parties. And you may start to notice a more cohesive and glamorous visual aspect to the party. And if you want to fly us to your city that might happen too.

Psst… Wanna start your own kick-ass party? The Hard French crew counts down 11 things you’ll need if you want to create your own party empire.

Himalayan Tahr Photo by Michail Jungierek

1. 6 Bad-ass queers.
2. Insatiable desire to hump, dance, drink and do drugs.
3. Little to no money.
4. A three legged Himalayan Tahr (no need to kill it, just keep it as a pet).
5. Bubbles.
6. Beer.
7. A modestly sized piece of bark from the Klinki pine.
8. One feather from the Spectacled Cormorant.
9. A hearty meal.
10. The assistance of well educated time travel agent.
11. Scissors.

***

Details:

Hard French is a monthly party held on Saturday afternoons at El Rio. The parties haven’t started up for 2011 yet, but on January 29, catch the debut of the Hard French Winter Ball at the Brookdale Lodge in Santa Cruz. Advance tickets are available online at their website or here.

I’m trying here, ok? Just read the interview and check out the album. It’s even better than my paltry attempts at copy might be suggesting.

The New Gay: When did you first realize you were straight?

Keith Canisius: I liked kissing girls from a very early age, maybe 5-6 years old, but I was a bit older before I realized what being straight or gay meant. So in my youthful insecurity, I probably played with that question or feeling in my mind, before I matured and became more secure about who I was. So maybe not before I was 18 years old for sure.

TNG: What is your least favourite stereotype about straight people?

KC: That straight people feel insecure about being around or being friends with gays, which is not true.

TNG:  What obligations, if any, do you feel that you have to the gay community?

KC: To treat gay people like I treat someone who is straight.

TNG: What are the biggest challenges faced by a straight person in today’s culture?

KC: The biggest challenge for any person is to use their time in a meaningful way.

Another big challenge is to stand strong against a crowd and do what you find best for you as a person. Meaning career, sexual preferences ect.

Collective thinking can wear you down sometimes. Listen to yourself and try not to be affected by the masses if you think or feel something different.

Not sure how else to answer this question, meaning it seems irrelevant if you’re gay or straight to me according to the answer of the question I’m giving.

TNG: If you had to “go gay” for one member of the same sex, who would it be?

KC: Rolando, that guy has soul and ambition like nobody else. He’s quite handsome to, but he should loose the dax wax, lol.

TNG: Given the seemingly endless number of “indie” artist in existence today, how do you think you set yourself apart from the crowd?

KC: I pick up on things from a very intuitive and open perspective. I’m able to express those and my own perceptions in a pure emotional way together with interesting and abstract thoughts, without making my music sound to pompous. My music is direct, surrealistic, but still simple.

TNG: Finally, why should people come out and see your show?

KC: People should come and see my show, because it’s not going to be something they’ve experienced before. It’s kind of a secret, but it’s a very personal adventure with a collective sense of connection to experience a show of mine. You have to be able to close your eyes and let go to feel something special in yourself. It’s almost religious without any religious philosophy behind it though.

Seth Bogart of Hunx and His Punx

Here’s the scene… It’s June 11, 2009. Thursday Night Live at The Eagle. Queercore metalheads, Limp Wrist, are headlining. But before they take the stage, a waifish dissident, shirtless and wearing high-waisted black and white polka dotted spandex pants, is commanding the attention of an otherwise rowdy crowd of crusty gay punks and thrashers. Perhaps because of The Eagle’s crack sound system, his voice is a little thin and nasally. But make no mistake about it. There’s enough snarling and growling—and maybe a little hip thrust or two—grinding through his microphone to keep everyone at bay. In fact, the gruff crowd is eating it up.

“Is that a guy?” my friend asks.

“Yes,” I say. “That’s Hunx, as in Hunx and His Punx.”

Fast-forward a year or so later, and Hunx—aka, Seth Bogart—needs no stinkin’ introduction. You could even say he’s San Francisco’s enfant terrible of the indie rock scene, putting the swish n’ swagger into his own brand of retro rock n’ roll. On December 10, Yerba Buena Center of the Arts is hosting its Un-Holiday Party: Noël Noir, and Hunx will be one of many acts taking the stage (along with Honey Soundsystem, yay!). And next year, Hunx will release his first full-length album. This un-holiday eve, Bogart took some time out to answer a few questions for The New Gay.

The New Gay: We’ll start with something easy. I’m going to let you pick two words to describe your music.

Seth Bogart: “Young Oldies”

TNG: In all seriousness, tell us a little about Hunx. How did you get started?

SB: I fell in love, had my heart broken and needed to get it out of my system.

TNG: You, or at least your band, have evolved from Hunx and His Punx, to His Punkettes and now the latest incarnation—H.U.N.X. What’s that all about?

SB: Hunx and His Punx and the Punkettes are kinda the same thing. We briefly referred to ourselves as the Punkettes when I recruited an all girl band (ode to the Chipettes, duh). H.U.N.X. is something I’m doing on the side, to explore the gayer sides of my musical spectrum. I always wanted to make really fucked up discotheque/bathhouse music and this is my chance.

TNG: There is no shortage of indie bands in San Francisco, and last year you headlined a show at Benders Bar with bands like Weekend and Spencey Dude and the Doodles for Noise Pop. How connected do you feel to San Francisco’s mostly hetero indie music scene? Is there room for a gay man with zebra-striped underwear to be taken seriously here?

SB: I think there are amazing bands around right now: Brilliant Colors, Shannon and the Clams, Nobunny, Grass Widow, Myles Cooper, Girls, Uzi Rash, The Splinters… And so many more. I feel a connection with a lot of musicians for sure—it’s not about sexual preference. I’m just kinda over the top when it comes to my fashion choices (mistakes) and the shit that pours out of my mouth once I get on a stage. I don’t take anything seriously. I’m fucking serious about this shit though.

TNG: And speaking of the San Francisco scene, any Hunx show is guaranteed to attract a lively crowd compared to the staid, head-bobbing hipsters that are typical of indie music shows. Care to share your wildest fan experience?

SB: I feel like we have bigger, wilder crowds elsewhere, especially in France. The wildest fan experience is more of an afterthought, something I just heard about. Some guy stole my socks that I flung off when we played in Berlin and put them in a plastic bag, labeled it “Hunx’s Socks” and tacked them to his wall. A friend of mine saw ‘em and reported back to me. That is the ultimate fan experience. Right?

TNG: Earlier this year, you released a collection of songs called Gay Singles, and your MySpace page says your album comes out next April. What should we be looking forward to when the album hits the shelves next year?

SB: I dunno what to expect or say about it… But making this album was one of the best times of my life. I got to work with four of the most talented female musicians I’ve ever met. We put a lot of work into making the record and I’m incredibly proud of it.

TNG: By the way, how did you manage to get “Gimmie Gimmie Back Your Love” on a LensCrafters commercial?

SB: They asked and offered a lot of money. I’m into finally getting paid for shit I’ve been doing since I was a teenager. Totally losing punk points but who gives a fuck, not me, I’m ready to sell out to the next fucked up company that waves a huge check in front of my face. I’m broke!

TNG: On December 10, H.U.N.X. will be playing at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ Noël Noir party. Can you give us a preview of the songs you’ll be performing?

SB: You can hear three of the songs we’re going to be doing by going to myspace.com/gayestmusicever. I’m very excited to perform “I Vant To Suck Your Cock,” it’s gonna be so fucked.

TNG: And lastly, what’s next for Hunx? World domination? Maybe a Hunx underwear collection?

SB: The Hunx and His Punx album comes out in April 2011 on Hardly Art which will be surrounded by a lot of touring. Until then I’m taking some time off to work on a TV series with one of my best friends, Brande Baugh. It’s called Hollywood Nails. I also hope to finish a H.U.N.X. album—a couple of songs are written by one of my idols. Sometimes I record really sad songs in the middle of the night and don’t remember doing it. Like I’m possessed. I kind of want to release them one day.

For those of you in the San Francisco area, don’t forget to check out H.U.N.X on Friday. H.U.N.X. debuts along with bands like Hottub, Ejector, the Honey Soundsystem DJs and, of course, the ever-popular Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at Yerba Buena Center of the Arts Un-Holiday Party: Noël Noir on Friday, December 10.

Details:

Un-Holiday Party: Noël Noir
Friday, December 10
Yerba Buena Center of the Arts
701 Mission Street
$20 advance tickets or $25 at the door
Starts at 9 PM