Monday 08.25.14
MIXTAPE: SCHOOLIN’
10 tracks for your respective back-to-school ecstasy/malaise
It’s hard to believe, but summer’s just about over. The weather was mild, the parties were wild, movies and TV pretty much sucked, and now it’s time to buckle down for the fall. That’s not all bad, though. The next few months mean it’s back to warm sweaters, hot coffee, and, for many, one of the most essential touchstones of the season: the back-to-school hustle. We know this can go either way, depending on your personality. You either love the hallowed halls and fragrant smell of new textbooks or you’re dreading the sleepless nights and exams you have no intention of studying for nor passing. But hey, look at it this way: you’re bound to learn some sort of life lesson whether it’s from a professor or someone else, and that’s definitely worth something.
No matter your academic inclinations, we have a special treat for all of you going into a new semester or school year this month. We’ve whipped up a new mix of 10 songs to help you get through your respective ecstasy/malaise of back-to-school season. Keep your head up and your eyes peeled, boys: you never know what (or who) you might get up to in the next few weeks.
Listen if you like: crushes, calculators, Jennifer Paige, chapstick, male cheerleaders.
Follow us on 8tracks for further mixtapes. …
Tuesday 08.12.14
New Music: Klo
Being an Australian in New York means I have my feet planted in the cultural worlds of two countries (I’m so cool, I know). This is most useful for when I want to act like a dick and be one step ahead of Americans when it comes to awesome Aussie cultural imports: “Ja’mie? Sure it’s funny but you should really see We Can Be Heroes, that’s by far Chris Lilley‘s best show.”
It’s not often I get to do this when it comes to music (sorry Australia), however recently I discovered an addictive new musical duo named Klo who herald from my hometown of Melbourne. They’re so new that they only have two songs on their Soundcloud. Make Me Wonder, the song below, is my favorite. It’s a soft and smoked out song that seems to float from note to note — and I’ve had it on repeat for the last 20 mins.
Klo is the project of Melbourne-based cousins Chloe Kaul and Simon Lam (also of Ill’s). I’m sure they’ll be touring here any day now, at which point you’ll be able to say to friends with an air of contempt “Oh yeah I heard them like 3 months ago, you just discovered them?? Weird.”
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Wednesday 07.30.14
My Offence
Hercules and Love Affair go full cunt in their latest music video
Following the maelstrom of controversy surrounding the word ‘tranny’ in the LGBTQI community in recent months, it may seem like something of a publicity stunt to release a music video embracing one of the more divisive terms of endearment in the queer lexicon: ‘cunt’. But then, you don’t know Andy Butler. The New York based DJ behind eclectic disco and house project Hercules and Love Affair embraced the term whole-heartedly for ‘My Offence’, the latest single from this year’s The Feast of the Broken Heart LP. Enlisting GAYLETTER fave Matt Lambert to helm the direction, the six month-long process undertaken by Butler involved filmed interviews with various NYC performance artists who subvert profanity and gender in their work, asking each of them what the word ‘cunt’ means to them. ‘I spoke to some of the people who appear in the video for over an hour,’ Lambert says of the filming. ‘Each of them had a different answer and different relationship to the word ‘cunt’ as well as the appropriation and reclamation of profane language as a means of pushing culture forward. Language, especially when dealing with issues surrounding identity, defines people’s realities whether they choose to embrace or ignore language.’
Including Kalup Linzy, Honey Dijon, Juliana Huxtable, Cakes Da Killa, Contessa Stuto, Black Cracker, Bailey Stiles, Dwayne Pierre and many more, the video itself reads as something of a modern riff on Paris Is Burning-style talking heads: we bounce from Juliana to Honey to Kalup and back again, each of them explaining a little bit about how and why ‘cunt’ has transformed into such a prevailing term of empowerment for so many queer boys and girls. …
Tuesday 07.22.14
No Family Is Safe When I Sashay
Perfume Genius releases a video for new single 'Queen'
Seattle-based singer/songwriter Mike Hadreas — AKA Perfume Genius — wants you to know he’s not afraid of ‘gay panic’. In fact, if anthemic new single ‘Queen‘ is any indication, he’s enlivened by the unsubstantiated homophobia that’s still, for whatever reason, omnipresent. ‘Sometimes I see faces of blank fear when I walk by,’ Hadreas said in a statement about the track. ‘If these fucking people want to give me some power — if they see me as some sea witch with penis tentacles that are always prodding and poking and seeking to convert the juggles — well, here she comes.’ Previously, Hadreas worked primarily within the realm of deeply personal songs that explored the raw emotions behind depression, family relationships, and homosexuality with unflinching honesty. ‘Queen’ is a shift in a new direction, but one that feels like a natural progression. The glam rock here comes off as a close relative to the heavy, expanded instrumentation of Hadreas’s 2012 record, Put Your Back N 2 It.
The video for the single, directed by SSION, is further confirmation of Hadreas’s evolution—there are TVs being bashed in, a particularly incredible chain harness, and perpetual gender switches that flip queer stereotypes to reinforce his ‘I don’t give a fuck‘ perspective even more. Paired with the bigger sound he’s going for here, you easily get a sense watching ‘Queen’ that Hadreas has definitely grown more brazen in the two years since his last album. …
Thursday 07.03.14
Last Night, I Fell In Love
An exclusive premiere for Sister Mantos' latest video remix
We may or may not be under siege by a hurricane this July 4th weekend, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still get into a party mood, right? Just in time for the festivities, here’s an exclusive video premiere for LA artist Sister Mantos’ dirty disco track “Last Night (Mirror Mirror Remix)”. The video is composed entirely of splashy, colorful still images taken by NY-based director David Riley (who is also the DJ behind the remix), which fits Sister’s slice of bright, electronic funk perfectly. The remix is from last year’s UNK — Remixes, the entirety of which you can download for free on Mantos’ Bandcamp. Riley’s effervescent, elaborate video includes scenes of hand kissing, bananas wearing condoms, and some strategically placed papayas — AKA plenty of good, celebratory vibes all around.
Sister Mantos is a maven of queer synth and electronic music, and when combined with Mirror Mirror’s fragmented remix work, it’s clear there are only great things to come in the future from the both of them. This dancey, glossy video is a perfectly energetic start to your three day weekend, so get out there and find some indoor barbecues to go to so you can dance away all the fucked up American history we commemorate with fireworks each year.
Watch the exclusive premiere of ‘Last Night (Mirror Mirror Remix)’ below:
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Wednesday 06.25.14
MIXTAPE: PRIDE
10 tracks for your always-reliable shit show of a Pride weekend
Well, boys, it’s the end of June. That means the beaches are open, it’s hot as fuck, and Pride season has spread its many-hued angel wings across the city. Our Pride March started back in 1970 in response to the Stonewall Riots a year earlier, and now occurs every last Sunday in June to commemorate the lasting impact of those monumental demonstrations on Christopher Street. We all know Pride has transformed into an entirely different beast since then, and gets a lot of heat from gays and straights alike for being the hugely gaudy, sometimes tasteless clusterfuck that it is. But it’s due time to get over that, isn’t it? Honestly, what other parade marches down 5th Avenue with S&M-clad muscle boys, a bevy of drag queens, and an ideology of total acceptance, no matter who you are? They were even about to let the Catholic League’s tyrannical Bill Donohue have a float proclaiming the greatness of straight people (LOL) until he pulled out a few months ago.
To keep it brief, it’s a testament to the gay rights movement that the march only grows larger and larger every year, spawning countless iterations across the globe. This year is already shaping up to be one of the best yet: it’s the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, there is literally no end to the amount of amazing parties to go to (including ours at the Wythe Hotel), and the grand marshals for the march this Sunday are exceptionally fabulous (Laverne Cox, Rea Carey, and Jonathan Groff). …
Thursday 06.19.14
When Black Metal Goes Gay
The Soft Pink Truth do gay techno renditions of black metal
My first exposure to black metal was in a smoke-smothered garage in the suburbs of North Carolina. Gangly teenagers were bent over guitars and a drum set, creating walls of sound that instantly made me shrink to the back of an agitated crowd of headbangers quickly swarming into a mosh pit. Waves of heat from the crowd seemed to move in sync with the hellish sound of the music being played, which, at the time, I didn’t even consider as such — it was just noise, loud noise, offering nothing more than a headache and an encroaching sense of dread. Is this the point? I wondered. Sixteen years old, still in the closet, and perpetually worried about how others were perceiving me, I immediately shut down. Both the music and its audience were completely inaccessible to me. Even the friend who brought me there seemed to be enjoying himself, nodding along to some phantom beat I couldn’t locate. A new question struck me: how could I possibly fit into all of this? And, more pointedly, did I even want to?
That sense of intimidation triggered by sawing guitars and screaming vocals is still the most common grievance thrown at black metal. It’s not unlike the way people perceive any genre of music that doesn’t fit neatly into ‘comfortable listening’: too discordant and too unapproachable are complaints given to everything from noise to new classical. With metal, however, those preconceptions have turned it into one of the most misunderstood and gratuitously loathed genres of music since, well, ever. …
Friday 06.13.14
Fuck Around with K Anderson
The London singer-songwriter gets the doodle treatment
In the video for K Anderson’s latest, aptly-titled single ‘Fuck Around,’ a pair of hands doodle a handsome half of a face, a confused-looking monster, and a crudely drawn dick and balls. Sounds totally up your alley, doesn’t it? The track is a break-up song at its core, describing how even jerking off has become a futile chore after losing the one who got away to the singer’s own youthful cockiness. But with an upbeat banjo hook and a chorus of doo-wops dropped into the background for good measure, ‘Fuck Around’ ends up being the sweetest-sounding song about the futility of masturbating just to pass the time that you’ll ever hear.
‘Fuck Around’ also happens to be the name of a zine released to coincide with the track, available on K Anderson’s Bandcamp. Including a copy of the completed doodle drawing depicted in the video, the zine encompasses drawings, photographs, poetry, stories and ‘even some crochet.’ I don’t have a clue how he’s done that, but after reading the singer’s spot-on Top 5 Masturbation Songs guest blog post for Infectious Magazine (kudos for including this timeless gem of a song/music video), I’m inclined to believe just about anything he’s promoting.
Watch the video for ‘Fuck Around’ below:
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Thursday 06.05.14
Crushing on the Straight Boy
Washed Out's latest video is a moving tale of unrequited gay love
One of the most common experiences among gay men, one that seems to transcend both age and upbringing, is being faced with that one hopeless crush on a straight boy. Whether it was a high school fantasy or a college heartbreak, unrequited romance is in many ways something of a rite of passage for gay guys. Kids afraid of coming out all over the globe are watching their best friends, coworkers, and peers with privately longing eyes, waiting for that lucky moment when maybe, just maybe, the feeling will be reciprocated. Unfortunately, the fantasy of the “straight boy” is just that, an escapist pipe dream that more often than not ends in bouts of self-loathing, despair, and, in worst case scenarios, violence.
Such is the focal point for chillwave forefather Washed Out’s latest music video, ‘Weightless.’ The track is a standout from last year’s dreamy LP Paracosm, and the clip, helmed by director David Altobelli, serves as a perfect fit for Washed Out’s hazy ballad. Honing in on a young man secretly lusting after a friend, the seven-and-a-half-minute short film dips freely between technicolor dreams and reality before our ill-fated protag finally makes his feelings known. It’s well worth a watch, not only for the film’s gorgeous cinematography but for its emotional honesty as well, especially if you’re currently in the throes of a similarly unrequited love. Even when it seems like there’s nothing worse than having feelings for someone who will seemingly never return them, it always helps to remember that there’s a whole community of likeminded guys out there ready and willing to help you through it. …
Wednesday 05.14.14
MIXTAPE: SPRUNG
10 songs to get you laid, or at least in the mood to stick it in
Alright, I know we’re technically two months deep into spring right now, but for us New Yorkers it’s only felt like Spring for about a week now. We suffered nearly 60 (!) inches of snow over the course of the winter, so as soon as the sun started peeking out at us around mid-April it felt like a literal godsend. Bring on the tank tops, short shorts, and bathing suits — summer is just around the corner, and we all know there’s no better time to live and love in this overcrowded, overpriced, mostly poisonous city.
To help ease our transition into warmer temperatures (and before it gets bitch hot in what will probably be less than a month), we put together a mixtape dedicated to what takes full command of our brains when good weather finally arrives: sleeping with boys. Yes, that’s on our minds always, but for some reason the urge goes into overdrive in the springtime. I blame those ornamental pear trees…
So grab your BF, your FWB, your latest “catch” on Scruff, or all of the above. It’s time to get sprung.
Listen if you like: R&B throwbacks, trip-hop, slow jams, Mariah Carey, blowjobs.
Follow us on 8tracks for further mixtapes. …
Tuesday 05.13.14
I Won’t Live Life Undercover
UK trans girl group T-Party release debut music video
Our friends across the pond are responsible for a huge number of exceptional girl groups. From classics like Spice Girls and Bananarama to more modern beauts like Mutya Keisha Siobhan and Girls Aloud, the UK always have their girl group game on lock, a fact that makes it all the better to see a trio like T-Party enter the ring. Created in 2005 in London as a club night to celebrate the trans community, T-Party has since evolved into a girl group comprised entirely of trans women, including Farrah Mills, Toni Wood, and Viktor Viktoria. The group has just released the video for their lead single, ‘Ladyboy Lover,’ a song that serves up an infectious, club-ready beat to go along with its gleeful subversion of mainstream girl groups and pop music.
In the song, T-Party challenge the expression “ladyboy,” a derogatory term often used as a sexual reference to transsexuals. The chorus of the song, “I won’t live life undercover,” makes room for a double meaning as expressed by the gals: “I won’t hide from society, and I refuse to exist only ‘in bed’ and ‘under the covers.’” It’s an admirable lyrical choice, and one that takes on full form in the clip, which shows the girls working together to dupe a guy trying to seduce them all at once.
With pioneers like Janet Mock and Laverne Cox leading the way for trans activism and positivity in the States, it’s promising to see a UK act like T-Party putting their own timely spin on it. …