GAYLETTER

Ok, how is 4/20 not a national holiday in the US yet? Marijuana is legal (in the medicinal sense, anyway) in twenty states, two of which recently enacted laws legalizing recreational weed as well. Sure, New York has yet to be added to the roster of ganja-approving states (and — yikes — we happen to lead the nation in arrests for marijuana, too), but that’ll change in a few years or so, fingers crossed. Regardless, more people are smoking now more than ever, and the pros certainly appear to be outweighing the cons when it comes to health and wellbeing. So, naturally, 4/20 is a great excuse to celebrate a plant that’s been heavily, unfortunately criminalized to fill up our country’s prison quotas. Yay!

As luck would have it, 4/20 lands on a weekend this year. To commemorate, we’ve compiled a 10-song playlist best fit for all of the bong rips, smoke circles, and munchies to come. My iPhone tells me it’s gonna be close to 60 degrees in NYC this Sunday, so open a window, enjoy some special brownies, and relax to some chill, weed-friendly vibes.

Listen if you like: Mykki Blanco, remixes, Marvin Gaye samples, Iggy Azalea, blunts.

Follow us on 8tracks for further mixtapes. …

Since I’m an admitted omnivore of all forms of LGBTQI media, there isn’t much that sweeps through the gay cultural landscape that I don’t at least warrant a passing glance. As such, I sat through the music video for Houston rapper Fly Young Red’s infamous new single ‘Throw That Boy Pussy‘ last week, an experience that deeply challenged my ability to objectively examine the work of this queer artist without wanting to a.) bash my head into my fucking desk and/or b.) roll my eyes until they were fixed in the back of my skull. I’m all for Fly Young Red leveling the playing field for gay hip-hop artists looking to apply hallmark conventions of rap to their own experiences, but there’s so much about this song that just doesn’t get it right. Can’t we get someone to make gay raunch rap who has a better flow and won’t slap an inherently misogynistic chorus on his lead single?

Needless to say, ‘Throw That Boy Pussy’ disappointed me. So I decided to go on a search for some other music videos that feature gay artists/imagery/content (broad parameters, I know, but c’mon — there really isn’t much out there for us). The five clips below run from hip-hop to indie pop to electro, but each of them are definitely visual treats.

 
#1. Thiago Pethit – Moon

In this NSFW clip for Brazilian cutie Thiago Pethit’s 2013 single, ‘Moon,’ model/actor (and my new obsession) Lucas Verissimo finds himself embroiled with a gang of street hustlers after a fight with his girlfriend. …

As an Australian gay man I am wired to automatically love Kylie Minogue and her musical output. Her 12^th album ‘Kiss Me Once’ is her first since she moved to Jay Z’s Roc Nation label — yet another of her continual attempts to crack the American mainstream. Because everyone knows until you make it here you’re not really famous – you’re basically just Sylvia Night mid-breakdown.

I’m not sure this is going to be her Billboard #1, but it’s certainly getting gay men gagging and giving straight men boners. The new video for ‘Sexercise’, which is apparently an actual thing (that we obvs do plenty of), features Kylie looking AMAZING in a leotard; bouncing, gyrating and getting sweaty wedgies inside what looks like a school gym.

The song was written by Sia, a hugely talented solo artist in her own right who pays the bills/buys small countries by writing pop’s biggest hits for other singers. There’s also a lyric video by Roman Coppola (wtf) and a collaboration with VFILES featuring stunning male models and surely directed at her gay fanbase. Not that we’re complaining.

Watch the video below:

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Bubble blowers, quarterbacks, voguestresses, disco mavens. No, these aren’t characters from your favorite, gayest dreams (although really, they still might be). In fact, they’re four, among many, eccentric roles in ‘Don’t Touch Me,’ the new music video from NYC-based DJ and producer Kindbud. The fourth single off his latest record, Dead Beat City, “Don’t Touch Me” is a wiry, contagious dance track with a video that mirrors the song’s back-to-basics approach: shot in one continuous take, the black and white clip is a backwards loop wherein several NYC nightlife personalities drift in and out, doing any number of weird things to and around the handsome DJ.

The video doesn’t disappoint in local star power, recruiting Stephanie Stone, Juliana Huxtable, Milan (of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 4), Celso LaBeija, DJ Sammy Jo (of the Scissor Sisters), the Kiki Twins, and many more legends for the party. Kindbud, who can be found DJing a number of parties around the city, seems pleasantly at ease in the midst of all the crazy, but who can blame him? He’s totally in his element here.

Check out the video below:

http://youtu.be/dRnG7NVGOVA …

If there’s one thing South African born, Toronto-dwelling Daniel Pitout hates, it’s laziness. As the frontman for alt supergroup Eating Out and drummer for scuzzy punk outfit Nü Sensae, there’s no question that his brand of restless energy has manifested into a consistently strong work ethic: Eating Out’s debut 7”, Burn, was released late last year alongside a stellar, 90s-reminiscent music video for standout track “That’s My Man,” and he’s now currently performing in a production of The Buddy Holly Story in Chemainus, British Columbia. He also happens to be one of the few openly gay members in the DIY punk scene, and a very active, forward-thinking one at that: in 2012, he launched the AIDS Day Music Project, a non-profit organization promoting HIV/AIDS awareness through music and art.

We dropped Daniel a line to ask him a few questions about Eating Out, gay groupies, the 90s movies that inspired the video for “That’s My Man,” and what being queer in the DIY punk scene has meant for him.

Who came up with the name Eating Out and how? I did. I just thought it was a funny name for a band and thought it would be funny to have a gay guy front a band called Eating Out.

What are your thoughts on queer visibility in the DIY punk/grunge scene? Do you find that there’s a large, openly gay punk community for younger LGBT-identifying people? I think “queer visibility” is kind of a redundant term, at least in my life. …

Over the course of Jam Rostron‘s third outing as Planningtorock, All Love’s Legal, there are thundering declarations of sexual equality, a vehement denouncement of the patriarchy, and a rallying call for the destruction of gender binaries. Heavy-handed? Perhaps. But when filtered through Rostron’s voice modulation and set to a backdrop of house-tinged drum and bass, the songs on Planningtorock’s newest album forgo didacticism for something primal, something that condemns the status quo while keeping in line with one of the most direct methods of changing people’s minds from narrow-minded bigotry: point-blank declarations of equality and justice.

In a 2014 that just saw Facebook newly allow over fifty new gender identity options, it may at first seem reductive for a record like All Love’s Legal to boast such obvious song titles such as “Misogyny Drop Dead” and “Patriarchy Over & Out.” But what sets this timely batch of songs apart from Rostron’s more mainstream, gay-baiting contemporaries is her unique approach to the music that sets the stage for the social and political content she’s putting on blast. “I’m interested in this idea of queering sonics, making non-heteronormative music,” the UK-born, Berlin-based artist said in a recent interview with Independent. Based on All Love’s Legal‘s standout title track alone, it’s clear that Rostron has fully achieved this vision, from lyrics that proudly repeat the fact that “you can’t illegalize love” to Rostron’s voice, pitch-shifted to a point where it becomes totally de-gendered. …

You know what I’d rather watch more than alpine bobsledding, or competitive luging? Hot same-sex, semi-naked, American Apparel-esq young Norwegians making out with each other in a music video for Annie‘s new song Russian Kiss. Released to coincide with the opening of the Russian Winter Olympics, the video, directed by Richard Kern, is more than just a hot-and-heavy voyeuristic boner inducer, it’s also a protest song aimed at homophobe Vladimir Putin and his country’s anti gay laws. Annnie collaborated with New York-based artist Bjarne Melgaard for the song, and we’re so glad she did.

The video places both Annie and Melgaard in a fantastic blend of attractive same-sex couples gyrating, dancing, and making out to the song’s catchy, pulsing electro beat (provided by frequent Annie collaborator Richard X). In a note on her website, Annie describes the video as a “short movie about the right to kiss one’s beloved — regardless of sexual orientation — wherever one likes.” Preach it, Annie.

Part of the proceeds from the song go to All Out, a gay rights advocacy group, and is supported by Fritt Ord, a Norwegian free-speech foundation, so be sure to grab the song from iTunes today to help keep queer voices heard in the midst of these mostly egregious winter games.

Russian Kiss is available on iTunes now. Watch the video below:

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As gay men we have a talent for taking words of oppression and making them our own. The homophobic phrases used against us can be stripped of their power, and transformed by our community into symbols of solidarity. You can call your dearest squirrel friend a “fag” with affection, but there’ll be hell to pay if a straight man uses the same word against you. And think back to 2003, when the always-awful Rick Santorum had his last name redefined by Dan Savage as the “frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.” 

Now it’s Sochi’s turn. The upcoming Winter Olympics have come to represent the current state of homophobia around the world – from those wacky Russians’ serious dislike of homos, to the willingness of governments and corporations to overlook heinous homophobia when it’s inconvenient.

So NYC pop band/performance artists Potpourri of Pearls are reclaiming the name of these Winter Olympics and making them all about our fave activity — doing it in the butt. Their new song Sochi combines 90’s pop synth, a fab cameo from Mx. Justin Vivian Bond and clips from Leni Riefenstahl’s fascist masterpiece “Olympia.” The result is a superb gay club banger. For the first time ever, we can genuinely say we’re looking forward to some Sochi this weekend.

Watch the video below:

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The UK electronic group Disclosure, made up of two brothers (Guy and Howard Lawrence), have been riding high after their LP, ‘Settle‘ hit number one on the UK charts. You might know the duo from their two Top 10 singles ‘White Noise‘ and ‘You & Me.’ If you are new to the duo, well…What took you so bloody long?!

This Saturday (Jan 18) and Sunday (Jan 19) they are performing at Terminal 5. Unfortunately for you the Saturday show is all sold out, but fret not, because there’s still tickets available for Sunday. What better way to end your weekend than with a bit of dancing? Grab your tickets from here.

$28 in advance, 8:00PM, Terminal 5, 610 W 56th St. NY, NY.

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Hiyeeeeeeee!!! Since making it to the top 3 on Drag Race, Alaska Thunderfuck‘s rise to stardom (in addition to the rise of her top lip) has been fast and fierce. But this nasty queen hasn’t forgotten her roots, as she makes clear in her latest song ‘Ru Girl.’

Fittingly, the track is raunchy, witty and crass. Alaska contorts in a tub littered with empty PBR cans, fellates a machine gun, and goes to a club with Manila Luzon and Carmen Carrera, all while reminding us, repeatedly, that “[she’s] a Ru Girl.” Then she raps the name of every damn queen ever on the show. Except “some bitch!”). Guess who! (I still don’t know)

You can buy the track on iTunes. Byeeeeeeeee!!!

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In 1981, gay porn was closing in on a specifically American brand of ubiquity. There were 20,000 adult bookstores and 800 sex cinemas in the States alone, and while print pornography was still king, home VCRs had begun to gain traction and producers were starting to shoot films straight to video. The aesthetic style of underground art films of the previous decade had been largely abandoned for an approach more comparable to gay porn’s straight counterpart, boiling down to a simple rule of thumb: the more explicit, the better.

In that same year John Coletti, the owner of prominent gay porn company Fox Studio in Los Angeles, approached well-established musician Patrick Cowley to compose soundtracks for his films. Cowley, a renowned producer that transplanted to San Francisco from New York in 1971, had been the brains behind a number of disco hits of the mid to late 70’s, including several for megastar Sylvester and an epic 16-minute remix of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” (which still totally holds up today, in case you were curious). He also put out an anthemic pro-gay song fittingly named “Menergy” and became a pioneer for the Hi-NRG genre, putting out a series of disco singles that became the backdrop for an entire generation of bell bottomed gays.

Cowley eagerly accepted the gig at Fox, and before long his synthesizers and modified guitars were providing the backdrop for several steamy flicks, including School Daze and Muscle Up. The soundtracks for these two films, filled with evocative synth melodies and searingly slow motion techno, are the focus of a recently released compilation album. …