A fine art, film, history and literature site oriented to, but not exclusively for, the gay community. Please be aware that there is mature content on this blog. Information on images and links to sources will be provided if known. Enjoy your visit and please subscribe.
Thirteen Senses, “Into the Fire”
Thirteen Senses are a post-britpop band from Penzance, Cornwall. The group released the album “The Invitation” on 27 September 2004, along with several singles: “Thru the Glass”, “Do No Wrong”, “Into the Fire” and “The Salt Wound Routine”, of which the first three have reached the UK Top 40. Their second album, “Contact”, was released in April 2007. Thirteen Senses are the only Cornish band to have a Top 20 single.
Sophie Tucker, “Some of These Days”, 1926, Featuring Ted Lewis and His Band
Sophie Tucker was born as Sophia Kalish on January 13, 1884 in Russia. When she was still an infant, her parents emigrated to the United States and settled near Hartford, Connecticut. In 1903, she was briefly married to Louis Tuck; from which she decided to change her name to Tucker.
She made her debut in the Ziegfeld Follies in 1909 and made the first of her recordings, including “Some of These Days” for Edison in 1911. The tune, written by Shelton Brooks became an instant hit and her theme song, and later was the title of her autobiography published in 1945.In 1921 Tucker hired pianist Ted Shapiro as her accompanist and musical director. Shapiro would remain with Tucker the rest of her career, and was also her lifelong friend.
Tucker made her first movie appearance in the 1929 early sound motion picture “Honky Tonk” where she was billed with her nickname, ‘The Last of the Red Hot Mammas’. Her hearty sexual appetite was a frequent subject of her songs, unusual for female performers of the era. In 1938, due to her efforts to unionize professional actors, she was elected President of the American Federation of Actors.
Footprintz, “Heaven Felt like Night” from the Album “Escape Yourself”
Footprintz is a dance electronic band formed by Clarian North and Andy Weitzman under the label of Visionquest.
What becomes apparent throughout ‘Escape Yourself’ is a real craftsmanship to Footprintz’s songwriting. Each track reveals a little more on each listen, aided by the slick production work, done predominantly by the guys themselves in their Montreal bunker studio full of analogue equipment, odd instruments and a fridge laden with ‘special brownies’; which goes some way to explain a noirish-haze that permeates through the album.
Having met at an afterparty aged 15, Clarian North & Adam Hunter have experienced most of their adult life together. ‘Escape Yourself’ distills their experiences, wraps them in a warm analogue fuzz and shares them with the listener. You join them on their journey, and deep down they hope it helps you shape your own.
Kiran Ahluwalia and Timariwen, “Mustt Mustt”, 2011
Kiran Ahluwalia is an Indian singer, songwriter who infuses African desert blues and Western musical styles. She was born in Patna, grew up in Delhi and moved to Toronto at the age of nine. After completing her MBA at Dalhousie University, she returned to Toronto with the plan of being in the financial services industry. However, she changed her mind and went back to India to study music and then returned to Toronto to build her career as a musician. Kiran Ahluwalia is married to guitar player and co-arranger Rez Abbasi, and currently lives in New York.
Tinariwen (Tamasheq: “deserts”) is a Grammy Award-winning group of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. The band was formed in 1979 in Tamanrasset, Algeria, but returned to Mali after a cease-fire in the 1990s. The group first started to gain a following outside the Sahara region in 2001 with the release of “The Radio Tisdas Sessions”, and with performances at Festival au Désert in Mali and the Roskilde Festival in Denmark.
Juan Zelada, “Breakfast in Spitalfields” from the EP “What Do I Know”
Juan Zelada is a Spanish singer, songwriter and musician. Raised in a musical family environment, which consisted of jam sessions throughout the different generations, his talent and love for music flourished.
In 2006 he completed his studies at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, where he received an award for composition from Paul McCartney who called his recording a “smashing cd”.
Having moved to London, he set up a band, while still playing in restaurants, pubs, hotels and even cruise ships. He played the London scene to great acclaim and supported Amy Winehouse on her Back to Black tour.
In 2012, Juan Zelada released the single “Breakfast in Spitalfields” which became a national success being the most aired single on BBC Radio 2 only second to Adele.
Lisa Gerrard, “Sanvean: I Am Your Shadow”, 1995
“Sanvean: I Am Your Shadow” is a song co-written in September 1993 by Lisa Gerrard and composer/multi-instrumentalist Andrew Claxton during rehearsals in Ireland for the 1993 Dead Can Dance international tour. Lisa Gerrard stated she wrote this song as she was missed her family which had remained in Australia.
The song’s first public performance was in Sligo, Ireland. It first recorded on Dead Can Dance’s 1994 live album “Toward the Within”. “Sanvean: I Am Your Shadow” later was included on Gerrard’s 1995 solo album “The Mirror Pool” and the 2007 “The Best of Lisa Gerrard”. Like most of her work, the song is sung in a euphonic and emotional pseudo-language which she developed in her early years.
“I sing in the language of the Heart. Its an invented language that I’ve had for a very long time. I believe I started singing in it when I was about 12. Roughly that time. And I believed that I was speaking to God when I sang in that language.” –Lisa Gerrard
Sully Erna, “Sinner’s Prayer”
“Sinner’s Prayer” is a song by American rock musician Sully Erna. It is the lead single from his 2010 debut album Avalon. The song was originally written for Sylvester Stallone’s blockbuster “The Expendables” but later taken off the film and soundtrack during post-production. However, the song is reinstated back in the film in the extended director’s cut during the films new opening credits sequence.
In 2008, after Godsmack members started working on their side-project, Another Animal, Sully Erna began work on his first solo album. With the help of singer Lisa Guyer, whom he’d previously worked with on Hollow, Sully Erna worked on the album through 2009, and “Sinner’s Prayer” was chosen to become the first official single to be released from Avalon.
Big Mama Thornton and the Muddy Waters Blues Band, “Everything Gonna Be Alright”
Thornton’s performances were characterized by her deep, powerful voice and strong sense of self. She tapped into a liberated black feminist persona, through which she freed herself from many of the expectations of musical, lyrical, and physical practice for black women.
She was given her nickname, “Big Mama,” by Frank Schiffman, the manager of Harlem’s Apollo Theater, because of her strong voice, size, and personality. Thornton used her voice to its full potential, once stating that she was louder than any microphone and didn’t want a microphone to ever be as loud as she was.
Thornton was famous for her transgressive gender expression. She often dressed as a man in her performances, wearing work shirts and slacks. She did not care about the opinions of others and “was openly gay and performed risque songs unabashedly.”
Improvisation was a notable part of her performance. She often entered call-and-response exchanges with her band, inserting confident and subversive remarks. Her play with gender and sexuality set the stage for later rock-and-roll artists’ plays with sexuality
Moby and the Void Pacific Choir, “Are You Lost in the World Like Me?”
Great little animation film by Steve Cutts which is reminiscent of the children cartoons of the 1930′s.
Steve Cutts is an illustrator and animator currently living and working in London. His work is fascinating, thought-provoking and usually lends an important message. His messages range from environmental awareness and animal rights to the humorous and educational. His art and film is mixed in humor and sometimes a more serious spin of man’s interaction with our environment and how it impacts the world we live in.
Banner, “Half Light”, 2016
Nelson Banners is a Liverpool native who released his single “Shine a Light” in January of 2015 and released his symphonic debut self-entitled EP with Island Records in January of 2016. “Half Light” was released in 2016 for the E! network series “The Royals” and showcases Banner’s vocals over piano, strings, and percussion.
Father Tiger, “Head Hung Low” from the Album “Winter Solstice”, 2012
FATHER TIGER is an indie revival pop duo with a love of vintage analog synthesizers and everything mid-century modern. Having grown up on opposite ends of Los Angeles county, members Greg Delson and John Russell now both reside in Hollywood, where they met in 2005 at audio engineering school.
Often compared to Cut Copy, M83, Holy Ghost!, Hot Chip, Passion Pit, and Robyn, the band’s sound is nonetheless unique. The duo combine live drums with programmed percussion, layering numerous rare, vintage analog synths and incorporating a vocal arrangement style reminiscent of the Motown era.
Yelawolf, “Shadows” Featuring Joshua Hedley
Joshua Hedley, an East Nashville stalwart who’s backed artists like Jonny Fritz and Justin Townes Earle on fiddle in addition to leading his own band, sings the mournful opening hook: “Memories of shadows haunt me, from the years when I was young / All the things that used to terrify me, are the things that I’ve become.” He’s accompanied by a fingerpicked acoustic guitar and ghostly vocals, adding to the heavy mood.
Alabama native Yelawolf – who spent several years living in Nashville – paints a vivid, frightening picture of personal demons, biker lawlessness, illicit drugs and all-out desperation in his characteristic drawl. “Whiskey bent after twelve – I’m always playing with death / Bullet shells in my yard – loaded gun on the shelf,” he snarls, backed by bluesy Dobro riffs and a shuffling beat. He’s looking back on lost innocence, realizing he’s embraced his own nightmares of paranoia and crime.
Yelawolf, a long time favorite of mine, and Hedley. a great fiddler and singer, make this song.
Christine and the Queens, “Here”, Featuring Booba
Letissier studied theatre at École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS Lyon), moving to Paris in 2010, where she concluded her studies. When she visited London in 2010, she was inspired by the work of local drag queen musicians, including Russella, who accompanied her in one of her early concerts. They then became her “Queens” as a backing band.
She dedicated many of her creations to them and to all transgender individuals, describing her genre as “freakpop”. She adopted the name Christine and the Queens releasing her debut EP Miséricorde independently followed by another EP in 2012 called Mac Abbey with the minor hits “Narcissus is Back” and “Cripple”.
“Sinnerman” is one of Nina Simone’s most famous songs and she recorded her definitive 10-minute-plus version on her 1965 album “Pastel Blues”. Simone learned the lyrics of this English song in her childhood when it was used at revival meetings by her mother, a Methodist minister, to help people confess their sins.
In the early days of her career during the early sixties, when she was heavily involved in the Greenwich Village scene, Simone often used the long piece to end her live performances. An earlier version of the song exists, recorded live at The Village Gate, but was not used on the 1962 Colpix album Nina at the Village Gate.
Simone’s version of Sinnerman has been sampled by Kanye West for the Talib Kweli song “Get By”, by Timbaland for the song “Oh Timbaland”, and by Felix da Housecat for Verve Record’s “Verve Remixed” series.
The Raveonettes, “Killer in the Streets”
The Raveonettes are a Danish indie rock duo, consisting of Sune Rose Wagner on guitar, instruments, and vocals, and Sharin Foo on bass, guitar and vocals. Their music is characterized by close two-part vocal harmonies inspired by The Everly Brothers coupled with hard-edged electric guitar overlaid with liberal doses of noise.
Their songs juxtapose the structural and chordal simplicity of 1950s and 1960s rock with intense electric instrumentation, driving beats, and often dark lyrical content (e.g., crime, drugs, murder, suicide, love, lust, and betrayal), similar to another of the band’s influences, The Velvet Underground.