Billy ThunderKloud and the Chieftones "Indian Nation"

Billy ThunderKloud and the Chieftones
Where Do I Begin to Tell a Story
LP
(Superior Records, 197x)

March 26, 1972: I was eight years old, and my Daddy took me to my very first rock concert. The headliners were the Jackson 5, but the opening act was Billy ThunderKloud and the Chieftones. That night was actually my second time to see Billy and his krew, as they'd performed at a variety show my Mommy had taken me to see at the state fair a day or two beforehand.

The only things I really remember about either show was the band's long-ish name, the fact that they wore Native American garb (though we called it Indian back then), and they played today's song. For many years after, in fact, I associated it with them rather than The Raiders, who'd originally written and recorded it in the early '70s (video below). While researching for this post, I discovered that Billy and the boys actually were full-blooded Native Americans from the Tsimshian Nation, heralding from what is now British Columbia, Canada. Sadly, the linked Wikipedia article does not consider Billy to be one of the notable Tsimshian people.

I had no idea Billy ThunderKloud and the Chieftones had released records until nearly a quarter-century later, when I stumbled upon a copy of their album All Through the Night, also released by Superior Records, at my favorite local store. Boy, oh, boy . . . it turned out to be fairly cheesy lounge-style versions of country and easy listening favorites.

Naturally, when I found a copy of Off the Reservation, I snapped that one up, too! Tragically, however, neither had their version of Indian Nation.

I finally discovered that Indian Nation was on their album Where Do I Begin to Tell a Story. I bought a copy off eBay recently and was crushed when it turned out to be in horrible condition. I mean, practically unlistenable. I ripped the song, though, and cleaned it up as best I could for your enjoyment. It still sounds pretty rough, though.

As always, liner notes from the '70s and earlier are often a treat. Check out these from the back cover. The writer seems astonished to have discovered that, whoa!, Native Americans are just like real people!

I had never had a close relationship with any full-fledged Indians until Billy Thundercloud and the Chieftones. I have, however, kept myself aware of the Indian's plight through the years. I must admit I expected that they would have deep hostilities in their music. As one of the musicians on the session I had to get my head together to portray this expected feeling. To my surprise it didn't happen that way.

At the recording session, these beautiful people put out nothing but good vibrations. Their music reflects their strong heritage, simply with its feeling, but the amazing thing is they use modern, popular material to reflect their attitudes. When you listen to Theme from Love Story, think about Billy Thundercloud not only speaking about a love for a woman, but his love for mankind. Where do I begin to tell the story, . . . this is actually what he thinks. Their lives have been twisted and confused since childhood because of their race, yet they have managed to overcome hate and hostility. They can still love.

This album is filled with that deep feeling of goodness, warmth, and compassion for their people and all people. Listen and feel the vibrations. Feel it like we felt it at the recording session. It is there.

My thanks to the Chieftones for allowing me to be a part of their music and their spirit.

MARK ELLERBEE

NOTA BENE: Where Do I Begin to Tell a Story was later reissued with a different, and much uglier, cover. It's the same photographs, but rearranged and with a huge, overly bright, cyan border added plus different, super-cheesy type fonts.

Addendum: I have never owned a Jackson 5 or Michael Jackson record in my life.

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Marlene Dietrich "The Boys in the Back Room"

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Marlene Dietrich
Destry Rides Again
feature film
(Universal Pictures, 1939)

Marlene Dietrich is one of the sexiest human beings ever to walk the planet. She was also bisexual, and created quite a stir when she had the nerve to appear in men's clothing in the early 1930's.

After a successful movie career starring in several films directed by Josef von Sternberg in the early 1930s, Dietrich was declared box office poison, after appearing in some unsuccessful ones. Luckily, director Joe Pasternak talked her into appearing in the western he was getting ready to shoot, Destry Rides Again. She played the barmaid & chanteuse Frenchy, opposite a young, and already very charismatic, Jimmy Stewart as Tom Destry, Jr.

Destry Rides Again ended up being a smash hit, and Dietrich's career was back on track. It also, perhaps not coincidentally, is my favorite western. In addition to those distinctions, it features one of my two favorite movie fight scenes* of all time. According to legend, the fight was not choreographed. Dietrich and co-pugilist Una Merkel agreed to no closed fists, but that was it for rules. Luckily for them, they got the scene in one take!

There are scads of recordings of today's song (written by the wonderful Friedrich Hollaender) out there, but the one from the film itself is my favorite. None of the Dietrich CDs I own has that particular version, so this one was ripped from a YouTube clip of the performance from the film. The Buy MP3 button above will take you to the movie version of the song on Amazon MP3, from the collection Music and Songs from Classic Westerns. I checked all the iTunes clips, and could not find it, so no link from there. My apologies.

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*My other favorite is the awesome fight scene between Rowdy Roddy Piper and Keith David in They Live.

Mahjongg "Hot Lava"

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Mahjongg
RaYDONcoNG 2005
CD
(Cold Crush Records, 2005)

Mahjongg opened for Pretty Girls Make Graves and the Constantines here several years ago. Despite only catching their final two songs, I was impressed enough to pick up their debut EP, Machinegong, that night. I saw 'em again (a full set, too) when their first album, RaYDONcoNG 2005, came out and they were even better. This track is from the album, and was one of the two that I really dug at that first show.

Since then, they've released a couple more excellent albums, Kontpab and The Long Shadow of the Paper Tiger, but their MySpace hasn't been updated in two years, so I'm not sure what their status is.

They switched it up on instruments, so I'm not sure which members are which, but the guy who played bass on this song (I think) was wearing a t-shirt with two, intersecting, pink triangles the first time I saw them. When I bought Machinegong at their merch table that night, I asked him if he was gay, based on the shirt, and he said he was.

The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower "For Marcus"

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The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower
Dissertation, Honey
CD
(Happy Couples Never Last Records, 2003)

The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower opened for a popular underground band at a show here a number of years ago. I went on the advice of a friend, and because I'd been hearing for years about how great the headlining band were. I thought they were OK, but that's the nicest thing I can say. On the other hand, TPtBUtET, whom I'd never even heard of before, kicked my ass quite nicely. Sadly, a few years later they called it a day. I saw them here again on their farewell tour and got kissed (on the cheek! I am a common-law-married man!) by their handsome singer. Were I single, I'd've swooned.

The titular focus of today's jukebox track was a real boy: Marcus Wayman. From the CD booklet:

Marcus Wayman, 18, was in a parked car with a 17-year-old male when police questioned the two, found condoms while searching the car, and arrested them for under-age drinking. At the police station, officers lectured the two teens on about the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality and threatened to tell Wayman's grandfather that he was gay. After Wayman, a highschool football player, was released from custody, he committed suicide in his home.

Was Marcus gay? Does it even matter? The simple presumption of homosexuality is enough for bullies to attack other kids, whether or not said victims are LGBT. Clearly, the police were bullies in this case. Marcus's family pressed civil charges against the officers and the town. Despicably, the attorney for the police tried to argue that sexual orientation is not a private matter!

The family setup a website in 2002 during the trial. I'll let them take over from here, from the What's New page:

Marcus' Story

Minersville, PA, USA: Marcus Wayman and another friend were in an abandoned parking lot where they were turning around their vehicle, coming from a high school party. The teens were immediately followed into the lot by local police. Officers at once stopped and separated the teens.

After frisking the teens, police found that one of them were carrying condoms. Officer Scott Willinsky within minutes concluded the boys were obviously queers (police quote) and stopping to engage in sex. After questioning the teens about the condoms, Willinksy had his mind made up, regardless of their answers.

The small town police threatened to tell the teens' families, friends and community that they were homosexuals and quoted biblical passages while placing them under arrest for underage drinking.

Marcus, a high school football player, distraught and despaired, scared that he would be labeled and outed as gay by the police to the small community, his family and friends … six hours later … committed suicide.

He was 18 years old.

In a time of rampant HIV, STD infections and teenage pregnancy, we teach and preach to our youth to practice safe sex. Yet in Minersville, carrying condoms is translated from responsible teenage behavior to being queer faggots (police quote).

In 1998, Madonna Sterling, Marcus' mother, filed civil charges against Minersville police officers and the town; specifically, Police Chief Joseph Willinsky and son Scott Willinsky (who is still an officer in Minersville), claiming that the officers clearly violated Marcus' privacy rights.

Due to the vague nature of sexual orientation being covered under privacy laws, the attorney for the police argued that sexual orientation was not considered private and therefore, not protected under the Constitutional Amendments. As a result, the defense moved for a dismissal from all charges against the very same police who are sworn to protect and serve all citizens.

During pretrial arguments in November 2000, the 3rd U S Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled that a person's constitutional right to privacy not only includes one's sexual orientation but stated it is difficult to imagine a more private matter than ones sexuality and a less likely probability that the government would have a legitimate interest in its disclosure. Further, by threatening to disclose ones homosexuality would be tantamount to doing so, because the security of ones privacy has been compromised by the threat.

The defense for the police further justified the actions of the police by saying that in small towns like Minersville, the police are obligated to take on parental roles as well act as spiritual advisors to members of their community .Chief Willinsky offers that, as a small town police officer, his role has parental overtones, thus, reducing the citizens' expectation of privacy. We mention this only to note our disagreement with the concept that the breadth of ones constitutional rights can somehow be diminished by demographics, US Circuit Judge Carlos Los Mansmann wrote in the ground-breaking, landmark opinion.

This high court ruling allowed the case to move forward and the civil trial was held in Allentown, Pennsylvania on November two-thousand and one. After three days of testimony, a jury acquitted the police from any wrongdoing.

And no one is held accountable???

On June 17th, 2002, the honorable and respectable, Judge Arnold C. Rapoport granted a new trial for this case, tossing out the previous acquittal. Judge Rapoport saying that the evidence presented at trial was clearly not heard or understood by the jury, calling the verdict a miscarriage of justice.

The defense immediately appealed for a reconsideration of Rapaport's decision to overturn the verdict and further plead to allow the Appellate Court hear whether it was within Judge Rapaport's authority to toss the verdict.

In a terse statement issued on October 18, 2002, Judge Rapaport issued a decision that boldly and flatly denied the defense's plea on both counts … clearing the way for the police to face new charges of misconduct, again, in front of a new jury for the invasion of privacy that prompted Marcus' suicide.

Let us not forget that Marcus' death and this case has afforded all gay, lesbian and bisexual people the right to privacy under the 14th Amendent to our Constitution. Never before has this been argued in a High Court. However, as such a political and controversial issue, this story has yet to be truly exposed. Under our Constitutional right to privacy, this case hangs in balance of what the government deems private and not. A truly unprecedented case that has wide spread implications on all American rights.

Furthermore, how many more youth must perish, thinking that suicide is preferable that being labeled as gay?

Please also note that it is not our intention, in any way, to claim that all police are bad officers. Those who have a sworn oath and duty to protect and serve, we truly thank and honor. However, in this case, we are speaking of cops who obviously forgot about that very same sworn oath.

Myles of Destruction "Moth Curiosity"

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Myles of Destruction
Running Only Makes the Fire Worse.
CDR
(Burst Into Flames, 2002)

Years ago, there was a Yahoo! group called QueerMetal. I think. Hey, it's been a while, OK? I vaguely remember Myles Donovan posting there and talking a bit about his band, but it wasn't until a couple of years ago that I finally heard them, when I stumbled across a used copy of their split 7" EP with noisesters Abiku. Both sides of the record were pretty neat, so I sought out more by each.

Aquarius Records in San Francisco turned out to have a few Myles of Destruction CDRs listed on their site, so I ordered what they had. It happened that they were actually sold out of everything, but they contacted Myles and he found copies of today's jukebox parent and an earlier EP, Doom Town. All four songs on the latter were redone for Running Only Makes the Fire Worse., and, while they were already good, they were definitely improved.

It's not an easy task, sometimes, trying to genre-fy an artist, and guitarless trio Myles of Destruction are one of the tougher ones! The fuzz bass and drumming are rather aggressive, while the violin work brings to (my) mind, East European folk music. So, I've coined a new term: gyspy grind. Interestingly, the vocals remind me very strongly of the band Asa Nisi Masa, whom I featured here earlier this year, and who shared the same instrumental modus operandi: vocals, violin, bass, drums.

Mi Ami "Ark of the Covenant"

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Mi Ami
Ark of the Covenant
12" single
(Lovers Rock, 2008)

Mi Ami are another group I've featured previously on the jukebox, with the title track from their debut 12" EP, African Rhythms. I'd apologize, but . . . no, to heck with it . . . I shan't!

Today's tune is the A side of their second 12" record, Ark of the Covenant (the b-side is a trippy, dubby version). While it might be ever so slightly less frantic than African Rhythms, it's certainly not by much. They're in the spotlight this month as at least one, and possibly all, of them is/are openly gay. They're also just plain fierce.

Since this record was released, there have been some changes. Bassist Jacob Long left the group after the release of two full-length albums and three more 12" records, thereby slimming Mi Ami down to the duo of Damon Palermo and Daniel Martin-McCormick. They still kick up a great, dancey fuss, however, on their two releases since the slimmin': the limited-edition 12" EP Dolphins and their 2012 full-length Decade.

Wayne County & The Electric Chairs "Cry of Angels"

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Wayne County & The Electric Chairs
Storm the Gates of Heaven
LP
(Safari, 1978)

I have to admit knowing not a lot about Wayne County, other than he was an early fixture on the New York proto-punk/punk scene. All I'd heard until recently was a few fairly raunchy but musically bland songs on compilations. I knew he was originally from Georgia, where I now reside, and that he'd moved to New York at some point, obviously.

A few months ago, though, I came across a used copy of this LP from 1978 that I'd never seen before, and decided to give it a chance. It turned out to be a pretty darn good punk album, and today's song is my favorite from it.

When Storm the Gates of Heaven was recorded, Wayne performed in outrageous drag. At some point, though, Wayne transitioned and became Jayne County, the first (only?) trans woman punk rock star. She still performs and records to this day. In fact, a review of a recent show here in Atlanta was what prompted me to give this album a shot. Well, that and seeing interview clips over the years with Jayne that were usually pretty hilarious.

Hans Werner Henze „La Miracle de la Rose“ Imaginäres Theater II: Musik für einen Klarinettisten und 13 Spieler

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Hans Werner Henze
„La Miracle de la Rose“
„An eine Äolsharfe“
CD
(Ars Musici, 1991)

Hans Werner Henze has been featured on the jukebox before, but it's LGBT History Month, he's one of my favorite composers, and he's openly gay. This time 'round I'm gonna let the liner notes for this piece do the talking for me. I will say, though, that in addition to Henze, Jean Genet, the author of the book Miracle de la Rose, which Henze has here transformed into music, was also openly gay. Henze himself conducted this recording, which features Ensemble Modern joined by Hans Deinzer on clarinet.

Language becomes music – music becomes language

Hans Werner Henze has written two pieces with the subtitle ”Imaginary theatre“: ”El Rey de Harlem“ in 1979, after a text by Federico Garcia Lorca, and two years later ”Le Miracle de la Rose“, a musical evocation of the autobiography of the same name written by the French poet and playwright Jean Genet in prison in 1943. Both works take outsiders in society as their subject, characters who are both victims and wrongdoers at one and the same time. While the Lorca piece uses a voice to convey the content of the text, the piece entitled ”Imaginary theatre II“ (”Miracle“) goes one step further: the poetic content is transposed entirely into instrumental terms, with the solo clarinet being identified with the principal character, the sixteen-year-old twofold murderer Harcomone, who awaits execution. ”It is hardly surprising that the most wretched human life is described with especially beautiful words“ – this hypothesis of Genet's is adopted by Henze too, as he immerses himself in a private world precariously ruled by violence and the addiction to beauty. Henze is not interested in making philanthropic gestures of sympathy from the outside, nor in artistic indulgence in a macabre, surrealistic and almost exotic scenery of homosexuality and crime; what he aims to achieve is the deeper sympathy that goes hand-in-hand with the utmost humiliation and perversion. Beauty in a damaged life is a transcendental moment, a glimmer of hope and utopia – a sign of salvation from the hopelessly functionalistic world of normal people and conformists. It was in this sense that Jean-Paul Sartre regarded Genet – both the poet and the man – as a „saint“.

Henze's composition is divided into seven movements. It blends the model of the Baroque suite with the character of a virtuoso clarinet concerto. Many of the other thirteen instruments represent figures from the Genet book – the judge expresses himself through the trumpet, the priest is represented by the horn, the trombone stands for the lawyer, the poet himself is identified by the bass clarinet, while the heckelphone stands for the executioner. The introductory ”Entrée“ evokes a menacing mood which is dispelled time after time by the energy of Harcomone's daydreams (especially in the flights of fancy in the ”Air“). At the end of the Mediterranean hues of the ”Chansons provençales“, the screeching of the E flat clarinet depicts Harcomone's execution in dramatic colours. Like any programme music of true quality, ”Le Miracle de la Rose“ can also be listened to as absolute music. But the listener who also bears the close associations with Genet's book in mind will of course learn a great deal more about the composer Hans Werner Henze.

Pictures or language have often served as the inspiration for the compositions of Hans Werner Henze. Musical settings of texts account for a significant part of his work, but no less important are those works whose connection with the verse does not actually feature the sung presentation of the text. In these compositions, Henze is not content to merely reproduce the substance of a text atmospherically in terms of musical notes, nor does he simply illustrate it in 'programme music' fashion. Henze prefers to create structural musical convergences and equivalents. He follows the course of the words mimetically in note form, reconstructing the rhythm of the verse set and its structural subdivisions in the forms of his music. Henze, who takes a great interest in semiotics and wishes his music to possess symbolic value and precise linguistic character, refers deliberately to ”research“, when he is making a detailed study of poetry that he plans to transform into music. He first made this manner of working his own in 1953, when he composed his ”Ode to the West Wind“, the instrumental 'imagination' of a poem by Shelley, set for cello and orchestra. As a man of the theatre, he is also concerned to give his literary (or pictorial) subject something along the lines of a dramatic form by making a musical 'stage production' of it. In this way, apparently concertate works take on a dramatic aspect, too.

Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich
(translation: Clive Williams)

NOTA BENE: I know the punctuation and quotation marks above look odd. I have recreated it exactly as it appears in the booklet.

:-P

The Zulus "Back"

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The Zulus
Down on the Floor
CD
(Slash Records, 1989)

Human Sexual Response were fronted by openly gay lead vocalist & lyricist Larry Bangor, but I already featured them a couple of years ago.

After HSR split, Bangor, along with guitarist Rich Gilbert and drummer Malcolm Travis, went on to start The Zulus. I've not heard their first 12" EP, but I have their (lone?) album, Down on the Floor, and it rocks. Their sound was more hard rock than the new wave/post punk of Human Sexual Response, but bein' a rocker, I'm not complaining. I suppose one could call them proto-grunge, as the rise of grunge (I hate that genre name) came around 1990. They're still perhaps a bit too arty to be grunge, though.

Oh, whatever!

The future-openly-gay Bob Mould, past-openly-of Hüsker Dü, produced Down on the Floor, and Malcolm Travis went on to pound the skins in Mould's next ensemble de rock, Sugar.

I was just doing some research for this post, and discovered that Human Sexual Response are playing a reunion show at The House of Blues in their home of Boston on November 10! Man, I wish I could go. If you're in the area, or feel like travelling, tickets can be purchased on-line here.

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Appropo of nothing, here's a picture of my foot at a Hüsker Dü show in 1983.

Fight "Psycho Suicide"

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Fight
A Small Deadly Space
CD
(Epic, 1995)

Fight started out as a side-project for not-yet-openly-gay Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford. Unfortunately, confusion over his intentions led to internal strife in the Priest camp, and not long after he was officially no longer part of the band he helped rise to superstardom.

The first Fight album, War of Words, has never really appealed to me, and I've given it more than one chance. Their second album, however, A Small Deadly Space, is a raging monster of a release, and I've loved it since the first time I heard it. There was a hidden song following two minutes of silence after what the cover claims is the final song, and that stealth track is today's jukebox selection.

After this album, Epic dropped Fight, and they subsequently split up. Halford started a new not-metal band, Two (featured here a couple of years ago), and came out of closet. The former was met with much derision (not from me; I liked them) whereas the latter surprised few in the small-but-not-nonexistent gay metalhead community and angered his more brain dead and bigoted fans. Two were followed by his return to metal with his eponymous band Halford, and a few years after that, Rob was back in the Priest for a killer new album, Angel of Retribution. We shall pretend its followup, Nostradamus, never existed. Yes?

The Gossip "I Want It (To Write)"

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The Gossip
Flying Side Kick
Home Alive Compilation II
compilation CD
(Broken Rekids, 2001)

You know how niteclubs typically play music over the PA between sets by the bands performing that night? Well, I was at The Echo Lounge (R.I.P.) one night a number of years ago, and the soundguy had something playing that blew my mind. It was definitely punk rock, but 'twas very stripped down and had obvious blues and gospel influences. Plus, the singer could belt it out like nobody's business. I asked what it was, and was told it was the album Movement by a band I'd never heard of before, Gossip (video below for the song that snagged my ear the hardest).

Gossip originally hailed from Arkansas, but I imagine that's not the ideal place for a trio of queer punx to live and play, so they'd moved to the Pacific Northwest. They also originally had a The at the front of their name. I actually prefer it that way, but it's not my band so I don't get a say.

These days, Gossip are practically a disco band. I still enjoy their music, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't prefer the older stuff. Today's song is from those early, raw, punk-as-a-bad-word days. It appeared on the Flying Side Kick compilation CD, which was released to raise money for Home Alive, a non-profit anti-violence organization that teaches self-defense to women and girls for free.

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Sœur Sourire (The Singing Nun) "Avec toi"

Sœur Sourire
(The Singing Nun)
Her Joy, Her Songs
LP
(Philips, 1963)

In the early 1960s, Jeannine Deckers, aka Sœur Sourire aka The Singing Nun aka Luc Dominique aka King Diamond, lived and worshipped at the Fichermont Convent in Waterloo, Belgium. Jeannine liked to write songs and play them for the other sisters on her acoustic guitar, so the convent decided to let her record an album's worth of her compositions. As unlikely as it seems, the song Dominique became a huge hit single on both sides of the Atlantic.

After her initial success, however, things went downhill. Her second album, Her Joy, Her Songs, did not match the first in terms of popularity, and, in 1965, the convent announced that her singing career was over. In 1967, however, she left Fichermont and reemerged as Luc Dominique, under which she recorded at least two albums, I Am Not a Star. and Dominican. Her final release, as far as I know, was a 1982 disco version of Dominique.

At some point, the Belgian government decided she owed an extraordinary sum in back taxes, for the money made from her early, hit records. She had given the majority of her earnings to the convent, but did not have receipts. In addition, the convent apparently did nothing to exonerate her. Perhaps because she had recorded a song in praise of birth control, La pilule d'or (The Golden Pill), or perhaps because she was living openly as a lesbian with her long-time partner Annie Pécher? I honestly do not know. Despondent over their debts, Jeannine and Annie committed suicide together in their apartment on March 19, 1985.

Once again, I've cheated a bit with this entry. That's my copy of her second LP in the photo above, but it's in lousy condition, so I pulled my favorite song from it from a wonderful, two-CD compilation I have called Best of Sœur Sourire. It has all the tracks from The Singing Nun, Her Joy, Her Songs, and I Am Not a Star., plus the disco version of Dominique and a bunch of tracks from who-knows-where. Unfortunately, the liner notes are scant (and straightwashed), with no indication of the sources for any of the songs.

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The original Dominique

Let's disco!

Floor "Twink"

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Floor
Floor
CD
(No Idea, 2002)

Floor are another band I missed out on the first time 'round. Luckily, after splitting in 1996, they reconvened in 2001 with a new drummer and a new take on their brand of extremely heavy sludge: vocalist/guitarist/leader Steve Brooks decided to experiment with singing melodically, rather than barking out the lyrics as on their earlier recordings. This annoyed some long-time fans, who took to message boards and the like to express their ire about the new, gay vocal style. The joke was on them, though, as Steve came out as gay around the same time.

Hah!

Tragically, Steve's boyfriend was killed in a horrible car accident while Floor were on tour on the other side of the country. The loss threw him into a tailspin, naturally, and the band never recovered. Steve eventually bounced back, though, with his new combo Torche, who are every bit as kick ass.

Floor got together for a short series of reunion shows a couple of years ago, and I was lucky enough to attend the second one. Since the band had gone through a few different line-ups, they played three different sets, with three different assemblages playing material contemporary to each. It was incredible. The two shows in Atlanta were filmed and recorded for a double-DVD set, Sight & Seen, released by Chunklet. If you watch closely during the version of today's song from the second night, you can see my right fist pumping away furiously in the air.

Today's jukebox selection, Twink, is my favorite from their eponymous, second-to-be-recorded-but-first-to-be-released album. For those not in the know, a twink is a young (18 to 25) gay man with smooth skin and minimal body hair.

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NOTA BENE: In conjunction with the above-mentioned reunion shows, Robotic Empire released a massive box set, Below & Beyond, containing everything Floor ever recorded. Consider it highly recommended!

The Sexual Side Effects "An Hour Ago"

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The Sexual Side Effects
High Maintenance
CD EP
(Effective Entertainment, 2012)

As I've written plenty of times before, I love bargain bins and free bins. A couple of weeks ago, I was in a local shop and spotted the debut EP by local combo The Sexual Side Effects sitting on a shelf of free stuff. I'd heard of them, but knew nothing about them other than leader Amber Taylor is a trans woman, i.e. the oft ignored and/or maligned T in LGBT. Now, in the afternoon, I often play fetch with the doggie while I hang out on the deck and listen to CDs, so that evening the two of us gave it a listen. Well, I listened and he screamed at me to throw the ball when I would pause too long after being given it (i.e., one nanosecond).

Musically, it's a bit more mainstream than my usual tastes, but after the second listen, the songs had wormed their way into my head quite successfully. In fact, it was a tough decision which song to feature, as I dig all of them.

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NOTA BENE: The top Buy MP3 button will take you to the link for the song on Bandcamp, whereas the lower one will direct you to the download on Amazon. The iTunes button will, shockingly enough, take you to the iTunes link for it.