Queen City Sounds and Art

Grapefruit Lab’s Latest Production Strange Bird, Queer Bird Runs April 7 – 15

Lars Reid and Julie Rada in rehearsals for Strange Bird, Queer Bird

Strange Bird, Queer Bird is the latest production from Grapefruit Lab and it launches on Friday, April 7 and runs the following two weekends (see dates and times below) at Buntport Theater at 717 Lipan St., Denver, CO 80204. Per the latter’s press release:

“Strange Bird, Queer Bird, the latest original show from Grapefruit Lab, is
an early-pandemic love story based on actual events. After a single face-to-face date, the world shuts down, but two queer people manage to connect despite the imposed distance. Against the backdrop of forest fires, uprisings in the streets, uncertainty, and massive death – this show finds a hopeful tone in the personal and profound connections still happening between people.

“It’s a story told through music, dance, and intimate correspondence,” says Lars Reid, one of the creators. “A story about falling in love, and finding comfort in a time of great loss and widespread isolation.” The text is taken verbatim from letters, phone messages, journal entries, and poems between Reid and Julie Rada – who perform as themselves. These words are joined with original dance (Kate Speer, Allison Blakeney) and live music (Teacup Gorilla) to create a poetic reflection on blossoming love.

“The show is inspired by the complex mating rituals of bowerbirds,” says Rada.
“These birds build intricate nests and colorful collections to impress each other – and we’re telling a queer version of that story. In the context of the pandemic, it’s a story that seems relatable, in spite of these specifics.

“This vulnerable, charming production is a collaboration among many other local artists. In addition to the creators and performers, the show features sculptural scenic pieces and costumes created by the masterminds at Colorado Shoe School: Annabel Reader and Dan Huling. It is also being performed at (and co-produced by) Buntport Theater, another company known for their innovative original work.”

Allison Blakeney and Kate Speer in rehearsals for Strange Bird, Queer Bird

All ticket sales for the Sunday April 9 performance will benefit the Denver Actors Fund which profides financial support to Colorado artists in medical need. On Saturday, April 15 Grapefruit Lab will host a thirty minute “creative conversation” at 4 pm for attendees with an interest in a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how the production was made.

As per usual for Grapefruit Lab, a performance company founded by long-term collaborators Julie Rada, Miriam Suzanne and Kenny Storms, this show will be a mixed media affair imbued with great creativity, humanity, humor and warmth that will provoke thought and reflection on the subjects presented. For tickets visit Grapefruit Lab’s website at this link: https://www.grapefruitlab.com/shows/queer-bird/

Showtimes
Friday, April 7, 2023 – 7:30pm
Saturday, April 8, 2023 – 7:30pm
Sunday, April 9, 2023 – 6:00pm (fundraiser for Denver Actors Fund – suggested
donation $20)
Friday, April 14, 2023 – 7:30pm
Saturday, April 15, 2023 – 2:00pm
Saturday, April 15, 2023 – 7:30pm

Trummerkind’s “Revolt” is a Thrilling, Tribal Industrial Post-Punk Chant Against Genocide

You don’t need to know that Trummerkind wrote “Revolt” as a protest against the genocide of Ukrainian citizens for it to have the proper impact or context. The song’s distorted opening drone and its menace like an abstracted air raid siren before facts about how the roots of the conflict go back to 2014. But then the song goes directly into a chant-like decrying of genocide with industrial tribal drumming and an urgent guitar line that sounds almost more like the hum of a machine cycling up and down than a standard instrument and sweeps of synths to elevate the mood to one of defiant excitement. The net effect is like a Killing Joke song as done by Pussy Riot and with its well arranged elements in electronics, vocals and agitprop it hits a bit like one of Crass’s more experimental pieces. Listen to “Revolt” on Spotify and follow Trummerkind at the links below.

Trummerkind on Facebook

Trummerkind on Instagram

Miss Torsion Takes Us From Despair to a Hard Won Hope on Electro-post-punk Song “Lost”

Former Cell Division guitarist Miss Torsion expresses a feeling of self-imposed isolation on “Lost.” The electro-post-punk song is reminiscent of ADULT. in its undercurrent of menace and sustained purge of anxiety. And in the last portion of the song it takes a turn into a more upbeat and melodic dance song yet its lyrics with the refrain of “I’m lost the world does not hold me/I’m lost I’m falling no end” and then ending that set of words with “I’m lost I’m falling apart” and concluding with “I fall so deep, see myself from above.” It’s like in the hypnotic and irresistible rhythm Miss Torsion has given herself to that mood and felt it right through to its natural conclusion rather than get distracted from actually feeling those uncomfortable and enervating states of being, experiencing that wave and coming out the other side with a hard won sense of psychological clarity. The more brooding first part of the song and the more dance-y ending reflect this progression in a creative way rather than being so obvious and offering hope without the usual clichés about how it’s going to magically get better. Miss Torsion shows us one way how. Watch the video for “Lost” on YouTube and connect with Miss Torsion at the links provided.

Miss Torsion on TikTok

Miss Torsion on Facebook

Miss Torsion on Instagram

Miss Torsion on Bandcamp

Glassmanet’s Micro Album Video For “Glassplanet” is a Blissfully Psychedelic Odyssey Through Our World’s Ecological Horrors and Wonders

With the video for “Glassplanet,” Norwegian dream pop artist Glassmanet showcases her intertwined gifts for creative soundscaping and video art. It’s a short film and journey through entrancing streams of melody crafted from luminescent droplets of guitar floating through flares of distorted tone that give the ethereal whole some definition while letting go into free flowing anti-structures as styles and visuals evolve quickly but gently into the next phase of ideas with the artist frequently seen frolicking about and performing in gossamer outfits in colorized, negative image footage and animation collage. It’s mostly a summery and otherworldly experience but the “Waves Cannot Be Crushed” portion introduces a twinge of menace like if Bricks Are Heavy period L7 followed its most psychedelic instincts. It’s a full ten minutes eleven seconds but “micro albums” don’t often come this fully realized and engrossing. And wait until after the credits for some of the most blissed out sections of the album as the synth tones go full on Boards of Canada-esque but with some anchoring grit that makes the come down from this delightfully unusual trip into cosmic musicality land easy. Watch the video for “Glassplanet” on YouTube and follow Glassmanet at the links below.

Glassmanet on Facebook

Glassmanet on Instagram

Glassmanet on Bandcamp

May Try Tomorrow’s Industrial Rap Track “All Cats Are Beautiful” is a Playfully Scathing Takedown of Authoritarian Forces

May Try Tomorrow boiled down a lot of anti-establishment spirit into its song “All Cats Are Beautiful” with special ire directed at cops and the fash. After all what was it Rage Against the Machine said about some those that work forces? It’s an industrial rap track that utilizes a creative mashup of internet meme culture, graffiti, footage of humans getting up to nonsense and random images of animals, food and other products. And despite all the fury and scathing rhetoric dismantling the more corrosive element of society the artists take out a few seconds for a smoke break before finishing the song letting us know they’re humans and we all need to take some time out for ourselves and for joy with a healthy sense of humor even while we resist the relentless flood of authoritarian capitalist control in all areas of our lives as we can because rebellion is always called for and fun and any system that tries to dominate all your time is illegitimate. Fans of Ho99o9 and Realicide will appreciate this glitched out mini-masterpiece. Watch the video for “All Cats Are Beautiful,” a subversive song title if ever there was one, on YouTube and follow May Try Tomorrow at the links provided.

May Try Tomorrow on Twitter

Sjfleish’s Lively Ambient Track “Oceans” Teems With the Life and Grandeur of the World’s Oceans Themselves

Sjfleish is an environmental engineer working on coastline, streams, wetlands and pond restoration and that knowledge and appreciation of the natural world surely informed her song “Oceans.” Though just over a minute long ambient track incorporates a rich array of sounds from a harp-like melody, to processed, ethereal vocals, bursty swirls of sound and distorted whorls. Accompanied by a music video that brings in a broad range of underwater and coastline footage including a volcano and luminous invertebrates the short song teems with an expansive spirit that feels like a short journey into a mysterious and wondrous world. In its short run time the piece captures a lively sliver of the grandeur of the very bodies of water that are the title of the song. Watch the video for “Oceans” on YouTube and follow Sjfleish at the links below.

Sjfleish on TikTok

Sjfleish on Facebook

Sjfleish on Bandcamp

Sjfleish on Instagram

Aggressive Soccer Moms’ Weirdo Post-punk Song “Darling” is a Moody and Surreal Declaration of Self-Respect

Aggressive Soccer Moms, photo courtesy the artists

Swedish post-punk group Aggressive Soccer Moms inject some surreal creativity into the genre with its single “Darling” from its new album QUINT (released March 9, 2023). Fans of Sex Swing and Sleaford Mods will appreciate the arch vocal delivery in poetic couplets and the full embrace of lo-fi electronics and stark minimalism employed to great dramatic effect. The use of percussion and horn-like blasts on what could be a processed saxophone is like the kind of mutant disco and free jazz the Pop Group brought to its classic 1979 debut album Y. Who can say what the lyrics mean in a concrete sense but lines like “You call me an idiot, you don’t get to call me darling, you call me a loser, you don’t get to call me darling, you call me a liar, you don’t get to call me darling” suggest an association gone sour in which or narrator, as it were, calls out the hypocrisy and emotional betrayal in no uncertain terms and while the vocals aren’t angry in the visceral sense the words speak to coming from a place where one discovers one’s inherent dignity, done with shabby treatment tolerated under the cloak of misguided affection. At times the song and others on the album are reminiscent of The Happy Mondays gone bleak and moody. Aggressive Soccer Moms are clearly Swedish and if bands like Refused and Viagra Boys at a minimum are any indication this variety of irreverent art punk is very much a thing there but fans of UK weirdo post-punk especially from Sheffield and Manchester will appreciate what Aggressive Soccer Moms are doing now and seemingly have been for the past half decade and more. Listen to “Darling” on Spotify and follow Aggressive Soccer Moms at the links provided.

Aggressive Soccer Moms on Facebook

Aggressive Soccer Moms on Instagram

“Like This Forever” by La Vie Sauvage and Pet Snake is Industrial Mood Music for Retro-Futurist Film of a Thomas Disch Novel Yet to Be

La Vie Sauvage and Pet Snake, photo courtesy the artists

“Like This Forever” sounds like La Vie Sauvage and Pet Snake are sending musical transmissions from an underground bunker in a dystopian future as envisioned in the 1990s. There is something retro about its deconstructed industrial aesthetics. Like a synthesis of glitchcore and whatever it was Curve was doing in the mid-90s. Tones bliss out in chaotic fashion in sharp bursts that linger and the vocals haunt the track like a ghost in the machines responsible for processing the sounds. It’s the kind of song that Gregg Araki should include in a dystopian, retro-futurist cyberpunk inspired film he would make based on a reworking of a Thomas M. Disch novel like what would happen if the lead character of Camp Concentration escaped with his abilities intact and created a rebellious underground poised to overthrow a technocratic global oligarchy. It’s a wonderfully dark mood piece that fans of Machine Girl and Nine Inch Nails as well as the aforementioned might fully appreciate. Listen to “Like This Forever” on Spotify and follow Dutch producer and composer La Vie Sauvage at the links below.

La Vie Sauvage on TikTok

La Vie Sauvage on Instagram

laviesauvagemusic.com

I Want Poetry’s “People at Parties” is a Dream Pop Enticement to Break With Merely Yearning for Genuine Experiences in Our Socializing

I Want Poetry, photo by Elisabeth Mochner

“People at Parties” by German electropop duo I Want Poetry creates an incredibly melancholic mood from the very beginning. Lonely piano echoes ever so slowly along with the processed percussion and when the hazy swells of synth drift into the song and strings sashay into what feels like a slow dance through a deep passage of existential contemplation it gives a strong emotional resonance with the song’s lyrics. Tine von Bergen’s voice sounds like its coming to us from a dream as she offers a view of the way one’s social scene can feel very disconnected and performative and lacking in genuine connection. When she sings “we’re dancing in circles” and captures the ritualistic behaviors that enter into the realm of the dissociative except we all really want to have a real moment and to live in the moment rather than the second rate version that we often engage in when we go along to get along and lose ourselves a little. This song speaks to that yearning to break that cycle so deeply that even with its processional pace and ethereal tones it gently encourages following those instincts for pursuing more genuine experiences. Listen to “People at Parties” on Spotify and follow I Want Poetry at the links below.

I Want Poetry on Facebook

I Want Poetry on YouTube

I Want Poetry on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S2E40: Nastyfacts

Nastyfacts, image from liner notes of the 2022 reissue of Drive My Car

Per the group’s Bandcamp page, “Nastyfacts were part of a Brooklyn teen punk scene that included the Speedies and The Stimulators. Their core line-up consisted of Cherl Boyze on bass and lead vocals, guitarists Brad Craig and Jeff ‘Range’ Tischler with Genji “Searizak” Siraisi on drums. These last three also sang back-up. They began playing music together while attending St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn.” And the band’s sole release during its initial run was the 1981, three song 7-inch Drive My Car originally engineered at Media Sound Studios in NYC in 1980 as produced by Ramona Lee Jan known for her work with The Ramones and Brian Eno among others. The record became a bit of an underground hit and championed by the likes of John Peel and with music appearing on old punk compilations like Killed By Death. Boyze was an 18-year-old queer POC in a band with people in the mid-teens or younger at the time of the release of the record and touring wasn’t exactly on the agenda and as would happen in the normal course of events the band drifted apart and Boyze went on to other musical projects and styles, relocating to the Bay Area and is now known as KB. But for that period when Nastyfacts were around they regularly played CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City and other venues willing to host all-ages shows. One thing that set the band apart from other punk bands of its milieu was obvious musical ability and KB’s melodious vocals. Fast forward some decades and Drive My Car has been reissued again on Left For Dead Records on November 18, 2022 available on limited vinyl 12”, CD, cassette and digital downloads via Bandcamp.

KB has since become the founder and director of Queer Rebel Productions (est. 2008), a queer and trans artists of color organization (QueerRebels.Org), was the bassist in the pit band (The Felicia Flames) for a recent production at Z Space in San Francisco of The Red Shades: A Trans Super Hero Rock Opera and is now a member of The Homobiles “The Bay’s Mainstay Queer Party Punk Supergroup” according to The East Bay Express with Lynn Breedlove formerly of queer punk legends Tribe 8.

Listen to our interview with KB about the band and the record and what the artist has been up to since those early punk days on Bandcamp. And to learn more about Nastyfacts and order copies of Drive My Car, visit the Bandcamp link below the interview.