Jana Losey's second
CD release, Blocks, has me wondering "what ever
happened to Natalie Merchant anyway?" Do you
remember Natalie? The
gifted singer from 10,000 Maniacs who also produced
a memorable solo
album. Michael Stipe's fag hag?
To say that Jana
Losey's underemphasized vocals remind me of Natalie
Merchant is an understatement and a high compliment.
I loved that solo album.
Outmusic
band Ravenz Gate is the brainchild of sultry
songstress Leslie Ruland, whose soulful vocals and
superb craftsmanship make her a stand-out leaps and
bounds ahead of the usual power-pop rocksters.
Ravenz Gate played Girls at Gay Days (Orlando)
2004-06,
Orlando’s
sweetheart Melissa Crispo has rocked Girls at Gay
Days and Lilish Fair every year since 2004. Her band
also opened for Betty (of L-Word acclaim) at the
Florida AIDS Foundation Benefit, has played Central
Florida Pride, Daytona Pride, and Flagstaff (AZ)
Pride.
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Somewhere in Mississippi,
an English Teacher is Ashamed
OUT OF SYNC: A MEMOIR, Lance Bass
Review by Phil Putnam
To those who are
relatively aware, culturally sensitive, and
otherwise not idiots, the question was not IF one of
the sugar-waxed pop idol bois in *NSYNC was gay, but
rather WHEN
one of them would tire of pledging eternal teen love
to Babysitters Club alumna and krump on out of the
closet, sequins blazing. Thus it really wasn’t news
when Lance Bass, now aged nicely into his 28 years
with the square jaw and shifty glance of an extra in
the locker room scenes of Top Gun, announced his
love of man-love via the cover of People Magazine in
2006. We gasped, we murmured, we fantasized for a
few days, and then we figured we’d just wait for the
book to come out and pick up the details there. If
only we could have known what a colossal waste of
time that would end up being.
“I want people to
have an ‘altered time’ kind of experience that
happens in the theater or a really good movie — the
kind where you can forget about what’s going on with
you and travel like you’re dreaming.”
For singer/songwriter
Jana Losey and her co-writer/producer
Melanie Peters, it’s not just the live performances
that have felt dreamlike in recent days. After
touring cross-country and moving back to her
hometown of Lawrenceville, PA (population 600), Jana
and Melanie recorded the labor of love called "Blocks"
mostly in the house where Jana grew up.
“Some people have
children, and that makes them feel a slice of
immortality,” explains Losey. “I have my music to
leave behind – my songs are my children, my slice of
immortality.”
Though some of the
stories in the songs deal with darkness and
loneliness, they are often balanced by bright
melodies and driving rhythms. On first listen, “5
Days” might sound like an upbeat pop song. But the
origin of the song was a
Switchblade Kittens: The Weird Sisters
by Aaron C. Yeagle
Switchblade Kittens
came crashing onto the music scene with their punk
rock cover of everyone’s favorite Titanic theme, “My
Heart Will Go On”. This iceberg inspired hit hardly
caused the Kittens to sink, instead the song began
playing on over 300 college radio stations in the
US, Canada, and Australia. The world famous KROQ in
Los Angeles introduced the band over commercial
airwaves with the cover but the Kittens main stayed
in underground
radio with their new tune, “Ode to Harry” a tribute
to the character from the hit book series, Harry
Potter. This helped pave the way to the UK, while
playing on Steve Lamacq’s show on Radio 1 in the UK.
Steve spread the cat scratch fever with an original
Switchblade Kittens song, “All Cheerleaders Die”
(the theme song from a B movie starring the quirky
lead singer aptly named, Drama). Most notably,
Switchblade Kittens is an all-bass, girl centric
band. The band earned an international ad spot and
sponsorship with ARIA basses for inventing two new
bass sounds. The “Bassorama”, played by the band’s
“token male”, is a bass that sounds like a guitar,
the “Bassola” is engineered to play like a viola and
keyboards and the "DrumBass" is engineered to sound
like a full drumset. These basses, invented by the
The
gifted singer from 10,000 Maniacs who also produced
a memorable solo
album. Michael Stipe's fag hag? 
Outmusic
band Ravenz Gate is the brainchild of sultry
songstress Leslie Ruland, whose soulful vocals and
superb craftsmanship make her a stand-out leaps and
bounds ahead of the usual power-pop rocksters.
Ravenz Gate played Girls at Gay Days (Orlando)
2004-06,
