This is my love letter to all the queer musicians out there, making art and kicking ass. If there's an artist you think I should know about, please let me know, I love new music! (I also reblog/post on general queer and trans stuff, radical news, and instances when the world is fucked, and when it isn't!)
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
This Mary Lambert. You may or may not have heard her sing the hook on Macklemore’s unfortunate hit, “Same Love.” I posted an article from Racialicious last week about the many, many problems with Macklemore and that song in particular, and is a must read if you haven’t gotten around to it yet.
But this post is not to talk about Macklemore (because holy fuck, am I sick of that dude, and I don’t even dislike most of his stuff, so I can’t imagine what it’s like for people who hate him). It is to talk about Mary Lambert, because while she is not a complete unknown, I’ve still seen almost nothing about her since that stupid ass song came out, and that’s a shame, because she’s pretty awesome.
Mary Lambert is a Seattle based singer-songwriter/spoken word artist, who’s been out doing her thing for a few years now, and she’s kinda friggin’ amazing. Most of her stuff musically speaking is pretty basic/straightforward: acoustic guitar, violin, other such acoustic instruments. She does do some cool playing live guitar under her spoken word stuff, but what really makes her stand out is her incredible voice. It’s powerful, and even when she sings about sadness and life’s low points, it retains a small spark of joy and hope. And when her songs take a happy note, it is like seeing the sun after a gloomy week. It’s beautiful.
She released an EP this past July that’s a mix of acoustic singer-songwriter tunes, an Imogen-Heap-Hide-and-Seek inspired track, and one spoken word piece about body image and trying to find home within your own body that punched me in the face with feelings. Pretty much, it just proves she is so much better than this “Same Love” bullshit, and lets all talk about her (or really anyone else, but she’s a good one to start with) instead of Macklemore from now on.
Check ‘em out:
Bandcamp
Facebook
Official site
Youtube
Lila Rose. Pop artist. Singer songwriter type. Canadian.
Well, she was born in Canada, but now she is a California based musician who released her first album early last year after spending a couple years releasing singles with various producers. Her music is on the chill side of pop. It’s indie and can be slow and pulsing in a great way (check out her single “Obsessions” for an example). I imagine it would make great make-out/sexy time music. Rose’s voice is reminiscent of Imogen Heap and Florence Welch (but that may just be the similar production used on their vocals). It’s not perfect, but it’s interesting, which is way better in my opinion.
Simply put, Lila Rose is independently produced pop-music well worth your ear-time.
Check ‘em out:
Bandcamp
Facebook
Official site
