Those SW cities have a bit of that dusty El Dia de los Muertos vibe, which can feel spooky in its own way. But yeah, most of the ghosts are lizards or tumbleweeds.
Musicians and screenwriters are constantly trying to evoke some spooky, mythological Los Angeles and I've always been of the opinion that it's a way of compensating for the fact that LA is, geographically, a boring cluster of suburbs.
Hmm. America's least haunted city, to my experience, would be Columbus, OH.; where it seems nothing is allowed to get old enough or interesting enough to be able to harbor ghosts.
I would like to know, however, what sort of impenetrable force-field surrounds Cleveland, OH; that so very many good and great bands in many genres seem to go completely unnoticed by those genres' larger cultural arbiters. People like Ciolek do great work here, and it just falls upon the void unacknowledged; yet if they leave here and land somewhere else, even their B- work by comparison is hailed by genre insiders as a revelation.
I dunno if this will sound annoying to you, but I’m asking as a semi-obsessive listening-learner of music by LGBTQ folks. I found Dutcher before I saw this column, so I’ve learned he identifies within that letter-spectrum acronym -- though perhaps “Two Spirit” is more accurate (I’m unsure). That said, I’m constantly looking for sources that identify musicians as openly Queer (which I as a shorthand stand-in for the ever-expanding acronym). And since I’m pretty sure you identify yourself as Gay, maybe a mention of a musician’s Queer truth would be useful, helpful, noteworthy?
Long winded explanation: I’m trying to get folks to understand and think of Q Music as a culture, not at all as genre-specific as even big tent genres like Hip Hop or R&B, but like when people refer to African American contributions to music. (I *know*. Might as well say “White contributions to music”, for a smaller topic, right?). Or like music from a nationality. You probably get a general sense of what I mean if I say “Irish Music” -- music not limited to genre, but often picking up on Irish traditions, made by Irish, Irish diaspora, descendants, blah blah blah.
I’d *really* like to change the perceptions some/many people have that Gay Music means Madonna. Dutcher is a prime example of someone one can shift perceptions from Dance / effete / snob music (without abandoning them) to music that picks up on traditions Q folks have leaned into for can’t.
Thanks for reading my long-windedness. Thanks for your good work.
What an extremely thoughtful comment. Thanks for taking the time! I actually have thoughts on this topic and I'd love to dig into this a bit. Would you mind if I held off and responded in depth in my next newsletter?
(BTW I'm straight, but you would not be the first, fiftieth or five hundredth person to have assumed otherwise!)
Egad, I do apologize for misremembering something so that I thought you were gay. I don’t jump to conclusions often. Somehow I maybe possibly got the idea from seeing you on Comedy Central somehow, a live comedy clip or feature? (Now watch, I’ve misremembered and confused seeing you there too)
Anyway, feel free to dig in. I look forward to reading the column, and curious what you might think.
Correction: The word that should have appeared after “…Q folks have leaned into for” is “centuries” (not “can’t”).
Reply #2. I tried for a day to repress the need to say more, but it still exists so I’m giving into it.
Partly because I’m now a little nervous about what you will write, I think I need to tell you:
I’m less than a month into following Substack writing, and I’m still in the Kid In A Candy Store phase.
My primary motivation to follow you was the title of your column. New Music For Olds?
YES, please!! I’m 100 times over disappointed by people my age, allegedly fans of the musically innovative, but once we / they hit 40 almost all of us set our tastes in concrete at least as hard-closed as our parents did (see: crooners, show tunes, and White male led big bands-- at least for those of us who were a white kid).
And here I thought it was understood that we weren’t going to be like our parents-- at least not in the ways we accurately saw they fell short, like being closed off from new ideas, especially new music.
((To be clear I’m talking about Baby Boomers. I’m 64. I’m at the tail end of that “generation”, born 1959.)
Dropping lengthy asides for why we stiffed new music, like how challenging listening to Hip Hop was / is for older rock and roller white folks, and the death of radio, I guess I’m among 1% or less of folks around my age who really tries to listen to new music. I figured out over 20 years ago that that meant NOT trying to “keep up”, just to keep listening to unfamiliar artists.
Man i can’t tell you how immensely grateful and happy I’ve been to hear 21st century musicians , from Sleater Kinney to Michael Franti to Kendrick Lamar. (Not to mention hundreds of OutMusicians other than Sleater Kinney).
So seeing someone else doing that, linking new music to people with established tastes, and NOT leaning on “bands who sound like (insert 70s rockers here)” -- (bonus: I like his / your comedy!) , i glommed right onto that!
But I’ve only seen the two most recent columns of yours, and in each you included someone I recently learned was a queer musician. And relatively obscure, but truly genuine ones too. I mean, Beverly Glenn-Copeland? Combine these two OutMusicians with my memory probably conflating a joke I saw you tell on TV with you being gay, and I thought it was a safe conclusion. A mistake I’m making too much of now I suppose. But, I did want to cover telling you these afterthoughts.
Fear not! My thoughts (to the extent I have organized them) are mostly just about differentiating between the physical experience of listening to music vs what music means in a broad cultural sense.
Hey Bill, since you're new here, I will mention that the album Memorial by Thus Love was Christian's favorite of last year. If you love old music, but you're looking for new music, and you have extra interest in the acronym community and arts, Thus Love is pure gold!
My favorite album last year is FTHC by Frank Turner, which I also think is the best Rock’n’Roll album in almost 2 decades; not since Sleater Kinney’s The Woods. I can say why for paragraphs, but all I’ll say now is: Let yourself discover its variety of style and its emotional scope - no fair judging on the first 4 songs. (Which I love, but-- what I just said).
Listen to FTHC as if there’s a story arc from beginning to end. It has emotional pivots, (emotions I respond to every time; tracks 7&8 are unprecedented) leading to changes and choices. The story ends up at an uncertain but hopeful place.
Least haunted city has to be one of them Arizona desert cities where there's nothing for 100 miles. Can't scare me I'm already dead from the heat!
Those SW cities have a bit of that dusty El Dia de los Muertos vibe, which can feel spooky in its own way. But yeah, most of the ghosts are lizards or tumbleweeds.
Least haunted city. LA. No dying. Just pickling.
Musicians and screenwriters are constantly trying to evoke some spooky, mythological Los Angeles and I've always been of the opinion that it's a way of compensating for the fact that LA is, geographically, a boring cluster of suburbs.
Hmm. America's least haunted city, to my experience, would be Columbus, OH.; where it seems nothing is allowed to get old enough or interesting enough to be able to harbor ghosts.
I would like to know, however, what sort of impenetrable force-field surrounds Cleveland, OH; that so very many good and great bands in many genres seem to go completely unnoticed by those genres' larger cultural arbiters. People like Ciolek do great work here, and it just falls upon the void unacknowledged; yet if they leave here and land somewhere else, even their B- work by comparison is hailed by genre insiders as a revelation.
Columbus is a good one. God that city stinks.
That's a common but weird phenomenon you're describing re Cleveland.
Forgive me, I can’t help myself , as I had written that last comment before getting to Johnny Beyond.
I bestow endless Gay Agenda Kudos* ™️ on you for “Johnny Beyond, whose superpower appears to have been transforming into sentient ejaculate”.
Still laughing.
I bet Moore would agree. I’d love to hear it.
* Kudos take the form of smiles to chuckles to lols.
PS: Making note of musicians who are Q might best be reserved for those whose identity, never mind their sexuality, isn’t common knowledge.
I dunno if this will sound annoying to you, but I’m asking as a semi-obsessive listening-learner of music by LGBTQ folks. I found Dutcher before I saw this column, so I’ve learned he identifies within that letter-spectrum acronym -- though perhaps “Two Spirit” is more accurate (I’m unsure). That said, I’m constantly looking for sources that identify musicians as openly Queer (which I as a shorthand stand-in for the ever-expanding acronym). And since I’m pretty sure you identify yourself as Gay, maybe a mention of a musician’s Queer truth would be useful, helpful, noteworthy?
Long winded explanation: I’m trying to get folks to understand and think of Q Music as a culture, not at all as genre-specific as even big tent genres like Hip Hop or R&B, but like when people refer to African American contributions to music. (I *know*. Might as well say “White contributions to music”, for a smaller topic, right?). Or like music from a nationality. You probably get a general sense of what I mean if I say “Irish Music” -- music not limited to genre, but often picking up on Irish traditions, made by Irish, Irish diaspora, descendants, blah blah blah.
I’d *really* like to change the perceptions some/many people have that Gay Music means Madonna. Dutcher is a prime example of someone one can shift perceptions from Dance / effete / snob music (without abandoning them) to music that picks up on traditions Q folks have leaned into for can’t.
Thanks for reading my long-windedness. Thanks for your good work.
Bill Stella
bearealman@gmail.com
Q music playlists at Spotify, account Bearealman
What an extremely thoughtful comment. Thanks for taking the time! I actually have thoughts on this topic and I'd love to dig into this a bit. Would you mind if I held off and responded in depth in my next newsletter?
(BTW I'm straight, but you would not be the first, fiftieth or five hundredth person to have assumed otherwise!)
Egad, I do apologize for misremembering something so that I thought you were gay. I don’t jump to conclusions often. Somehow I maybe possibly got the idea from seeing you on Comedy Central somehow, a live comedy clip or feature? (Now watch, I’ve misremembered and confused seeing you there too)
Anyway, feel free to dig in. I look forward to reading the column, and curious what you might think.
Correction: The word that should have appeared after “…Q folks have leaned into for” is “centuries” (not “can’t”).
Reply #2. I tried for a day to repress the need to say more, but it still exists so I’m giving into it.
Partly because I’m now a little nervous about what you will write, I think I need to tell you:
I’m less than a month into following Substack writing, and I’m still in the Kid In A Candy Store phase.
My primary motivation to follow you was the title of your column. New Music For Olds?
YES, please!! I’m 100 times over disappointed by people my age, allegedly fans of the musically innovative, but once we / they hit 40 almost all of us set our tastes in concrete at least as hard-closed as our parents did (see: crooners, show tunes, and White male led big bands-- at least for those of us who were a white kid).
And here I thought it was understood that we weren’t going to be like our parents-- at least not in the ways we accurately saw they fell short, like being closed off from new ideas, especially new music.
((To be clear I’m talking about Baby Boomers. I’m 64. I’m at the tail end of that “generation”, born 1959.)
Dropping lengthy asides for why we stiffed new music, like how challenging listening to Hip Hop was / is for older rock and roller white folks, and the death of radio, I guess I’m among 1% or less of folks around my age who really tries to listen to new music. I figured out over 20 years ago that that meant NOT trying to “keep up”, just to keep listening to unfamiliar artists.
Man i can’t tell you how immensely grateful and happy I’ve been to hear 21st century musicians , from Sleater Kinney to Michael Franti to Kendrick Lamar. (Not to mention hundreds of OutMusicians other than Sleater Kinney).
So seeing someone else doing that, linking new music to people with established tastes, and NOT leaning on “bands who sound like (insert 70s rockers here)” -- (bonus: I like his / your comedy!) , i glommed right onto that!
But I’ve only seen the two most recent columns of yours, and in each you included someone I recently learned was a queer musician. And relatively obscure, but truly genuine ones too. I mean, Beverly Glenn-Copeland? Combine these two OutMusicians with my memory probably conflating a joke I saw you tell on TV with you being gay, and I thought it was a safe conclusion. A mistake I’m making too much of now I suppose. But, I did want to cover telling you these afterthoughts.
Thanks again for taking the time to read this.
Bill
Fear not! My thoughts (to the extent I have organized them) are mostly just about differentiating between the physical experience of listening to music vs what music means in a broad cultural sense.
Hey Bill, since you're new here, I will mention that the album Memorial by Thus Love was Christian's favorite of last year. If you love old music, but you're looking for new music, and you have extra interest in the acronym community and arts, Thus Love is pure gold!
I’m not familiar! Thank you!
My favorite album last year is FTHC by Frank Turner, which I also think is the best Rock’n’Roll album in almost 2 decades; not since Sleater Kinney’s The Woods. I can say why for paragraphs, but all I’ll say now is: Let yourself discover its variety of style and its emotional scope - no fair judging on the first 4 songs. (Which I love, but-- what I just said).
I have a very smart friend who's a huge Frank Turner guy, but for some reason I haven't really taken the plunge. I will rectify that!
Listen to FTHC as if there’s a story arc from beginning to end. It has emotional pivots, (emotions I respond to every time; tracks 7&8 are unprecedented) leading to changes and choices. The story ends up at an uncertain but hopeful place.