#and it's a bonus if the singer or members of the band are queer

[unbotheredalwyn]

yeah, swift treats other people's works as if it's free catalogue, whatever looks cool, gives good results, get's praise, she copies it rather than using it as a jumpboard for her own creative process, because she simply is not very creative person and it's easier to just steal with little tweaks. in a way it reminds me of journaling stickers, because yes, you are technically making something, but let's not pretend it's not a quite low effort moodboard compared to actually painting something. and someone who gets praised as such an amazing artist should be doing more than moodboards.

It actually pisses me off that she gets so much praise for being BASIC AF.

there's artists out there creating different universes, storylines, actual queer representation etc.

Like twenty one pilots. They have insane lore.

Ateez (a kpop group) travel between two worlds and their members are so actively speaking about the lore and stuff.

Sleep token is also an insanely good example. The singer is a masked guy and the entire band also wears masks. No one knows who they are they just release music and basically "worship" sleep. Also their music has something for everyone. I highly recommend them. Their take me back to eden album is GREAT.

Also Dreamcatcher (kpop group) they make rock music and they have lore as well. Their mystery codes are insane (and they're all very hot women so that's a bonus)

And we have Chappell Roan out here doing drag, having actual queer representation and the she /her pronouns in her songs I felt like dying of excitement.

Like if she actually released good music sure be basic but God 😭

[swordlesbean]

this means war | 80s catradora mega mixtape [listen]

track listing and lyric selections under the cut

tape 1: raised on you

| 01 shadows of the night pat benatar |

we're running with the shadows of the night / so baby, take my hand, it'll be all right / surrender all your dreams to me tonight / they'll come true in the end

| 02 the best tina turner |

give me a life time of promises and a world of dreams / speak the language of love like you know what it means / it can't be wrong / take my heart and make it strong, baby / you're simply the best, better than all the rest

| 03 right by your side eurythmics |

give me two strong arms to protect myself / give me so much love that i forget myself / i need to be right by your side

| 04 wish upon me suzi quatro |

wish upon me / count on me to infinity / my love will be here / when the stars burn out / so reach out and touch me

| 05 raised on you heart |

let's go tell the world / to quit turning cold / just let me be raised on you / don't have to change just now / we can laugh about the load

| 06 everywhere fleetwood mac |

i'll speak a little louder / i'll even shout / you know that i'm proud and i can't get the words out / oh, i wanna be with you everywhere

| 07 only you yazoo |

all i needed was the love you gave / all i needed for another day / and all i ever knew / only you

tape 2: falling out

| 01 the last beat of my heart siouxsie & the banshees |

reach out your hands / don't turn your back / don't walk away / how in the world can i wish for this never to be torn apart? / close to you till the last beat of my heart

| 02 don’t turn around bonnie tyler |

i'm gonna be strong / i'm gonna do fine / don't worry about this heart of mine / just walk out that door / yeah, see if I care / go on and go now but don't turn around / cause you're gonna see my heart breaking

| 03 falling out kim wilde |

what can i say now after all is said and done / you cut me up in pieces when the shooting first begun / what did i do to you to make you turn away? / cause now there's nothing left for me / there's nothing i can say

| 04 borderline madonna |

you let me down, when i look around / baby, you just can't be found / stop driving me away, i just want to stay / i've given all i can / cause you got the best of me / borderline / feels like i'm going to lose my mind

| 05 love is a battlefield pat benatar |

you're begging me to go / then making me stay / why do you hurt me so bad? / it would help me to know / do i stand in your way? / or am i the best thing you've had?

| 06 i call your name roxette |

i close the door behind me, and i turn the lights all down / there's no one there beside me, i call your name

| 07 who will you run to heart |

you're sure the life you're living with me / can't go on one single minute / and there's a new one waiting outside this door / and now's the time to begin it / you found a new world / and you want to taste it / but that world can turn cold / and you better face it / who will you run to when it all falls down?

| 08 get up and go the go-go’s |

i was on the inside / looking out for you / but you're the one to make the change / there's nothing i can do / now's the time for you to move / actions shout out loud

| 09 stop draggin’ my heart around stevie nicks ft. tom petty & the heartbreakers |

i know you really want to tell me goodbye / i know you really want to be your own girl / baby, you could never look me in the eye / yeah, you buckle with the weight of the world / stop draggin’ my heart around

| 10 breakdown grace jones |

it's okay if you must go / i'll understand if you don't / you say goodbye right now / i'll still survive somehow / why should we let this drag on?

| 11 edge of a broken heart vixen |

it won't be easy, but i've got to be strong / and if i wanna cry i don't need your shoulder / i been living on the edge of a broken heart / don't you wonder why i gotta say goodbye

tape 3: moth to a flame

| 01 i love playing with fire joan jett & the blackhearts |

i love playing with fire / i don't wanna get burned / i love playing with fire / don't think i'll ever learn

| 02 action reaction missing persons |

action reaction, the girl knows just what to do / action reaction, she gets some reaction from you / she's gonna take you by surprise / she's gonna hit you right between the eyes

| 03 bring your love down (didn’t i) yazoo |

if you think you need a change / well, i'm sure we can arrange for you to get on your own for a while / but i don't need to worry, cause you'll get back in a hurry / i know that you like my style / you play your games but the fact remains / i'm the only one that can hold your reins

| 04 moth to a flame olivia newton-john |

here again drawn like a moth to a flame / an invisible force pulling me close to you / i can't break free / there's some kind of hold over me / like a magnet, you attract me like steel

| 05 who’s that girl madonna |

she's trouble, in a word get closer to the fire / run faster, her laughter burns you up inside / you're spinning round and round / you can't get up, you try but you can't

| 06 regrets eurythmics |

i've got a delicate mind / i've got a dangerous nature / and my fist collides with your furniture / i'm an electric wire / and i'm stuck inside your head

| 07 who’s problem? the motels |

so, whose problem am i / whose problem am i / whose problem am i / if i'm not yours?

| 08 state of mind suzi quatro |

fire burning in my heart / tearing me apart / you're the fire / you knocked my defenses down / bare as the day i was born / you're the one

| 09 breakdown girlschool |

i'm gonna make you understand / that i've seen it all before / i twist your mind and break your heart / and you still come back for more

| 10 long time joan jett & the blackhearts |

you can always wake the beast in me / that's the thing that never lets me be / it's gonna take a long time / to get you off of my mind

| 11 winter kills yazoo |

pain / in your eyes / makes me cruel / makes me spiteful / tears are delightful / welcome your nightfall / how winter kills / i tear at you, searching for / weaker seams

tape 4: goodbye to you

| 01 cat-o’-nine-tails L7 |

you're scratching me, baby / right down to my heart / claw the couch now that we're apart / think i'm allergic

| 02 had enough joan jett & the blackhearts |

you rain storm cloud / you ain't no friend / don't wanna see your face again / had enough of you / you ain't for me

| 03 winning the war ‘til tuesday |

you fight just for the sake of it / you know what hurts the most / you might have once been faking it / but now it cuts too close / winning the war and losing every battle / you close the door on happy ever after

| 04 cry wolf stevie nicks |

you can try, but you can't get me into the fire / cause i'm all out of sympathy / and, baby, i can't walk this wire / find yourself somebody new / to catch you when you fall

| 05 thorn in my side eurythmics |

to run away from you / was all that i could do / thorn in my side / you know that's all you'll ever be / so don't think you know better / cause that's what you mean to me

| 06 state i’m in bananarama |

can we carry on / or must we still pretend / that we're really friends / those feelings have gone / but we're not the same / and we're both to blame / there's nothing left to tell you / nothing left to give you

| 07 goodbye to you scandal feat. patty smyth |

baby, it's over now / no need to talk about it / it's not the same / my love for you's just not the same / and my heart can't stand the strain / goodbye to you

| 08 this means war joan jett & the blackhearts |

it hurts me so to fight with you / but since you closed the door / this means war, and you will see it's senseless / this means war, and soon you'll be defenseless / cause you can't win this war

| 09 harden my heart quarterflash |

darling, in my wildest dreams, i never thought i'd go / but it's time to let you know / i'm gonna harden my heart / i'm gonna swallow my tears / i'm gonna turn and leave you here

| 10 don’t watch me bleed ‘til tuesday |

i guess you gave as good as you got / i guess this love is dead at last / but i paid such a lot / don't just kiss me goodbye / don't watch me bleed

tape 5: change of heart

| 01 change of heart cyndi lauper |

here i am just like i said i would be / i'm your friend just like you think it should be / did you think i would stand here and lie / while our moment was passing us by / oh, i am here waiting for your change of heart / it just takes a beat to turn it around

| 02 sorry me, sorry you jefferson starship |

out on the edge / such a dangerous place to be / when darkness falls / and you got no way to see / don't turn away from me / you say you're sorry / i'm sorry too

| 03 we can change belinda carlisle |

i swear we don't have to hurt anymore / throw the old ways out and close the door / nothing remains the same / we can't hold on, but baby we can change

| 04 fighting divinyls |

gotta stick to the fight when you're hardest hit / is when things hurt the most that you must not quit / i'm losing my resistance and i'm coming after you / this time i gotta cause worth fighting for

| 05 before this night is through bonnie tyler |

come inside, close the door, come to me now / we'll find our way, we know how / let the past be the past, let it all fall away

| 06 something to believe in the bangles |

i lost direction in the darkness / couldn't stop myself from running / i could feel the sun on my back / but i was afraid to let the light in / now i can't run anymore / now i see this gift you bring me

| 07 surrender gloria estefan |

you've got the key / so open up your heart and be my destiny / come back, baby, come back / surrender to me

| 08 (we want) the same thing belinda carlisle |

no matter what we say / no matter what we do / beyond the battle lines, baby, we know what's true / we dream the same thing / we want the same thing / and all that we need is to see it together

| 09 never heart |

we can't go on, just running away / if we wait any longer, we will surely never get away / anything you want, we can make it happen / stand up and turn around, never let them shoot us down

| 10 nothing’s gonna stop us now jefferson starship |

let em say we're crazy, i don't care about that / put your hand in my hand, baby, don't ever look back / let the world around us just fall apart / baby, we can make it if we're heart to heart / we can build this thing together / standing strong forever / nothing's gonna stop us now 

| 11 we belong pat benatar |

we belong to the light, we belong to the thunder / we belong to the sound of the words we've both fallen under / whatever we deny or embrace for worse or for better / we belong together

[music]

Music Spotlight: Cub Sport [Tim Nelson]

Brisbane indie-pop band, Cub Sport, is preparing to release their fourth album, LIKE NIRVANA, this summer. After coming out in 2017, singer Tim Nelson allowed his openness of identity and sexuality flourish in unexpected ways. All of the band members no longer feel like outsiders anymore. We had the chance to discuss the new album with Tim, along with their creative process and a not-so-fun tour story. Check it out!

You recently released ‘Drive’ - how would you describe the track and the inspiration behind it?

‘Drive’ feels like a warm embrace. It gives me a nostalgic feeling, reminiscent of moments on tour, driving to the Great Salt Lake at sunset listening to Cocteau Twins. Hearing Cyndi Lauper - True Colors for the first time in the car with my dad. It feels timeless. The inspiration for the song is my husband Sam and our love. It’s more or less saying, “how did I get this lucky? I can’t believe you give a damn about me!”

The month of May marks Mental Health Awareness month. If you could tell your teenage self about mental health, what would you tell them?

I’d tell my teenage self that it’s okay not to feel okay and that there’s no shame in having a hard time with your mental health.

Based on your musical journey thus far, what’s been your biggest takeaway/piece of advice?

Make the art you want to make and find joy in that! Let that be your marker of success. View external validation and ‘success’ as an added bonus but not the base level for your worth as an artist.

Tell us about LIKE NIRVANA and what you hope people take away from it.

It’s a beautiful album about love and healing. It’s the album I’ve been trying to find my whole life. It’s sonically fluid, diverse and exhilarating. It’s daring! I feel like I’ve spent my whole life looking for myself in art and music and I don’t feel like I’ve really been able to find that until creating this album, so I hope it helps other people like me feel found. I hope it soundtracks people’s own journeys of love, self-discovery and healing.

Craziest thing that happened while on tour in Europe in 2019?

I woke up the morning after our Berlin show with hectic food poisoning. It was the day we were traveling to Stockholm and our day’s transit included many hours in the van as well as a ferry ride. I was so so sick in the van but we couldn’t pull over because we had to get to the ferry before it left. I was in the back of the van vomiting into bags and food containers - it was grim. I ended up having to go to hospital in Denmark. The others dropped Sam and I off in Malmo then we flew to Stockholm to meet up with them the next day. As unpleasant as it was, I still look back on those days fondly, especially now that touring is more-or-less off the cards for the rest of this year.

What impacts your creative process? Has this process changed for you since your previous work?

Life as a whole impacts my creative process. Where I am geographically as well as emotionally has a profound influence on my writing. LIKE NIRVANA is the first album I’ve written partially on the road. Tracks ‘Saint’ and ‘18’ were recorded and produced entirely in the tour van, backstage at venues and in Air BnB bedrooms. That’s definitely a big change from my previous work, which has mainly been written and recorded at home and at friends’ houses.

Lightning round! Describe each of the following in one word: Who you are, what you value the most, and what you’d be if you were a food item.

Who I am: Queer-Scorpio-Witch

What I value the most: Love

What I’d be if I were a food item: A McDonald’s hash brown (they’re vegan in Australia)

Watch Cub Sport’s music video for ‘Drive’ right here and keep an eye out for their new album, LIKE NIRVANA, this July. 

[onestowatch]

The Aces Release ‘Under My Influence (Deluxe)’ Ahead of Long-Awaited Return to Touring [Q&A]

Ahead of their highly anticipated North American tour, indie-pop quartet The Aces have released a deluxe version of their hit sophomore album, Under My Influence. The expanded record now introduces five additional tracks, including a reimagining of crowd favorite track, "Daydream," featuring Portugal. the Man.

The original Under My Influence tackled love, relationships, friendships, mental health, religion, and sexuality. Executive produced by the band, the project also saw three of the four band members publicly owning their sexual identities as queer women and using gender pronouns in their music for the first time. The deluxe album continues to explore these themes on the band's B-side releases of "Sleepy Eyes" and "Aren't You." The record also contains remixes from Snakehips and Fickle Friends that are sure to get fans dancing.

We had the chance to chat with lead singer and guitarist Cristal Ramirez, drummer Alisa Ramirez, and bassist McKenna Petty about the record, their feelings on tour, and the importance of lifting up each other and women in the industry.

Ones to Watch: What made all of you want to release a deluxe album, and what can listeners expect from this expanded version of Under My Influence?

Cristal: There's definitely going to be a lot of new stuff. There are remixes and two bonus tracks, a remix of "Daydream" that hasn't been out yet that we did with Portugal. the Man that was really cool. They sent back a reimagined version of the entire song, and it was basically a completely different song. So it was cool for us to get to go in and transition that song into a whole different vibe and a whole different feeling. I re-sang the song in a completely different vocal style and everything. Putting the record out during the pandemic was just shitty. That's the easiest way to put it because a big part of our careers is to connect with our fans. It's really important to us, and we pour a lot of ourselves into shows and play a lot of shows. To have that taken away and to work on a record was just really difficult because all you could do was basically just get on Instagram. That was the only way you could really connect and see or know if anyone was liking the record and reacting to the record. It was this kind of weird space where you're kinda like, "I think people like the record? I don't know."

I can only imagine how hard it is to cultivate relationships with fans digitally when you're so used to doing shows and interacting face to face.

Cristal: A comment on Instagram isn't the same as seeing a roomful of fans who know every lyric, and that's really gratifying as an artist. That kind of keeps you going. I think people are interested and still care about what we're doing. So that was hard. We had to really keep our morale strong together and connect together. We were and we are really passionate about the songs on Under My Influence, and we're just getting to tour them now, just barely. And so I think, a deluxe record for us, we're always trying to just keep things fresh and give our fans more music, more videos, content, and merch, everything that we can just because we love what we do. So, I think it was a good way for us to keep reminding people that we put a record we worked really hard on out in 2020, and that record is something we're really passionate about. Ultimately, we're really proud of what's on it and excited for the fans to hear everything.

I know that on Under My Influence, y'all touched on the relationship we all have with our phones on your track, "My Phone Is Trying To Kill Me." How has your relationship with social media changed since the initial pandemic lockdown?

Before the pandemic, I think everyone had this love-hate relationship with social media. But then the pandemic happened, and social media was kind of all we have,. So that love-hate feeling lived on, but I also think we were pretty grateful to have it at that time, because it really was that only means of connection and engaging with our fans. And so we just ended up doing tons of livestreams and went live on Instagram a lot. We were just trying to develop creative ways to keep our fans entertained, because we love that our fanbase is like a big group of friends, and many know each other. They're like a community and a culture, so we were just finding ways to do stuff with them together and around the record. So I feel like, without social media, I don't know how we would have put out this record out at all.

You mentioned earlier trying to keep morale strong during this challenging album release cycle. What were some things y'all did to keep morale high?

Cristal: I think it was a really interesting year for us. Candidly, like, the morale wasn't always high, especially during this last year. It just felt kind of hopeless. We were just kind of getting through the days, and sometimes our focus wasn't on our career, and it wasn't on music, and it was just about staying positive and happy as human beings and finding ways to make the days feel easier and happier. As a band, it brought us back to that childlike approach and remembering why we started playing music. When you're in an industry, it's really easy to get swept up in numbers and followers and a lot of stuff that at the end of the day, when you're in the middle of a pandemic, really doesn't matter. And so that kind of just brought us back, and we asked ourselves, "Okay, why? If we can't be in front of people and travel, why do we make music? And is it still enough? And do we still love it in the way that we used to love it when we were kids?" Happily enough for us, the answer was yes.

Sounds like a very reflective time for all of you.

Cristal: Yeah, and we love music so much, and I think we just together metaphorically cleaned out our closets a bit as a band. We really leaned into our sisterhood and our friendship to get through it. I don't know how we would have done it. I don't know how solo artists do it. I'm so happy, and we feel so lucky to have each other. I think we just kind of stripped it back to the basics of what we can do, stuck together, and had fun together, and we just want to continue in the best ways possible to connect with our fans. We just tried to look at the positive and honestly went into the studio and made a bunch of music. We pushed ourselves to make anything that just felt good to us or that felt reminiscent of the days when we were kids, when we would just like go into the band practice room and mess around together. The approach became a lot more like innocent and childlike and back to really the only thing that matters: making really good music and music that we are proud of.

Would any of that music fit in with what you've created on Under My Influence, or is it something different sonically?

Cristal: These particular songs that we are going to be putting out, I don't think they would have been on Under My Influence, but they make sense, and they're the songs that we wrote a little while after, actually. Honestly, I don't know how much I can really give at this point, but fuck it. We're working on putting out two additional songs now because we just want fans to have them and give them more music. It was a collection of songs that we wrote in Tahoe, actually. The world was literally on fire, and the pandemic was raging, and this was like last October. They very much fit into Under My Influence, I think theme-wise. They're songs that wouldn't have made it, but like, in hindsight, it makes total sense and feels really good. We just love these songs, and I think the fans would love them. 

There are a variety of remixes on the record that fans can look forward to, including the aforementioned “Daydream” remix with Portugal. the Man. What was it like collaborating with them, and what makes for a great creative collaborator?

Alisa: It was honestly the most unique remix collaboration we've ever done because obviously, Portugal's a band on their own. It's the first time another band has remixed one of our songs versus just DJs or other people where they kind of put their own spin on it and give it back to us, and we're stoked to hear it. With Portugal, there was way more back and forth, and they, as Cristal said earlier, made it sound like a totally different song, so the process was so remote. 

Alisa: So they did it in Portland, and we're in LA, so we just sent each other files back and forth. Cristal re-recorded the vocals, and then they kind of redid all the instrumentation and made it this whole new thing. I'm excited for everyone to hear it, because it's so different from the original and has a totally different vibe, and I think that's what remixes are kind of supposed to be, right? They're supposed to be their own thing. But it was unique, because typically, the remixer does everything versus what we were doing working with Portugal and having a lot of different passes come back and forth. So yeah, it was a fun experience to work with them like that.

Cristal: Yeah, the first time we heard it were like, "Whoa!" It kind of really blew us away because they took complete creative liberty. They literally just made a whole different song. The top line was over it, but it honestly was a reimagining of the song. And then we were just talking back and forth, and I felt like I had to re-sing it because the "Daydream" vocal, where it is initially, wasn't making so much sense for that version. So I went back in, and I got a really kind of like rock and roll vibe on that vocal, and then it just kind of took it to the next level and made it really fun and unique. We just had never done anything like that before, and also, they killed it. They have just been so kind to us. They've been fans of us, and we've been fans of them for a really long time. We opened for them in—where was it, guys?

McKenna: I think it was in Utah. In like 2018?

Cristal: It might have been even before that, like 2017. They invited us out, and they've always been kind of cheerleaders of our band. They're really sweet and always willing to want to collaborate and be a part of our journey, so we still are very thankful to them. They're an utterly badass band and have been really awesome to us, so it's an honor to get to do a remix with them.

Your headlining tour is right around the corner, starting in mid-November on the West Coast. So how are you feeling now that you know you'll be hitting the road again soon?

McKenna: It's been such a long time coming. I feel like touring for us, that's our favorite part about doing what we do. Playing shows and really connecting face to face as fans. I'm excited to go everywhere. Honestly, I'm really excited to play New York. That's one of my favorite cities to play, and we obviously haven't been there for such a long time. So I'm really excited about that.

Cristal: It's kind of a mix of emotions now because we're still in the tail end of COVID, and so there's a lot of complications, so I'm feeling nervous about that. It's a mix of wanting fans to come but also wanting them to feel safe, but then you're just so excited because we're going to get to see people. Truthfully, the most gratifying part of what we do is getting to play shows and getting to see our fans. There's just so much going on in the world, I think it's just this kind of big tornado of emotions, but overall we're just excited we're looking forward to it. We haven't been able to play these songs to them either. So that's gonna be really, really exciting, and yeah, we're just ready to go.

What song do you think is going to kill it live on tour?

Alisa: What's interesting is you never really know that stuff until you're doing it. We've predicted, "Oh, we think this song is gonna go crazy," and then it doesn't for some reason, and then a random song that you never thought would have popped off is the anthem of the night, and everyone loses their mind. We played a few shows in the past couple of months, and we've actually been really surprised, but "801" actually does really well. It's a slower song, but people fuck with that song, and then also "My Phone Is Trying To Kill Me" goes super hard so far with the crowds we've played. We've been playing in front of crowds supporting different bands when we were playing this last month. Then we've been at festivals, so we haven't played the songs in front of a room full of kids that know them, so hopefully, they all go pretty hard, but it'll be interesting to see which ones the fans like absolutely go crazy for. I'm excited.

Cristal: "My Phone" has been kind of blowing me away. We love that song, but I don't know if I thought it would hit as hard as it's been hitting when we played festivals and opened for AJR. That's the song that I kind of feel the crowd gets a bit electric for some reason. Like, the whole thing kind of starts moving, so I'm excited to see that one honestly and to see kind of how the fans react. But yeah, there'll be one that surprises us, for sure.

Joining you on tour is pop singer-songwriter Madeline the Person and Canadian rock group The Beaches. Have you known these acts for a long time, and was it intentional or coincidental that this will be an all-female tour?

Cristal: The Beaches are actually really good friends of ours. We met them at ACL probably two or three years ago. They're just the salt of the earth. They're so nice and sweet, and I think it's kind of hit or miss sometimes in this industry. People are super friendly and super inviting, and they want to collab and be friends, and sometimes people are a little standoffish, and it just really depends. But, in true Canadian fashion, they're just the friendliest, nicest girls ever, and so we became fast friends with them and had a great time at ACL with them, and so they've always been on our radar. Also, they're all women, and they're badass, and it was super important to us when we were picking this bill to find—we desperately wanted to find an all-female band to open for us. And then Madeline is queer and a female artist, which was also super important. We wanted to include queer artists, people of color, we're still working on openers right now. So we're just trying to find as much diversity as we can on our bill and want to support women and to support women who are in bands and women who are musicians, because we're stronger in numbers. We just want to be a part of cultivating a real community amongst women in bands and women who are musicians. Everyone who wants to be a part of it is in that community with us; we just want to be friends with them and uplift them. We're also taking this duo Sawyer with us. They're this all-female act from Nashville. It's been really fun for us to pick openers and to dive in and cultivate this really fantastic lineup. It was crucial to us that that stage was dominated by women only. So here we are, we're proud of the lineup and excited, and I think the fans are really going to love the openers as well. It's exciting! The Aces’ Under My Influence (Deluxe) is available everywhere you can stream it.

[poetryatrest]

Music Monday: Queer Tunes Edition

Aaaaannnndddd we’re back with some music-related goodness. I have a pretty lengthy Spotify playlist of songs from LGBTQA+ artists, and I figured I’d compile it all here for accessibility. I’m constantly adding new artists to the playlists (below), so give those a follow if you want to be up to date.

1) This one is EVERY SONG IN EVERY ARTIST’S DISCOGRAPHY AND IT IS DAUNTING AS HELL.

2) This one is a (constantly updated) playlist of all my favorite songs from these artists.

Allison Weiss

Like The Front Bottoms (Allison was actually featured on “Cough It Out” and a few other songs off of the newest Front Bottoms album), but just a single person writing kick ass indie pop/orck songs.

Songs to check out: “Motorbike” and “I Was An Island”

Gay, uses both female (she/her) and neutral (them/they) pronouns.

BOY

My friend Frank recommended this band to me by calling them “the gay Death Cab for Cutie,” so I guess they’re the gay Death Cab for Cutie.

Songs to check out: “Waitress” and “Boris.”

Brendan Maclean

Wonderful poppy songs about heartache and stuff.

Songs to check out: “Stupid” and “Hugs Not Drugs (Or Both).”

Gay.

Camp Cope

Really good indie rock music with fantastic lyricism. They’re also Australian, kind of have a Courtney Barnett vibe.

Songs to check out: "Jet Fuel Can’t Melt Steel Beams” and “Flesh and Electricity.”

I can’t find a source anywhere, but lead singer Georgia McDonald is on the spectrum somewhere, and the band is vocal in its support of LGBTQA+ issues.

Chris Pureka

The queer, more laid back Shakey Graves.

Songs to check out: “Burning Bridges,” “Cynical” and “Back in the Ring.”

Genderqueer.

Courtney Barnett

Singer/songwriter with a cool garage rock flair.

Songs to check out: “Pedestrian at Best” and “Pickles from the Jar.”

Gay.

Cyberbully Mom Club

Lo-fi indie pop. Normally not crazy about lo-fi stuff, but this band does it really well and the lyrics are great too.

Songs to check out: “Drunk Text Romance” and “Life Time Warranty.”

Lead singer Shari Heck has been open about gender identity and the “boxes” of binary genders, but hasn’t assigned themselves a label from what I’ve seen.

Des Ark

Chill acoustic/indie music.

Songs to check out: “Peace to You Too, Motherfucker” and “You Pregnant Motherfucker.” Both are pretty relaxed despite their titles.

Front woman Aimée Collet Argote identifies as queer.

Hemming

Young singer/songwriter, very sad and very Julien Baker-esque. I want to protect her.

Songs to check out: “I’ll Never Be the Man for You” and “Some of My Friends.”

Gay.

Hurray for the Riff Raff

Imagine Johnny Cash. Now imagine him as a queer female fronting a band. That’s kinda what this band is like.

Songs to check out: “I Know It’s Wrong (But That’s Alright)” and “Jealous Guy.”

Frontwoman Alynda Lee Segarra identifies as queer, fiddler Yosi Perlstein is trans.

Jenny Owen Youngs

Jenny Owen Youngs is like the musical equivalent of the first person you ever had a crush on and I want to hug her a million times.

Songs to check out: “Born to Lose” and “Last Person.” 

Bonus: Her cover of Jukebox the Ghost’s “Good Day,” her cover of Weezer’s “Getchoo” AND her cover of Nelly’s “Hot in Herre.”

Gay, plus she’s married to the Queen of Gay Kristin Russo (one of the founders of Everyone is Gay).

Jesse Thomas

Just say yes to more women making cool indie music.

Songs to check out: “Use Me Up” and “Leather Jacket.”

Gay.

Julia Weldon

A good mix of some folky sentiments with indie rock flair.

Songs to check out: “Marian” (I like the version from the self-titled album better) and “Same Games”

Identifies as queer and “definitely not a lesbian folk singer.”

Julien Baker

Sad, acoustic music. Like a female Bon Iver or something.

So sad, so many feels. 

I want to love her.

Songs to check out: “Everybody Does and “Something.”

Gay, and also transparent about being a gay person that is 1) Christian and 2) from the South, if that’s enticing.

Mal Blum

The purest, sweetest cinnamon roll in the entire world making really good, relatable music.

Songs to check out: “New Years Eve” and “The Bodies, The Zombies!”

Non-binary and pansexual.

Mo Kenney

More swell folkish music (more of an indie rock vibe on the latest).

Songs to check out: “I Faked It” and “The Happy Song.”

Gay.

Natasha Negovanlis

Because that chick from Carmilla everyone loves also makes some pretty good music.

The only three songs on her Bandcamp are pretty spotty in terms of genre (��Nothing” has a more pop/rock vibe while “Green” is a slower, more straight pop song and “27″ is weirdly jazzy).

Songs to check out: All of them, but “Nothing” is my favorite because I just dig the whole vibe.

Unspecified, label defying queer. The queen of my heart.

No Girlfriends

Swell punk music.

Songs to check out: “You’re Impossible” and “Proposition.”

They’re literally all crushworthy lesbians and the name is a pun because they’re...all single BUT ALSO because they were apparently getting sick of people just assuming they were “the girlfriends” of dudes in bands.

Palehound

Very nice lo-fi rock. Sometimes verges into grunge territory.

Songs to check out: “Dixie” and “Molly,” just so you get the full spectrum of sounds in there.

Ellen Kempner is queer.

Partner

MORE indie rock music, because that’s what the world needs.

Literally this band has a song about Ellen Page AND they straight up just use the word “lesbian” whilst referring to themselves/Ellen Page in said song.

Songs to check out: “The Ellen Page” and “Hot Knives.”

Gayyyyyyyyyyy.

Porch Cat

Lo-fi, bedroom rock/folkish punk music.

Songs to check out: “The Haircut Song” (I like the acoustic version from “Little Songs” best) and “If Yr Not Happy.” Bonus: “Want to Be Free (I’m An Asshole Too)” with accompanying band The Fair-weather Family. 

Non-binary.

Sleater-Kinney

Motherfucking Sleater-Kinney.

Songs to check out: All of them, but also “Surface Envy” and “You’re No Rock N’ Roll Fun.”

Members Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker are bisexual.

SOAK

Soulful folk music (literally, hence “SOAK”) from Ireland. The accent is endearing.

Songs to check out: “B a noBody” and “Hailstones Don’t Hurt.”

Gay.

Soko

For the most part folky/poppy, but charted into some rockish territory on the newest release.

Songs to check out: “Who Wears the Pants??” and “Why Don’t You Eat Me Now, You Can.”

Gonna put her down as pansexual/bisexual, ‘cause in an interview she said she preferred girls but had been with guys before, so.

(She also ended the aforementioned interview by saying “I love pussy,” so there’s that.)

Sports

Kind of like Modern Baseball but with a female lead singer, ya feel?

Songs to check out: “Getting On in Spite of You” and “GDP.”

Queer.

St. Vincent

Excellent, poppy indie rock.

Songs to check out: “Paris is Burning” and “Actor Out of Work.”

Unspecified queer/pansexual/dates a lot of hot women, so she’s just kinda winning at life.

Tegan and Sara

Motherfucking Tegan and Sara.

Songs to check out: Their entire discography, but also “Shock to Your System” and “Frozen.”

Gay times two.

Torres

Indie singer/songwriter.

Songs to check out: “Jealousy And I” and “New Skin.”

Gay.