#chris pureka

[templeofshame]

i got skin like birch bark

peel me off and lose me to the wind

i guess it's too late to protect myself from this

[myselfmysame]

I spent the day forgetting the dream that woke me up…

I never was a very good fighter they started me young. You always were the very best lover that I couldn’t love. The years they will make you a pretty good runner, yeah I’ve been running around all of this time…

Blame me dear for any disaster, oh how the kerosene ran dry, and we made our bed in that familiar graveyard between the sternum and the spine…

Along the way the light is the medicine. Along the way we search for the sun, to call us down the dark corridor back into the world….

[pidraya]

Well a short hiatus of perceived bliss

I guess it's back to courting the grey cloud I used to love

-Chris Pureka

[notquiteaghost]

this year's albums are bleed out by the mountain goats, stick season by noah kahan, of tears no amount can quench mouths maimed by drought by andy the doorbum, songs for pierre chuvin by the mountain goats, monochrome butterfly land by blake rouse, and how i learned to see in the dark by chris pureka. there are only 8 songs that are the only entry from their respective albums.

it is so funny to me that spotify wrapped does your top 100 songs cuz i am such an Album Listener that my top 100 is always just five or six full albums + a handful of songs from playlists

[bloodycowboyclub]

HANGMAN PAGE BIRTHDAY WEEK -> Day 4: PLAYLIST

we’re more ghosts than people.

spotify | youtube

Mine Forever | Lord Huron

Dial Drunk | Noah Kahan, Post Malone

Palomino | First Aid Kit

Anti-Hero (Country Version) | Josiah & the Bonnevilles

Wild Horses (Acoustic) | Bishop Briggs

I Lied | Lord Huron, Allison Ponthier

cowboy like me | Taylor Swift

Spirit of the Forest | Antarctic Wastelands, Anita Tatlow

El Invento | José González

Can I Believe You | Fleet Foxes

Stay | Abraham Alexander

I’m Not a Smart Man | Dale Hollow

Not New | The Bright Light Social Hour

The Curse of the Blackened Eye | Orville Peck

No Mistakes | Sarah Shook & the Disarmers

Hangman | Chris Pureka

Burden | St. Catherine’s Child

My Ego Dies at the End | Jensen McRae

Dancing Away in Tears | Yola

Chasing Twisters | Delta Rae

Salt and Shadow | Thrice

Summertime Sadness | Lana Del Rey

[rainbowsky]

Happy International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia & Biphobia

This has been a very distressing year of increased crackdowns on queer people and queer identities globally. Threats and protests at drag shows, queer events being shut down for safety reasons, another devastating mass shooting at a gay night club, transgender people being attacked, maligned and denied human rights and basic health care all over the place... it's incredibly depressing.

I already have a post here and another one here and yet another one here that are more political in nature. I hope you'll check those out and do what you can to spread the word and/or help out. But for this year's post, in the interests of lightening things up a bit from this relentless grief, I've decided to celebrate some of my favorite queer music artists who you might not have heard of before.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of my favorite queer artists. Just a few that I think don't get the recognition they deserve, and that I was able to come up with off the top of my head within the time I had available to make this post. There are so many great queer artists, and I will probably share more of them in the coming months and years.

Anohni

Truly one of the most beautiful voices on the planet. I've been a devoted fan of hers for many years, and she just keeps blowing me completely away and breaking my heart and holding it all together. I love her so damn much. She's a blessing to this world.

RVG

RVG (for Romy Vager Group, after the lead singer Romy Vager) from Australia are my current favorite new band. Romy has a spectacular voice and she knows how to use it. I can't wait for the new album to come out. Squid is my favorite new song so far, but Midnight Sun is a close second. I've shared it here because it has a video - more entertaining than staring at an album cover.

Ethel Cain

I've already talked about her a lot here on my blog. She's amazing, and her album Preacher's Daughter is one of my favorite releases from last year.

Oliver Sim

I've talked about him before on my blog. Some of you might recognize his voice from the XX, one of my favorite bands. He recently came out with a solo album that I also absolutely love. I know I've shared this video before, but it's such a favorite that I had no choice but to share it again.

Perfume Genius

Love him so much. He always manages to have a simultaneously nostalgic, moody, anthemic and totally 'of the moment' sound.

The Irrepressibles

Ugh. So good. Everything Jamie does is amazing - the aesthetic, the sound, the demeanour. Truly a massive, massive inspiration. His voice totally kills me. This particular song is so gutting and beautiful. If you look up the lyrics, you'll cry.

Chris Pureka

They are such a brilliant songwriter. Emotional, powerful songs, and such a unique, expressive voice. Their sound is deceptively simple but everything is memorable and sticks with me.

I'm aware of how painfully white this list is, but I saved a few for another list I'm working on. You'll see that one in a week or two.

[hermeticbridgetroll]

I was tagged by @trans-rights-coastalmangoes for 5 of my favorite songs! I don't have spotify so I'm just gonna list them here.

I will follow you into the dark by Death Cab for cutie,

La vie an rose cover by Emily Watts

Cabin Fever by Chris Pureka

On The Devil's Back by Katzenjammer

Lost & Found by The Midnight

I'm tagging @legenspeople @halloweenfairy @hilaryoncesaid @autumns-veil for their favorite songs! No pressure if you don't wanna!

[gkettle]

*"Burning bridges" by Chris Pureka starts playing*

I adore the early 90s anime style, wanted to try my hand at it

[trekwiz]

Followed you after seeing your comment about how ALL christian denominations are fucked and how the ones that try to look progressive just shield the rest from criticism. Its so nice to see someone who gets it, it can be so so so exhausting to try to explain all that shit to people who havent studied christianity and still see it as the "nice, awkward, naive homeschool kid" religion, instead of the extremely dangerous, actively-toxic-to-its-followers-and-their-friends, terrifying death/rape cult that it is.

Anyway i saw you were looking for music recs. It seems dumb to suggest but just in case you havent listened to it, the Mountain Goats' All Hail West Texas album has a similarish vibe and is soooo fucking good. Ummm, Chris Pureka (queer folk artist) has some heart-achingly beautiful folksy stuff. Evan Greer (another queer folk artist) has some fucking kickass stuff that, again, has a very similar vibe. Those three are definitely worth a listen. :)

Honestly, one of the things I regret about my growth as a person was allowing people to convince me that it isn't all denominations, for far too long.

As a teen, I was angry about homophobia and the cause was apparent: Christians never hid that they were behind those atrocities. They were openly taking credit, and yet they were joined by, "no, really, that's just the bad denominations. I belong to a really progressive church."

It was amazing, really. Every Christian I met was one of the good ones. They all belonged to a great church that didn't discriminate. They were accepting. And supportive. I couldn't find the evil ones. Where are they? No one belonged to one of the bad churches. But THEY all know which ones are the bad ones. It's all those "fake Christians" from unspecified denominations. Sometimes it was an "opposing" denomination from theirs. It's all so theoretical.

They were nowhere to be found. And yet, these rare bad ones somehow maintain the political power to prevent our full equality under the law. But if everyone belongs to a good church, how do they control the narrative so well? How is the Christian "sanctity of marriage" argument still such a popular perspective if it's just an almost nonexistent few bad Christians? How did the "grooming" bullshit rise to such prominence again? There are no secular arguments for homophobia. Am I supposed to believe that suddenly the good Christians have lost their voice temporarily? That they're just being drowned out by a small powerless minority that tricked them into voting for their candidates?

And then you spend time with those good ones. They deny that Billy Graham supported conversion therapy while calling for a national holiday to celebrate such a "great man." They're very supportive. Don't you know that your sin of being gay is no worse than their sin of committing murder? It's all the same. And you know, some people genuinely have a problem with us having rights, would it really hurt us if we just compromised and let them punch us five times, instead of six? You confide in one of the really progressive "I like to think of myself as a follower of Jesus, not a Christian, because Christians really do bad things" and they use your distress at the fascist threat as an opening to witness, "Yeah, Christians are awful. But you'd love Jesus. He wouldn't support these behaviors. Isn't he great?"

There isn't a denomination of Christianity that doesn't believe that what we are is immoral. There are some that cushion the language to trick us into spreading the message of our oppressor. But not one treats any LGBT trait as being neutral--as a characteristic that just exists. There's inherently a judgment. The "good ones" are just a sleight of hand meant to trivialize the seriousness of what their religion is doing to us.

And it's unavoidable. You cannot create a sect of Christianity that will be good and peaceful in the world--at least, not without throwing away the very things that define Christianity. The basic structure of the religion is inherently damaging to a person's way of thinking: the absolutely worst, most unforgivable thing you can do is question the existence of Jesus or his inherent goodness. Regardless of denomination, questioning the authoritarian leader is grounds for eternal torture. You cannot have a healthy environment based on that perspective.

The concept of witnessing and missionary work is designed for genocide. The whole premise is to make people in other cultures "accept" that they're inferior, destroy their cultures, and join into Christian culture. It's why, regardless of denomination, that missionary work has always been so bloody--even into the present. Those bodies buried at Canadian church schools aren't that old. You can't view the world that way and end up as a good person. The core of Christianity--the very thing that defines the religion--perfectly resembles a fascist regime.

There are no denominations without these critical flaws. That we're so willing to pretend that there is, is why they came back so strongly after just a couple years of legal defeats. The LGBT-phobic sentiment never went away; it's still mainstream Christian thought. We'll never be able to end our oppression until we stop pretending that Christians have a right to these beliefs.

Regarding music--thank you for the recommendations! And please, no feeling dumb for making a recommendation. It's not obvious but my experience with music is. Well, it feels weird to call it new, but in the scheme of things, it is.

Short story: I learned as an adult that having a heart murmur can really mess up your ability to perform music. Music education in school was very frustrating for reasons that I didn't understand at the time. So I just didn't interact with music in any way at all. I expected it in games and movies, but just listening didn't bring me any joy. And in some ways, I haven't fully shaken that--I like listening on work days where I don't have a ton of meetings; it helps me focus on the tasks. I rarely just listen.

There were 2 things that changed my perspective. I was asked to join an African Percussion group in college (specifically Ewe music from Ghana)--I was learning about live audio for video production, and the instructor had me help them setup their PA system during performances. They ended up inviting me into the group, and I finally got something out of music.

A couple years later, I went to my first Renaissance Faire. And I found I was drawn to the really loud music--the kind that you can physically feel, not just hear. Which was an obvious connection to the percussion music I'd been playing. And I loved it!

That led me to be open to play Guitar Hero and Rock Band when I was invited to, which let me appreciate some more music. But I still prefer the playful kind. I'll take bag rock over rock any day.

So I don't really have a lot of knowledge around music. I don't know a lot of the groups people think would be obvious to know. And I don't really have a lot of language to describe what I like about different kinds of music. And so, despite your preface, feel comfortable: I had never heard of Mountain Goats before.

I will say, the content of the Mountain Goats and Chris Pureka were close to what I was looking for, but the feeling of the music wasn't. I found a couple songs from both that I liked, though, so thanks!

I tend to like really energetic music. I often shorthand to "fast" but I recognize that's not the main defining characteristic, I just don't have better words for it. Evan Greer was pretty much EXACTLY what I was looking for--thank you!

What I liked about the folk song I mentioned, and some of the artist's other work before she outed herself as a bigot, was the "fantasy" setting. Folk music is a genre where I'm less likely to enjoy content about modern life. I mean, most of my favorite music tends to lean towards fantasy/renaissance/scifi. But folk in particular, I like it to reflect a different time--past or future--I live here in this time, so it doesn't feel as interesting. I also liked the power in her voice (I don't have the language for what I'm describing; it's not just the forcefulness of her tone, but the way you know the instruments will never compete for focus against her voice), and the driving energy of the rhythm.

Here are some examples of what I personally would describe as a similar vibe:

March of Cambreath by Heather Alexander; Wanderer's Path by Mythemia; Wake Skadi by Hagalaz' Runedance.

Not quite as comparable, but I would consider Zumbaj by Reliquiae (or, since they seemed to have pulled the song for some reason, Šarena gajda by Rece-Fice zenekar és Bea Palya is a close enough substitute) and Dawson's Christian by Vixy and Tony to be the kind of vibe I'm going for.

(Actually, from that selection, it's probably kind of obvious about how much I enjoyed Evan Greer's work. Again, thank you!)

Though even compared to these, I felt like the song I referenced is still a unique outlier in this company, and I wanted more with that kind of defiant old gods kind of feeling.

[ventiplease]

i've got skin like birch bark / you can peel me off and lose me to the wind / i guess it's too late to protect myself from this you've been building these walls for a long time / it's not that i didn't know, but you'd flash me another smile / as you'd lay another stone / and i still fall for that / i still fall for that one every time tell me a joke or two, i could use one now

-chris pureka, driving north

[templeofshame]

I don't know if it's literally a response to "Iowa" but it's occurring to me that I know 2 songs about the midwest and keeping your feelings to yourself (and imo they're both queer) from opposite perspectives

[atlas-andromeda]

Adding Chris Pureka to this!

discovering the queer country scene has honestly been so healing because most queer musicians i've seen recommended for years i just couldn't really connect with because it wasn't the sort of music i listened to or had investment in and with queer country it's like. yes. this is the language i speak in. this is Fuck You, I Belong Here Too, not just as a queer person in the country but as a rural person among (sub)urban queers, and saying it with a laugh. when will my hometown take pride in me, goddamn it

[perditious]