June 13th: Carrie Brownstein/Sleater-Kinney:
Date of Birth: September 27th, 1974
Genre: Alternative Rock
What she identifies as: Bisexual
Where is she from: Seattle, WA
Carrie Brownstein, along with Soundgarden’s first bassist, Japanese-American Hiro Yamamoto, are two musicians in the history of Washington State alternative rock to attend Western Washington University who are not Death Cab For Cutie. Brownstein became actively involved in Olympia’s “Riot Grrl” scene, which also produced the band Bikini Kill, creating the band Sleater-Kinney, named after a location in Washington State’s capitol city. They initially signed to SubPop records, like Nirvana and Soundgarden also had, though the band split in the 2000s so the members could focus on other projects. Brownstein got a role on the TV show Portlandia and reformed Sleater-Kinney after making a few supergroups in the 2010s. The second post-reformation album was released last year and the group seems alive, well and capable of thriving in the 21st Century. The band has a potent alternative rock sound, partially grunge, but slightly more commercially viable than what Nirvana was doing and with a heavy dose of women empowerment.
Recommended Songs: Dig Me Out, I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, Hurry On Home, Bad Dance, LOVE, Words and Guitar
June 14th: Tegan and Sara
Date of Birth: September 19th, 1980
Genre: Pop/Alternative Rock
What they identify as: Lesbians/Queer
Where are they from: Alberta, Canada
Tegan and Sara Quin are a pair of twin sisters who’ve been making music for most of this millennium, but first entered my radar in 2014 when they played at the Tacoma Dome and opened for Pop Superstar Katy Perry. They present a friendly, everyday sister sort of mood on stage and have beautiful music, their 2016 album “Love You To Death” was one of the best things to happen that year. That album and the previous, 2013's Heartthrob, had shown the two more in a Pop genre, as opposed to their earlier alternative rock leanings, which continued to their next releases, though since it was based on their writings in High School, when they were learning of their orientation in a time when it was more common to reject people who were LGBTQ+ than accept them, it was more downcast. Each song on the Love You To Death album had a music video, from “Dying To Know” featuring puppets/dolls based on the twins riding in a toy car and doing some dancing (fans actually even requested the puppets/dolls as merchandise they could purchase, which slightly confused one of the twins on Twitter: “Is this what people want to buy, Puppets?”), “Faint of Heart” featuring the two watching performances by various LGBTQ+ youths dressed as influential musicians, such as the recently departed David Bowie and Prince and the still-around Madonna (there are more, but I have difficulty identifying them, one could be either Elvis or Michael Jackson, he was a great dancer), “U-Turn,” featuring the two on a cartoon roller coaster (one makes a hilarious face near the end) and “BWU” in which one of them walks around a city and park with a ring box, ultimately finding love with an ice cream girl who may have been her real-life girlfriend/wife (I don’t know if either Tegan or Sara are married). The duo currently splits time between Vancouver, BC and Los Angeles, CA and are strongly outspoken politically, creating the Tegan and Sara Foundation to empower LGBTQ+ people. They, Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus were the musicians leading the charge in my Facebook feed about George Floyd at the start of this month, which makes sense, each is on fire with the desire to carry out justice, whether it be racial or orientation-based. In 2017, their album “The Con” was covered by several other LGBTQ+ artists and allies, one such ally being Hayley Williams, the lead singer of Paramore, in celebration of its 10th anniversary.
Recommended Albums/Songs: Heartthrob, Everything Is Awesome (Song from The Lego Movie), Love You To Death, The Con 10th Anniversary Covers, Hey, I’m Just Like You
June 15th: Holly Miranda
Date of Birth: September 21st, 1982
Genre: Alternative Rock/Folk
What she identifies as: Lesbian
Where is she from: Detroit, MI
Holly Miranda is an artist I found out about from Spotify’s playlists of LGBTQ+ artists and was a great discovery. She makes folk music/alternative rock music with a very soothing tone as well as a soft voice and also hopes that people will like her music regardless of her orientation. In fact, her lyrics rarely to never explicitly state the gender of the person she’s interested in, possibly leading one to believe they’re about young men. After finding success in the Detroit area, she moved to New York City in search of greater success. I was very glad to find her music and hope to hear more from this artist in the future.
Recommended Songs: Everlasting, Desert Call, All I Want Is To Be Your Girl, Mt. Hood, Waves
June 16th: Julien Baker
Date of Birth: September 29th, 1995
Genre: Electric Folk/Alternative Folk
What she identifies as: Lesbian
Where is she from: Bartlett, TN
An emotional powerhouse, Julien Baker’s music mostly consists of her strumming on an electric guitar (apparently a Fender Telecaster, based on pictures of her), and singing, sometimes reaching an emotional extreme to the point she is wailing her lyrics. Sometimes her performance sounds fragile, like she’s been through a lot of pain, making her come across like someone's little sister roughed up at recess you want to protect. Julien Baker is an unusual woman in that she is a Christian Lesbian Socialist, however these things are far from exclusive, as I know two Lesbian Couples through my current Church and Wikipedia identified Martin Luther King Jr. as a Christian Socialist. I have not heard Socialist themes through her music, though, more concern for the poor and homeless, which is an issue we too often ignore because it doesn't affect us directly or we just think the person is a drug addict who is getting what they deserve. Julien has a praise song to express her Faith called “Rejoice” with the lyrics “I think there’s a God and He hears either way.” Julien Baker, like Holly Miranda, is an artist I first heard of through Spotify’s playlists of LGBTQ+ musicians and also like Holly, I’m glad I found her and look forward to hearing what she comes up with in the future.
Recommended Songs: Rejoice, Red Door, Conversation Piece
June 17th: Lzzy Hale/Halestorm
Date of Birth: October 10th, 1983
Genre: Heavy Metal/Hard Rock
What She Identifies As: Bisexual
Where is She From: Pennsylvania, USA
Halestorm is one of the great current rock bands of modern era, along with Black Stone Cherry, BabyMetal, The Dead Daisies, Hell’s Belles, Zepparella, Operation Mindcrime and BPMD. Lzzy Hale is the lead singer/rhythm guitarist of Halestorm, which is named after her and her brother, who is the drummer in the band. Halestorm’s various covers EPs reveal they have taken inspiration from a wide variety of bands, such as The Beatles, Whitesnake, Guns N Roses, Dio, Metallica, Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, Judas Priest, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and even Lady Gaga. Hale came out as bisexual when she was seen behaving intimately with a woman in public after a breakup with a boyfriend. Hale has also done collaborations with many other artists, such as the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, where she did a ballad more in line with Celine Dion than her usual heavy metal stylings, Eric Church (studio duet on second song on "Mistress for Christmas" single), The HU (studio collaboration on "Song of Women," available as a single now, to be released on Deluxe Edition of "The Gereg" album), Black Stone Cherry (live performance duet of "Peace Is Free") and In This Moment, where she sang a trio of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” with The Pretty Reckless’ Taylor Momsen. She is set to lend her voice to a track on the next album of country singer Cory Marks, due out in August. 2017 was a rough year for Hale for similar reasons it was to me, she was a huge fan of Chris Cornell (covering two of his songs on two of Halestorm’s Covers EPs) and Chester Bennington, to the point that I used her Twitter to verify if Cornell was dead the day he died. This was also where I first heard the name of his daughter, Toni.
Recommended Albums/Songs: Out Ta Get Me, I Want You (She’s So Heavy), Hunger Strike, Dissident Aggressor, Straight Through The Heart, Love Bites (So Do I), Forget About the Blame (Moon Version) (with Trans-Siberian Orchestra), We Will Rock You (with In This Moment and Taylor Momsen), Reanimate 3.0, Vicious, Vicious (Stripped)
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