Queer n There	Queer n There Archive

Atlanta, Georgia-- In modes rappy and melodious, respectively, two CD releases this month from non-profit Daemon Records take issue with what their makers contend to be the tyranny of binary sex. We're not talking about web-porn scams or the duplicitous Photoshopping of online personals photos-- but rather the general division of creatures into female and male.

First there's Rhapsody in T, by the Athens Boys Choir, a transgender spoken-word duo comprised of Rocket and Katz-- "two jeans-wearin', sailor swearin', bend and tuckin', gender fuckin' dudes." The two faux-ephebes wax rhythmic about life's difficulties as boy-identified-girls, the problem of racism, and the brutishness of the Bush regime. Katz and Rocket's pulsy wordsmithing is pugnacious and right-on. But the Athens chorknaben are best when they stick to personal stories-- sometimes their political raps veer into off-the-shelf leftish platitudes. At a time when folks o' color the likes of Condi Rice and Colin Powell are top American imperialists (and plenty of soi-disant radicals join the clamor for more prisons and longer sentences for, it turns out, mostly darker-skinned people)-- slogans about smashing racism seem simplistic. It'd be provoking to hear the Athens Boys Choir bring their drive and punch to a politics a bit more nuanced. And topple the House of Sexual Difference? Few people gravitate toward middle-of-road genderlessness, like the famous Pat of Saturday Night Live. Maybe male and female, rather than oppressive categories to explode, are poles on a compass that helps map out psychological and aesthetic sensibility. A duo that's so perfected the mugs and vocals of the adolescent male could hardly claim otherwise.

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But on the other hand, if the proverbial Pat were a folk-music trio as talented as the situations she got herself mixed-up in were funny, then she'd be Girlyman, a group whose "rich, poignant, playful sound," says their tagline, "crosses genres and genders." Girlyman is Nate Borofsky, Ty Greenstein, and Doris Muramatsu. Their instantly-compelling melodies-- bolstered by a rich weave of mostly acoustic guitar on their new CD Remember Who I Am-- come out of a folksy, country groove. The music limns queer themes-- one song seems to be about a gay man's feelings at being romanced by a woman-- without ever brandishing slogan or placard. "If you put us all in a blender," says Doris, "you'd probably end up with a girly man." In fact, the three voices blend as deliciously as a strawberry frappe.

Remember Who I Am has probably the world's best ditty about car crashes-- a topic oddly uncommemorated in art and song given the huge numbers blasély sacrificed every year to the vengeful Automotive God.

Daemon Records is an indie label with a focus on queer folk-- we're talking kind-of-music here, and do not intend by that phrase to pigeonhole any person or persons! Find out more or buy at www.daemonrecords.com or www.girlyman.com.