Below are tracks by some of my favorite musicians who are/were homosexual. It’s Pride Weekend, right? I heard murmurs to that effect around here, anyway. Okay. Respect due.
7 more after the cut.
* These are the artists who came to mind first. The list is by no means exhaustive and I will surely regret leaving out someone as soon as I hit "publish."
After a bit of wet start, the sun's come out for Glastonbury.
And you know what that means.
It means Jarvis Cocker was everywhere today, surprise-guesting on multiple stages and showing up to play bass for Spinal Tap during the more-appropriate-than-ever "Big Bottoms".
It means a gang of fans dressed as trolls wandered the grounds and guerilla-hugged the crowds.
And it means people like Dizzee Rascal and Bruce Springsteen were so far the biggest draws of the weekend. In front of a rammed crowd at the Pyramid Stage, Dizzee, in particular, played the massive "Dance Wiv Me" and "Bonkers," but also his best like "Stand Up Tall," "Sirens," and "Pussyole (Old Skool)," all on top of covering M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes," The Ting Tings' "That's Not My Name" — "They call me Wiley!" — and leading the festival to a Michael Jackson medley. BBC writes: "'We lost a legend this week,' he said. 'So I think we should do a little something to remember all the great music he brought us.' Tens of thousands of fans joined in with a chorus of 'Thriller,' and Rascal played snippets of other hits including 'Billie Jean' and 'Another Part Of Me'. Pharrell Williams, The Streets, Lily Allen, and Gabriella Cilmi are among the other artists who have paid tribute."
Donna On The Beach writes: "Just saw on Glastonbury coverage a sign, 'Pretending 2b an aeroplane allowed in this area.'"
Maximo Park writes: "Skream's La Roux remix sent everyone off their trollies! Let's get ravey!!!"
The Guardian writes: "Most overheard conversation at Glastonbury: 'Why would you bring children here? It's tantamount to child abuse.'"
Video clips of loads of acts, including Skream, Benga, Kasabian, Neil Young, Pendulum, Lady GaGa, The Specials, The Wonder Stuff, Bruce Springsteen, N.E.R.D., Sparrow & The Workshop, and Jamie T, are finally trickling out here.


![Glastonbury '09 [04]](http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2009/06/27/1246146990-glastonbury_04.jpg)
![Glastonbury '09 [05]](http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2009/06/27/1246147005-glastonbury_05.jpg)
![Glastonbury '09 [06]](http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2009/06/27/1246147021-glastonbury_06.jpg)
Photos by the BBC & Glastonbury staff.

Please let us all pause for a moment to cheer the Big Gay Wedding of the brilliant and beloved Seattle icon Riz Rollins (of KEXP and so much more) and the handsome and delightful Robert Green, who will be homo-nuptualized in that big gay church on Broadway in a ceremony happening just about…now. (Their marriage, of course, is not legal in Washington State, which makes it even so much better.)
Hooray love! Congratulations Riz and Robert!
* In which we talk to people on the street about their clothes. And yes, I am in Venice.

Gina Young: What are you doing tonight?
Johanna Breiding: Eating a delicious pizza and drinking stolen wine.
GY: Nice. Who would you say is your fashion icon?
JB: Oliver Twist.
GY: Which eras inspire your style and why?
JB: The 1920s. I think the whole androgyny thing… Women wearing men’s clothing. Also the Baroque era… with the fancy collars and sleeves and ruffles. And then a little bit of skater boy/snowboarder creeps in. I like a mixture between comfort and old-fashioned style. The clothes I wear, I could go to bed in. I only wear baggy pants, I don’t understand carrot pants.
GY: Carrot pants?
JB: Pants that are tight. That make your legs look like carrots.
GY: Ahh… I know those as skinny jeans. Or cigarette pants.
JB: It's the German term. I'm from Switzerland but I've lived in Seattle for a little over a year. I also don’t like high water pants. I like them to be as long as possible, so most of my pants end up under my shoes.
GY: Where did you get that hat?
JB: At a flea market in Berlin.
GY: And what about the belt?
JB: I made the belt. Out of skateboards.

GY: Come again?
JB: Actually out of one skateboard that my brother rode, and broke. I cut the skateboard into domino-sized pieces and drilled three holes into each piece. I used a thin rope to connect all of them with knots.
GY: So, would you say that you completely buck conventional fashion?
JB: Uh... my shoes are Diesel.
QBoy’s wide, warm smile and handsome, Tim-Curry's-much-hotter/much-younger-nephew face are rather easy to recognize, if one’s interests tend to linger in the pink and rather glittery world of gay pop culturalia. He’s been in wide circulation since 2001, especially in gay circles, famous as THE "Rapper Who Is Gay"—The King of Homo Hop!— especially in the UK (he’s from Essex, as his delicious accent will immediately tell you). He’s just about to drop his latest release called “Moxie”, (available July 13th on iTunes and Amazon.com) and he is in Seattle now, one of the main entrees on tomorrow’s PrideFest menu. This is his second long visit to Seattle since December.
“Back in December…I performed at 'Hot Mess' for LA Kendall and David Richey…The Seattle crowd really connected with what I did and I loved them," he says.
"Before coming to Seattle, I spent a week performing and promoting my new album 'Moxie' in NYC, which was a lot of fun. The new album is a real mix of electro, dance, pop, hip-hop and soul. I also have a new music video 'Coming Out 2 Play' which you can check on www.youtube.com/qboymusic.”
As is clear from the video, much of what makes QBoy sparkle is a combo of camp and flirtatiousness—bouncy and playful. But he takes his art quite seriously.
“I'm an artist - period. I rap, yes, but I also produce, song write, and am behind all the creativity in my look, images, concepts and ideas. My music is generally electro based, leaning to pop, house and hip-hop. I'm not some ghetto hip-hop head with bling and a gun.
“I don't have dreams, I have goals. And making a success out my life, my music, my career is my overall goal… I definitely want to make enough financial success to be able to look after my family and friends as they have done for me, I owe it to them to be successful.”
But please to note! QBoy has clearly lost any and all patience with “old skool” notions of any schism between the (still? allegedly?) homophobic gangsta land that is hip-hop/rap and the radical fairyland that is gayness. Because there is none, stupid. Don’t bother him with any of that bullshit! He’s gets kind of riled up.
“I'm an openly gay artist and there are plenty of them already in the mainstream - from George Michael and Elton John to Beth Ditto and Rufus Wainwright - I don't see why I should be any different...I also think your idea of rap is a little old skool and limited. ”
Okay, okay! Jesus! But what about the good stuff? The Sex? Relationships? L’amour?
“Men are distracting. Relationships stop me from achieving my goal. I need to build my castle before I can find someone to share it with.
“I am looking forward to performing my new material and hope it will be a fun safe day for everyone.”
QBoy has been in town all week, and will be doing his thing at PrideFest (at the Seattle Center) on the Mainstage tomorrow, Sunday, at precisely 4.30PM.
In Data Breaker:
Joy Von Spain(Josephine) Von Spain's new album, Lady Lazarus (on the Scatological Liberation Front and available at Dissonant Plane and the Capitol Hill Sonic Boom), largely was recorded as collaborations, with much assistance from SLF's Gerald Hansen. "Beast Blob Parasite" is the wild bull in the symphony auditorium, coming off like a no-wave fracas that could make Lydia lose her Lunch. But with "Entrance of Durga," Von Spain attains a zenith of aural firepower, unleashing bitter torrents of scarifying noise, like some infernal choir of the Apocalypse.
In Up & Coming:
Bill Callahan, Bachelorette(Triple Door) Bachelorette is the stage name of New Zealand musician Annabel Alpers. At the core of Bachelorette's songs on the new album, My Electric Family, is Alpers's alternately glassy and evaporating singing voice. Surrounding her singing are lush layers of traditional live instrumentation, expansive audio effects (delay and reverb up to the heavens), and tasteful electronic flourishes. The lyrics can get wincingly wonky, as on utopian electro-pop number "Technology Boy," but the arrangements—such as that song's stuttering vocals reminiscent of Morr Music softies Lali Puna—are consistently captivating. Bill Callahan is the dour tenor behind the much-loved, long-running solo project Smog. Recording under his own name for his past two albums, Woke on a Whaleheart and Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, Callahan continues to churn out the terse and brutal and just sometimes bright-around-the-corners folk songs, always sung in that coldly commanding voice of his. ERIC GRANDY
These Arms Are Snakes, the Coathangers, the Whore Moans(Comet) If you have a spot in your heart for TacocaT, then you'll definitely want to be sure to catch the Coathangers' set tonight. On their debut full-length, Scramble (released on local label Suicide Squeeze), these four fun ladies from Atlanta, Georgia, summon some of that same bratty and messy punk-rock prowess. Their songs are lo-fi and sloppy and put together in less than a day by musicians who've done more partying than practicing, but what the fuck ever—that's punk rock. It's not supposed to be perfect. And if you're ever really pissed, try cranking up the iPod and screaming along with "Gettin' Mad and Pumpin' Iron," where a squeaky voice yowls, "I'm gonna break your fucking face!" It's wonderfully cathartic. MEGAN SELING
Skeletons with Flesh on Them(Mars Bar) Have you listened to Skeletons with Flesh on Them's latest record, All the Other Animals, yet? Have you!? I've told you over and over... what are you waiting for? I mean, I'd understand if you're a little hesitant. I once told you to like that melodramatic tween crap band Say Anything (I stand by their first record!). But trust me on this one! All the Other Animals is a sonic gem, beaming with fun pop tracks perfect for summer days. It's all playful and bright, it's got humor à la They Might Be Giants, but it's also got a menagerie of instruments and harmonies that fans of BOAT would appreciate. I love them and you should, too, and I won't stop saying so until you finally listen. MEGAN SELING
Project Lionheart, Fresh Espresso(High Dive) Last month, Fresh Espresso's first album, Glamour, rose to number one on KEXP's Northwest charts, and it's still holding steady. Rapper Rik Rude and producer P Smoov came, saw, and conquered with "Lazerbeams," one of the freshest tracks on an album that's packed with raw energy. Indeed, there is an excitement on this record that makes you believe in the impossible: that hiphop still has a long future ahead of it. With Rik and Smoov, it is as if the past and its failures do not exist. Nowhere on any track is there a hint of bitterness, exhaustion, or resentment. The album presents the present as a brand-new day, as a fresh start, as a dawn of something new and unexpected. Rik and Smoov are on the move. CHARLES MUDEDE
Fences, the Lonely Forest(Crocodile) Fences is the solo acoustic project of Seattle-based musician Chris Mansfield, a heavily tattooed dude who looks like he ought to be fronting a gutter-punk outfit. Appearances aside, Mansfield is wholly convincing as a folky singer-songwriter with a broken heart (inked) on his sleeve. His voice is faintingly soft, his lyrics bruised, his guitar strumming simple and augmented by only the occasional brushed backbeat. Mansfield spent some time studying jazz at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and while his stripped-down guitar ballads aren't overly complicated, they're clearly the work of a learned hand. Recently, Mansfield spent 28 days at a rehab facility in Kirkland for his "excessive consumption of alcohol." His last report is that he's "sober as a saint" and full of gratitude for the music he's making, as well he should be. ERIC GRANDY
Thee Satisfaction, Thee Emergency, Telepathic Liberation Army, TacocaT, Leslie & the LY's, Weekend, the Redwood Plan, Goon Squad, Hunx and His Punx, the Dutchess and the Duke(Wildrose, 1 pm—midnight) Through the diligent efforts and fine taste of booker Jodi Ecklund, Wildrose once again hosts a damn strong lineup for Pride. Heavy on local talent and rock 'n' roll, today's party boasts, among others, retro garage-soul rockers Thee Emergency, scrappy pop-punk quartet TacocaT, and glitzy GarageBand purveyors Leslie & the LY's. Headlining are "campfire punkers" the Dutchess and the Duke and San Francisco's bubblegum punkers Hunx and His Punx, who've got showmanship to spare. All of this goes on outside in the sun (let's hope) until nightfall, when things move into the club and MC BenDeLaCrème and DJ Ponyboy take the wheel(s). GRANT BRISSEY
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