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June 13, 2006 1:19 PM

It hits me right there

Music is sooo emotionally manipulative. If I stop listening to rhythm and melody, I become depressed, and I won't be truly happy again until I hear some Lena Horne. Or mebbe R.E.M.'s "Stand," from 1988. I also need new music. Sometimes it replaces

June 12, 2006 10:59 AM

Penny Lang is in my ears and in my eyes

Penny Lang is one of those lesbian names that drifts about the outskirts of my brain. She's in there with fellow folkies like Lucie Blue Tremblay -- I know the moniker, I know there's a queer connection, and then I go back to sleep. Apparently, that's

May 25, 2006 3:47 PM

Whither art thou, oh goddess of pitch and timing?

Remember when Anne Murray was the lesbian wet dream? She was a gym teacher in Nova Scotia turned hit maker. An old university classmate of Murray's once insisted to me that Annie was known as the big dyke on campus. And so we all went gaga, even as mainstream

May 3, 2006 1:15 PM

Mr. Roboto goes gay

Chuck Panozzo, of the rock supergroup Styx -- you know, "Lady," "Babe," "Show me the Way" and "Come Sail Away" -- is out. "Panozzo still plays bass for the group, the first musical act to ever have four consecutive triple platinum albums, that remains

April 22, 2006 11:50 AM

Bom, bomm, bom, bomm

Am delighted to hear about the reverence still accorded the metal washtub. "The bass fiddle is now considered to be the main rhythm section of a bluegrass band," notes Jack Lewis (here), a member of the Virginia-based Oriskany Strings band and a podcaster.

April 19, 2006 12:22 PM

Making beautiful moo-sic

I took a long weekend. But then I always feel the need to bulk up on posts to make up for it. From composer Aaron Copland's 1939 book (and revised 18 years later), "What To Listen for in Music": "By comparison with rhythm and melody, harmony is the

April 13, 2006 1:42 PM

Alouette, je te plumerai

"The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, 'Is there a meaning to music?' "My answer to that would be, 'Yes.' "And, 'Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?' "My answer to that would be, 'No.'" - Aaron Copland I have three

March 8, 2006 12:20 PM

There'll be no posing in People with sweetie and baby

Opera and jazz singer Ada de Luque, based in Miami, discusses (in this newspaper, but the text is unavailable online) the difficulties of the trade: "I once asked the great Renata Tebaldi why she didn't sing anymore. Her reply was, 'I started living when

February 16, 2006 9:26 AM

A paler shade of black

"Si j'etais blanche," sang Josephine Baker in 1932. In Oples translation: "I wish I were white, what a joy that would be." Freda Josephine McDonald was born in Missouri in 1906. (I love that her first name was Freda -- must have been especially entertaining

February 15, 2006 11:03 AM

Country twang

Willie Nelson has recorded a version of "Cowboys are Secretly, Frequently, Fond of Each Other" -- a tune discussed here on Oples back in the summer. Burt Reynolds thinks he and Willie woulda made a great item.

February 14, 2006 12:36 PM

Too good to last

Bye bye, mashup. It was fun while it lasted. Bastard pop -- defined by my morning paper as the fusion of two pop tunes -- is on the hit list, and I don't mean the Top 40. The four-year-old "Get your bootleg on" site has been ordered to behave by the

February 6, 2006 11:29 AM

DJ Earworm

A mashup is a greater whole created from the inspired melding of a bunch of udder tunes. Hear here.

February 3, 2006 11:09 AM

The return of the diva, Sarah B.

A bunch of eggheads are digitizing music that's on the verge of being lost. Academics at the University of California - Santa Barbara have digitized some 6,000 wax and plastic cylinders that were made between 1880 and 1925 or so, when records became the

January 26, 2006 5:02 PM

Oples, where you get tomorrow's news today!

Happy birthday, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a teensy bit early. Buddy was not gay, but classical music had and has a collection of queers within (and there's a good primer here, at the GLBT Encyclopedia, that also includes a handful of women composers --

January 25, 2006 12:23 PM

Diamonds are forever

These ain't conflict diamonds, is they Jacob? don't lie to me mayne See, a part of me sayin' keep shinin', How? when I know of the blood diamonds Though it's thousands of miles away Sierra Leone connect to what we go through today Over here, it's

January 24, 2006 11:14 AM

The return of Ferron -- bwaaaa haaaa haaa haaa

Check out this delightful archive: "Queer Music Heritage is both a radio show and a website, and the goal of both is to preserve and share the music of our culture, because I just don't think gay & lesbian music of the past should be forgotten. I also

January 18, 2006 2:27 PM

Where troubles melt like lemon drops

Somewhere over the rainbow way up high There's a land that I've heard of once in a lullaby Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue And the dreams that you dare to dream Really do come true Dorothy's was not the only voice to record this queer

December 13, 2005 10:39 AM

Frighten the horses

I grew up with Rough Trade's Carole Pope creaming her jeans for some tease who, even as she did not exist, kept me awake late into the night. Although the band formed in 1974, it didn't get a disk out until a few years later.... making Patti Smith's 1975

November 25, 2005 10:10 AM

Something to cut that gin?

My crazy busy three weeks is finally coming to an end (read: no freelance work booked for next week), and as such I'll have time to blog more thoughtfully veddy soon. In the meantime, Montreal's alt weekly Hour recalls Doudou Boicel's Rising Sun Celebrity

November 9, 2005 10:39 AM

White retailers can't dance

Popped into Futureshop last night, the one at 460 St. Catherine St. W. in Montreal. In the rap music section, we found Bow Wow (né Lil), Tupac, Ludacris, and the kaput NWA. We also found Lionel Richie, Angie Stone, The Platters, Ray Charles, and Gladys

November 7, 2005 9:17 AM

Essence of Michael Jackson

From The Smoking Gun: "In a full-bodied blend of blasphemy and ingenuity, a Los Angeles couple is seeking to market a wine called 'Jesus Juice' that bears a label showing a Michael Jackson-like figure appearing to be crucified." "Jesus Juice" is a

November 5, 2005 10:38 AM

Follow, bollo, sha-mollo

A quick update to this older post: The Winnipeg folk trio The Wyrd Sisters has, shockingly, been unable to stop the Harry Potter monolith from distributing the new flick. "The public wouldn't confuse three characters from the film with the real-life band,

November 4, 2005 9:49 AM

Violin practice, with cat

"Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl! Yowl!

October 31, 2005 11:28 AM

A po-ehm

Higgledy piggledly won (see here), So rhyming gets jiggy with me, oh dear. I tried a review of Wallace and Gromit, but alas, no psalms came from it. Buckle my trunnions and bonnet, I've moved on to a different sonnet. *** Fuddy duddy stood in line Three

October 28, 2005 10:38 AM

First violin practice, ever

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow," she said. "Sorry," I said.







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