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YEAR IN REVIEW: Milestones and missteps

Best 2010 gay musical treats were not always in the pop culture limelight

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Gay singer Clay Aiken had one of the year's unexpected pleasures with his lovely standards collection, 'Tried and True.' (Photo courtesy of Decca)

It was a strange year musically, one that got rolling with a surreal all-star remake of “We Are the World” that had fossils like Barbra Streisand and Gladys Knight (where were they on the original?) rubbing shoulders with younger acts and found the Indigo Girls releasing a Christmas album of all things.

And while the mainstream was abuzz with new albums from Kanye and Eminem, several gay releases got some notice.

The Scissor Sisters, featuring gay front man Jake Shears, are, perhaps, the closest thing the gay world has to the Black Eyed Peas. On third album “Night Work,” which dropped in June, lyrics like “I think I need a rubber tonight” were splashed over neo-disco and new wave beats courtesy of Madonna vet Stuart Price.

Local indie lesbian singer/songwriter Mara Levi released her third album, “We Listen to Fools” (digital only release) in October.

It was, perhaps, Elton John’s least gay album in years, but his recent collaboration with forgotten vet Leon Russell, “The Union,” resulted in a critical triumph. Rolling Stone called the T Bone Burnett-produced disc worthy of the artists’ best work.

Taylor Swift may seem bland compared to Lady Gaga but her country crossover domination continued with this year’s “Speak Now,” a savvy collection of catchy hits.

Swedish diva Robyn — what is it with the Swedes and dance music? — delivered the year’s best dance album with “Body Talk,” a pummeling collection of memorable club rattlers like “Fembot,” “Dancing On My Own” and “Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do.”

Katy Perry, of “I Kissed a Girl” fame, teamed up with pop masterminds Max Martin and Dr. Luke for one of the year’s best pop albums, “Teenage Dream,” which dropped in August and topped the Billboard album chart. It’s also up for several Grammys.

Even with no new album out, Lady Gaga kept things interesting, if occasionally uneven, this year. Her “Telephone” video with Beyonce was an epic, nearly 10-minute clip on a Michael Jackson-scope scale, but her September D.C. concert appearance drew mixed reviews as did a half-hearted remix album. Look for a new studio album from her in 2011.

Rhianna’s “Loud” dropped in November and continued her hit streak with two No. 1 U.S. singles, “Only Girl (In the World” and “What’s My Name?”

There was a new “Glee” soundtrack album almost every month this year but April’s “Power of Madonna” collection was perhaps the most memorable. The “Glee” juggernaut will surely continue in the new year.

Electropop British gay-fronted group Goldfrapp released its fifth studio album “Head First” in March, featuring retro-’80s sounds.

Gay Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi released a solo effort in April, called “Go,” which received mostly strong reviews and had a strong chart showing in the U.S.

Gay singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright dropped his sixth studio album “All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu” in April. It’s a classy and stripped-down record that finds inspiration in Shakespeare’s sonnets.

Melissa Etheridge, perhaps the most famous lesbian rock star, released her 10th studio album “Fearless Love” in April. It’s more rock-oriented than her last few albums, which sometimes found her veering way too close to snoozeville. It’s great to hear her rocking out again.

Liza Minnelli released the little-noticed “Confessions” in September, her first studio album in nearly 15 years.

The Indigo Girls were all over the map with their surreal October release “Holly Happy Days” which, despite its nod to Hanukkah with a Woody Guthrie cover featured several surprising nods to Christianity such as the French carol “Angels We Have Heard on High” and a country version of “O Holy Night.” Annie Lennox had one of the year’s more interesting holiday albums with her “Christmas Cornucopia.”

Adam Lambert, the gay “Idol” runner-up, stayed busy this year with his first tour, “Glam Nation,” which made a memorable D.C. stop in June at the 9:30 club. A live EP dropped earlier this month. Look for a new studio album next year.

Cyndi Lauper, easily the world’s most gay-friendly straight act, released a blues album, “Memphis Blues,” in June and earned solid reviews and a Grammy nomination. Look for a live DVD from the tour, which came to D.C. last month, in 2011.

It was a great year for Kylie Minogue fans. Her 11th studio album “Aphrodite” was released worldwide in June and this month a Christmas EP was released on iTunes. Single “All the Lovers” topped the U.S. Dance Club chart and, though Minogue has always been more popular abroad, she still managed a decent showing on the album charts with a No. 19 peak, her second-highest charter here.

Gay singer Clay Aiken went retro in June with “Tried and True,” a standards collection. Though the concept has been run into the ground after umpteen releases from Rod Stewart, Aiken’s the kind of singer who, despite his youth, has the vocal oomph to breathe new life into these classics. His covers of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” and “Mack the Knife” are especially good. He soars on the latter.

One of the year’s biggest disappointments was a dud from Christina Aguilera called “Bionic,” another June release that found the overwrought singer all over the stylistic map with few memorable results. The album bombed — it’s only halfway to gold status in the U.S. six months after its release.

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Music & Concerts

Underdog glorious: a personal remembrance of Jill Sobule

Talented singer, songwriter died in house fire on May 1

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Writer Gregg Shapiro with Jill Sobule in 2000. (Photo courtesy Shapiro)

I’ve always prided myself on being the kind of music consumer who purchased music on impulse. When I stumbled across “Things Here Are Different,” Jill Sobule’s 1990 MCA Records debut album on vinyl in a favorite Chicago record store, I bought it without knowing anything about her. This was at a time when we didn’t have our phones in our pockets to search for information about the artist on the internet. The LP stayed in my collection until, as vinyl was falling out of fashion, I replaced it with a CD a few years later.

Early in my career as an entertainment journalist, I received a promo copy of Jill’s eponymous 1995 Atlantic Records album. That year, Atlantic Records was one of the labels at the forefront of signing and heavily promoting queer artists, including Melissa Ferrick and Extra Fancy, and its roster included the self-titled album by Jill. It was a smart move, as the single “I Kissed A Girl” became a hit on radio and its accompanying video (featuring Fabio!) was in heavy rotation on MTV (when they still played videos).

Unfortunately for Jill, she was a victim of record label missteps. When 1997’s wonderful “Happy Town” failed to repeat the success, Atlantic dumped her. That was Atlantic’s loss, because her next album, the superb “Pink Pearl” contained “Heroes” and “Mexican Wrestler,” two of her most beloved songs. Sadly, Beyond Music, the label that released that album ceased to exist after just a few years. To her credit, the savvy Jill had also started independently releasing music (2004’s “The Folk Years”). That was a smart move because her next major-label release, the brilliant “Underdog Victorious” on Artemis Records, met a similar fate when that label folded.

With her 2009 album “California Years,” Jill launched her own indie label, Pinko Records, on which she would release two more outstanding full-length discs, 2014’s “Dottie’s Charms” (on which she collaborated with some of her favorite writers, including David Hadju, Rick Moody, Mary Jo Salter, and Jonathan Lethem), and 2018’s stunning “Nostalgia Kills.” Jill’s cover of the late Warren Zevon’s “Don’t Let Us Get Sick” on “Nostalgia Kills” was particularly poignant as she had toured with him as an opening act.

Jill was a road warrior, constantly on tour, and her live shows were something to behold. My first interview with Jill took place at the Double Door in Chicago in early August of 1995, when she was the opening act for legendary punk band X. She had thrown her back out the previous day and was diagnosed with a herniated disc. To be comfortable, she was lying down on a fabulous-‘50s sofa. “I feel like I’m at my shrink’s,” she said to me, “Do you want me to talk about my mother?”

That sense of humor, which permeated and enriched her music, was one of many reasons to love Jill. I was privileged to interview her for seven of her albums. Everything you would want to know about her was right there in her honest lyrics, in which she balanced her distinctive brand of humor with serious subject matter. Drawing on her life experiences in songs such as “Bitter,” “Underachiever,” “One of These Days,” “Freshman,” “Jetpack,” “Nothing To Prove,” “Forbidden Thoughts of Youth,” “Island of Lost Things,” “Where Do I Begin,” “Almost Great,” and “Big Shoes,” made her songs as personal as they were universal, elicited genuine affection and concern from her devoted fans.

While she was a consummate songwriter, Jill also felt equally comfortable covering songs made famous by others, including “Just A Little Lovin’” (on the 2000 Dusty Springfield tribute album “Forever Dusty”) and “Stoned Soul Picnic” (from the 1997 Laura Nyro tribute album “Time and Love”). Jill also didn’t shy away from political subject matter in her music with “Resistance Song,” “Soldiers of Christ,” “Attic,” “Heroes,” “Under the Disco Ball,” and the incredible “America Back” as prime examples.

Here’s something else worth mentioning about Jill. She was known for collaboration skills. As a songwriter, she maintained a multi-year creative partnership with Robin Eaton (“I Kissed A Girl” and many others), as well as Richard Barone, the gay frontman of the renowned band The Bongos. Jill’s history with Barone includes performing together at a queer Octoberfest event in Chicago in 1996. Writer and comedian Julie Sweeney, of “SNL” and “Work in Progress” fame was another Chicago collaborator with Sobule (Sweeney lives in a Chicago suburb), where they frequently performed their delightful “The Jill and Julia Show.” John Doe, of the aforementioned band X, also collaborated with Jill in the studio (“Tomorrow Is Breaking” from “Nostalgia Kills”), as well as in live performances.

On a very personal note, in 2019, when I was in the process of arranging a reading at the fabulous NYC gay bookstore Bureau of General Services – Queer Division, I reached out to Jill and asked her if she would like to be on the bill with me. We alternated performing; I would read a couple of poems, and Jill would sing a couple of songs. She even set one of my poems to music, on the spot.

Jill had an abundance of talent, and when she turned her attention to musical theater, it paid off in a big way. Her stage musical “F*ck 7th Grade,” a theatrical piece that seemed like the next logical step in her career, had its premiere at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre in the fall of 2020, during the height of the pandemic. The unique staging (an outdoor drive-in stage at which audience members watched from their cars) was truly inspired. “F*ck 7th Grade” went on to become a New York Times Critic’s pick, as well as earning a Drama Desk nomination.

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Jill’s eponymous 1995 album, reissue label Rhino Records is re-releasing it on red vinyl. Jill and I had been emailing each other to arrange a time for an interview. We even had a date on the books for the third week of May.

When she died in a house fire in Minnesota on May 1 at age 66, Jill received mentions on network and cable news shows. She was showered with attention from major news outlets, including obits in the New York Times and Rolling Stone (but not Pitchfork, who couldn’t be bothered to review her music when she was alive). Is it wrong to think that if she’d gotten this much attention when she was alive she could have been as big as Taylor Swift? I don’t think so.

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Music & Concerts

Tom Goss returns with ‘Bear Friends Furever Tour’

Out singer/songwriter to perform at Red Bear Brewing Co.

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Singer Tom Goss is back. (Photo by Dusti Cunningham)

Singer Tom Goss will bring his “Bear Friends Furever Tour” to D.C. on Sunday, June 8 at 8 p.m. at Red Bear Brewing Co. 

Among the songs he will perform will be “Bear Soup,” the fourth installment in his beloved bear song anthology series. Following fan favorites like “Bears,” “Round in All the Right Places,” and “Nerdy Bear,” this high-energy, bass-thumping banger celebrates body positivity, joyful indulgence, and the vibrant spirit of the bear subculture.

For more details, visit Tom Goss’s website.

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Music & Concerts

Kylie brings ‘Tension’ tour to D.C.

Performance on Tuesday at Capital One Arena

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Kylie Minogue visits D.C. on Tuesday.

Aussie pop icon Kylie Minogue brings her acclaimed “Tension” world tour to D.C. next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Capital One Arena. Tickets are still available at Ticketmaster.

The show features songs spanning her long career, from 1987 debut single, “The Loco-Motion,” to “Padam, Padam” from her album, “Tension.”

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