Music & Concerts
New band LAYNE blends pop-rock sounds with nonchalant sexuality
‘I want people to walk away feeling something heavy’


LAYNE is Layne Putnam, left, and Alexander Rosca. (Photo by Brandon Wolford; courtesy ReyBee Inc.)
LAYNE
DC9
1940 9th St., N.W.
Wednesday, Aug. 31
Doors 8:30 p.m.
Show: 9 p.m.
$12
Inspiration isn’t always easy to come by and while others seek it out in the walls of a coffee shop or by taking a late night drive, Layne Putnam’s creativity flowed into her songwriting in the woods.
Growing up in Black Hills, S.D., Putnam, 21, admits the music scene was “almost nonexistent.” So Putnam, who grew up playing mostly drums and guitar, had to make her own and used her environment as her musical canvas. She says music was always in her life, and also her blood as her father Kenny Putnam was a fiddle players for the Red Willow Band and toured with country legend Roy Clarke. For Putnam, music was just “part of living and breathing.”
Putnam has since taken her musical ambitions from sparse South Dakota to Los Angeles as half of the indie pop-rock band LAYNE, which she formed with fellow bandmate Alexander Rosca. The band is on tour and LAYNE makes its D.C. stop at DC9 on Wednesday, Aug. 31. Putnam, who moved to Los Angeles three years ago, met Rosca there through someone they were both working with and says the connection was instantaneous.
“I needed a drummer and he was like, ‘Hey, I’m a drummer.’ We met and had coffee and it was like immediate, instant,” Putnam says. “We looked at each other and we were dressed exactly the same and we listened to the same music and he understood things like I did. I played him some stuff and he was like, ‘I’m there.’ We’ve hung out pretty much every day since. He’s like my best friend. We just clicked, and now we’re a team.”
The pair created a system with Putnam on vocals, synths and guitar, and Rosca on drums. Putnam says their collaboration is different every time. At times, Putnam sings a track and takes it to Rosca to create a drum beat and other times Rosca comes up with a drum beat for Putnam to build around.
“The Black Hills,” named after Putnam’s hometown and the duo’s first EP, is the finished product of their collaboration. “Good” and “Somebody” are two singles that have already been released as previews to the release with both music videos receiving thousands of YouTube views. Putnam says the EP, which will be released Aug. 26, is a collection of songs from the past year. Some of the tracks have the tell-tale mark of Putnam’s love of nature. She says the two got sound bites from the lakes, wind and trees from the areas Putnam grew up in and sampled them on the track.
Putnam says the EP chronicles their creative journey from the last year.
“I was in a midway point kind of transitioning and really honing in on the sound,” Putnam says. “So it really encapsulates the last year of what we’ve been doing creatively. We didn’t necessarily sit down at one time and do it. But I think that’s cool because it kind of sums up our last year.”
The EP reflects the pop-rock sound of the band which Putnam has always admired. She says she has always enjoyed both and likes to pull bits from each genre. The happy medium felt “natural and right for her.”
Putnam credits musicians like Prince, Joan Jett, Bjork and St. Vincent as musical favorites, but for more than just their songs.
“People like that their entire project is an art project, you know? From the music, to the visuals to the videos, it’s all a part of it and all encompassing,” Putnam says.
Although the band is just kicking off its career, Putnam has been open about being a lesbian from the start. Being out and proud at the onset of her career is something Putnam has no problem doing, but doesn’t want her sexuality to be a reason people listen to her music.
“I feel like we’re at a point now where the best thing you can do is just be equal,” Putnam says. “We’ve fought as a community to be treated the same way and I think now I’m in a place where I don’t ever want to openly say, ‘Listen to me because I’m a gay artist.’ I don’t want that to be a thing. I want to say, ‘Hey, listen to my music, and also I’m gay.’”
Putnam says she is “very proud to be part of the community,” but doesn’t want that to be the defining characteristic of her as a musician.
“People think it’s such a huge part of who you are as a person. And the message I would like to send is, it’s not a huge part. We’re all the exact same,” Putnam says. “So I wouldn’t necessarily come out and say, ‘I’m a gay artist’ but I’m not going to come out and say, ‘I’m not.’ I think there’s power in just acting like we’re equal. We are. There’s no reason to further put yourself in a minority or group when we’re all the same.”
That doesn’t mean Putnam isn’t focusing on her sexuality in her music. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
Putnam admits she is always writing about her own experiences and relationships. Letting out her emotions in her music is deeply personal and writing about her relationships with women is bound to come out. But, Putnam believes her songwriting is universally relatable no matter what a person’s sexuality may be.
“I’ll say she, I’m not afraid of that. I like to listen to artists where I can relate to that. I absolutely have no fear in that. But I feel all relationships are the same. I write about my relationship and I feel anybody can relate to it if they’ve been in a relationship,” Putnam says.
At their upcoming DC9 show, Putnam is excited for her audience to connect with LAYNE’s music and simply feel that universality.
“I want people to feel empowered by feeling because that’s something that makes us superhuman, our ability to feel, and to hurt, and to be mad and be happy and all those things. I want people to feel either totally stoked or feel like, ‘Wow, that was heavy’ or think, ‘Wow, that made me sad.’ I want people to walk away feeling something heavy.”
Music & Concerts
Underdog glorious: a personal remembrance of Jill Sobule
Talented singer, songwriter died in house fire on May 1

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.
Music & Concerts
Tom Goss returns with ‘Bear Friends Furever Tour’
Out singer/songwriter to perform at Red Bear Brewing Co.

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.

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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