Stereotype_April1996.pdf
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- Stereotype_April1996.pdf
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The AtlanticGroup'sGay & LesbianNewsletter
March I April 1996
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JILL SOBULE
OVER GLAAD
IS TICKLED
AWARD
-
PINK
On March 10, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) presented
Lava/Atlantic artist Jill Sobule with an award for Outstanding Song for her hit "I Kissed a Girl"
at the organization's seventh annual Media Awards in Los Angeles. The GLAAD awards honor
individuals, projects, and companies in the media and entertainment industries for their balanced
and accurate representations of lesbians and gay men. David Schwimmer of Friends presented
Sobule with the award. Other Media Award winners include Boy George's Cheapness and
Beauty for Outstanding Album, All My Children for Outstanding Daytime Television, and The
Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love for Outstanding Independent Film.
STEREO TYPE tracked Sobule down in Nashville, where she's writing songs for her
next album, to get her comments on being anointed as a GLAAD media darling: "Damn," she
said, in her endearingly aw-shucks way, 'Tm more proud about winning this award than any
of the other awards I've gotten. I feel like I've done my duty, and I'm GLAAD!"
Francis Dunnery
Takes
Melissa Etheridge
for Ride in his
Tall Blonde
Helicopter
Melissa Etheridge named Francis
Dunnery's Tall Blonde Helicopter as one of
her ten favorite albums of 1995 in a recent issue of
Rolling Stone magazine. Melissa's other
favorites of '95 include Joan Osborne's Relish,
Natalie Merchant's Tigerlily, Bjork's Post, and
(What's the Story) Morning Glory by Oasis. When
asked how he feels to be among such esteeemed
company, Dunnery
had this to say:
'Tm extremely flattered. I know
Melissa's a very
sensitive individual,
and I'm glad she
connects with what
I'm singing about."
Billboard magazine
says that Tall Blonde
Helicopter is a
"mastery of various pop/rock forms, from hookladen tunes that measure up to Nick Lowe's best
material, to confessionals and ironic portraits."
COMING
ATTRACTION
I Sil(Yl,
1\t,1)Y\\T1UUl()I
..
Look for the May release of the film I Shot Andy Warhol, the true story
of radical lesbian feminist Valerie Solanas, who tried to kill the Pop Art king in
1968. Solanas was the leader of a one-woman revolutionary group called the
Society for Cutting Up Men (SCUM). In the film, she writes a play called
"Up Your Ass" and hounds Warhol to produce it. Repeatedly rebuffed by the artist
and his Factory hangers-on, So Janas becomes paranoid that Andy has "too much
control" over her life and decides to kill him. The film debuted at the Sundance
Film Festival last January and garnered glowing reviews. Daily Variety raved
about Lili Taylor's "stupendous lead performance" as Solanas, and noted Stephen
Dorff's "spooky turn" as aspiring transexual Candy Darling. Jared Harris
"catches the blank, hard-to-read Warhol beautifully," the trade paper said.
TAG/Atlantic will release the I Shot
Andy Warhol soundtrack on April 23. The track
listing includes "Demons" by Yo La Tengo (who
play the Velvet Underground in the film); a cover
of "Love is All Around" by R.E.M.; a cover of the
Buffalo Springfield tune "Burned" by Wilco;
Luna's version of Donovon's "Season of the
Witch"; and the original version "Do You Believe
in Magic" by the Lovin' Spoonful. The score is
by former Velvet Underground member John Cale.
;41
_________
_Pa-ge_2
_____________
SEXY
Michael Feinstein
._·~-=•c
MF
Opens Up
As you know from the last STEREO TYPE newsletter, Michael Feinstein
has a new album out called Nice Work if You Can Get It: Songs by the Gershwins,
which includes six songs that have never been recorded before. Feinstein will be
making in-store appearances at A Different Light bookstore in New York on April 21
and at Lambda Rising in Washington, DC during Memorial Day Weekend. New
Yorkers can also catch Feinstein crooning a couple of tunes at the National Gay and Lesbian Business Expo on April 28 at the Manhattan Coliseum. Here, Feinstein talks to
STEREO TYPE about the effect that being gay has had on his career.
STEREOTYPE: I don't know how personal you want this interview to be.
Michael Feinstein: I have nothing to hide. [laughs]
SI: Okay. Here we go then. How has being gay affected what you do artistically?
MF: Hmmm. That's a good question. I've never thought about that. There are so many
gay cabaret performers-almost all of them are gay, whether they admit it or not. And
certainly, when I came onto the scene, a lot of people acknowledged my "sensitivity,"
that I was a man who was not afraid to sing sensitive lyrics and present a vulnerability
in my work. And I think that has added to my success, and certainly being gay relates to
being able to project that vulnerability that I feel.
SI: Do you ever change the pronouns in the songs you sing so that they more accurately
reflect your sexuality?
MF: I just went on this Atlantis [a gay travel service] vacation. They gave me this
great vacation for two people, all expenses paid, in exchange for singing for half an
hour. And I sang "Someone to Watch Over Me" with the lyrics "I hope that he turns
out to be someone to watch over me." And I did that because all the people there
wanted to hear that, and I felt comfortable doing it. Normally, I don't do it that way
because the majority of the people like to hear it the other way, and usually I don't like
to fool with the lyrics.
SI: Okay, last question: how's your love life?
MF: [laughs] Well, my love life is-what's the word I want to use? What I want to say
is that it's progressing on a level that has me very happy, because I've finally gotten to
a point where I'm better able to integrate the spiritual aspect of love with the physical
aspects.
SI: Amen to that. We'd better talk off the record from here on in.
MF: Yeah, are you turning off the tape recorder?
SI: Yeah. See ya.
7 Year Bitch is Back
On March 12, 7 Year Bitch released their Atlantic debut, Gato Negro, an
album of exhilaratingly raw, full-speed-ahead rock and roll. 7 Year Bitch is Valerie
Agnew (drums), Elizabeth Davis (bass), Roisin Dunne (guitar), and Selene Vigil
(vocals). In addition to her work with the band, Valerie is the co-founder of Home
Alive, an anti-violence collective created following the 1993 rape and murder of
Mia Zapata, former lead singer of the Gits and a close friend of Valerie's. Ac'·
;.-.
cording to the organization's statement of purpose,
Home Alive "is a collective of performance and
visual artists (and other freaks) hellbent on fighting
violent crimir.1ls, rapists, muggers, murderers,
gay/lesbian bashers, racists, and any other fucking
violators." The organization has staged several
benefits in it's home base of Seattle to raise money to establish self defense classes
for women. Epic has recently released Home Alive--The Art of Self Defense, a
benefit album compiled by Agnew and Gretta Harley featuring Soundgarden,
Nirvana and Joan Jett.
The news on the latest
dance hits from the
Atlantic
Group
BEL CANTO'S
"RUMOUR" HAS IT
The Norwegian group known as Bel
Canto have just released their fourth album Magic
Box, featuring the song "Rumour," which is fast
becoming a major club hit. The CDS of "Rumour"
contains an additional 4 mixes of the song. "The
Masters of Work boys ("Little" Louie Vega and
Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez) supply the incredibly
understated, yet totally fierce restructurings,"
wrote DJ Michael Paoletta
in New York's Next magazine. Paoletta, who also
writes about dance music
for Billboard, says he's
"partial to the M.A.W.
12" Mix and Tribe in Dub
version" which makes
"great use of band member Anneli M.Drecker's
fluttery voice, a vocal
instrument that sweetly allows the hook-laden
chorus to be forever embedded in your brain."
CLIMB ABOARD QUAD
CITY DJ's "TRAIN"
The Quad City DJ's pride themselves
on being the hottest conductors of dance-party
music today. Their latest fuel-burning track is
called "C'Mon 'N Ride It (The Train)," which
Billboard magazine calls a "booty jam" with "an
infectious chorus" that's good for both a
"chuckle and a wiggle." The Quad City DJ's
are Nathaniel "C.C. Lemonhead" Orange and
Johnny "Jayski" McGowan, the duo who
co-wrote and co-produced the triple platinum
single "Whoot There It ls." They also
co-produced and co-wrote the monster hit
"Tootsee Roll" for the rap group 69 Boyz.
Enter our Quad City DJ's contest on Page 4!
■t----------
Pauea
--------
~
Congratulations ta the winner at our
Bette Midler Valentine's Day Contest!
Richard Moreau of
Mattapan, MA wrote
the winning Valentine's
poem to Bette Mid/er
(at right), which was
chosen by The Divine
Miss M herself (note
Bette's stamp of approval at the bottom of
the poem)
"......
THERE'S MUSIC IN THE AIR,
AND RANDY CRAWFORD'S
Revered jazz and R&B vocal stylist Randy Crawford
has already raided urban airwaves with her version of George Benson's "Give Me the Night." Now, club DJ's have gotten hold of the
12" remix of the song and are spinning the hell out of it. The song is
on Randy's new Bluemoon/Atlantic album Naked and True, which
also includes her soulful versions of Prince's "Purple Rain," Simply
Red's "Holding Back the Years," and Patrice Rushen 's "Forget Me
Nots." Here, Crawford talks about who she thinks her fans really
are.
STEREOTYPE: Your new album Naked and True is so fine.
Randy Crawford: Thank you. I'm really proud of this project.
SI: Now, someone told me you have a lot of gay fans.
RC,: I don't know who my fans are, quite frankly, except that they're
people-people who love music. Whoever listens and likes my
music, I don't think it matters what you are. You like it, you buy
it, and you enjoy it. I have friends that are gay, and I have friends
that are straight. I think music is sort of like food-it's just something that everybody has to have. But I don't like to place emphasis
on sexual preferences.
EVERYWHERE
ST: Did you ever sing in gay clubs?
RC.:Yes. When I first moved to Los Angeles, about 23 years ago,
some of the first jobs I had were in gay clubs. But I have to be very
honest with you-for me, it was a difficult thing to see all of
those beautiful men embracing each other when l wanted a man so
badly myself. But I made some wonderful friends during that time.
ST: The remix of "Give Me the Night" is getting some play in gay
clubs.
RC: I know. Are they going to
start having Randy Crawford
look-alike contests like they do
for Judy Garland?
ST: [laughs] Yeah, that's the
next step--drag queens dressed
up like Randy Crawford.
RC.:That's fine, but the fake
Randys better not be better
than the real Randy.
SI: No chance of that.
-SINNERMAN
the major label debut from ....
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DeeDee'a
Fred Hersch Meets Billy Strayhorn
"I used to visit alJ the very gay places, those
come what may places," goes the first line of the classic Billy Strayhorn song "Lush Life." Nonesuch
Records has recently released a new album by pianist
Fred Hersch called Passion Flower: Fred Hersch
Plays Billy Strayhorn. Produced, arranged, and orchestrated by Hersch, the CD is a tribute to the great
jazz composer/lyricist, who is familiar to jazz
aficionados as Duke Ellington's creative alter ego.
Stephen Holden of The New York Times calls
Passion Flower a "voluptuous collection of music,"
adding that Hersch's performances of "Day Dream"
and "Lush Life" "exude an exotic hothouse aroma."
The openly gay Hersch has twice been nominated for a Grammy, and has
released 13 albums as a leader and participated on more than 70 other recordings as a
soloist, arranger or producer. Hersch has also used his musical expertise to help raise
money to fight AIDS. He produced Last Night When We Were Young: The Ballad Album,
a CD benefiting Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS, and featuring performances by over a dozen major jazz artists, including George Shearing, Bobby Watson,
Phil Woods, and Toots Thielemans. Hersch was also the music composer for four one-hour
television programs about AIDS called Positive Living With HIV, which will air on PBS
later this year.
/101111e11
All right, you blues babies. Have I got a
soundtrack for you! It's called Heaven's Prisoners,
and it's on Code Blue/Atlantic Records. It's a
virtual who's-who of the blues world, with songs by
B.B. King, Buddy Guy, the infamous Stevie Ray
Vaughan and Miss Aretha FrankJin. And there's a
fine band called The Hoax on there too.
The movie is a New Line Cinema release
and hits theaters May 3. It stars the handsome
future husband of Miss Dee Dee, Mr. Alec
Baldwin, as well as Eric Roberts, Mary Stuart
Masterson, Teri Hatcher and Kelly Lynch. I
personally haven't seen the movie yet, but if it's
anything like the soundtrack, watch out!!!!!!!!
So, you girls
listen to your older sister,
and go buy this CD and
watch how quick you
become a blues baby
just like me! Bye-bye
for now!
~ ~
Enjoy\,:,,:,~
'
Climb aboard the
Quad City DJ's
"Train" and
stereoiii#l@sTAFF
Peter Galvin .................................................................. Editor
Michael W. Rodriguez ................................. Fashion Director
Marc Mannino ......................................................... Assistant
Miss DeeDee .......................................... Queen of the Night
Stereo Type Headquarters: 75 Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10019
'De/D~
Wi.n CD's!
The Quad City DJ's new
club hit "C'mon 'N Ride It
(The Train)" certainly
isn't
the first
song with the word
"train" in it,
now is it?
-----------------------,
To receive more information about Atlantic artists, please
fill out and return to: Atlantic Records, 75 Rockefeller Plaza,
New York, NY 10019 ATTN: MWR
NAME:
ADDRESS:
CITY/STATE/ZIP:
The first
person to
send us a list
of five songs
with the word "train"
in ±he
title
will win ten of the
Atlantic
Group's hottest
CD's. Five runners-up
will
win a CDS of "C'mon and Ride
It (The Train),"
plus a special Quad City DJ's train
whistle.
Send entries, along with your name,
address and phone number to :
Quad City DJ's Contest
75 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10019
ATTN: MWR
AND REMEMBER TO ALWAYS
Whistle While You
Work It!!!!