Category Archives: music

How to handle the news that your favorite singer is transgender

Posted on 9 May 2012 | Leave a comment

And if I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman
My mother once told me she would have named me Laura
I’d grow up to be strong and beautiful like her.
-The Ocean, Against Me!

Last night Rolling Stone broke the news that Tom Gabel, lead singer of punk rock band Against Me!, had come out as transgender and plans to begin living as a  woman. Most people who read the article probably thought, “Tom who? Against what?” I started listening to Against Me! four years ago after seeing them perform at the 2008 Warped Tour in Cleveland. I immediately fell in love with their music and developed a major crush on Gabel and his habit of taking off his shirt while performing.

Needless to say, the news that Tom is becoming Laura was a total shock. But after taking several steps that I made up a long the way, it finally started to sink in.

1. Read the headline on RollingStone.com: “Tom Gabel of Against Me! Comes Out as Transgender.” Reread it. Read it again. Then read it three more times.

2. Stare at your computer screen while sputtering out, “What? What?”

3. Proceed to laugh awkwardly for a couple of minutes. (You’re not laughing at transgender people. You’re laughing because you have no other way to comprehend this.)

4. Pause “The Colbert Report” so this breaking news has your full attention.

5. Proceed to Google Tom Gabel and read every news story you can until the facts are ingrained in your head.

6. Also Google gender dysphoria so you don’t feel like an ignorant fool.

7. Turn on iTunes and listen to Against Me!’s song, “The Ocean.” Think about that voice: scratchy, punk rock, masculine.

8. Selfishly wonder how Against Me! will ever sound the same when Tom’s voice becomes Laura’s voice.

9. Call yourself a selfish twat for being more concerned with your favorite band than  your favorite singer.

10. Come to the conclusion you’ve known all along: Everyone deserves to be his or herself, to be comfortable in their own skin. Realize that what Laura’s doing is pretty amazing and inspiring. And totally punk rock.

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Back together for the kids

Posted on 28 April 2012 | Leave a comment

Yesterday I was browsing the Cleveland House of Blues calendar when I saw a name that made me do a double take: The Early November.

When the band took an “indefinite hiatus” in 2007 I assumed, like any smart music fan, that one of my favorite bands just broke up. You can call it whatever you want–indefinite hiatus/ taking time off/ working on our side projects means, “We’re breaking up.”  I was crushed, but I will give The Early November major credit for going out with a bang. They released an ambitious triple disc record called  ”The Mother, the Mechanic, and the Path.” It was ambitious and it could have gone either horribly wrong or amazingly awesome. Fortunately, it went the latter, and it’s still one of my favorite albums. Their final tour with Melee and The Rocket Summer was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Then again, it might have been due to the fact that I knew they were breaking up. (And I had backstage passes.)

But after the tour ended, the band moved on. Ace Enders started a solo career. Joe Marro joined Hellogoodbye. But in 2009 there were a few hints that the band was at least thinking of the idea of getting back together. They played a show at The Electric Factory in Philadelphia last  September. Then they played another show at the Starland Ballroom on the day after in November. And then they played three more in December. And then they decided why not go into the studio and start recording again? And then I happened to be browsing the Internet and noticed that all this had led to a new tour and a new record.

I was wrong. Sometimes an indefinite hiatus is just that.

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The day the music got really sad

Posted on 6 January 2012 | Leave a comment

It’s official.

My entire youth fits into one New York City subway tote. Granted, a few things are missing like Gilmore Girls seasons 1 – 7, a handful of neon jelly bracelets and a  very beat up pair of red Converses. However the bag does hold my once monstrous CD collection, or what’s left of it.

Around my junior year, I began purging my CD collection. I got rid of anything I’d be embarrassed for someone to see. (I’m looking at you ‘NSYNC “No Strings Attached.”) That was also the time I stopped buying new CDs. After much dogged determination to hold on to the good ole days when new music meant going to Best Buy not clicking “purchase” on iTunes, I finally began buying all my music digitally. The music might not have died that day but it sure sounded melancholy.

Today–or rather tomorrow when I haul my tote bag to The Exchange and see what my youth amounts to in dollars in cents–the music will have unofficially died. All the CDs I’m selling will have a forever home on my iPod, Janis, (as in Joplin), but it still feels a tad bittersweet.

There’s no need to keep them. They take up valuable shelf space and rarely do I pop a CD into my Bose player. It’s much easier to just plug in Janis and hit shuffle. But those CDs got me through my awkward high school years when I wanted to dress like Penny Lane from “Almost Famous” and date the lead guitarist. They got me through college when I struggled with classes, tried to deal with my OCD, and spent nights bemoaning boys with my roommate. Music was and is a huge part of my life, and my collection of 200+ CDs went along with it. I worry that no one will know I’m cool just by looking at my CD collection. After all, scrolling through an iPod just isn’t as romantic.

I remember the mix CDs my friends and I made constantly. I remember the summer of ’06 when my favorite album was The Ataris “So Long, Astoria.” I remember buying CDs from earnest musicians peddling their wares outside the gates of Warped Tour in Cincinnati. I remember singing along to “Hands Down” and “New American Classic” and “Empty Apartment.” I remember when I was convinced no man would ever make me feel the way Chris Carrabba could when he strums that guitar.

I still remember everything.

 

 

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