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Get Exposed to Queer Music During Atlanta Pride

Southern Exposure, the successful weekly live music series at Blake’s on the Park, will give Atlanta’s LGBT community a chance to hear the group’s established roster of LGBT musicians – renowned, rising and underground – in the first annual Southern Exposure Gay Pride Music Festival, scheduled to coincide with Atlanta Pride. The event will be held at Front Page News (Midtown location) on Friday, July 4th & Saturday, July 5th, The festival will feature 14 local and two national musical acts. Solo artists and full bands, all fronted by GLBT performers, will perform their uniquely queer approach to folk, spoken word, electronic, punk, country and rock music.

Southern Exposure Pride Schedule (Subject to change)

Friday July 4th
Doors open 6 p.m.

Richard Solomon, Barb Carbon + Hollin Gammage + Arrie Bozman, Miss Xanna Don’t, Mike Rickard, Jessica Dunnagan, The Sexual Side Effects, Jet Blk Joy featuring: Emily Kate Boyd, Angela Motter and West, Eric Himan

Saturday July 5th
Doors open 6 p.m.

The Wayne Fishell Experiment + Amy Lashley, Julia Carroll + Corey.E.Houlihan, Guyton Maurice, Mr.B, Sean Kagalis, Flat Cat, Tracy Rice, Richard Bicknell & the Shameless Lovers

Representatives from Chriskids.org “Rainbow House Program” will be on hand both nights to accept contributions for homeless and displaced GLBT youth in Atlanta. This is a grassroots effort to raise awareness and create a positive impact in the community.

Get exposed to gay and lesbian music at The Southern Exposure Gay Pride Music Festival. There is no cost to attend this event. Get your gay and lesbian music fix at:

Front Page News, 1104 Crescent Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30309
Phone: (404) 897-3500

Ample off street parking is available, as well as a full parking deck across the street from the venue. The festival is all ages until 9 p.m., 21 and over after 9 p.m.

Team Gina Reproduces the 80’s

If you lived through the 1980s, liked leg warmers or shoulder pads, be warned: you could have a faux-hawk flashback when the Seattle duo Team Gina comes back to Georgia just after Atlanta Pride. Gina Bling and Gina Genius, the sum total of Team Gina, will come through the South on their “Product of the 80s” tour, in support of their new album of the same name released on June 17.

The Products of the Eighties Tour will be at Little King’s Shuffle Club in Athens, Ga. on July 8 and at Mary’s in East Atlanta on July 9. I first saw the Ginas perform at MondoHomo 2007, and caught such a fever that I had to dig out my old sweatbands. Their previous album, Gina Gina Revolution, features tunes with such catchy lyrics as: “Straight Boys Love Us (But We Like the Girls),” and “I like butch dykes.”

IMHO, the Ginas are both Bling and Genius. Part camp, part rap, part high school cheerleader, part 80s hair band, this team is not your typical lesbian music duo. Team Gina will really take you back, playfully remind you of all the fun we had during the Reagan years, and bring out your inner Flashdancer. As Gina Bling might say, the Team Gina experience is “a total Landsberry.” If you’re not hip to the latest Gina Slang, you’ll just have to go to the show in Athens or Atlanta and ask them yourselves.

If you’ve never had the Team Gina experience, get a glimpse in their latest video:

For more info on Team Gina and the Products of the 80s Tour, visit Gina Bling and Gina Genius on myspace at myspace.com/teamgina. You’ll find other cities and show dates there for their nationwide tour.

Gina Bling was just in Atlanta to MC a show at MondoHomo 2008. She is looking good, and it only made my baby dyke crush worse. Ah, to be young again. Like I was in the 80s.

MondoHomo Chock Full O’ Great Music

MondoHomo’s Chock Full O’ Nuts concert at Lenny’s was chock full ‘o fun. Bigg Nugg made a return appearance this year. A genuinely nice bear of a guy, Bigg Nugg’s homo hop is as contagious as his friendly approach to his fellow MondoHomies. His album La Revolucion (2007) is full o’ catchy rants that seem to spur us to action. The title track talks of a gay revolution that seems both in-your-face angry and uplifting. It’s an interesting mix. The track I Remember is one of those songs that took me days to get out of my head. If I could stop playing it several times a day, that might help.

After seeing Bigg Nugg at MondoHomo 2007, I had befriended him on myspace. I remember getting a thank you that struck me as written by Bigg Nugg directly — canned “marketing” by an agent or manager does not usually seem that genuine and gracious. His comment to me on myspace was the same as his autograph on the La Revolucion CD I bought at MondoHomo 2008: “Thanks for the support.” Bigg Nugg’s second thank-you was punctuated with a genuinely warm hug and smile. I like this guy, and his music.

Also performing at Lenny’s was DaLyrical, Atlanta’s own HomoHopper. I first saw her perform at Black Pride a couple of years ago. She struck me then as very talented onstage and almost painfully shy offstage. A couple of years later, she seems to be growing into the increasing attention. I did not have the chance to talk with her offstage, but her onstage performance was more connected and more confident that I remembered. DaLyrical is getting sexier, and her performance with Ohio’s Unecc got many of us hot from more than the Atlanta spring heat. Before her performance, DaLyrical shared that family tragedy had her distracted, but she put aside personal worries and gave the MondoHomo crowd all she had.

If you missed MondoHomo, you still have a chance to experience the triple threat of Bigg Nugg, DaLyrical and Unecc. They are touring together in a Unity Tour this year. Keep an eye on the Unity Tour ‘08 schedule so you won’t miss the chance to experience these talents in a city near you. With luck, maybe they’ll warm up Hotlanta again.

MondoHomo ‘08 > HomoHop

Photos from Friday night’s MondoHomo HomoHop concert at Lenny’s Bar.

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Team Gina's Gina Bling

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MondoHomos Meet at Mary’s

MondoHomo Dirty South ‘08 got off to a great start last night. The Homo-a-rama Dance Party at Mary’s in East Atlanta immediately followed the art opening at the Tilt Gallery downtown. Many of the artists and musicians performing at the event appeared at Mary’s for some social time with the MondoHomo team, other artists and the rest of us. When I woke up this morning still feeling a little tipsy, I knew MondoHomo was definitely underway.

I asked Kiki, one of the organizers of the alterna-queer arts and music festival, about her expectations for MondoHomo v. 2. Kiki says she anticipates an increase in attendance this year, and hopes it will continue to grow in popularity, scope and impact every year.

The first MondoHomo last year was held the weekend after Atlanta Pride. But with the drought-induced re-arranging of Atlanta events this summer, I suppose it doesn’t make much sense to tie another event on Pride’s coattails. Besides, MondoHomo deserves its own time and attention. It’s focused on queer art and music just to the left of the mainstream. Okay, make that way, far left of the mainstream. A lot of Pride’s purpose has always been inclusion and acceptance. MondoHomo is more about celebrating our differences–including the many differences within the queer community itself. The MondoHomo’s moved the festival to Memorial Day weekend, where it will stay for future festivals, according to Kiki.

The music starts tonight at 8:00 p.m. at Lenny’s Bar with MondoHomo HipHop.  See you there.

Indigo Girls Spread Love of Earth

Amy and Emily, known and loved as the Indigo Girls, have announced a special fund raising effort to benefit Honor the Earth. For the rest of February, 10 percent of all sales at the Indigo Girls’ official online store will go the non-profit organization, whose mission is to create awareness and support for Native environmental issues and to develop needed financial and political resources for the survival of sustainable Native communities.

Amy Ray is quoted on the Honor the Earth Website. describing the organization as “not just another environmental cause. The basic issues of human rights, justice and our own survival are at stake.”

Among the items for sale at the store are the Girls’ two latest CDs, an I.G. cap, and several t-shirts and sweatshirts. It’s a great time to add to your Amy and Emily attire, supporting a great cause at the same time. If your closet is already overflowing with t-shirts, you can always just donate directly to Honor the Earth.

The Indigo Girls have a long history of support for numerous causes important to the queer community and to humanity in general. Their 10 percent promotion is just another of their many contributions, which have the effect of not only generating interest and revenue for worthy causes, but also of improving perceptions of our community through their generosity and charity of spirit. Go buy something.

MondoHomo a Big Hit

Performers and spectators alike raved about the MondoHomo Dirty South 2007 festival, wrapping up today with a Mondo Mondo Revolution at the Eyedrum Gallery in Grant Park. Progressive queer artists and musicians from as far away as Seattle, New York City and Tampa descended on Atlanta for performances stretched over four nights and more than eight venues.  (Check out Life on Q’s photo album, chock full of MondoHomo candids.)

Team Gina helped kick off the event last Wednesday at The Earl in East Atlanta, with crowd-pleasing 80’s retro/rap/electro songs like “I Like Butch Dykes” and “Straight Boys love us (but we like the girls).” Gina Bling celebrated her birthday at the festival on Friday night, serenaded with that birthday song at The Drunken Unicorn. Gina Bling and Gina Genius then rounded out their Atlanta appearance with a final set in the oppressive Hotlanta weather in the parking lot at Lenny’s on Saturday afternoon. Both Gina’s reactions to MondoHomo was “awesome,” which you can hear for yourself in a Life on Q podcast coming soon. (Stay tuned for our exclusive interview.)

An art show at My Sister’s Room on Wednesday showcased a diverse mix of photography, sculpture, the abstract and the avante garde. On Thursday, driving rain couldn’t stop progressive queer poets at the Tower II, where local favorites from Cliterati, Theresa Davis and Athens, Ga.-based MC Bad Kat rhymed with acts from Florida to Canada.

Can Can gave MondoHomo an early gift of a pre-album-release-party album release, fast-forwarding their CD debut just for the Dirty South crowd. How to get the crowd on their feet and at the stage quickly? Try Can Can’s trick: Rolling out duct tape on the floor, the band invited all who support President Bush to stand behind the duct tape line and all opposed to get in front.

Saturday’s Mondo Circus in and outside Lenny’s bar was hot, both in terms of weather, arts & crafts, music and half-pipe skateboard action by Skate Like a Girl. Even Gina Genius got on a board for a spin. As the sun mercifully set, the circus moved indoors and got even hotter.

Asheville, North Carolina’s Rishing Appalachia started some knee-slapping with their unique homo-hillbilly-rock sound, featuring banjo, fiddle and washboard. Katz of Athens Boys Choir continued the country kitsch with her popular “Waffle House” performance. The evening then turned hip-hop with rousing performances by Katastrophe, Big Nugg and others. The Shondes got political with a punk pleaser about freeing Palestine.

The Mondo finale at Lenny’s came from the Ex-Members, the Durham, North Carolina trio of former members of the Butchies, Gerty!, Liquor Bike and Womyn of Destruction.

MondoHomo Dirty South 2007 will wind down this afternoon and evening with films screened at the Eyedrum, followed by a dance revolution by DJ Dr. Katz, DJ Duck and others. For those still hungering for more MondoHomo, local dining Diva Ria of Ria’s Bluebird will cater at the Eyedrum. Ria and her partner are among the visionaries behind the festival, and deserving of accolades for this first festival effort.

Overall, the event was well-organized, varied in the art and music presented, and a celebration of all things progressive and queer.