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6 days ago | 
slantmagazine.com | Steve Erickson
Kali Uchis’s 2024 Spanish-language album Orquideas offered a soothing balm for a world in chaos, and the mood enveloping her English-language follow-up, Sincerely, is even more blissful.
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1 week ago | 
gaycitynews.com | Steve Erickson
This May, Gay City News reviews the latest albums by indie rock band Model/Actriz, whose singer Cole Haden is gay, and queer, non-binary R&B singer Fielded. Model/Actriz | “Pirouette” | True PantherThe post-punk revival is now into its third decade. We’ve heard infinite variations on music created in New York, London and Manchester between 1978 and 1981. Those innovations have been pushed to the point of exhaustion. Model/Actriz bring the requisite scratchy guitar and vertiginous dance beats.
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2 weeks ago | 
richmondsentinel.ca | Steve Erickson |Steve Daniel
President Donald Trump and his Cabinet spent the better part of their meeting touting the administration’s record on everything from immigration to the economy. But the president also got worrisome news Wednesday: The U.S. economy shrank at a 0.3 per cent annual pace from January through March, the first drop in three years. It was slowed by a surge in imports as companies in the United States tried to bring in foreign goods before Trump imposed massive tariffs.
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2 weeks ago | 
gaycitynews.com | Steve Erickson
The Prismatic Ground festival, currently in its fifth year, has a very specific mission: showcasing experimental documentaries. It’s always resisted defining exactly what that means. Since the first installment took place online (by necessity, in the spring of 2021), Prismatic Ground continues to make much of its lineup available for free via its website. The festival is organized in five “waves,” grouped loosely by theme.
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3 weeks ago | 
slantmagazine.com | Steve Erickson
There’s no easier way to piss off a headbanger than by calling Ghost a metal band. As songs like the ABBA-meets-Def Leppard “Spillways” and disco-leaning “Dance Macabre” have proven, they’re a pop group with a penchant for pentagrams. The Swedish band’s reliance on Satanic theatrics and elaborate lore—such as the way they represent a “clergy” bringing about the birth of the antichrist—can feel, well, a bit silly.
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3 weeks ago | 
gaycitynews.com | Steve Erickson
Through her first three solo albums, Julien Baker established her voice as a piano-based singer/songwriter and a rocker. After reaching a new height of stardom with boygenius, she is returning with a country album made as a duo with fellow lesbian musician TORRES. It’s a labor of love, in the works since 2020, not an obvious stepping stone in Baker’s career. Moves from pop or rock into country always threaten to be posturing, but “Send a Prayer My Way” reflects both singers’ southern roots.
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1 month ago | 
gaycitynews.com | Steve Erickson
“Queens of Drama” spans 50 years, taking that much time to map out of the movement between two songs: “Don’t Touch” and “Fisting to the Heart.” Queer, non-binary director Alexis Langlois took the most baroque fantasies inspired by pop singers and their fandom, running wild with them in this musical. Their film takes wild delight into garish, bright colors. The production design is gloriously tacky. Even so, it never settles into a comfort zone of mere prettiness.
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1 month ago | 
gaycitynews.com | Steve Erickson
This month, Gay City News reviews the latest albums by queer singer/songwriter Lucy Dacus and trans artist OHYUNG. Lucy Dacus | “Forever Is a Feeling” | Geffen | March 28thWith her major label debut, “Forever Is a Feeling,” Lucy Dacus stands in a far different position than the one she occupied when her last solo album dropped in 2021.
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1 month ago | 
slantmagazine.com | Steve Erickson
One reliable aspect of a Destroyer album is that it will mark a change in style from the Canadian band’s previous release. But regardless of the genre or genres—glam rock, country, synth-pop, and more—that the group dabbles in, another constant in its music is frontman Daniel Bejar’s patented sardonic worldview. Destroyer’s 14th studio album, Dan’s Boogie, reportedly ended a period of writer’s block for the singer-songwriter, and the songs here sound like they were conceived in a jam session.
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2 months ago | 
richmondsentinel.ca | Steve Erickson
Vancouver police have issued an Amber Alert for two-year-old Theodore Lim, who they say is believed to be in imminent danger. Police say the boy is thought to have been taken from a location on East Broadway by his father, Davis Lim. They say Theodore Lim has a medical condition that requires a ventilator, but he is currently without a piece of that equipment and may go into medical distress.
