Sony’s new GLBT label. Valentine’s Day with John Waters and Diana Ross
TWISTED MUSIC Music With a Twist, the Sony/Columbia-affiliated major label dedicated to identifying and developing LGBT artists, recently announced its first two signed artists:
The Gossip, the Portland-based rock band, which recently opened for the Scissor Sisters on its European tour.
Kirsten Price, a London-bred classically trained singer and multi-instrumentalist who defies definition.
Both will release CDs this year.
Music With a Twist also just released two compilations:
The L Word L Tunes, which contains music from The L Word or inspired by the Showtime series.
Music With a Twist Revolutions, featuring the songs of 10 new GLBT artists being considered by the label. Artists featured on this CD include God-des & She, a female hip-hop duo from Wisconsin, and Israeli rocker Ivri Lider.
Wilderness Media & Entertainment, the gay media company that launched Music With a Twist, also produces Radio With a Twist, the nationally syndicated radio program that bills itself as gay-friendly. Local music maven JD Doyle, who produces the Queer Music Heritage segments for the Queer Voices program on KPFT, has criticized Radio With a Twist for airing little music by openly GLBT artists. The program airs locally on KHMX MIX 96.5, 10 p.m.-midnight Saturday. (Shhh. But don’t look for any information on the station website, because you won’t find it.) — Tim Brookover
Various Artists
A Date with John Waters
Consider this John Waters’ personal mix-tape of love songs, a Valentine’s Day gift with songs that stagger from charming to twisted. “Jet Boy Jet Girl,” about a young gay man made jealous when he sees his lover cheating with a woman makes a choice counterpoint to the funny “Johnny Are You Queer,” wherein a straight girl questions the object of her affections. “Big Girls Don’t Cry” sung by Edith “the Egg Lady” Massey couldn’t be funnier. Massey speaks her way through The Four Seasons cover with the same awkward charm in which she delivered her lines in Pink Flamingos and Polyester. Like the best of Waters’ early films, Mink Stole’s “Sometimes I Wish I had a Gun” is sensual and comically macabre. (“Sometimes I wish I had a gun ’cause competition isn’t fun. I’d aim it at those other gals and we’d see how fast they run.”) From New Line Records (www.NewLineRecords.com). — Review: Eric A.T. Dieckman
Diana Ross
I Love You
As a pop vocalist Diana Ross could never level entire cities, like Aretha, or hit notes appreciated only by German Shepherds, like Celine, but she did have a unique style that made her probably the most successful female recording star of the 1960s and ’70s. It’s great to report that some of the Ross magic lives on in her new release I Love You, her first studio album in six years. The new collection is made up mostly of oldies, including covers of Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You,” Paul McCartney’s “I Will,” and a fairly gutsy (for Ross) version of “To Be Loved,” which was written by Ross’s former boss Berry Gordy Jr. for Jackie Wilson back in 1958. This set of love songs is mostly cotton-candy lite, but the original Dream Gal’s voice is in fine shape, the orchestral arrangements are plush, and, overall, the CD won’t shatter any nearby glass. From Manhattan Records (www.manhattanrecords.com). — Review: Jack Varsi
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