Tag: queer punk

Partner open up their “Big Gay Hands” with new single.

Photo by Lesley Marshall

Partner have shared the video for one of their most anticipated songs and a natural queer anthem “Big Gay Hands.” A live favourite from the past 3 years, Big Gay Hands is the third single, from Partner’s Never Give Up (November 20th on You’ve Changed Records) the follow up to their break-out debut album, In Search of Lost Time. 
 

BIG GAY HANDS

“This song is about a wild night on the town filled with queer desire. It is an important song to us because it expresses a feeling we know is shared by many. There are a lot of songs out there about women’s bodies but this is the only song we know about big gay hands. This song is dedicated to the hotties and to those who love them.”
– Partner

Never Give Up is Partner’s second full-length album, following 2017’s In Search of Lost Time. In the years since their first release, the band has developed their “post classic rock” sound, leaving behind 90s rock comparisons. The new album retains elements that will be familiar to Partner fans, such as guitar solos and humorous subject matter, but with more structurally adventurous songs and abstract lyrics. They have spent the last several years on tour with drummer Simone TB, and this is evident in the looser and more confident performances captured on the album. Never Give Up was recorded by Steve Chaley at Palace Sound in the summer of 2019. 

The band described the process of making the album. “In October of 2018 we found ourselves in a dark and quiet rehearsal space. We were practicing for a two person show, the first one we had played in many years. We were at a crossroads as a band, and we had no idea what the future held. All we knew was that we were going to be making music together. We weren’t sure what this music would sound like or who would be playing it with us. And then the songs started to arrive. Some of them fully formed, like the first songs we wrote. It was as much a surprise to us as anyone else when we realized we had the beginnings of our second album.”

Not all the songs came so easily. Some took over a year to complete. Some taunted the band with their elusivity. Some forced Partner to rip them apart and build them back together more than once. Never Give Up was written in rehearsal spaces, in the band’s bedrooms, in a condo, in friends’ and strangers’ houses, Air BnBs, in a cafe and on Josee’s couch and in the studio, and in the booth. “We talked. We were honest with each other and honest with ourselves. Sometimes it was a lot. And when it got to be almost too much we would repeat to each other, first as a joke and then not as a joke at all, ‘never give up’.”
 

Partner Links
Big Gay Hands – https://smarturl.it/p8u9de
Website: http://www.partnerband.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/partner.music.band/
Bandcamp: https://partnerband.bandcamp.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/partner_band/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/partner_band
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/partnerband

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Mar at Mar on Music.]

Review: Ezra Furman – Twelve Nudes

Upon hearing Ezra Furman’s new album, Twelve Nudes, for the first time in its entirety, my first thought was, “That’s a scorcher.”

Furman himself has claimed this is his band’s “punk record” made in a time of furious anger at the current political landscape.  It’s also an embrace / exploration of his sexuality.  The album cover features someone peeling back their face / façade to reveal a mental image of a bevy of somewhat androgynous, nude figures having a languid moment on a rocky landscape.  Furman’s mind, it seems, can be a rough place, but he’s learning to be at peace with it and to find his inner beauty.

The opening track, “Calm Down AKA I Should Not Be Alone,” has Furman barely able to contain his rage at what’s happening in the world around him (“I should not be alone, the way things are going.”).  The bass line carries the whole tune while Furman shouts not just to the back of the recording studio, but also to the parking lot behind the building.  “Evening Prayer AKA Justice” is a rallying call for his fellow oddballs and outcasts (“I wasted my twenties in submission.  I thought I was outside the system.  I was rollin’ over for wealthy power, as if they really cared about me.  The kids are just getting started.  They’ve only just learned how to howl, and most of them have thrown in the towel before they have turned twenty-three.”).  Furman’s vocals throughout it are somehow fiercer than the previous track.  Furman has mentioned how he sometimes had a sore throat after recording the tracks on this record, and I believe him.

“Nobody cares if you’re dying until you’re dead,” he sings on “Transition from Nowhere,” which reminds me of Dan Bejar songs in its sound and Furman’s vocal style.  “Rated R Crusaders” is practically an early Devo cut with its rapid post-punk lyrics and wild, weird guitar riffs.  “Trauma” is a hard-hitting, Lou Reed-like rocker (Furman has spoken of Reed’s songwriting influencing his.) about rich white dudes literally getting away with rape and murder.

“Thermometer” has Furman proclaiming his love for rock and roll and how it changed him forever.  The 1950’s-flavored “I Want to Be Your Girlfriend” has Furman singing a love song to someone who isn’t interested in him (“Honey, I know I don’t have the body you want in a girlfriend.  What I’m working with is not ideal, but maybe, baby, it’s not about what you thought that you wanted, it’s about what I can make you feel.”).  It’s a pretty oasis in a middle of a sea of rage, which we’re right back at sea on with the loud, fuzzy, shredding “Blown” (which sounds like a lost Nirvana demo) and “My Teeth Hurt.”

“I’m alone in America,” Furman sings in “In America,” a song that both lambasts the country’s hatred and racism, but also praises what it can be if we’d put our differences aside and focus on our commonality.  The album ends with sage advice on what to do when The Man is bringing you down – “What Can You Do but Rock ‘n’ Roll.”  It’s a banger to send the album, and us, out on a high note.

Which is what Furman has been encouraging us to do all along – take the high road, even when that road leads to a rocky desert in your mind.  You will find the high notes there.  You will find beauty and love there.

Keep your mind open.

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