Elias is a singer, writer, academic, activist, and performer who travels internationally (when he can afford it) and by land (more often, thank you Canada) and is living currently in Chicago, Il. He writes music and performs with various guest artists including Jenny Urban, Madsen Minax (of Actor Slash Model), Kadji Amin (of Humble Tripe), and others.

He is also in the band The Homoticons.

Elias Krell is a PhD student in the Performance Studies program at Northwestern University. He received his Bachelors of Arts and of Music from Oberlin College and Conservatory where he completed a five-year Double Degree program in Classics and Voice. He got a Masters in Music from the San Francisco Conservatory and sang opera professionally for three years before coming to Northwestern in 2008.

He entered the Comparative Literary Studies program at Northwestern and then transferred into Performance Studies to pursue his interests in doing and studying performance. He is also active touring and performing music around the country.

Links to Elias Krell:

Official Website

Myspace

Schmekel is New York City’s only All-Jewish All-Transgender Polka-Punk band. Their music sounds a bit like The Kinks crashed a Bar Mitzvah, while their lyrics combine bawdy humor and critical awareness, encouraging audiences to laugh at butt jokes while deconstructing systems of oppression. Schmekel’s triumvirate of bespectacled transsexual singer-songwriters comprises guitarist Lucian Kahn, keyboardist Ricky Riot (formerly of Twilight of the Idle), and bassist Nogga Schwartz. Genderqueer drummer Simcha Halpert-Hanson keeps them in check.

Lucian’s musical and literary work under his previous identity includes performances with polystylistic new music composer Alex Temple and publications in The Exquisite Corpse. A recovering academic, Lucian constantly seeks out new ways to misuse his MA in History of Religions. His noble dream to start a band of Jewish trans men called Schmekel became a reality when he met Ricky and Nogga at the New York City Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center’s Trans-Masculine Drop-In Group. Ricky and Nogga had met in Hebrew School. Ricky’s former band, Twilight of the Idle, released two albums and played at a variety of well-known queer events, such as Brooklyn Pride, Tranny Roadshow and Camp Trans. He is featured in Trans Fusions II, the second compilation by Trans-Genre. Ricky knows Simcha from Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls. Simcha studies and thinks about Judaism, Jewish consciousness, writing and how to combine all three in poetic and persuasive argument formats. They are the former drummer of the obscure Boston band, The Jackie Hoez and the current trans-awareness educator for New School University’s faculty and students.

Schmekel is currently raising trans visibility and a ruckus all over New York City, and is in the midst of planning an East Coast tour.

Links to Schmekel:

Schmekel Videos on Youtube

Schmekel on FB

Article featuring Schmekel on Jewcy

(Ksenya) Leah B. stands militantly behind a philosophy and evolving concept entitled Gender EDGE. Utilizing punk ideals and a constant DIY approach Gender EDGE focuses on the continued empowerment of the transgender / gender variant community through artistic mechanisms.

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Glamtronica

Find Music for Alien Beauty by clicking the Links Below!

Official Alien Beauty Website

Friend Alien Beauty on Facebook!

Alien Beauty on Myspace!

Alien Beauty on Soundcloud

Too Much Information (TMI) plays the music of the “post-Boomer generation”—70s and 80s classic rock—as well as a mix of older and newer hits. The band covers a wide range of artists, from The Eagles and Eric Clapton to Bonnie Raitt and The B52s. They have a special knack for blues by way of Muddy Waters and Big Mamma Thornton, and a growing list of mixed-genre original tunes. Their musical versatility is apparent in every set. Not only do they play a wide range of pop, rock, funk, and blues, but five of the six take the main mic from time to time.

Lead singer Michael Woodward’s bluesy tenor voice is complimented by the rich vocal blends of Traci Payer, Jennifer R. Lopez (rhythm guitar), Jerry Diaz (percussion) and Bruce Blackstone (lead guitar & harmonica). The instrument section showcases the lead guitar magic of Blackstone, a Tucson music scene veteran formerly of Tucson favorites the Rusty Boys, the Wayback Machine, and the Dave Marsh Band. Sandra Starling keeps the party hopping on bass. TMI made its first public appearance at the Epic Café on Fourth Avenue in Tucson on March 25, 2005. In June 2006, TMI was named “Runner Up – Best Cover Band” at the Tucson Area Music Awards, less than 18 months after their first performance. They have played a number of local events including Tucson Folk Festival (2007, 2008), Fourth Avenue Street Fair (2007), Child & Family Resources’ Lobster Landing (2007), Pima County Child Abuse Prevention Council’s “Never Shake a Baby” Benefit (2006, 2007), Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation’s AIDSWALK (2006, 2007), Humane Society of Southern Arizona’s Doggie Boogie (2005, 2006), Phoenix Pride (2006, 2007), and Tucson’s Pride in the Desert (2006, 2007, 2008). The band has travelled as far as Atlanta, Georgia to headline the 2007 Southern Comfort Conference and was similarly featured at the April 2008 International Foundation for Gender Education Conference in Tucson.

In May 2008, they played for the National Stonewall Democrats’ Black & White Ball. TMI’s music is universally fun and familiar, with a broad appeal to youth and seniors alike. The band represents a diverse spectrum of cultures and identities, which is evident in the selection and arrangement of the tunes they choose–and especially in their originals.

Links to TMI:

Official Website

Myspace

Reverbnation

Youtube

Facebook

Through both music and film Actor Slash Model addresses issues of gender identity, gender performance and politics, a sex positive ideal, and the art making process.

As a duet music project, Actor Slash Model creates fun, quirky, entertaining music exploring gender and sex positivity as well as the most basic inspirations to all people: love, heartbreak, joy, pain, etc., set up in what they like to call an “Indie-Grass” musical style, often incorporating costumes and vaudvillian performative styles. The duet has toured the United States including performing in New York, Boston, Philadephia, Washington DC, Baltimore, Pittsburg, Clevland, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Santa Fe, Los Angelels, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and of course, their hometown, Chicago, amongst other places.

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Watch Videos from Actor Slash Model

Links for Actor Slash Model:

Official Website
Actor Slash Model On Myspace
Facebook link for Riot Acts the Movie
Facebook link for Actor Slash Model
The Homoticons – the latest brain child of madsen minax (of actor slash model), jesse alexander (of cobalt and the hired guns) and elias krell (ex opera singer goes maverick accordionist) make up the homotional rollercoaster that is THE HOMOTICONS.

Threat Level – This is a quarterly screening series of both new and old short (maximum 30 minutes) queer film/video work.

Brooklyn, NY

Folk-blues piano rocker Ricky Riot writes songs about the joys and sorrows of being Queer. He released two albums under his previous band’s name, Twilight of the Idle. The debut album, “Modesty,” features his many different sides: heartfelt spoken-word pieces and timing experimentation lightened by bluesy cabaret. His second album, “The Only Queers In The Room,” is upbeat and socially conscious, with anthemic hooks to sing along to and collaborative songs, including poet Jan Clausen’s “If Peace Breaks Out”.

In addition to recording with his new tenor voice as it rapidly dropped, Ricky further explored blues piano-playing and large-band arranging on this album. He is featured in Trans Fusions II, the second compilation by Trans-Genre. Ricky is currently engineering an EP for his new Jewish punk-polka band Schmekel.

Ricky Riot’s past performances include Brooklyn Pride, Camp Trans and Make Music New York 2009 and 2010, the Tranny Roadshow’s NYC show, the late Cattyshack, Cornell University, Smith College, and many house parties, street fairs, art openings, benefit shows, and other community events.

Links to Ricky Riot:

Ricky Riot on Myspace

London, UK

Breaking Communications – The name for the band came from a song we wrote called “breakdown in communication” as a sort of homage to the Led Zeppelin track “Communication Breakdown” (… see, “then it’s not just a clever name”)

Alexandra Tovey : (Vox, Guitars, Keyboards, Theremin, & “Sp. F.X.”) – also DJ’s in various dingy pubs in South London and likes going out to twinkly places with loud music, throwing herself around like a Dutch Elm in 1979, and getting off her head a little because “… i’m currently enjoying being the 16-year-old girl i wasn’t allowed to be when i really was 16 (at the height of acid house, old skool rave bunnies!)….” she uses multitudinous knackered machinery and instruments that are clinging on for dear mortality. however, there have been various cameos by friends under the moniker “Pylons On Mars”. – Most likely to say “… d’ya want a cup of Tea?”, – Least likely to say “… ooo, i fancy a bacon sarnie!”.

Random Dent : (Vox, Percussion, Harmonica, & “Sp. F.X.”) – grew up in the wilds of deepest, darkest, Essex, and being “not only the only gay in the village” left her family home and moved to London, had various crappy jobs, met a nice girl from South Wales, married, had three beautiful children, separated from the nice girl from South Wales. moved back to London, met another really nice girl from deepest Surrey, whom she is living with – (very happy thanks).  Met Ms. Tovey thru her music (“Twisted Touch”), and now can be found smiling maniacally at passengers on the 466 bus. – Most likely to say “… tea? … milk, no sugar please”, – Least likely to say “… chocolate? … no thanks.

Check Out this Video From Random Dent:

More Music and info from Random Dent on Reverbnation!

Austin Texas

Katy Koonce is the front person for the Austin Texas queer rock band Butch County. Koonce is a trans-identified psychotherapist in Austin and has played with TX gender warriors, Raunchy Reckless and the Amazons, who first passed from the spiritual realm into the physical world of Austin, TX in March of 1999. Since their momentous inception, this unique tribe of Xena-inspired rockers battled in the name of queer rock love above and beyond the Lone Star State.

Accompanied by a repertoire of slide imagery to assist in the narration of their travels and relying heavily on large dressing rooms and hoola-hoops; Raunchy and her Amazons lived and loved by the warrior code so dramatically established in their epic song: ‘WWXD?’ [That's What Would Xena Do? For you listeners at home.] Described as “a terrifying Xena two-part episode, or more aptly, a painfully twisted, season-long arc” (Kate X Messer- The Austin Chronicle), the Amazons leave every show cliffhanging with the promise and the request to keep the dream alive! BATTLE ON, AMAZONS!

Koonce performed as Capt’n Skallyfag and Koonce the Vulger Viking taking the front person position each show to perform the crowd favorite Manchest. After the Amazons went on ice Koonce begin writing and put together her first solo project called KOONCE and recorded the CD The New 45. After a blazing set at gaybigaygay in Austin in 2008 the band was reformed under the name Butch County and returned to tear it up at gaybigaygay in 2009 with special guest Christeen Vale. Butch County is a band that sounds like a love-child of old school ACDC and Janis Joplin. Rachael Shannon (Raunchy Reckless of Raunchy Reckless and the Amazons) says… “Absolutely infectious. When Katy Koonce takes to the stage, souls sigh with sweet relief to be joined in the magnificent inertia of the super-powered inspirational heartforce that Katy Koonce joyously bleeds onstage.

Check out this video of Butch County feat. Katy Koonce!

Katy brings it everytime, leaving no self-indulgent fantasy unfullfilled, and you love her for it! Whether heaving her manchest and flaunting her horns as Koonce the Vulgar Viking; sharing hearty laughter under a stubbled suscpicious grin and cockpiece as Captain Scallifag; or revelling in the fantabulous effervescent feminine wiles of Bette Midler in her Bette Midler routine, Katy mesmorizes her audiences and leaves a trail of hearts delighting in tales of her prowess and unpredictablity. All this and the vocal chords to match!!!

Katy loves her rock n roll and it loves her. In Katy lies a very special exhibition of how 21st century culture might like to manifest itself. She is a place and she is a time. Go there.” Kate X Messer of the Austin Chronicle says: “Katy Koonce should be required to come with the warning label: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! Or else who knows how many wannabes’ll swallow jagged shard after jagged shard in desperate attempts to approximate that broken-glass tenor.”

Links to Katy Koonce:

Katy Koonce on Myspace

Watch another cool video here!

queercore/punk

Minneapolis, MN

Tough Tough Skin takes the stage with a punk sensibility and a strong nod to the Homocore bands of the 90s. This Minneapolis rock trio draws on a range of influences, from classical and blues to riot grrl, and layers playful but propulsive bass and guitar with energetic vocals and breakneck rhythms that will shake you to your feet and get you on the floor.

Check out this Rockin’ Tough Tough Skin Music Video!

Links to Tough Tough Skin:

Tough Tough Skin – Official Website

Friend TTS – on Myspace & find out about upcoming shows!

TTS Videos – on Youtube

Buy The TTS Album “Let it Sink Down” – from Queer Control Records