Out Artists on the Rise
Team Gina’s expressive brand of rap combines their shared experience as children of the ’80s, and their love of all things pop.
The Seattle-based duo of Gina Genius, 27, and Gina Bling, 26, audaciously sample Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back,” simultaneously referencing My Little Pony, and themes from the queer rights movement.
“We’re synthesizing all the elements of pop culture that we grew up with and mashing them up to create something new,” Genius. “We’re also trying to bring a perspective that’s kind of utopian—we want to represent the perfect queer paradise that doesn’t exist yet, that maybe exists at our shows.” Components? “Well, there’d be really great outfits,” muses Genius, giggling. “And really great dance moves.”
While Gina Bling is a Seattle-born former “musical theatre junkie,” Genius, who hails from D.C. via Brooklyn, is a former folk singer. The beat-heavy duo, who met in 2006 at a Scream Club show, sport matching attire (think booty shorts, wristbands) when they break it down every first Friday at Seattle’s Wild Rose bar. Their debut CD, gina gina revolution, was released this year by Crunks Not Dead and Don’t Stop Believin’ Records.
The two giggly femmes, who just finished touring with MondoHomo Dirty South, share one other love: butch girls. Hence these memorable lyrics from their Sir Mix-sampled track “Butch/Femme”: “I like butch girls and I cannot lie/You other femmes can’t deny/When a butch walks in all the femmes wanna fuss/’Cause it’s like one of them and thirty of us.”
For more on Team Gina, visit myspace.com/teamgina. –Melody Wells
Hip-hoppers to country crooners, this year’s up-and-comers are here, queer and ready to entertain
Kitty Rose
Classic country singer/songwriter Kitty Rose can croon with a fervor evocative of preceding top shelf country queens Tammy Wynette and Patsy Cline.
Though she’s received acclaim for her country debut, ironically titled, Greatest Hits, the singer began as Katharine Chase, an active musician serving as bassist in various punk and rock bands. It wasn’t until her arrival on the San Francisco “twang scene” in the mid-‘90s when she revisited the country-western sound that was part of her
childhood in Texas.
“It’s unique to be female and be in a bus traveling cross-country—walking into biker bars and not knowing what’s going to happen.” She studied the road lives of her female country idols, and says, “I could identify completely with them.”
Rose has been met with ample support as an out lesbian musician, and she blatantly mentions sexuality in her songs. “Even still, the queer stuff flies over their heads.”
After winning the Outmusic Award for Best Debut Female Artist of 2005, Rose wasted no time in developing her act past cover songs. Her newest album Live at the Rhyman (named as an homage to the legendary Nashville venue) demonstrates her sharp capacity as a songwriter with her signature brand of humor.
When she’s not slinging a guitar, the singer lives true to her cowgirl persona: herding cattle on horseback at her Hopland, Calif. ranch community.
So how does the alter-ego Kitty Rose deviate from the humble pie girl from Texas? “She’s funnier and she dresses better.”
To learn more, visit kittyrose.com. –PC
