CultureLiving the Fuck Out LoudRevolutionary
the queer black bands who said f**k it to conformity
What happens when you’re double-othered? You start a revolution. All hail these Queer Black musical trailblazers who give the finger to the gatekeepers and naysayers, and live their truth while doing it.
1. Danny Denial
Danny Denial – Photo by Camille Alexander Kennedy
This queercore, post-punk-inspired Seattle artist made their mark on the scene with their intense (and often graphic) visual album “Dethheads U.S.A.” and its accompanying EP “Dead Like Me.” This descent into both the darkness of the psyche and the external world continues on Denial’s latest release “F**ck Danny Denial,” letting listeners into a world of dissent, fear, love, and beyond.
2. Counterfeit Madison
Counterfeit Madison – Photo by Kate Sweeney
Nigerian-American Sharon Udoh — better known as Counterfeit Madison — is a queer, genre-transcending, composer, educator, and activist focused on the complexity of the human condition, revolution, and emotion. Playfully cited as “the granddaughter of James Brown and Kurt Cobain” on social media, Counterfeit Madison is a master of expressing raw emotion, whether covering legends like Sade and Nina Simone or on her own original compositions.
3. Meet Me at the Altar
Meet Me @ The Alter – Photo by Lindsey Byrnes
Blending straight-no-chaser pop-punk with a dash of metal, Meet Me at the Altar is just right for those craving more “punk” than “pop” (but still wanna bop). With songs like “Brighter Days (Are Before Us)” that make you wanna dance more than rage, and the all-too-relatable “Feel A Thing,” the band has a range that can quickly go from dark to light and back again. Formed as teenagers, Meet Me at the Altar challenges the ridiculous notion that queer women of color have no place in punk rock.
4. Skinny Girl Diet
Skinny Girl Diet – Photo by Katinka Herbert
Skinny Girl Diet is a band that would “die for their activism,” (via F Word Magazine) and it shows. The London-based AFROPUNK festival veterans make issue-focused music focused on everything from decolonization to radical feminism and more. Channeling the confrontational, often-grungy sound and aesthetic of the riot grrrl era, Skinny Girl Diet is here to awaken the un-woke.
5. Big Joanie
Tired of the whitewashed monotony of the UK punk scene, Big Joanie was born in London in 2013. Pushing out lyrics that err on the intellectual side, layered with riffs that stick in your brain is the name of the game for Big Joanie. Outside of music, the group is also a part of the “Stop Rainbow Racism” campaign as well as the Black and POC-focused Decolonise Fest.
Where to listen:
- https://dannydenial.bandcamp.com/album/fuck-danny-denial
- https://counterfeitmadison.bandcamp.com/
- https://www.meetmeatthealtar.com/music
- https://www.last.fm/music/Skinny+Girl+Diet
- https://bigjoanie.bandcamp.com/
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