Chris Pureka
While hardship, longing and loss are all common themes of Purekas life and music, theyre also tempered by messages of hope, strength and perseverance. Following in that spirit, Dryland heralds the return of a smart, evolving artist who has already glimpsed sun through the clouds and knows how to keep moving forward with an eye for even brighter days ahead. If the new album is any indication, brighter days will be here in no time.
Andrea Gibson
Rousing audiences throughout the United States and Canada with
her
poignant message and her genuine interest in generating change, Andreas
words are powerful, compassionate, and inspiring. She is a queer
poet/activist whos work deconstructs the foundations of the current
political machine, highlighting issues such as patriarchy, gender
norms, white-supremacy, and capitalist culture.
Andrea moved from New Orleans to Colorado in 1999, where she
began attending weekly poetry readings at Denver's political hub, The
Mercury Café. In a years time she had rushed the scene, making her mark
with the 2000 Denver Slam Team at The National Poetry Slam in
Providence, Rhode Island. In the same year, Andrea joined Vox
Feminista, a multi-passionate performance tribe of radical, political
women bent on social change through cultural revolution. She went on to
become a four-time Denver Grand Slam Champion, taking 4th place out of
350 competing poets in the individual finals at the 2004 National
Poetry Slam in St. Louis. In 2006 she captured 3rd place at the
Individual World Poetry Slam in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 2007 she
captured third again at IWPS Vancouver, BC.
Andrea has headlined everywhere from the Nuyorican Poet's
Café, to Pride Fests and Lady Fests, to high schools and universities
throughout the country. She has been showcased on Free Speech TV, Dyke
TV, the documentary Slam Planet, and Independent Radio Stations
nationwide. She is currently a member of the prestigious Bullhorn
Collective "comprised of 30 of the highest ranking slam poets and most
accomplished performance poets in the world."
Andrea is an independent artist who has self-released three CDs,
Bullets and Windchimes, Swarm and When The Bough Breaks as well as
three books, Trees that Grow in Cemeteries, Yellow Bird, and What the
Yarn Knows of Sweaters.
Lipstick Conspiracy
It takes a San Fransisco publication to pronounce an all-trans esemble Girl Band of the Year, but The Bay Guardian has done so for a good reason. Power op fivesome Lipstick Conspiracy takes you back to sing-along, dance-along 80s hooks with a touch of irony over every word.
Just OUT May 2005
http://www.lipstickconspiracy.com/
Lipstick and Dipstick
They've made countless appearances on TV and radio, including a stint on Logo's Round Trip Ticket and on WE's Secret Lives of Women. Additionally, they've done extensive public speaking, including emcee work for HRC and hosting their own talk show at Nike World Headquarters where they interviewed the CEO in charcter in front of a large crowd.
Von Foxies
Team Gina
TEAM GINA has synchronized dance routines that will blow your mind.
TEAM GINA has phat beats and hype rhymes for days. TEAM GINA has
matching outfits that will make you cry.
TEAM GINA has taken over their hometown of Seattle Washington,
performing with artists like LESLIE & THE LY’S, THE GO! TEAM, STINK
MITT, ROBO SAPIEN, KATASTROPHE, THE ATHENS BOYS CHOIR, THE CLIKS, FAN
KICK and SCREAM CLUB. Team Gina has rocked the CAPITOL HILL BLOCK
PARTY, the official SYNTHESIS MAGAZINE BUMBERSHOOT PARTY, MONDO HOMO
DIRTY SOUTH and QUEER FEST MIDWEST. Team Gina has been featured on KEXP
90.3 in a live performance on AUDIOASIS and in countless publications
including CURVE, OUT, THE STRANGER, THE SEATTLE WEEKLY, SEATTLE SOUND,
GO NYC, NASHVILLE SCENE, with an upcoming featured planned for THE
ADVOCATE. The Ginas have toured nationally, selling out the Knitting
Factory Old Office in NYC, packing venues from Atlanta to Austin to San
Francisco and their video "BUTCH/FEMME" has received over 30,000 hits
on YouTube.
Team Gina’s debut album, Gina Gina Revolution is
available from Don’t Stop Believin’ Records and the Ginas are currently
thrilled to be in the studio with Radio Sloan recording their second
album.
TEAM GINA is made up of two fierce femmes: GINA BLING
and GINA GENIUS, a former Homecoming Queen and Pageant Winner who have
over 20 YEARS of dance classes and theater performances between them.
They even appeared on the Broadway stage in XANADU and may or may not
have been extras in the movie ROLLER BOOGIE. Let’s face it; TEAM GINA
must be seen to be believed.
http://www.myspace.com/teamgina
Siche and Dakota
Crys Matthews
PHOTO PENDING
Offering an eclectic blend of funk, blues and jazz singer/songwriter, Crys Matthews brings a refreshing new sub-genre to Neo-Soul. With influences ranging from Otis Redding all the way to Ani DiFranco and having been compared to artists as diverse in sound and style as Jill Scott and Tracey Chapman it's no wonder there isn't a box large enough to encompass what she likes to call FuBlueJazz.
A self-proclaimed old soul, the southeastern North Carolina native first popped onto the local music scene in Boone, NC in 1999 as a vocalist/keyboardist with the band Half & Half before breaking out with her own solo career. Since then she has been a permanent fixture at venues like Caribbean Cafe, Jimmy's Java, Cafe Portofino, and Higher Grounds.
"Music has always been a part of my life -- even before I actually took my first breath," she says. The daughter of a preacher, the 26-year-old admits that gospel music was her first love. "I'm always amazed at how much true soul music sounds like what I grew up listening to in church when I was a little girl," she says. That gospel influence is very evident throughout her own music, especially in the track she often refers to as, 'a love-letter for any one who has ever had to leave someone,' 2,000 Miles.
The rest of the album is as diverse as her influences. "Cant Run Away from Love" shows off her jazz influence and simultaneously introduces her audience to her skill level on the keys. The title track for her debut album, "This is No Poem," offers an intimate look at what is a quintessential element in the blues -- living hard and loving harder. That Bohemian naivety, the notion that love will always make everything OK, is what a lot of the record is about. "My mom always said, it doesnt matter what you're going through or how bad you think things are -- as long as you know somebody somewhere loves you, chances are everything is going to be just fine."
With a fan base that continues to widen and a second album slated for release in the spring, it seems that things are indeed going to be more than fine for this artist.
http://www.myspace.com/crysmatthewsButchlalis de Panochtitlan
Butchlalis de Panochtitlan is a trio that has emerged from community
based activist spaces to create visibility around politicized
identities and the limitations in identity politics within a Los
Angeles-centric context. They work to produce multi-dimensional
language as a way that activates a new way of seeing their
multi-layered, contradictory and celebratory selves in an often hostile
world. They have performed together since 2002. Their work began as
sketch-based pieces focusing on recuperating queer narratives washed
over by waves of gentrification, state and local terror and violence.
Their work also touches on the humor and irreverence found in the
everyday lives of gender minorities and outlaws living in the 20th and
21st century. Their first four shows all premiered at Highways
Performance Space. They are: Teenage Papi: The Second Coming of Adolescence (2005); Teenage Papi: The Remix (2006); BdP Get U.G.L.Y (2007); and Dickwhipped! (2008)
Currently, the trio is workshopping the new full-length play titled The Barber of East L.A. thanks to a generous commission by the USC Visions and Voices humanities initiative. The Barber of East L.A.
is a story about queer and punk Latinos living in Eastside
neighborhoods—living as the neighborhood freaks in the threatening face
of everyday annihilation. This mix of fictional characters with real
events, political communities and identities that betray practice and
desires about recovering memories about people and places designated as
outsiders framed against a tumultuous period of the recent past,
Reagan-era 1980s presents a multi-generational look at estrangement
between family, community and institutions as well as
multi-generational attempt at creating family, community and
institutions. This project has enabled them to collaborate with
acclaimed playwright, director and MacArthur Genius Fellow, Luis Alfaro
and visual artist and activist, Hector Silva.
Drama Kings
http://www.myspace.com/dragkingsrock