This Gaudy Gilded Stage

This week’s song of the week is Johnny Hazzard‘s “Deeper into You” from 2006:

Hazzard is a superstar in the gay adult film industry, who, like so many other adult performers, has been branching out into other aspects of the entertainment industry. I first saw him on YouTube when he made a video of himself dancing to Sherrie Lea’s “Spellbound,” a great dance track:

“Deeper into You” was his first single. He’s also an actor and acted in season two of The Lair. He also has a blog, where he recently posted a cooking video.

The dance remixes of “Deeper into You” are also great. You can get them on iTunes.

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Our friend Wes gave us Jay Brannan‘s CD, Goddamned, when it first came out. Since then, it’s grown and grown on me, and I find myself liking it more and more. For example, the video for “Housewife” was my favorite video of last year.

Now Brannan has put out a new video, “Can’t Have It All,” which has long been one of my favorite tracks on the album. In fact, it was number 8 on my list of favorite songs for 2008.

Like “Housewife,” this video is simple and effective. I like that Brannan doesn’t need to do a lot in his videos — the music stands for itself and the video serves as a support for the song. I’ll put the lyrics after the break.

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I heard this song on Logo the other day and immediately fell in love with it. The Script‘s “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” is therefore my song of the week. Plus, the lead singer is cute! (Embedding has been disabled on YouTube for this video, but if you click on it twice the YouTube page should pop up.)

If there’s any justice in the world, this song will be at least as big as James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful.” It’s got a great lyric and the story it tells is sweet.

The Script is an Irish band. I downloaded their album from iTunes and have been listening to it ever since. If I had run across it when it first came out it might have been on my list of favorites from 2008. It’s definitely worth a listen.

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Bishop Allen’s new, Grrr, came out last week. I haven’t had much time to listen to it yet, but I do like the first single/video off the album, “Dimmer”:

Critics are faulting the album for being too “cutesy” and for its “peppy preciousness.” I haven’t listened attentively to the album yet, but I can see that some of it might be “cloying” on a first hearing. Once I’ve had more time with it, I’ll get a better sense of whether I agree.

What I like about “Dimmer” is its combination of juvenilia and the existential dilemma of maturity, the recognition that everyone doesn’t automatically see us, something we just assumed when we were younger.The song seems to be about growing up but wanting to hold on to the illusions of childhood.

At least that’s what I get out of it. I’ll post the lyrics after the break.

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I first heard this song, Naked Highway‘s “Wet Like Sweat,” on Muzophile, a queer music blog that I love. It’s a great source for music and entertainment news.

I don’t know much about Naked Highway, but I hope to learn more soon. “Wet Like Sweat” seems a good companion piece to last week’s song, Ida Maria’s “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked.”

I love the video for “Wet Like Sweat” — and it has a cameo by the lead singer of Telling on Trixie. I love one of their songs/videos too, “Halfway Back to Sane”:

The single of “Wet Like Sweat” has four different mixes. I love that two of them are “straight” and include the lines, “Gonna work that pussy, Gonna work that pussy, gonna work that pussy tonight,” while one of them seems designed a little more for the gay crowd. The latter one changes “pussy” to “booty”: “Gonna work that booty, gonna work that booty, gonna work that booty tonight.”

Needless to say, I like the “gay” version  best!

Update: Muzophile has added an interview with Sy Boccari, the vocalist for Naked Highway to his blog. Click on the image to read it.

Say hey to Naked Highway on MySpace
Visit MUZOPHILE on MySpace
Get this ad at the MUZOPHILE BLOG

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This week’s song of the week is Ida Maria’s “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked:”

PJ was driving home from Columbus today when he heard this song on the radio. He gave me a quick call, since he knew that I would love it. And I did. It’s time for a fun song of the week! I’ll include the lyrics after the break.

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An oldie, but goodie, Tina Turner’s “Better Be Good to Me” is my song of the week:

I had my iPod on shuffle while driving back from Portsmouth this afternoon, and this great song came on. It’s quintessential Tina: self-empowerment, sex, and rock. I’ll post the lyrics after the break.

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The song of the week for this week is M. Ward’s “Never Had Nobody Like You,” which is from his new album, Hold Time, which came out yesterday:

When I saw the album on iTunes, I didn’t know that M. Ward sings with  Zooey Deschanel on one of PJ’s favorite albums from last year (She & Him’s Volume 1–Deschanel is “She” and Ward is “Him”), but I saw that she and Lucinda Williams sing on the album and that Conor Oberst helped bring him to popular attention. So, knowing that these are some of PJ’s favorite artists, I figured there was a good chance that he would like Hold Time — or at the very least would like to have it. So, I bought it for him.

Once I started listening to the album myself, I quickly fell in love with “Never Had Nobody Like You.” Some of the lyrics, especially those of the third verse, perfectly sum up what I’ve felt over the past week or so.

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Jason Mraz‘s We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things was one of my favorite albums last year. This duet with Colbie Caillat is one of the standout tracks on the album. In honor of Valentine’s Day this Saturday, I’ve selected “Lucky” as my song of the week.

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Several of the gay-oriented blogs that I read have been all abuzz over Matt Alber‘s “End of the World.” I had taken a quick glance at it late last year on Logo, but I clearly didn’t give it much of a chance. I think my first impression was that he sounds too much like Rufus Wainwright.

After seeing three or four blogs about it, I decided I should really watch the video and see what everyone was going on about. It’s a beautifully romantic one in the style of Mad Men, as one blog put it:

I’m glad I did, because now I love this song and have downloaded Alber’s recent album, Hide Nothing, which I really like too. (The album has an acoustic version of “End of the World” that I love even more!) Once I’ve listened to it a little more I hope to write a review of it. And for the record, the more I listen to Alber’s music, the less he sounds like Rufus! I’ve copied the lyrics to this song, which I found here, after the break.

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