Hands down, the best livestream money I’ve spent in 2020 has gone to the fine queens behind the Race Chaser podcast. Drag Race alumni Alaska and Willam have put on a few livestream events during quarantine, with proceeds from each going to a great cause, like , a charity that helps support black trans people in economic need. They did a spelling bee with Mariah Paris Balenciaga, Meatball, Monet X Change, and a mousily dressed Jinkx Monsoon that left me laughing, as well as a version of Pictionary with queens like Naomi Smalls that thrilled and chilled, but their Name That Tune really had me rolling in the proverbial aisles. The one-two punch of Bianca Del Rio and Bob The Drag Queen competing against each other and Alaska and Willam’s not-so-friendly competitive streak made that stream a winner. If you’d like to check it out, for your viewing pleasure. [Marah Eakin]
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The Ratboys livestream made for a perfect Halloween, as far as I’m concerned.However, Sean Bonnette of AJJ fame’s bi (or tri) weekly streams, which I’ve watched almost 200 of at this point, have reliably kept me sane throughout the ups and downs of the back 75% of 2020, and I can’t thank him enough for releasing this much good stuff into the world. Can’t wait to see him/AJJ in person the second I get my second dose of the good juice.
I have only watched a fraction of what you’ve watched, but they are an enjoyable and kind of calming experience. I’ve seen them live a bunch of times, from a house show up to several hundred people, and they always kill it.
I still don’t get what The AV Club is hearing on Kylie Mynogue’s latest album. The songs are mediocre and feel unfinished, the production is uninspired and Mynogue’s voice is unrecognizable with all the effects added to it.
I do think the album production is lacking and, honestly, it wasn’t ‘til I heard the songs performed live for Infinite Disco that I fell for them. So just another testament to how spectacular the entire live performance was imo!
As a 25+ year Kylie fan, I admit that sometimes my obsession/love for her might overcompensate for weaknesses in her album. And you’re not alone—among the Kylie fans I know, this is a pretty divisive work (still that’s better than the rather “meh” reaction to, say, Kiss Me Once). I do appreciate how cohesive it feels—something I haven’t really felt since the brilliant Aphrodite where Stuart Price handled every track (although Golden was a pretty solid piece as an entire album too). So I’ve tried to turn a critical ear to the new album—and yet whenever I put it on, I honestly am slightly surprised just how great I find it, with hook after hook, and I love the production, myself. But personal taste, and all that. Where I gotta firmly disagree is in calling Kylie’s vocals unrecognizable… I can’t imagine anyone hearing any of these tracks and, unless they had never ever heard Kylie before, not realizing that it’s her.
I absolutely love it. It took a few listens before really enjoying every song but I’ve been listening to it nonstop since getting it last Thursday. The other thing about the production is that I know Kylie did a lot herself and it was her first time but honestly, the production sounds great to me (or I’m too busy singing along to notice any flaws lol). Faves include Real Groove, Where does the DJ Go?, Supernova, and Dance Floor Darling. This is one of my fave Kylie albums.
The Airborne Toxic Event from East/West studio, hands down.
No love for Ben Fold’s Saturday Apartment Requests? It’s got everything you want from Ben Folds playing live and taking requests, but with the added benefit of not having to see or hear his fans.
I’ve been enjoying Two Minutes To Late Night’s Bedroom covers. I LOVE their cover of Rush’s Anthem!! All of the artists did a fantastic job. I was especially excited to see Danny Carey on drums!
I’m surprised Run the Jewels didn’t make the list. For my money, I really dug Goldfinger’s weekly quarantine performances a lot.
Kylie Minogue was the one I was waiting for this year when Disco was announced and she hasn’t let me down (she rarely does, to be fair). That said, one of the hidden gems of the 2020 Year of Pause is Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure. If you’ve never heard of Jessie Ware, well, prepare to fall in love. She’s a British artist, she’s lovely and fun, she does a fabulous podcast series with her mum, Lennie and she’s made two of my favourite songs of the year – the title-track from her album What’s Your Pleasure and a song that can only be described as a defiant little 90s-saturated anthem. Whilst most artists were putting out tracks that wistfully looked back at the clubbing days pre-pandemic and crooning about how lovely it would be to hold someone again, Ware’s Save A Kiss is almost the opposite – the warning to save her a kiss lest you want to let her down. And she used social distancing to great effect in creating the video for the track by releasing a video with a choreographer showing her fans how to dance to the song and then compiling a video of different shots of the fans dancing interspersed with shots of professional dancers. It’s fun, and bubbly and what some of us (yours truly, to be honest) to say “You know what, 2020? You sucked donkey balls, but at least we’re seeing the back of you in less than three weeks”. Not going to lie – but in days like this, when you see nothing but depressing shite on the news and depressing shite on social media (I finally got banned from Twitter for telling a Tory MP cunt to go stick a showerhead up his arse and fill his well-fucked hole to bursting point. Twattish wee linesman…), you need something fun. You need something sexy, something bouncy, something to make you giggle and grin.
Just thought I’d throw something else into the mix: what happens when someone really creative is stuck at home with the first lockdown, and notices that Dua Lipa’s Hallucinate goes really well with the BBC News theme…and yes, the BBC News theme has been a continual bop for twenty-odd years now.I should also point out that Dua Lipa’s music videos this year have been fun as hell. Quarantine is shitty and that for making big-budget videos in exotic locales, so what’s a girl to do? Go animated…
Ware’s album is definitely in my top 5 this year—I admit, I had never paid her much attention before.
Love Dua Lipa’s videos—the entire “visualization” to her remix album, all on youtube, is great (even if I think half of the remixes are lazy and uninspired). I found her live concert, however (with a Kylie duet appearance—which, sadly, seemed to be poorly miked), really messy and not well done at all.
Kylie and the Sondheim concert were my two immediate thoughts when I saw this headline, so ya got me covered. As for zoom play readings, my personal favourite (it helped that it was a one man show) was Michael Urie recreating his Off-Broadway performances in Buyer and Cellar. It’s too bad it was only available for a short while. (Last week’s all star reading of Elegies for Angels, Punks, and Raging Queens was pretty great too.)
Run the Jewel’s “Holy Calamavote” doesn’t get a mention?
This guy:
The Mountain Goats’ two Jordan Lake Sessions were absolutely phenomenal, and such a joy to watch in a year that has been absolute shit. I really wish they’d kept the video stream up longer or otherwise made it available afterward, but they put the audio up on Bandcamp last week, and I highly recommend y’all check them out if you haven’t yet!
It was the beginning of the Pandemic, back when we were more scared than just sick of the whole thing. Mr. Weird Al Yankovic posted a simple video of himself performing Classical Gas from his rooftop. It was the most genuine smile I’d had all that month.
No mention of the great work Goldfinger did this last year?
Didn’t attend any last year.This year…
Ultimate chill.