Perpetual Change — Lipstick Conspiracy

Back in April, 2004, we introduced San Francisco area band Lipstick Conspiracy to TGForum readers. At that time, the band had one EP release, Don’t Tell A Soul to its credit. In 2006, when we featured them again, they had just come out with their first full length project, A Perfect Alibi.

Since then, the band has gone through some personnel changes, but continues to gig regularly. What follows is the most recent interview done with band member Sara Maraschino a few months back.

TGForum: I know you’ve had some changes in the line-up, and most recently, acquired a new drummer…

Syndi Heart

Sara Maraschino: Yes, we have a new drummer, and she is nothing short of amazing. Syndi Heart got in touch with us in 2008, and after a one hour audition, we knew that she was the one for us. As a result, she decided to relocate to San Francisco from Grand Rapids, Michigan. For the remainder of the winter of 2008 through the summer of 2009, the line-up included me (vocals, guitar), Marilyn Mitchell (vocals, guitar, bass); Shawna Love (vocals, guitar, bass), and Syndi Heart. We did 14 shows in 2009. In the fall, Shawna decided to leave the band to pursue other interests. As for Tori Tait (vocals, keyboards), she left the band in early 2007 following the tour and release of A Perfect Alibi. In the wake of Shawna’s departure, the three of us decided that no member of Lipstick Conspiracy was “replaceable”, and so we opted to find someone that we were happy to work with who could stand on her own. That person is Emma Brown, from Hayward, California. She is officially taking over bass guitar responsibilities while Marilyn focuses on guitar. I reckon we should consider this to be the official announcement.

TGF: You have two projects — Don’t Tell A Soul EP and A Perfect Alibi. Any future or new recording plans you can talk about at this time?

SM: We recorded two new songs at Potrero Post with our old producer, Buddy Saleman, back in early 2009. Locked Away and a more muscular version of Call. (If you’re interested, please see the “New Recordings” video available on YouTube.) Both of these songs were finished, but did not go through a phase of final mix down and mastering. We plan to release these online. We are also in negotiations for putting together a new album and tour, but that’s not confirmed at the moment. I am wont to muse that we are entering our Sgt. Pepper phase. We’ve decided to head into the bunker and concentrate on writing new material, which will enable both Syndi and Emma to firmly place their stamp on the new songs.

TGF: How was the last album A Perfect Alibi received?

SM: Alibi was received quite well! Shortly after the release, we were featured in Guitar Player and CURVE magazine, and our release party was amazing. There were a smattering of reviews from various parts of the country over the months following, with the latest being a review in Repartee magazine, from England, in January 2009. The tour of 2006 witnessed us doing quite a few radio interviews, too; notably KALW and Quake here in San Francisco.

TGF: On that release, you covered k. d. lang’s Constant Craving. This brings up a couple questions: Do you perform this live? How was it received when people first heard it? And, do you do any other covers, or plan to?

SM: Yes, we have performed Constant Craving live, but only rarely. Most really appreciate our interpretation. In fact, we closed our show at the OUT/Loud Queer Womens Music Fest in Eugene, Oregon in 2008 with that song, and apparently quite a few folks inquired at the merch desk as to which album had the song on it. Personally, I find the reception surprising because it is such a seminal coming-out song for many, but vocally and sonically we do it justice. As for other covers, we used to do a rocking version of James Taylor’s Fire And Rain and the theme song for the Mary Tyler Moore Show. These were always received well. During the summer of 2009, we performed along the San Francisco Marathon route, at mile 23.5! For our set…we decided to add a few running songs: The Police’s When The World Is Running Down, and Pink Floyd’s Run Like Hell. The latter continually brought smiles to the runners as they passed. As for other covers, during any band party or function, it is virtually guaranteed that someone will hear a song and say “…omigod, we totally have to cover this…!” To which, concrete plans to do so are rarely undertaken. Syndi and I are really interested in doing a version of Television’s Marquee Moon.

TGF: Still have the newsletter, The Informant?

SM: Of course! The newsletter is no longer as relevant as it was in the early days. Now, it is extremely easy to create targeted ads on Facebook, MySpace and other online properties. The newsletter platform helped us get us to where we are today and I suspect that it will be dusted off and re-examined should the new album come out. I do miss writing the copy, however.

TGF: From your web site, I found this: Riot Acts: flaunting Gender Deviance In Music. If you don’t mind, talk a bit about your involvement with this project.

SM: Ah, yes, Riot Acts. This is a documentary film by the Actor Slash Model project out of Chicago. Nothing short of amazing. As of last month, the film received the Juried Award for Best Documentary Feature at the Reeling Film Fest, and will be screened at the London LGBT Film Festival. That’s big news.

The documentary focuses on trans musicians and their music, and includes quite a bit of live footage interspersed with interviews. The filmmakers filmed us during a performance at the Rhino Theater in San Francisco in May, 2007, and conducted an interview with me and Shawna in my apartment. We’re really happy about the project, and find ourselves in good company with other transgender musicians of note including The Cliks, Coyote Grace, The Shondes, Venus de Mars, and lots of others.

TGF: Since we last spoke, the political climate in the country has changed a great deal. I know the band isn’t political, but have you noticed any difference in audience acceptance level of not only the band, but of the trans community in general?

SM: Actually, that’s pretty tough to answer, since we haven’t toured recently. We have made a few trips up north to Oregon and also played in the South Bay, but beyond that we’ve stayed pretty local, save for the East Bay. As always, we can get some pretty long stares as folks try to figure out what it is that we do, but they eventually come around.
To wit: we performed at a Youth Hostel event here in the city for a coterie of travelers and tourists. They had no idea what to expect, but after an hour set, they DEMANDED that we return to the stage for an encore. Demanded. Afterwards, everybody wanted pictures and autographs with us. It was Syndi’s first show with us, too!

TGF: On the last album, you touched on more than one genre’, but stayed basically rock. Is this approach the same with any new material you might be working on or playing live?

SM: I think it is safe to say that we will definitely stay within the rock genre’, though I suspect that we will concentrate within modern sound frameworks and definitions. There were multiple directions on Alibi, which is reminiscent of browsing in an antique store; but I think that we will be focusing more on the direction that She Walks Away and Andromeda Mita took us.

The new material is promising to be a little more heavy hitting, lyrically and musically After all, we all have quite the well to draw from. We’ve been experimenting with some other musical styles…some blues, some Latin, etc., and striving to incorporate them into our sound rather than just adopting a different style for a song.

TGF: I noticed you have several live performance videos out there. Has your gigging increased and are there any upcoming tour plans you can talk about?

SM: First and foremost, I have to admit that the live videos are all amateur and rarely sanctioned by the band. Syndi typically gets a hold of these and attempts to make something out of them, but she is generally constrained by the poor quality of footage and sound. Bless her heart, though, she does the best she can. In the old days, our collaborator Ho Lin used multiple cameras and sampled the sound off of the mixing board to create some great videos. That being said, gigging will more than likely increase as Emma comes up to speed and we develop new material.

For more information on the band, check out their new website. It provides a link to the band’s old site, plus links for MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

ALSO THIS MONTH

Cyndi Lauper Memphis Blues
Any artist who hopes to have a career that spans decades will have to reinvent themselves from time to time. Some try to do it only to follow the trend du-jour. Most do it just to stretch their creativity. And the truly talented ones do it seamlessly.

Clapton has done it periodically over the years, and so have the Stones. Well, add Cyndi Lauper to that list with the release of her new Memphis Blues album and summer tour.

This is real-deal blues, and she’s managed to get some notable players on the project.

B.B. King makes a very notable appearance on the song Early In The Morning. King’s signature guitar sound and voice is unmistakable…could have figured that out without reading the credits. And he really gets turned loose to play.

Veteran blues keyboard giant Allen Toussaint is also on this cut. Toussaint is also found on Shattered Dreams and Mother Earth.

Guitarist Johnny Lang appears on How Blue Can You Get, which is about a pure blues feel as you can get. Lauper’s voice works well with Lang’s playing and vocals. Lauper also uses him on her version of the old Robert Johnson standard, Crossroads. Most of us are probably more familiar with Cream’s version of the song, but Lauper and Lang take it closer to the original and give it a “swamp music” feel. Excellent way to end an album.

Blues harp legend Charlie Musselwhite plays on Just Your Fool (which is probably Lauper’s weakest vocal); and Down Don’t Bother Me which is a great blues shuffle.

Lauper shares vocal duties with Ann Peebles on the Muddy Waters classic Rollin’ and Tumblin. This is one of Lauper’s best vocals — she manages to sound like an old field hand after one helluva day. Pure emotion and the harmony with Peebles is loose yet perfect at the same time.

Lauper’s other best moments vocally are found on Early In Morning, How Blue Can You Get, and the almost-gospel flavored Down So Low.

Produced by Cyndi Lauper and Scott Bomar, this is not an album of someone trying to sing the blues — it’s the real thing. Lauper is definitely a GLBT community icon, but it speaks volumes for her to be able to pull in the heavy weight talent she did for this project. Obviously a lot of respect was shown all around.

Roger Anthony Yolanda Mapes sent word that his album House Of Joy (reviewed here in January), has reached #13 on Top 40 Charts at Outvoice.net, along with the song, I Wanna Know reading #4 in the Top Ten Song chart. Mapes also has completed his first year at the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary.

Calpernia Addams and Detox sent a YouTube link to their new video of Addicted to Love/Simply Irresistable. Check it out.

Category: Music