photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

"The downtown music scene will get an extra dose of glam this spring at a reading of a new musical written by the actress and comedian Sandra Bernhard, the downtown drag artist Justin Bond, and the Scissor Sisters lead singer Jake Shears.

The musical, called "Arts and Crafts," has a book by Ms. Bernhard and Mr. Bond, and music by Mr. Bond, Ms. Bernhard, Lance Horne and Mr. Shears, who is also one of the authors of the new musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" books, which opens in San Francisco in May.

Gordon Greenberg will direct two performances of "Arts and Crafts" on March 7 at Joe's Pub." [NY Times]

Scissor Sisters, who are playing Bonnaroo (which went on sale today), and who recently DJ'd the Museum of Natural History, and who kick off a tour with Lady Gaga in Atlantic City tonight, played Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ last night (2/18). A set of pictures from that show continues below...

Continue reading "Scissor Sisters played Wellmont Theater (pics), Jake Shears working on musical w/ Bernhard & Bond (Joe's Pub on sale)"

What makes an album great? And perhaps even more critical for this list, what makes a great album gay? To create our list of the 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time, we polled more than 100 actors, comedians, musicians, writers, critics, performance artists, label reps, and DJs, asking each to list the 10 most important albums of their lives. After receiving responses from Boy George, Rufus Wainwright, Cyndi Lauper, the Indigo Girls' Amy Ray, Perez Hilton, Nate Berkus, Jake Shears, Ed Droste, Nico Muhly, John Cameron Mitchell, Wilson Cruz, Junior Vasquez, Janis Ian, Lady Bunny and a slew of others, we tallied the results to determine our top-100 list. [Out]

Pitchfork also just released their list of the Best Albums of 2009.

The Hidden Cameras have just announced a massive North American tour in support of their fourth full-length, Origin:Orphan....Fans will have the opportunity to purchase tickets for all of the newly announced shows except in Brooklyn and San Francisco, before they go on sale to the general public... As a bonus and in anticipation of the new album and tour, fans will immediately receive a free digital download of the newly released 5-track In The NA EP with any The Hidden Cameras pre-sale ticket purchase.

Tickets for band's other area show, November 6th at Brooklyn's Union Hall, aren't on sale yet are on presale. Sometimes Camera member and fellow Canadian, Gentleman Reg will join them on all dates.

Quick flashback: In 2004 the Hidden Cameras were supposed to headline Bowery Ballroom, but their opener got too big so they switched the order before the show happened.

The EP mentioned above includes the song "In the NA," the first single off the band's new full-length. Check out the video for it, with tracklists and all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Hidden Cameras & Gentleman Reg - 2009 tour dates, presale"