Evan Greer shares "The Tyranny of Either/Or" video for Trans Day of Visibility
Evan Greer is releasing Spotify is Surveillance on April 9 via Get Better/Don Giovanni, and following lead single “Back Row” comes new song “The Tyranny of Either/Or.” It’s a dose of power-poppy punk that Evan calls “an angry open letter to TERFs and other transphobes,” and it’s as addictive and catchy as it is empowering. Evan says:
It’s been more than 50 years since Stonewall, and trans and gender nonconforming people are still under attack. We still face systemic violence and discrimination, and we still have to struggle just to have our basic humanity recognized. Not just by the public at large, but even within the mainstream LGBTQ rights movement, which has consistently failed to fight for the most marginalized members of our community, especially Black and brown trans women, sex workers, incarcerated people, and unhoused youth. “Tyranny of Either/Or” is a song that I needed as a young trans person navigating the world. It’s about reconnecting with our collective history of resistance and self-determination, and celebrating all of the bullshit that trans people have overcome, while recognizing how much further we still have to go. And it’s a punk rock open letter to transphobes of all varieties to just piss off and let us live our lives in peace.
Listen to both singles via Bandcamp below. Evan will donate Bandcamp profits to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute.
As for the album title, Evan previously said, “Spotify likes to present itself as hip and progressive and friendly to artists, but its profit model is based on harvesting our data, monitoring emotions, and using our behavioral profiles to enrich advertisers. The company recently filed a patent for a product that would literally monitor listeners’ speech patterns and tone of voice in order to recommend music (and of course, advertisements.) Music should be about connection and collective experience, not surveillance and exploitation.”
UPDATE (3/31): Evan released a music video for the song in honor of Trans Day of Visibility. She says:
Instead of just making a lyrics video or a video of me playing guitar or whatever, I wanted to use this platform to highlight and celebrate some key moments in our history of trans and queer resistance. So much of this history is hidden and inaccessible, especially for young trans and gender nonconforming people. So why not have a pop-punk music video that’s also a mini-documentary about the movement for trans and queer liberation? The clips of Sylvia Rivera admonishing the leadership of the mainstream gay rights movement feel particularly relevant today at a time when trans people are still in the crosshairs and bearing the brunt of anti-LGBTQ violence and policy in the US and around the world.
Watch:
