Posted on
Advocate.com March 13, 2012 04:00:00 AM ET
The Best Queer, Jewish, Transgender Rock Band Ever
The Shondes are using SXSW and a new video to launch their American tour.
By Diane Anderson-Minshall
http://www.advocate.com/Arts_and_Entertainment/Music/The_Best_Queer_Jewish_Transgender_Rock_Band_Ever/There are so many ways that The Shondes have been described, with sexy, queer, transgender, feminist, radical, steampunky, Jewish rock band chief among the adjectives that separate the band from their contemporaries (the latter of whom are sometimes called "Sleater-come-latelys"). But The Village Voice in all its wisdom seems to have nailed why it is that this Brooklyn-based indie band is beloved by LGBT audiences around the globe: "Riot grrrl radicalism wed to classically structured songs, distortion pedals, clashing vocals, and powerful lyrics."
Now The Shondes are hitting SXSW this week and then following it up with an American tour this spring and then their first European tour. Armed with their latest album, Searchlights, and a brand new music video released today for the second single off it, "Give Me What You've Got," the band is ready to rock.
That means quite the show from the band that was founded in 2006 by queer lead singer and bassist Louisa Rachel Solomon and transgender violinist Elijah Oberman and — along with genderqueer drummer Temim Fruchter, 33, and guitarist Fureigh, 28 — has been perfecting their sound ever since.
