Spooky Qs

Spotlight on resistance

Spooky Qs — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:40:46 +0000

One of the songs we covered for our resistance album is Hard time killing floor by Skip James. Nehemiah Curtis “Skip” James (June 9,^[1] 1902 – October 3, 1969) was an American Delta Blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter.

Here is the original song:

Skip James – Hard time killing floor

and here is our humble attempt to cover this wonderful song:

Spooky Qs – Hard time killing floor

Whew.

Spooky Qs — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:15:30 +0000

Well, we’ve worked super hard and it’s been quite a labor of love, but we’re finished with the production side of our latest album – To the barricades, covers of early resistance music. Here is one of my favorite tracks as well as the album’s namesake.

A las barricadas

2011 update

Spooky Qs — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 01:53:36 +0000

Hey everyone! I know it’s been awhile since we last updated but rest assurred, it’s because we’ve been hard at work on a couple of projects that are coming to a close. We’ve sent our second EP Rid of You off to be pressed. We’re ordering 100 vinyl copies and hand screen printing the covers so you best believe they’re going to look rad! The album will have six songs on it: baby calm down, when you want to, walk away, rid of you, mr. money and disco to death.

We’ve also been working to write a cover album of early resistance music. We chose to define resistance music loosely as songs that depict survival, struggle and perseverance of the human spirit. We decided to focus on “early” music because 1. We thought it would be fun to discover resistance music from the 1930′s, 1920′s and earlier, and 2. We wanted to make these songs accessible to modern day listeners.From our research we’ve settled on the following 12 songs:

1. The Red Flag by Jim Connell 1889

2. Bread and Roses by James Oppenheim 1911

3. Get off the track by the Hutchinson family singers 1844

4. Which side are you on? Written by Florence Reece 1931

5. Hard time killing floor blues by Skip James 1931

6. Johnny I hardly knew ye – early 19th century

7. A las barricadas by Valeriano Orobon Fernandez in 1936

8. Undzer shtetl brent! (our town is burning!) by Mordecais Gebirtig 1936

9. Follow the drinking gourd – pre American civil war

10. Maculine women, feminine men by Edgar Leslie 1925

11. B.D (bull dagger) woman’s blues by Bessie Jackson 1935

12. Keep woman in her sphere by D. Estabrook pre women’s suffrage (US)

We’re really close to finishing the writing and getting ready to start recording. This has been a really exciting project for us. We’ve learned a lot and can’t wait to share our work with all of you! Stay tuned!

Happy new year!

Spooky Qs — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 16:51:15 +0000

2010 has been an eventful year for us as a band. Some of the high lights include going on our first tour, playing several amazing queer events such as Mondo Homo, the Lexington pride festival, EKU Pride and the radical queer convergence in Columbus Ohio, all of the awesome shows at Al’s bar, in Chicago and everywhere else, screen printing our merch, making new friends, and recording.

We hope 2011 is equally productive. We finally finished recording our second Album “Rid of you” which we plan to release on vinyl as well as digital downloads sometime by March of 2011. We have one show booked in January here in town but other than that we’ll be laying low and working on our third project, a cover album of pre 1922 resistance music.

We want to thank all of our fans, our friends – new and old, our families, our partners, the Lexington music scene, all the queers and everyone who has supported us this year. We couldn’t have done it without you.

xo,

The Qs

We’ll be in Chicago this Friday!

Spooky Qs — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 03:20:00 +0000

The Flesh Hungry Dog Show Presents:

The Spooky Qs
The Sleeptalkers
Wanton Looks

Friday, December 10, 9pm
at Jackhammer
6406 N. Clark St, Chicago

On Friday, December 10, Flesh Hungry Dog Show is pleased to present another fun-filled installment of the Flesh Hungry Dog Show. What’s on tap? Good old fashioned rock and roll, a little bit of the sexy-sexy, and gobs and gobs of fun!

Bands include Brooklyn indie rockers The Sleeptalkers, the all female power pop band The Wanton Looks, and punk-electronica-classical-gypsy fusion band The Spooky Q’s. Hosted by Chicago rock impresario Gary Airedale, the show will also feature “Bag of Fun” prize giveaways from The Pleasure Chest, and special guest performers from Girlie-Q Burlesque and DJ Sky.

Tickets $8 online or $10 at the door

Benefit for the Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center

Spooky Qs — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:23:29 +0000

You’d be crazy to miss out on this event!
Join us for a monumental night of music, drag, free food, prizes, and fun!
Doors open @ 6:30
Music @ 6:30
Enjoy the tantalizing sounds of the Spooky Q’s & Fair Heron
Drag @ 8
Imperial Court of Kentucky as well as local performers

$4 cover at door.
Half the proceeds will be donated to the Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center.

Bring your friends and your $1 bills…
See you there!

Spondored by EKU PRIDE Alliance

Radical Queer Convergence!!

Spooky Qs — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 14:47:35 +0000

This weekend we’ll be in Columbus Ohio at Queer in Flux, a radical queer convergence which seeks to critically question the state of mainstream LGBT movements.

From their website:

“We hope that by holding this convergence we can help to expand notions of what queer liberation really means. QIF demands that folks wake up to the fact that assimilation does not grant you privilege, safety, or the good life. No my friends, it limits the boundaries of our freedom, it silences the voices of the already forgotten, it further margnizalizes queer identity into a controllable, sellable, palatable little box.”

Convergence Schedule

Friday- November 12
Awarehouse
The warehouse behind the liquor store
on the corner of 4th Street and 5th Ave
Columbus, OH
$5 at the door – BYOB

8PM: screening of “Riot Acts” followed by QA with director Madsen Minax

10PM: Music, music and more music!
Actor Slash Model
Geppetta
Modern Day Pinocchio

Dalice Malice

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Saturday- November 13
The Union at the Ohio State University
1739 N. High St
Columbus, OH

10-11AM- “What is Radical Queer?” Discussion with Julia Serano, Charlie Fredrick, and Shannon Winnubst
11:15 AM-12:15 PM-Tranzmission Prison Project: Prisoner Realities

12:15-1:15PM Lunch

1:30-3:00 PM-Julia Serano Keynote Presentation
3:15-4:15 PM- Cindy Crabb: Writing as Revolutionary Expression *AND* Harvey Katz: Writing as Performance
4:30-5:30 PM- JAC Stringer: Gender and Sexualized Violence Workshop

——————————

Kobo
2590 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202
$5 at the door, 18 and up
Doors at 9 PM

Midwest GenderQueer
Spooky Qs
ATHENS BOYS CHOIR
followed by a Radical Queer Intentional Dance Party!!

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Sunday- November 14
The Union at the Ohio State University
1739 N. High St
Columbus, OH

12PM-1PM - Tranzmission Prison Project: Trans 101
1:15PM- 2:15 PM –AIDS/HIV Activism: Panel Discussion
2:30-3:30 PM – Ignacio Rivera: The Color of Sex Work
3:45 PM – Screening of “Venus Boyz” and reflection on the convergence

Ceiling tiles for charity

Spooky Qs — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:07:33 +0000

One of our favorite venues, Pops Resale, recently held a fundraiser for the Williams Syndrome Association and the Autism Society of America. Participants donated money and in exchange got to decorate one of the ceiling tiles in the store. Jack spent an afternoon working on our tile. Here’s the finished product!

You can check out the rest of the tiles here.

Busy Bees……. or Qs?

Spooky Qs — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:51:47 +0000

So it might seem like we’ve dropped off the face of the planet but we’re still here, I promise! We’ve been really busy trying to get our next album rid of you recorded. We’re finishing up the backing vocals and aux percussion and then we’ll be in mastering mode. So far it sounds great. Once the tracks are all finished will be sure to put them up on the sight.

In addition to recording we’ve been getting some shows scheduled for the fall. We’ll be heading to Columbus Ohio on November 13th to play a radical queer convergence organized by queer in flux. On December 10th we’ll be back in Chicago at the Jackhammer for the flesh hungry dog show. Hopefully there will be a few more in there too.

That’s all for now!

xo,

the qs

Qs to be featured in a documentary about queer music in the south!

Spooky Qs — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:00:06 +0000

This weekend we were interviewed by Meredeth Heil and Amber Schaefer who are spending their summer filming queer southern bands for their documentary “Whistling Dixie.”

Here is the description from the films website:

“Whistlin’ Dixie invites the viewer to travel along as filmmaker Meredith Heil explores American’s Southern heartland in search of queer sound. The film journeys through the region’s independent, queer lo-fi scene, tracking down the LGBTQ musicians, fans and activists that are actively using DIY music to build safe spaces and strike down prejudices, therein altering the political and social climate of the new South for generations to come. Through personal interview, rich landscapes and riveting performance, the film considers the complex historical relationship between Southern music, personal identity and political resistance. “

Meredith and Amber also hung out with us for the weekend and we got to show them all of the beautiful things about the horse capital of the world