A lot has happened since the last time I blogged about anything. Well even when I was peppering the blog in 2020 with Album of the Year entries (of which, the Kylie Minogue entry was the one I end up getting to write about for an online community of mostly gay pop music fans called popheads.) Personal life has been a bitch and a half for almost a year officially come later this month and the fact that for the first time in my life, I'm no longer living in the home I grew up in. I would get heavier but eww feelings, gross.
Since then, not a lot has been able to have me say "I'm gonna revive this full time!" Not for nothing, I've tried with ideas in my head or thinking "Maybe this gay male singer deserves some press" before being reminded of how they act on the internet but which one that pertains to is a mystery....
I was seriously considering reviving the blog for the first season Ariana Grande was a coach but then that never happened for reasons short of saying "I ain't missing shit." I almost committed to blogging about it before I just didn't and quite honestly, the one episode I watched which was the first live show had me think "sitting out was the best thing you did" because some of those performances were pandering to downright shit.
In the immediate future, this is what I'm thinking is gonna happen for this blog...
There's a tale of two gay male singers that I like. One of which has appeared numerous times on this very blog and one of which is a relatively new addition for like...two years by now. They've collaborated together and are letting nature "Heal" itself in radically different ways.
I'm talking about Steve Grand and Michael Medrano. With Steve, no new music has come out since his mapped more destinations than traveled sophomore effort Not the End of Me. There was a Christmas cover last year but honestly it wasn't worth blogging about, but not for an obvious reason. More on that later, but as it pertains to Michael, he does have talent but given his Stan Twitter imaging and constant state of "fuck this shit I'm out" in grappling with the modern market...I'm not sure he's in it for the long haul.
Now there are two very different things they're about. Michael is set to release an album...sorry, a "mini-album" (...gurl, call it an EP if it's got 5-8 tracks or an album if it's got 9-10 tracks minimum...) called LoveSexDrugs in the kind of not too distant month...ish. Steve hasn't released original music since NtEOM and the video for "Disciple"...even though in an interview with Fashionably Male, he teased a song that he was hoping to release in the summer...of last year. That interview came out in May of last year in time for FM's Pride issue and summer came and went and no single. It is winter 2022 and at this point, Steve isn't releasing anything. Why? Grand Axis.
Here's the scoop: Grand Axis is a line of underwear and swimwear with a really stupid "masculine" selling point even though it's also supposed to be sexy and sophisticated. Getting into further details would be infuriating all over again, especially for two reasons: 1. It's been since December 2019 and I still resent him for cheapening himself and walking back on wanting respect from publications as a musician. [It's also the reason I suspect NtEOM wasn't what it could've been as he says he "quietly" worked on it for TWO YEARS. At least December 2017 to December 2019 and the album was a 2018 release...well there you have it.] 2. I've told him this...scratch that...I've verbally excoriated him on three separate occasions and as it stands, we don't get along now.
I do want peace and resolution with Steve as I'm still holding out for new music...as long as it's good and he gives a shit enough to promote it like he does that goddamn underwear line. Steve, I want you to be the talented, driven musician that had me stick up for you on internet corners long gone. It's not fair to me to care about your music career more than you, the person that's supposed to be making it. It's also not fair for you to be so stubborn, defensive and short-sighted that you drive people like me away. Period. (There is also the fact that he knows what I mean with this as he's let me know in one of the heated exchanges we've had and he's still like this.)
As for Michael, gurl...stop trying to cater to the market in a way that makes you feel like it's pointless. That's not just a coded way of saying "Bitch get the fuck off TikTok and focus on the music." Seeing him grapple with this has me think "If this way of promotion sucks, fight it and be different. It cannot be so Sisyphean or herculean of an idea to act upon."
ALL THAT being said, there are up to two things I can revive this blog for if only temporarily:
1. A new music release from Steve Grand. An album is almost a pipe dream considering how Grand Axis is siphoning his spirit and personality by the minute but all the name of "business."* More than likely, it'd be the song teased from last year or maybe a new song altogether. Here's hoping that despite my righteous bile that not only does Steve release new music but he and I make peace and get along again.
*NOTE: I don't have to support a damn thing I don't like. This means Grand Axis as a whole or back when I would make comments or interact with Steve but then GA likes it. Gurl I do not support GA, get that shit the fuck out of here. Sorryboutit but at some point, we're talking about this.*
2. Michael Medrano's album LoveSexDrugs. The singles schedule is consistent but the album itself could be worth reviewing in due time. If he can at least present an album made with love and his vision and NOT TikTok, perhaps some glowing praise could give him second wind to go for a major label.
Beep beep, that's all folks. See you when either of these happens.**
**DISCLAIMER: the author (me) is fully aware of how they've come across in the entire post but makes no qualm about being a few fries short of a happy meal and chooses to use humor as their preferred defense mechanism against their own feelings in real life give or take the socio-political climate they exist in at this time. Thank you and please loudly shut the fuck up.**
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