Dougy's Picks: August 2019

The Dougy Style Club is a monthly column from Q Review guest writer Doug Evasick. Each month Doug gives us his picks for notable releases you need to check out and listen to. Dive in and discover some great new releases chosen to be part of the Dougy Style Club.

Twitter: @Dougystyle4

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Ariana & and the Rose - True Love
I first heard this song on The Out Now Playlist on Spotify and I found the beat of the song catchy and ear grabbing from the start. Ariana is a one-woman band who writes, sings and performs all her own music by herself and I am intrigued to hear more from her based on this song alone. True Love is about not settling for less or even friends with benefits, but holding out for real love and not being afraid to ask for more in a relationship. This message is something I think a lot of people need to hear, because I've found that sometimes people settle for less when they could have so much more.

The Black Keys - Get Yourself Together
Get Yourself Together is hands down the best song the Black Keys have done since Gold on the Ceiling off 2011's El Camino. The guitar work on here is superb and reminds me a lot of 70s era Eric Clapton. The guitar is bluesy but also pretty rocking at the same time. The guitar solos are some of the best guitar solos I have heard in rock music recently outside Teenage Wrist. Like their best songs, Get Yourself Together has a great groove that gives it a danceable feel without compromising the song's edge either. This song is equal parts catchy fun and rocking, which is sometimes in short supply these days with Alternative Rock.

Bronze Avery - Never Be You
2019 thus far has been Bronze Avery's year and Never Be You is his best song yet. The beat is infectious as hell and the chorus will get stuck in your head fast! The song is also about Bronze Avery moving on from a bad a relationship and never looking back. It's a self-empowering bop that hits all the right notes and it should garner Bronze his most streams yet. Never Be You proves that Bronze Avery is just getting better and better with every song he releases. Right now, Bronze Avery is the definition of a pop star on the rise.   ​

Bryce - Keep 'em Coming
I've recently discovered Bryce who is an openly gay pop star who lives in D.C. He has about 3 songs so far and they seem to critique different facets of Gay culture that can be quite harmful to our community. His debut single Masc talked about how toxic masculinity hurts the gay community from within since gay man try to aspire to straight culture by toning down their femininity. Keep 'Em Coming deals with another issue in the Gay community head on which is alcoholism. In the song Bryce sings from the point of view of someone who never knows when to say enough is enough when it comes to drinking and usually ends up black out drunk most nights. Alcoholism is a problem across the world, but it's uniquely a problem in the gay community in that it's not only an escape from the pain a lot of queer people struggle with every day, but most of our safe spaces for our community are bars and clubs where drinking is not only encouraged but feels mandatory. For someone like me who doesn't drink anymore due to a concussion, this is part of the reason I don't go out to a lot of gay bars and clubs because I feel the pressure to drink and spend money when I just want to have a good time in a Queer space. This is also another reason why I love going to Gay Pop concerts, because while there is alcohol, I don't feel the pressure to drink to have a good time in a safe space for Queer people like I do at the gay bars and clubs. I'm definitely interested in what Bryce has next up his sleeve and what else he will take aim at within our community that needs to be addressed.

Carlos Vara - Impossible
I've discovered Carlos Vara very recently and he's impressed the hell out of me. His voice is so full of passion and soul that it's hard to not be affected emotionally when listening to him sing. Impossible is a song about how you can be your own worst enemy and how low self-esteem can keep you from being as happy as you really want to be. Again, this is something that affects a lot of members of the LGBTQ community who internalize a lot of self-hatred and stress due to not being accepted for who they are. Carlos Vara is definitely my favorite discovery of the past month and I think he'll be yours as well after you listen to Impossible.

Demob Happy - Autoportrait
Demob Happy plays classic rock in a post Alternative Rock world, which means that while they have deep influences in rock they still feel more modern unlike say Greta Van Fleet whose music and image feels permanently stuck in 1973. Demob Happy mixes things up enough to keep things interesting. In fact, I definitely hear the influence of Queens of the Stone Age on Autoportrait, who were another band that had deep roots in rock, but were not stuck in the past either. The riffage on this song is also pretty damn great and gets the blood pumping. It's kind of sad that I get excited these days by a rock song that actually "Rocks," but that's where we are at with modern rock at this juncture in 2019.

Gia Woods - Feel It
Gia Woods is someone I have criminally overlooked when putting these articles together these past few months. She's released a series of singles throughout 2019 that are the definition of sexy cool. Gia Woods just exudes cool and confidence in everything she does and Feel it is just as good as her other singles this year like Keep it Coming, New Girlfriend and Jump the Fence. In all honesty I should have remembered to include those song on my past articles. Gia is also a Lesbian and it's great to see more Queer women coming to the forefront lately as the boys can tend to dominate the discussion with Queer Pop music. Gia has also said Madonna is a big influence, especially the way "Madonna owned her shit" as Gia said in an interview recently and I can feel that with Gia. Gia is an openly gay female pop star who calls the shots and charts her own destiny and we definitely need more of that in music right now.

Gregory Dillon - Where We're Going
Gregory Dillon just keeps blowing me away with each and every single he puts out. His voice, the production, the melodies are all amazing. His latest single sees him go a little more Chillwave with the production as it's more atmospheric than his last single Love Again. Where We're Going though feels a lot warmer than past songs and that's probably because it's meant to be a summer love song and I'm all about summer bops. Gregory is the entire package and he's shot to the front of the Gay Pop pack in 2019 for me. I can't wait for his next single to drop!

​Hatchie - Her Own Heart
I discovered this song through the Alternative Nation playlist and it definitely takes me back to the '90s. It has a very strong Dream Pop feel that reminds me of acts like Mazzy Star. It's interesting how the sounds of the early 90s Alternative, especially the more atmospheric side with Dream Pop and Shoegaze, have really infiltrated back into modern music. If you like Mazzy Star, The Sundays, The Cocteau Twins or Lush then give this song a listen. 

Nicopop & Kyan Palmer - Coo Coo Juice
Kyan Palmer & Nicopop have been a roll lately. They seem to bring out the best in each other and just keep releasing bop after bop. Coo Coo Juice is another slam dunk by this duo and while What U Like is still their best song, Coo Coo Juice is more of a laidback bop made for warm summer nights.

Liam Gallagher - The River
Breaking free of Oasis might have been the best decision Liam Gallagher could have made, because the solo songs he has been putting out since 2017 have been his best songs since Oasis' 90s heyday. Liam isn't here to reinvent the wheel musically (and let's face it neither were Oasis), but like Oasis he gives you what you want from this kind of classicist rock music. Liam's solo career sees him as a rock journey man who is influenced equally by bluesy 70s hard rock and 60s psychedelic pop. The River is a great combination of the two as it starts off sounding like crunchy 70s rock, but has some nice psychedelic touches that become more and more prominent as the song unfolds.

REYNA - The Way I Loved You
Sister act REYNA has been gracing us with some wonderful pop songs this past year with Heartbeat being my personal favorite. Their social media presence has also been fun since they seem to love the adrenaline of catching their flights at the last minute and I've commented back saying that's how my husband likes to travel as well. Vic & Gabby finally return with The Way I Loved You, which proves these girls are incapable of writing bad songs. This one is another winner with a strong hook that you will be singing along too in no time. Come to D.C. girls, because I'll be the first in line to buy tickets. 

Ride - Future Love
The Shoegaze revival of the last 5 years has been one of the biggest, but nicest surprises in recent memory. It's a genre that never got the respect it deserved during its 90s heyday, but Shoegaze seems to be getting a lot more accolades and respect now that people realize just how influential and timeless the genre has become. Ride has been one of the biggest benefactors of this revival. They broke up in 1996 after their final album flopped where they ditched the Shoegaze and tried to chase the Britpop money. Yet, since reuniting Ride has gotten back to their Shoegaze roots and they have released some of the best material of their career with Lannoy Point, Pulsar, Catch You Dreaming and especially Cali, which sounds like Shoegaze meets the Beach Boys. Future Love is another winner for Ride proving that not only is their comeback no fluke, it's been downright necessary.

Sam Bluer - Naughty
Sam Bluer was one of the earliest Queer pop acts I got into after discovering my holy trinity of Troye Sivan, Olly Alexander and Kim Petras. His song Body High was one of the best songs of 2018 and with that song alone Bluer was worthy of being compared to Troye Sivan. The follow up single Bite My Tongue was just as good and I was fully onboard the Sam Bluer bandwagon by that point. Then Sam went quiet around November. When I asked where he was on Twitter, he responded saying he was still around, but working on new music and he wanted to make sure it was perfect before he returned. Naughty is his first new song since October and it was worth the wait. More of a mid-tempo RnB sex jam than the full-on bops of Body High and Bite My Tongue, Bluer still exudes charisma and star power at every turn. He's making some of the sexiest and coolest pop songs in this current wave of Queer music and that's saying something. Bluer says Naughty is the first of many songs to come, which will lead into his first EP and I for one cannot wait for what else he has in store for us.

Silversun Pickups -We Are Chameleons
Silversun Pickups are my favorite alternative rock band of the past 15 years and I pretty much love everything they do, but their music does take some time before it all clicks. I usually have to live with their albums for a while before I know what my favorite songs are and such was the case with We Are Chameleons. I liked it when I first heard it, but now that I have lived with the We Are Chameleons for a while it's emerged as my second favorite song off Widow's Weeds. The riffs that crash into the intro at the beginning announce this is going to be the heaviest song on the album. I appreciate that Silversun Pickups don't make conventional rock music. It's actually Alternative Rock unlike half the music that passes for Alternative Rock on radio these days. Silversun Pickups mess around with song structure, time signatures and production in ways that keep me on my toes. We Are the Chameleons once again is a memorable rock song, but not in the ways you would initially expect. This is why it took a few listens before We Are Chameleons fully clicked with me, but like their previous songs my patience was rewarded.

Simon Curtis - Graduate
Simon Curtis made his long-awaited return to music earlier this year with Love, which I included in my first article for The Q Review. Graduate is much more of a dance song about how the past, as awful as it can be, can sometimes help you to be a better person going forward. The song's message is also about how you can't let the past hold you back and much like Semisonic's Closing Time, every beginning comes from some other beginning's end. Simon seems to be gearing up for even more music soon so expect more appearances from him on these monthly articles going forward.

Slow Dance - Str8 Voice
Slow Dance is a duo lead by Alex Ryan and Jacob Chabon, who are both gay and in a committed relationship with one another. Str8 Voice deals with the idea of toxic masculinity within Gay culture where appearing more masculine and more straight is seen as a premium in the community. Here they sing about a lover who gets turned on by their Str8 Voice, because he's still so filled with shame for being gay. Toxic masculinity is something we need to address in our own community, because it's hurting us and only benefiting our enemies. We have to stop changing who we are to meet a masculine standard that doesn't feel comfortable for many of us. The video meanwhile is campy fun as they dress up as duos from pop culture who have been called Queer in the past like Bert & Ernie and Batman & Robin.

Tommy Bravos - Divination
Tommy Bravos latest single Divination feels like an 80s New Wave song with lots of fun retro sounding synth beats and keyboards strewn throughout the song. The song itself deals with a more serious matter of how gay relationships seem to have a much shorter life span than straight couples. Tommy laments that most of the guys he meets lose interest fast after the sex since most seem incapable of opening up emotionally and taking the risk to be in a fully committed and loving relationship. This series of short-term hookups are taking a toll on Tommy who wonders if he will ever find love, which is relatable to anyone who has ever been single, which is everyone!

​Wils - Open Up Babe
A Years & Years fan brought Wils to my attention on Facebook and I'm glad they did because I liked this song the first time I heard it. It's got a sexy exotic beat to it and it sounds like another gay love song, but actually Wils has said the song is about opening up emotionally and coming out of the closet. Wils says the song is about him not worrying about what other people thought of him and staying true to being the person he always wanted to be and not the person others had wanted him to be. After being denied gay voices and perspectives in pop music for so long we are finally getting an avalanche of artists who are speaking about struggles everyone in our community has had, but no one ever talked about before in pop music. Still the song is catchy and breezy enough for you to miss the meaning and that's OK when the music is as alluring as this.