LGBTQ music news: Morgxn, Ryals, Mouth Congress (feat. Scott Thompson of 'Kids in the Hall')

Morgxn unveiled the latest single from The Meridian Vol. 2 EP, set for release on November 11.

Listen/share “The Way it Was” HERE.

After receiving a flood of hatred and hurtful comments when posting a Tik Tok teasing the new song, the Nashville artist decided to team up with The Trevor Project—an LGBTQ+ support organization offering a 24/7 hotline and trained counselors to LGBTQ+ youth—and hopes the incident brings awareness to the dangers of bullying on the Internet. A portion of the sales from his new merch with be donated to the organization. More info HERE.

“I was the victim of bullying growing up without knowing there was a lifeline out there to keep going,” morgxn says. “'The Way it Was’ is about reclaiming that spark I lost due to the pandemic and getting older. When I got a bunch of hate on the Internet it reminded me that ‘the way it was’ didn’t always make room for people like me and so many I love. But there’s something powerful about reclaiming that joy and that hope that no one can ever take away from you.”

On November 1 morgxn is hitting the road with Smallpools for a North American tour. List of dates below. Watch morgxn perform with Sara Bareilles on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Morgxn's animated lyric video for Don't Think About It can be viewed/shared HERE.

The lyric video joins the track's recently released official music video, which depicts a spin on the traditional gender reveal party. “There is so much pressure and attention on gender as if it’s something new. It’s not… why [has] gender become such a heated debate when we are debating something that is, at its core, deeply personal," says morgxn.

The new EP follows Meridian Vol 1, which was heavily inspired by a rollercoaster 24-hour period in which morgxn experienced some of his highest highs and lowest lows. Just as the world was going into lockdown due to the pandemic in March 2020, morgxn saw a lifechanging day in which Billie Eilish included morgxn’s single “home” in a list of inspirations behind her Grammy-award winning track “bad guy.”

Nashville-born Morgan Isaac Karr, best known as morgxn, released his debut album vital in 2018 including the hit lead single “home” featuring Walk The Moon. The track was a Top 10 Alternative Radio hit, landing on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart and Billboard Rock Airplay Chart. He has toured extensively with the likes of X Ambassadors, Phoebe Ryan, miike snow, Skylar Grey and more, and has played festivals worldwide including Lollapalooza, Firefly and Hangout. 

TOUR DATES:

November 1—The Loft—Atlanta, GA
November 2—Motorco Music Hall—Durham, NC
November 4—Brighton Music Hall—Boston, MA
November 5—The Foundry at The Fillmore—Philadelphia, PA
November 6—Music Hall of Williamsburg—Brooklyn, NY
November 7—Union Stage—Washington DC
November 9—Adelaide Hall—Toronto, ON
November 10—Blind Pig—Ann Arbor, MI
November 11—Grog Shop—Cleveland, OH
November 13—Bottom Lounge—Chicago, IL
November 14—Fine Line Music Cafe—Minneapolis, MN
November 16—Encore at the Uptown Theater—Kansas City, MO
November 17—Blueberry Hill Duck Room—University City, MO
November 18—Exit/In—Nashville, TN
February 3—House of Blues Bronze Peacock—Houston, TX
February 4—Antone’s—Austin, TX
February 5—Club Dada—Dallas, TX
February 8—Valley Bar—Phoenix, AZ
February 9—House of Blues Voodoo Room—San Diego, CA
February 11—Roxy Theatre—Los Angeles, CA
February 12—Popscene—San Francisco, CA
February 14—Polaris Hall—Portland, OR
February 15—The Crocodile—Seattle, WA
February 17—Hangar House at Infinity Event Center—Salt Lake City, UT
February 18—Marquis Theatre—Denver, CO
February 20—Vanguard—Tulsa, OK

Forward, the new EP by electronic/dance/pop artist Ryals, is now available on streaming services.

On the motivation for the EP, Ryals said, “Forward is my life story: an oppressive society, battling homophobia, immigration, establishing my own identity, love and break ups, my mom’s alcohol addiction and the pain of ultimately losing her. There is so much happening in my life and the way I process it is to write about it. At the end of the day, it’s my dream that got me through my adolescence and continues to get me through the hardest times of my life. The hard work that goes into sustaining a dream gives meaning to what I had to endure along the way.”

The most important thing he wants people to take away from this EP is that “We all only have one life to live and that we can’t dwell on the hard times forever.” He wants his fans to walk away from the EP with hope for a better future, saying “It is your perception that makes life brighter, you can manifest your life and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. You just keep moving it forward.”

About Ryals:

He grew up in Kyiv, capital city of Ukraine and earned a scholarship to a Bachelor of Arts in Acting and Musical Theatre from the Kyiv Academy of the Arts. After which, he performed in musical theater where he continued crafting his singing, dancing, and acting skills. In between touring Ukraine in musicals, Ryals was cast for a role in the movie Let’s Dance, which premiered nationwide. He then began his own career path as a songwriter and a performer with his first album State Of Liberty. He signed a contract with the Holland American Cruise Line and embarked on his journey around the world performing onboard the ship. While working on the cruise ship, Ryals was struck with the realization that there were other countries that had already started accepting homosexuality and people were able to be themselves. Ryals made one of the hardest decisions in his life to immigrate to America and start his life in the United States in attempt to reach his full potential.

After reestablishing his life and finding support in his husband, he was ready to get back to music, and this time with a strong established message.

“No one ever deserves to be shamed, persecuted or killed because of their sexual orientation. I am grateful for all the people who fought and are continuing to fight for human rights. Thanks to them, a lot of people already are able to at least know how it feels to live a normal life. But there’s still 72 countries on this planet where being part of LGBTQIA community is illegal and in 12 countries nowadays it’s being punished by a death sentence,” says Ryals.

Now that Ryals can live his authentic life, he focuses on joining the activists that paved the way for him to continue fighting homophobia and supporting people like him who are going through the same issues he recently faced. Ryals and his husband work with Rainbow Railroad that provide immediate assistance to vulnerable people across the globe, and other human rights organizations that assist LGBTQIA people around the world. In addition, for the release of the Forward EP Ryals is partnering with New York based community center The Ali Forney Center the largest LGBT community center helping LGBT homeless youth.

Track listing:

Midnight
Midnight (Acoustic Version)
NMFA
Great Society
My Days
Forward
Better

Toronto’s Mouth Congress — friends Paul Bellini and Scott Thompson of Kids In The Hall fame — wrote and recorded hundreds of songs between 1984 and 1988 without ever putting out a proper release. Alongside various cohorts and conspirators, the band drew on their experiences as gay men in the ‘80s to craft hilariously crude punk songs that run the gamut of strange characters and taboo subject matter. Their rag tag approach to songwriting blended various styles from noisy punk to lo-fi new wave and DIY disco, all with a very gay bent.

Waiting for Henry collects 29 tracks over 2 LPs and includes a booklet with interviews and ephemera from one of the ‘80s last queercore bands. The first 1000 copies are pressed on tan and blue vinyl, and a limited edition of 300, exclusive to Captured Tracks, includes a photo print signed by Paul and Scott.

Mouth Congress began as a dare. Paul Bellini and Scott Thompson’s friend Brian Hiltz always had a rock band and dreamed of being Pete Townsend. Having no musical talent, all Paul could do was dream. One day in 1984, Brian rented a beatbox from a local music store. Paul was fascinated by this thing, which played whacky mambo and samba beats. And then Brian dared Paul to start his own band, so he rented that beatbox and set it up in the basement on top of an old freezer in the house where they lived.

At the time, Paul’s sister Christine, who also lived in the house, was dating Rob Rowatt. He brought over his electric guitar and they jammed in the basement. Then Christine’s high school friend Gord Disley came over with his guitar. Later that same week, Scott Thompson came by for a visit, and together they had a massive jam session that yielded about thirty short, ridiculous songs, mostly about genitalia and identity. Pleased with the results, they set out to find a name. At the time, Christine was studying Hinduism and had a copy of the Sir Richard Burton translation of the Kama Sutra. Their eyes fell upon ‘mouth congress,’ his term for oral sex. Still in their mid 20s and coming to terms with their homosexuality, Scott and Paul decided that this was the ideal name for their rock band.

For a while, they recorded everything on a standard cassette tape recorder with a condenser mic. The results were generally unlistenable, so they upgraded to a Tascam 4-track recorder. Most of the songs on Waiting For Henry were recorded in this fashion, over a period of nine years and in at least nine different Toronto-area houses or apartments. The band’s approach to lyrics was unusual.

Because Scott was a sketch comedian, he was always inventing new characters. They decided rock ’n’ roll was the ideal form in which to explore homosexual experiences. They did all the recording and mixing with whatever musicians were around at the time. Paul enjoyed filtering Scott’s vocals through guitar pedals like a phase shifter or a wah wah pedal. Scott loved edgy topical material, like sexuality, race, and gender issues, though sometimes the songs were just pure nonsense. Without trying, they were surprisingly cutting edge. It wasn’t long before Scott, a performer by nature, decided that Mouth Congress should appear live at The Rivoli - the Toronto club where the Kids in the Hall performed most often. They sang songs about cigarettes and the Holy Ghost to a flummoxed audience.

Over the next three years, Mouth Congress did dozens of live shows with various combinations of Rob, Gord, or Brian, and often including Steve Keeping on drums and Tom King on keyboards and vocals. They also had several bass players – Blaine Vanstone, Steve Gelling, and Tim O’Neil, who, in true Spinal Tap fashion, have all since passed away. They are remembered fondly, and Paul and Scott continue to keep a close eye on the current bass players.

The live shows gained a reputation for being theatrical, to say the least, as they combined props, sets, multiple costume changes, unusual song choices, lots of guest stars, and Scott’s stand-up comedy. Unlike other bands, Mouth Congress didn’t just have a set list – they wrote whole scripts. In 1988, they decided to record a 7-song demo tape. The tracks were recorded quickly, as the Kids in the Hall were about to go to New York City to spend a year developing their material for Broadway Video. 

Then, caught up in the excitement of The Kids in the Hall being signed to television, they neglected to distribute the demo tape. Making the TV show was so time-consuming that Mouth Congress activities slowed to a crawl.

In 2011, Paul dug out an old VHS tape of one of the live shows. It was footage of Scott singing (or rather, screaming) a noisy punk song called “Showland.” In it, he strips down to his underwear, peeling off layer after layer of clothing until almost naked on stage. The sight of one of the Kids in the Hall covered in sweat, writhing on stage like Iggy Pop, was something he felt comedy fans might actually enjoy seeing. Naturally, Scott agreed and they decided to make a ‘documentary’ about the band. At the same time, Gord Disley suggested they upload some classic Mouth Congress songs to Bandcamp, so they dumped everything - over 600 recordings - onto the site. Some of them were just jams, crude beyond description. Others were professionally produced, and many were live tracks. Mouth Congress never made much of a distinction between the stuff that sounded like real music and the stuff that was just creative ‘junk’. They loved all their creations equally.

One day in 2019, Mike Sniper of Captured Tracks stumbled upon the Bandcamp page, got in touch with Paul and Scott, and suggested assembling a compilation of the best recordings to be officially released for the very first time. So Paul and Scott chose 30 songs to share with the world and that’s how we got the first Mouth Congress compilation, Waiting for Henry.

Who is Henry? We don’t really know, but we certainly hope he shows up soon.

Listen to the single "The People Have Spoken" below, it was recorded live at the Rivoli in Toronto. It is about the fight for reproductive rights. At the time, abortion clinics in Toronto run by Dr. Henry Morgentaler were besieged by pro-life activists in daily noisy protests. It all came to a head with a deadly bombing. The track opens with a sample of an activist’s rallying cry, and the song was performed in drag while brandishing placards. The music video features an archival performance by the band in 1986, cut with footage from a pro-choice rally in Toronto from the same year.

Listen & Watch: Mouth Congress - "The People Have Spoken"
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N57g9mg5Wls
Smartlink: https://capturedtracks.ffm.to/thepeoplehavespoken.opr

Pre-Order: Mouth Congress - Waiting For Henry
https://capturedtracks.ffm.to/waitingforhenry.opr

Track listing: 

1. Sex and Love
2. Be My Hole
3. Heavy Breather
4. Guess I’ll Just Jerk Off Again
5. Wind in My Belly
6. Guilt
7. Band from France
8. Tom
9. Womyn
10. What Is This Thing Called Love?
11. Fascist Love Song
12. Lullaby on Blow
13. Why?
14. We Back Together
15. Young and Alive in 1975
16. Thanks for the Disco
17. A Wig
18. Pepper Pot
19. Lorenzo The Chef
20. Give In
21. The People Have Spoken
22. What Do I Wear On A Trip To the Moon?
23. Christopher
24. Testicle Delight
25. Water Nymph
26. A Queen's Lament
27. Julie Newmar
28. Madamifesto
29. Let’s Hear It for Show Business