Sweeping Exits
Glitter & Blood
(Matriarch Queen Records)
Often times, my first point of access into a particularly beguiling new record is to figure out who would I recommend it to.
Sweeping Exits are a glam punk/queer-core band in which every one of the four is a member of the trans community. Lead vocalist Mira Glitterhound, the album’s cover subject with bleeding eyes, perfectly inhabits the role of showstopper. Like other glam influenced front pieces (thinking of throw backs to David Bowie and Marc Bolan) Sweeping Exits is careful to balance on the fence between singer and song. Often enough on Glitter & Blood, Mira pulls back and lets the band blow out delving into old time rock and roll and Americana. When they’re humming, which they often are on their latest record, they’re raw and uninhibited. They’re like the New York Dolls and their latest release is one of the most fun loving and enjoyable of 2017, to date.
Among the first things to stand out about Glitter & Blood is how it’s a serious album that attains that mantle without taking itself too seriously. Sex and politics and identity all arise frequently in the album’s pool of subjects, but it’s with an air of wit and sly humor. I can just picture the greasy, back porch kiss on “Bigots & Barbecue” that leads to the singer’s revelation. Tracks like “Teachers” ostensibly about the series of queer lovers and bawdy encounter a young person encounters on their way to identity could be didactic and onerous, but in the hands of Sweeping Exits deft songwriting and Glitterhound’s mastery of subject, it almost comes off like a party song. Fitting the role, Glitterhound gives us the hushed, hip sway on “Lady Death” one of the most captivating pieces on the collection, but she is no scene-stealer. The band brings in enough campy/B-movie elements like on “I Only Dream In Black And White” and sincerity, as they do on the lush, baroque piano ballad, “When We Die In The Dark” and keep the curiosity up. Between the urban fantasy, the horror schlock and sexy undertones, there isn’t much on Glitter & Blood that allows for easy contextualization. It’s actually through my exploration of this record that I made the connection between the horror genre and queer culture, linked vicariously through the irrational, sometimes comical fear of the “other” that lays underneath both surfaces.
Overall the album is a weekend bender and make-up bag full of bright, two or three minute songs. A few times on Glitter & Blood the band dabbles in cheap sound bytes, but those moments are rare and excusable. At core, the Portland band leans on raucous punk rock, glam subjects, and enough political glitter that you know they’re serious.
While Sweeping Exits may seem to lay claim to a narrow niche, their songs have a broad appeal. Glitter & Blood is a great album, an armoire lined with delightful costumes and an open invitation to try each on without judgment.
Back around to the beginning, the answer to that question is, anyone.
