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LISTEN: Portland-Based Band HERS Debut Album Chronicles Queer Awakening
It’s the first weekend of summer! How about some brand new music to add to your summer play list? The Portland, Oregon-based band HERS drops their debut new album Youth Revisited on June 3, but we’ve got the single “Hell” right here for your listening pleasure.
While the band HERS’ -- comprised of Melissa L. Amstutz, Rachel Tomlinson Dick, Cody Peterson, and Ellen Wilde -- sound stands on its own as a feral force, the album is especially meaningful to a queer audience as it “charts the queer awakening of songwriter and vocalist Amstutz.”
A child of a religious, military family Amstutz was a musical theater kid before she grabbed a guitar and started a band at the age of 16, according to a release. She credits that bond with music and her band with keeping her grounded.
“It was the best part of my high school experience. I think it saved my life,” Amstutz says about forming that band.
While at college at the University of Nebraska in Omaha Amstutz came out as a lesbian and divorced her husband. Later, she and Rachel Tomlinson Dick formed a feminist punk band called The Wayward Little Satan Daughters, according to a release. The band later became what it is today -- HERS.
Youth Revisited was written in Omaha before the band’s return to Portland.
Here’s a little taste of Youth Revisited – “Hell.” And expect to hear a lot more from this killer group with the kinetic sound!
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
