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BY HEATHER SMITH

You’ve filled your phone with the latest Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang, Indigo Girls, Brandi Carlile, and Tegan and Sara. So that’s it? You think you’re all set in case there’s a spontaneous queer music party on the next block? Not even close. While those more mainstream artists certainly have their place in the lesbian music collective, the multitude of new artists is growing by the day and the level of talent isn’t lacking. Don’t get overwhelmed. I’m here to get you started with a look at five artists that are sure to expand your listening horizons. Whether you’ve got a broken heart or you want to dance around, there is something for everyone on this list. Your ears will thank you.

Meshell Ndegeocello
Meshell Ndegeocello has always pushed the envelope with her music. From blurring the lines of musical genres by incorporating rock, jazz, R&B, funk and hip-hop into her sound to writing songs about provocative topics like race, sex, politics, religion and feminism, Ndegeocello, over the course of the last 20 years has consistently put out some of the most authentic and honest songs possible.

She has a new album called, “Comet, Come To Me” coming out in June. Here is one of the new tracks, “Conviction.”

Mal Blum
With quirky, self deprecating lyrics along with perfect melodies, it’s easy to connect with Mal Blum’s music. Her 2013 release “Tempest In A Teacup” manages to show vulnerability and be funny at the same time. It’s this characteristic that has given this album earworm status for me. It also helps that she is friggin’ adorable.

One of my favorites off the album is “Valentine’s Day (Let’s Stop Cheating On Each Other),” which highlights Blum’s sense of humor.

Allison Weiss
Allison Weiss’ “Say What You Mean” is full of songs that say the things you wish you could say, but you just can’t find the words. Weiss does this without an overabundance of analogies and platitudes. The songs lament about broken hearts, but over a catchy beat with completely relatable scenarios.

The skill with which Allison Weiss is able to articulate the angst over a broken relationship without sounding depressed is quite a feat and even if you’re not in the midst of a breakup, the album says something and remains fresh. This album has been in a constant rotation for me since it came out last spring, even though I was not suffering from a broken heart. Weiss is, however, saying some of the things I wish I had during my last breakup.

Check out this acoustic version of her song “Making It Up” from her latest album “Say What You Mean”.

Hannah Thomas
Georgia girl Hannah Thomas can’t be pigeonholed. Part rock and part country, she brings an energy to her music that cannot be contained. She’s been touring and writing relentlessly since she was 16, kicking ass and taking names along the way. I think that her talent truly shines when she performs live, so if you get a chance to see her perform, take advantage of it.

One of the highlights from her last release, “Goodbye On Wasted Time” is “Watch Out For the Deer,” a fan favorite that makes hanging out in a parking lot sound like a hell of a lot of fun.

CocoRosie
Sisters Bianca and Sierra Casady, form the core of this group whose music has been described as “freak folk” and “New American Weird.” Their sound, at first listen can sound a bit baffling, but the more you listen, the more haunting and lush it sounds.

What I love about CocoRosie is that they pay no mind to what they think others might want to hear and are doing this for themselves and seemingly, loving every minute of it. I had the chance to see them in New York knowing very little about them. My first thought was that it was a cacophonous spectacle. Then I really listened to them and paid attention to the layers of their sound and saw it for it’s beauty.

Check out “After the Afterlife” from their latest release, Tales of a GrassWidow.

Heather Smith is the creator and producer of Rubyfruit Radio, a podcast featuring the best in female artists.

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Congratulations to Brandi Carlile and her wife Catherine Carlile. The pair is expecting their first child, a girl, in June 2014.

Catherine, who runs Brandi’s Looking Out Foundation, is carrying the baby.

From donating 250 water filters to an impoverished community outside Puerto Vallarta as part of Sweet’s Hard Rock Resort in 2013 to creating a violence prevention program in Seattle that offers women free self-defense classes, the Looking Out Foundation seeks to support communities through music and humanitarian outreach.

The Carliles are no strangers to having a baby on tour as they’ve been traveling the country with Brandi’s bandmate’s baby Jo for a year and loving it.

Lesbian.com wishes Brandi and Catherine all the best as they enter parenthood.

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We launched our lesbian playlist series with “passion.” Now it’s time to move on to the opposite end of the spectrum with our essential “break-up” playlist. These five tunes serve as the perfect soundtrack for getting from” angry” to “over it.”

Be sure to tell us your favorite break-up songs in the “Leave a Reply” section below!

“Untouchable Face” — Ani DiFranco

We’re hopping into our way back machine for this one, heading to 1996 when DiFranco made this the first cut on her “Dilate” CD. The lyrics are most certainly NSFW, but when the woman you want now wants someone else, well, it’s not always pretty now is it?

“Creep” — Brandi Carlile

Carlile’s cover of this Radiohead classic is pure you-think-you’re-too-good-for-me gold. “You’re so %#$*! special. I wish I was special.” Crank it up, sing along and let go of that anger.

“Some Kinda Nerve” — Melissa Ferrick

This tune is off Ferrick’s “Freedom” release and offers the ideal retort to the former lover now experiencing second thoughts. “You’ve got some kind of nerve/coming back here for more/like i’m just going drop everything i’m doing/so you can humiliate me a little more.” And that’s just the first couple of lines.

“Gravity” — Sara Bareilles

So you’re past the anger stage and just begging the universe to help you let go and move on. Put Bareilles on repeat and feel the weight being lifted every time she hits that high note near the end. The song is even better than the Oscar-nominated film of the same name and definitely more healing after a painful break-up.

“Heal Me” — Melissa Etheridge

Congratulations! You made it. You realized that a broken heart doesn’t mean the world has ended. Etheridge had that same epiphany in this song from “Skin,” arguably one of her best CDs.

The post Lesbian break-up playlist: 5 songs to get you from ‘angry’ to ‘over it’ first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY TRISH BENDIX

Three of Brandi Carlile‘s four studio albums have been released on Columbia Records (and one live album, too), but the out musician says she’s left the label to do something different on her new effort, to be recorded this fall. Brandi told “The Seattle Times” her bandmates, Tim and Phil Hanseroth, will join her in going to a secluded cabin in the San Juan Islands once they are finished touring for the summer. Although the split with Columbia was “beautiful and amicable,” Brandi also said “it was just time.”

Read more at AfterEllen.com

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Brandi Carlile’s video for “Keep Your Heart Young,” set outside her home in Washington State, is a family affair featuring her nieces and nephews.

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Singer/songwriter and Northwest native Brandi Carlile joins KCTS to talk about her music career and her album “Bear Creek.”

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Saturday was a special day for Seattle’s favorite wonder-kid Brandi Carlile. The Bear Creek singer/songwriter said “I Do” to her partner, Catherine Shepherd, in Boston where they were surrounded by family and friends.

“It was a crazy feeling while I was filling out the paperwork because I felt like I was breaking the law, like somebody was going to come in and say, ‘You know you can’t have this,’” Carlile told the Associated Press (AP). “It was so exciting. And her [Shepherd’s] mom and dad were there and it was just really special. So we have a marriage license in Massachusetts.”

Read more at TheSeattleLesbian.com

The Seattle Lesbian online magazine reaches more than 188,000 readers per week globally.

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It’s hard to believe Brandi Carlile isn’t from the South. Her songs can’t help but have that country-way about them: The storytelling narratives, the themes getting through hard times and missing someone so much it threatens to consume you all together — even her speaking voice has a bit of a twang. But mostly it’s her charm. She is warm and friendly, like she’d give you a ride home if she saw you in the rain or offer you a cup of tea as soon as you walked into her house. That genuine charisma is why so many fans have become smitten with her over the course of career. Well, that and her voice.

Read more at After Ellen.com

AfterEllen is the pop culture site that plays for your team.

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