On the Turntable

    by William Gregory in Midwest Ursine


    4 Seasons in a Day 4 Seasons in a Day
    Alan Reade
    (Pop2 Records)

    Alan Reade is a performance artist, mixed media, enfant terrible that has studied with such crËme de la crËme as Rachel Rosenthal. For those of you not in the know, she is one of the innovators of performance art. This album is no obvious recording of pretentious and postured poetry readings. These pieces are a gay man's observations, who goes from a lone man asking God "Why he doesn't feel at home in this crock pot." to "hooking up" on the internet. Reade gives us his keen views of what it's like to be a gay man that does not fit into the status quo. I feel cheated and I wish I could see him perform. That's the only part that's missing. These are songs that deserve to be listened to more than once, just like Reade says, "If you're gay, it's not difficult to meet men in San Francisco, it's just difficult to meet them more than once." John Ashfield is featured on guitar and bass on my favorite cut, "Never Look Back". It's just the punk rocker in me. Oh yeah, Reade is a cutie.

    Available through http://www.cdbaby.com.

    William Gregory is a musician, writes free-lance music articles and is currently working on a Fiction writing/Journalism degree in Chicago, Il.