The Cliks C’est Chiq

Looking at Lucas Silveira, you wouldn’t guess that he is a vanguard in the music industry. All five foot next to nothing, rocking the nu wave revival in his black shirt and thin red tie, he doesn’t really see himself as someone at the forefront of anything, just another guy who loves writing and performing rock-n-roll. Silveira’s band — a Toronto-based group called The Cliks — has been together in different forms since 2002, but the last year has certainly been unlike anything they’ve experienced since their humble beginnings as a Toronto bar band.

On April 24th, The Cliks released their first CD with Warner Music Canada and on Silver Records (Tommy Boy’s GLBT-specific label) in America. That date is the realization of a lifelong dream for Silveira, but in the music industry, it is also notable, as it is the first time that a vocal group with a trangendered frontman will have been released on a major label in North America, and quite possibly the world. What is equally worth mentioning is that while many queer groups remain in the underground, The Cliks’ new CD Snakehouse is so ridiculously catchy - not just their own songs, but also their cover of Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River” — that it is causing a huge buzz in the music industry. From Billboard to MTV.com, mainstream music journalists (largely made up of straight men) are writing about the band.

Singer/songwriter Silveira is humbled and clearly grateful for all the goodness - especially since it has been a long and occasionally arduous journey right up to this CD’s release. “I’ve been working very hard at this for a very long time,” he admits, “and it was getting to this point where I was starting to look for day jobs, because music was not paying the bills.” Snakehouse was being mixed in the studio when Silveira realized that it was time to pony up and get a ‘real’ job. Hours after that realization, everything changed. Jake Gold (co-manager of The Tragically Hip) called Silveira and said ‘I just listened to the album, it rocks! I wanna take you guys on!’ “I still can’t believe it,” the singer enthuses. “Fate just knocked us over.”

Excitement and gratitude still resonates in Silveira’s recollection of the story; part of his humility and down-to-earth-ness comes as a result of having a tumultuous recent past. In 2005, Silveira had found much of his world crashing down around him. His 6 1/2 year relationship ended, Silveira’s father had a stroke, and at the singer was coming to terms with thoughts about where he fit on the gender scale. “I wrestled with it my entire life, it was brutal. It affected relationships, friendships, music industry, day job. I started transitioning in 2005, 2-3 months out of the relationship.” While he feels comfortable in his body, Silveira - who had spent his whole life trying to make his way as a singer - struggled to come to terms with transitioning and how taking testosterone could threaten his career. “I kept thinking about my voice…I started doing my own research on testosterone and I thought ‘Oh fuck, I can’t do this.’ Music is number one in my life; at the end of it, I learned something about myself. I learned that I identify as a transgendered male, I don’t identify as a man. I started questioning things: am I not transgendered if I don’t have a deep voice and hair all over my body? No, I still am who I am, I decided that I was in the middle ground…but then I found a lot of people like me.” He has already had top surgery and admits that when it comes to the idea of testosterone, “every day is a temptation…but the realization is that if I choose one, I lose the other.”

The Cliks’ fast-rising success means that bigger audiences are coming out to see their live shows. When asked if the frontman is receiving lusty screams and flirtatious attention from a number of different genders and orientations, he blushes a little and smiles widely. “Straight women, straight men, lesbians and gay men. I am universal love,” he laughs, opening his arms wide. One of the most exciting things in The Cliks’ near future is their upcoming participation in Cindy Lauper’s True Colors tour, a traveling festival promoting ‘equality for all’ as their byline explains, hosted by Margaret Cho and featuring everyone from Erasure to Blondie to The Gossip and more. Tour host Cho describes them in her blog as “THE BAND of our time” and has also publicly stated that “no one else can inspire such crushed out admiration and full on rock star screaming.” Silveira is thrilled to be included on the tour, which will allow them to play for much larger crowds than they are used to. “On the main stage, we’ll be playing in front of 10,000+ people. That is going to be a huge thing for our careers, something that will change things for us by far. In fact, someone came up to me in the bathroom the other day at a show and said ‘Can I hug you before you get huge?’ The whole thing is happening really quickly, and I feel incredibly lucky.”

Check out The Cliks’ official website or Myspace page for more information including full length songs and upcoming tour dates!

Written by Denise Sheppard

Denise Sheppard (scribe at shaw dot ca) is a self-employed journalist/editor who likes long walks, candlelit dinners and writing for U.S and Canadian national mags and websites. Her fave topics are human rights-related pieces and entertainment journalism.

Why I Will Not Be the Next President

I am the first one with my hand up explaining why I, Jim Marcus, would make a terrible president of the United States of America. Let’s face it, there’s an army duffel bag full of good solid reasons why you should not vote for me in 2008. First of all, I have difficulty balancing my own checkbook, so I would have to really “hire up” as they say to find an effective money guy. I’ve identified the problem as rampant over tipping, which I can defend thusly:

1. I err on the side of believing everything a waitserver says when serving me food. This is because I have a faulty trust/feed me mechanism, much like those chicks you see on the Discovery Channel who willingly open their little beaks so mom can vomit worm mucus into them. After a week of this, you’d think the little fuckers would be on the phone to Domino’s but, no. Tonight they will open wide again. This translates from bird language into, “I am not dead of starvation yet, so I trust you.” Humans need to set the bar higher.

2. I believe Fight Club, the movie, and suspect that any wrong move on my part will cause the general corruption of my lunch with some sort of human bodily sediment. I tip to fend off Hepatitis B.

3. I have a crush on the waitress.

Further reasons have to do with my inability to remain organized at all times, and my total lack of ability with names. You’ll never hear me call George Bush an idiot for forgetting the name of the prime minister of the Transitional Federal Assembly of Somalia (and it’s totally Ali Mohamed GEDI ) because I can’t remember my mail woman’s name and I’ve had lunch with her. Have I had lunch with Ali Mohamed GEDI? No. And neither has George Bush. The point is:

Names are hard.

Yes, that’s the point. But, there are at least 10 truly sucky reasons why I won’t be your next president (people here who live in America) and each one annoys me a little. They annoy me because I think that each one represents a failure on the part of the people of America to set standards that would allow themselves to be governed sensibly. If we want to call for a better class of leadership, it may be time to call for a better class of followership.

Reason 1. I have not yet declared my intention to run.

It’s still fairly early in 2007. To run a successful bid for the presidency, you have to abandon all hope of performing your day job to any degree of efficacy and start campaigning for people to vote for you 15 months from now. I don’t even know what gender I’ll be 15 months from now. Who needs 15 months to decide how to vote? More importantly, how do these people pull a paycheck for the 15 months they are doing nothing but kissing babies and lying to people strategically? This leads us to Reason number 2.

Reason 2. I did not inherit 100 million dollars.

How do you ride the campaign trail for so long without doing your job? Don’t some of you work in the Senate and stuff? I know none of you are in IT. How about you, president guy? Are we paying for the 1.5 years out of your presidency that you will spend convincing us that you deserve the job again? Have you filed your TPS reports? Is the “My Pet Goat” book report finished yet? You can’t do this unless you were born with a silver spoon running almost all the way to your colon. Or, of course, unless you engage Reason number 3.

Reason 3. I do not have wealthy white Protestant landowning corporate friends who need favors.

My friends come to me with favors like, “Can you get the kink out of my butt” or “I need to talk about my boyfriend” or “Can you help me design my record cover”. It’s rare that any of them come to me and say, “Jim. I need to obliterate an endangered species to build an entry level production machinery plant. Can I get a hand here?” This is bigger than a butt rub and it may be a sign that I’m not truly presidential that I don’t have these kinds of friends. I do like giving butt rubs, though. No money in it.

Reason 4. I am one of those Atheists

In a Newsweek Poll, a whole bunch of Americans willing to actually answer the phone and talk when Newsweek called said they believed in God by a ratio of 92 to 6 with only 2 percent answering “I don’t know.” All well and good. Unfortunately, only 37 percent said they’d be willing to vote for an atheist for president. This is significantly down from 49 percent in a 1999 Gallup poll - which also found that more Americans would vote for a homosexual than an atheist. September 11th did something remarkable. It convinced people that, because a bunch of monotheists flew a plane into a building, it made more sense to vote for one. I know that’s probably a pretty incendiary thing to say. See reason 10.

Reason 5. Additionally, I am one of those Bisexuals

I suspect that we will have an openly gay president, a black president, and a president whose last name rhymes suggestively with an intimate body part before we have a bisexual one. And when president Flagina comes out as bisexual, they will find a reason to impeach him. I think this is because of the confusion around bisexuality. As many people think it’s a lie as think it’s a sin as think it’s a transition to being gay. Of course it has nothing to do with my politics and I ask you, the voters, to ignore it. It’s immediately relevant only when looking for a date. Which I am, by the way. Saturday.

Reason 6. I had a life. Part 1. Sex

I have had sex in public, on video tape, in front of people, with multiple people and in other situations that, while fantastic and a lot of fun, would suggest to the electorate that I am unelectable for some reason. I would have to deny and defend myself and, since some of it’s on tape, it would be an unconvincing and problematic denial process. Having a life is a huge drawback on the campaign trail. Even though there are tons of neat places to have sex on the campaign trail and I would personally consider it a sign of character if a president took the opportunity to get biblical with an S.O. on the Camp David coffee table.

Reason 7. I had a life. Part 2. Writing/Music

I have written a lot of lyrics in my life. Some were awful. Some were actually not bad. About 98% of them would come back and haunt me. Asking people to defend things they said out of context decades ago is the ongoing pastime of journalists who can’t seem to focus on the issues. It’s our fault. We buy the magazines. This is another reason not to focus on silly misstatements made by a president unwittingly while very real civil liberties are being abused by him wittingly. Microsoft Word claims that “wittingly” is a word, even though I have never personally used it before.

Reason 8. I had a life. Part 3. I tried X once

I don’t really do drugs. But I did try ecstasy once. It made me want to have sex with random people. I confess that this wasn’t a new feeling for me. Yes, I was worried about my spinal fluid, but that wasn’t the reason I never did it again. (the spinal fluid thing is a myth.) The real reason is that bottled water is expensive. The idea that unrepentant drug use will preclude you from taking the presidency is interesting. You have to repent. Be sorry. And then fail to inhale.

Reason 9. I am part Jewish

My father was Jewish. I know that this doesn’t make me actually Jewish, but as you get older, you get closer to some traditions and the Jewish tradition is a powerful one. I was sitting Shiva once. This is what you do when you are Jewish and someone in your immediate family dies. Everyone gets together and stays in one house for a week. It’s like a very somber reality TV show in Yiddish. My cousin Irwin came up to me while I was eating, making sure I didn’t put meat and cheese on the same plate. I was a vegetarian and so I was a little confused. I assured him I wouldn’t, but what I wanted to say was, “Dude. I am just exactly Jewish enough to know that. I know who Elie Weisel is, where a yarmulke goes and not to put a piece of cheese on the same plate as a roast beef sandwich. And that’s it. That exhausts my Jewishicity and I go goy past that point, but, up ’til there, I am totally engaged.” I didn’t say that. I think I just nodded knowingly. Le esprit d’ escalier. The point here is that we are likely a few years away from a Jewish - or even partly Jewish - president. The Antisemitism in our country may have gone underground for the most part, but let Lieberman win a presidential primary and we’ll see what happens.

Reason 10. I sometimes swear like Sarah Silverman’s older sailor brother.

And, I have to say, I have no clue what she sees in Jimmy Kimmel. But that is so besides the point. We, as Americans, can’t stand it when presidential candidates get impassioned. We seem to be looking for stoic sociopaths. Howard Dean screams a little and all of a sudden he’s Ted Bundy. Why can’t we jump up and down a little in this process? People’s lives and happiness are at stake. I say it’s time for a few new swear words. And if we can’t invent them while watching this torturous meandering process that our electoral system has turned itself into, then we’re not truly the degenerates I sort of hope we are.

Written by Jim Marcus

Jim Marcus is a singer/songwriter, director, photographer, writer, performance artist and social activist. And really, that list doesn’t even touch the surface of all the things he’s done or is doing.

A founding member of the seminal Industrial band Die Warzau, Jim Marcus has worked with artists in all genres, from Bjork to Revenge, Steel Pulse, Pansy Division, Machines of Loving Grace, George Clinton, KMFDM, Gravity Kills, Pigface, Little Louis, and more. Die Warzau’s fifth album, “Supergangbang” is slated for release in October of 2006. Mr. Marcus is also currently at work on his first solo release, entitled “Wonderland”.