Singer-songwriter Marilyn Mitchell, who played in San Francisco’s popular 2003-2010 all-trans rock band Lipstick Conspiracy, shares music and life stories this week – and hints that her former group may get back together.
Her latest album, Lives Aligned, has 12 songs inspired by politics and personal life. Mitchell wrote all of them; we hear four on this week’s Out in the Bay. Two of them skewer former President Trump. Over hard-driving rock, “I’m So Glad (You’re Gone)” includes the lines:
Blatant lies, fallacies, fabrication
All a part of your planned occupation
In spite of this, they took it in, an illusion
With all your help, tried to rid the constitution
Mitchell, a kinesiology professor at San Francisco State University, tells guest host Christopher Beale that she started transitioning around 1999, while teaching in Colorado with some “macho … over-masculinized” colleagues who were “getting on everybody’s nerves” – especially hers.
“I think my brain was looking for some kind of escape, and I started experimenting around with makeup and things like that.” Looking in the mirror, she said to herself, “Oh my gosh, there’s somebody else in here that I don’t even know!” So she took the SF State job and started to get to know “this other part of me.”
Lipstick Conspiracy fans may be stoked to hear that Mitchell and two other co-founders recently laid down some tracks that could lead to at least one new song and that the threesome has “some other ideas,” she told us. Stay tuned!
Hear much more on this week’s Out in the Bay, produced and hosted by Christopher J. Beale.
Marilyn Mitchell‘s “Lives Aligned” album, co-created with musician and audio engineer Craig Dukes, was released in November 2021. Hear it and more of Mitchell’s music on her Bandcamp page. She also plays lead guitar in Mott the Hoople tribute band Nott the Hoople.
We’re re-posting this episode now (March 21, 2024) as KALW’s Queer Power Hour is featuring it on this week’s rebroadcast show from January 2023. Hear also our later interview with all-trans women rock band Lipstick Conspiracy, which Mitchell co-founded and which got back together for 2023 Pride performances.
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