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Rad Queer DJs

DJs are the new rockstars, according to DJs. With EDM and Dubstep influences infiltrating virtually all popular music genres (indie/hip-hop/pop) and molly in abundant supply, there’s nothing my generation enjoys more than kicking back at a good old fashioned rave-or the closest available substitute. We spend most of our time on the computer, so we’ve enthusiastically embraced computer-generated music as an alternative to learning an instrument, which takes, like, forever.

Like all musicians, DJs can good, bad, epic, tragic, and anywhere in between. Lesbian audiences may embrace any hot dyke on a podium (I know I do), but industry experts are often skeptical of DJs who simply press play and posture. “Doesn’t every lesbian with a snapback and a glow stick think iTunes autoplay qualifies as a DJ set?” Gidget, a Hollywood music consultant, asks me with the exasperation of a young Andy Rooney. “But I look fabulous in a snapback,” I protest weakly.

Gidget pauses for a moment to contemplate my insightful rebuttal, then continues: “At certain girl parties, I walk in and almost immediately notice the same songs in the same order as the last party. That’s not being a DJ. If making a playlist gives you rock star status, I should be getting laid more. “

It’s a fair point. I can’t swing a gin and tonic in West Hollywood without smacking a self-proclaimed DJ, but that’s a trend from culture, not sexual orientation. What started as a mere listicle quickly turned into an Lewis Carroll-worthy trip down the DJ rabbit hole, so, in no particular order, here are the coolest queer female DJs who possess talent, buzz, skill, and skill. You know, the legit ones.

DJ ANON

Home: Los Angeles

Sign: Aquarius

After a few hours spent drifting listlessly through the overwhelming and rather intimidating world of DJs, I sought the aid of an expert and listicle honoree: DJ Anon (aka Anna Sitko). Along with Kim Ann, DJ Anon runs BOOBYTRAP, my favorite L.A. girls’ night that eschews garish excess for sophisticated style. While the BoobyTrap location changes, DJ Anon and Kim Ann’s performance stays on point.

“I prefer going on a journey that has ebbs and flows throughout the set,” DJ Anon says. “Sometimes you’re down really slow and sometimes you’re up really high. It’s kind of magical to me, those sets where it feels like riding a wave.”

BoobyTrap has been a cool girl institution for five years, but Anna’s been perfecting her craft for far longer: She began DJing in San Francisco during what sounds like a digital music belle epoque, and cites Junö as her strongest influence. As a gay artist, she’s unconcerned about being pigeonholed: “If people want to label you something, that’s their prerogative. If people need that for some reason, then go for it.”

Home: New York City

Sign: Aquarius

An indisputable triumph in the NYC DJ community, DJ Mary Mac has been spinning celebrity parties with cheeky aplomb for two decades and shows no signs of losing steam. In her formative years, DJ Mary Mac was inspired by Grandmaster Flash, DJ Camilo, and DJ Yoni to create and perform exuberant, addictive sets. Rad fact about DJ Mary Mac: she toured with Def Jam and performed with legends like Run-DMC. While DJing for a trailblazing female gangsta rapper, Mary Mac was embraced by NWA, Easy-E, and Snoop Dogg as one of their own. The experience clearly helped mold Mary Mac into an irrepressible force. In the last month alone, the woman performed several times in both Las Vegas and New York City venues. Even Madonna is a Mary Mac fan: she DJ’d Madonna’s Official 2013 Oscar Party. Coming up, DJ Mary Mac will join Whitney Day for a very sapphic Thanksgiving Eve performance. If you’re in the NYC area, you should definitely consider sneaking out of your parents’ house to attend. You’re an adult, right? Give yourself something, or someone, to be very, very thankful for.

JD Samson

Home: New York City

Sign: Leo

JD Samson is the stage name of Jocelyn Samson, a DJ/Producer/Singer/Performance Artist/all around interesting perso. JD Samson is most famous for being a member of Le Tigre and MEN, two critically acclaimed underground acts that your cooler friend is super into. MEN’s debut EP sold out in American stories after MEN joined Peaches and Gossip on what must have been coolest tour ever. JD also has a regular night at the Rusty Knot in NYC associated with the ladies from CREEP. Since scoring a publishing deal through Universal Music, JD Samson has written songs for Christina Aguilera, Cobra Starship, and Junior Senior and collaborated with Cass Bird on “JD’s Lesbian Calendar” and later “JD’s Lesbian Utopia.” Be still my beating heart, and take me away to Utopia. Just last month MEN dropped Labor, a story-telling driven second album that reflects JD Samson’s personal life as well as her political beliefs.

Lauren Flax

Home: Brooklyn

Sign: MYSTERY! But I’ll guess Leo

Lauren Flax is a Brooklyn dwelling DJ who, along with Lauren Dillard makes up CREEP, a phenomenal DJ duo. In an interview with NewNowNext, Lauren Flax described the sound of CREEP as “dark, sad, and kestrel” which is exactly why I don’t live in Brooklyn. CREEP’s surrealist sets allow me to appreciate the fruits of Brooklyn artisanal labor while maintaining a healthy distance. Lauren Flax and Lauren Dillard met in NYC on Friendster and apparently hit it off.

Sia added vocals to Lauren’s first single, “You’ve Changed,” which was ironically released on an indie dance label called DJS ARE NOT ROCKSTARS. Ha. Nicely done. Sia later re-recorded “You’ve Changed” for the first single on her We Are Born album.

After a wait too long for my taste, CREEP finally released their debut album echoes on November 12th, an addictive mix of tracks including cameos by Tricky, Sia, the xx‘s Romy Madley Croft, and Miike Snow‘s Andrew Wyatt. l, for one, am goddamn ecstatic and intend to purchase echoes ASAP unless CREEP would like to send me a copy to review and enjoy. Ladies.

Kittens

Home: Los Angeles

Sign: Libra

Kittens is like kittens-awesome in every way. (Quick sidebar: If you Google “Kittens DJ,” as I just did, you will find kittens DJing. Enjoy and then return for the rest of this segment on Kittens, the DJ.) Kittens aka Lauren Abedini is self described “Hip-Hop Aficionado” who toured with chill motherfucker Kid Cudi and performed for the likes of Usher. A relative newcomer to the L.A. scene, Kittens makes up for youth with insatiable hustle.

DJ Whitney Day

Home: New York City

Sign: Virgo

DJ Whitney Day is everywhere these days, and that’s a good thing; demand for her unique style far exceeds supply. As the first American DJ to perform at “L-Beach,” Europe’s largest music festival for women, Whitney was NEXT‘s magazine’s featured DJ for 2012. If you’re a lesbian in NYC, chances are you’ve stumbled into a Whitney Day girl party at least once; she produces “Glossy” and “ACE” every week. But DJ Whitney Day isn’t just a “lesbian DJ,” shes a major DJ who holds her own inside and outside the lesbian community. During NYC’s Official Pride Celebration, Whitney headlined the official party, “Rapture On The River.”

Home: Melbourne

Sign: Pisces

In addition to being extremely attractive, Ruby Rose is an MTV VJ and outspoken feminist who burst out of the closet at just 12 years old and has been wreaking havoc on hearts and undies ever since. Last month Ruby Rose’s sexxx life captured out hearts and minds yet again when Ruby admitted sexing up Demi Lovato.

But Ruby Rose has been having a rough go of it lately. This spring she took a break from work to deal with her chronic depression. Something tells me that depression and drama won’t keep Ruby Rose out of the spotlight for long: She’s a survivor.

Georgie Okell

Home: New York City

Sign: Virgo

Georgie Okell is a British DJ and VICE contributor who briefly stalked Lena Dunham. After recently moving from London to NYC, Georgie joined East Village Radio as the host of “Pop Goes The Future,” a weekly two hour segment of new pop and future indie. As a live DJ, she’s performed at parties for Mulberry, Pamflet and British Fashion Weekend at Somerset House.

Kim Anh

Home: L.A.

Sign: Virgo on the Leo cusp (Kim insisted you know about the cusp)

In addition to being ½ of BOOBYTRAP, Kim Anh is a jet-setting DJ, producer, and composer who has shared the bill with LCD Soundsystem, Sam Sparrow, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Hercules & Love Affair. Together with DJ Anon, Kim Anh is part of Saint Le Roq, a musical project influenced by classic house, new wave, disco and post-punk music that uses analog synthesizers, guitars, vocals and other live instrumentation to create a resonant signature sound.

Kim Anh has also been embraced by the fashion world. YSL Runway, Flaunt magazine, LA County Museum of Art and NBC’s The Voice have all employed Kim Anh as a resident DJ. In 2012 Kim Anh’s remix of Sam Sparrow‘s “Happiness” went platinum and hit #1 on the European Pop & Dance charts.

Ayn Rand

Home: New York City

Sign: Taurus

A staple on the Brooklyn scene since 2007, Ayn Rand plays an eclectic spectrum of music including twerk, infectious dance pop, and occasionally some dark ass techno. When Ayn Rand produces, she pulls from the minimal and German techno scenes and influences such as Andy Stott, Ben Klock, NHK’Koyxeð©, Ancient Methods and Blondes. Women who like women dressed in black scramble to attend the parties for which Ayn Rand DJs. These include The Witches Of Bushwick, a “creative think tank” and “concept hub” (good lord, Brooklyn!) that creates and produces platforms, whatever the hell that means. Basically they’re super cool and do cool shit and if I did live in NYC, I would adore being part of the Bushwick Coven.

As the resident DJ for Witches, DJ will be playing at Bizarre for the CREEP album release party.

Lauren Dillard

Home: Brooklyn

Sign: MYSTERIOUS BROOKLYNITE

Lauren Dillard (can I call her LD like LC in Laguna Beach: The Real OC?) is the blonde half of CREEP and, incredibly, not on the internet. As a member of the duo, I suspect she is also very excited for their debut album echoes. CREEP’s been active in Brooklyn for several years now, so fans are doubtlessly freaking out about the biggest thing to happen to them since Sia.

Will echoes launch CREEP to superstardom? Will CREEP send me echoes and maybe some tickets to thank me for this lovely piece? I don’t know. I do know that this VICE Slutever episode featuring Lauren Dillard giving the VICE slut hostess (I don’t know what to call that woman) a lesbian makeover is hilarious and taught me more about Lauren Dillard’s personality than Wikipedia. (There is no Wikipedia entry for Lauren Dillard.)

GoodBoy & Bounce House

Home: L.A.

Sign: Good Boy, the reluctant Pisces, and Bounce House, the passionate Cancer, are an astrology match made in digital heaven.

This ones a two-fer. DJs GoodBoy and Bounce House embody West Hollywood’s boisterous gay culture. If you go out in WeHo (we call it WeHo), you’ve probably heard the riotous duo mix house, trap, mash-ups and classic throwbacks with infectious energy and (it must be said) fabulous lesbian hair cuts.

Since combining forces, DJs GoodBoy and Bounce House have been cherry-picked by Hollywood promoters to play parties, raves, and club nights across Southern California. “Our musical goal is to bring people together of all races, genders and sexualities,” Morgan (aka DJ Goodboy) told me with a sunny smile and flip of her signature blonde ‘fro. “We have big plans to incorporate visuals, light shows, and new instruments, for musical experience that will leave you sweaty and satisfied. And who doesn’t enjoy some sweaty satisfaction?”

Samantha Ronson

Home: Venice Beach

Sign: Leo

It’s been a couple years since shit went down with Lilo and SamRon’s been keeping a low profile. Her website hasn’t been updated since May of 2012. While Samantha seems to have lost interest in performing, she’s still active in the studio. As of press time, her last tweet hinted at a “fun studio session” with Madison Beer, Justin Bieber‘s 14-year-old tween pop protegé. Fun!

All teasing aside, Samantha Ronson is a hottie who inspired hundreds of lesbians to be DJs.

Who would you add to this list?

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