I heard houseguest for the first time when “divine creation” was released a couple of weeks ago, thanks to a post by Em Moore on Punknews. The song is a lovely declaration of trans rights in the face of religious oppression. The lyrics twist religious language in a way that connects with me on a personal level: I’m a recovering Catholic with more than one LGBT loved one. It also uses enough literary nerdiness that you could construct an entire English lecture around it 1.
It’s also full of spite:
your disgust is crystal clear
hegemony that you hold dear.
you swear that faith is all you’ve got
but i can smell the fucking rot
houseguest is an all-transgender band: Beth Black (she/her) and MJ Laing (he/they) on guitar and vocals, Caitlyn Kavanagh (she/her) on drums and vocals, and bassist/keyboardist Rachael Waldock (she/her), from the unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories on the West Coast2. The song features a bunch of other trans artists from the area.
In this Instagram post, Beth talks about how quickly things came together for “divine creation”. When I asked her about it she added more context:
I always knew that I wanted to play with the fact that the song is speaking to religious people but is using religious phrasing (no trespasses to forgive/forgive us our trespasses for example) so the idea of having a choir – something so tied to church – felt like an obvious move to me…then, to compound that, to take a bunch of the amazing trans artists in this city’s music scene and have them BE the choir was just. kind of perfect. we did it so, SO fast (by necessity) that we weren’t able to get everyone we wanted.
“divine creation” was released originally as a Bandcamp exclusive on March 31, International Transgeder Day of Visibility, raising funds to benefit trans mutual aid groups in the region. You should donate. As of Easter Sunday the song is available on streaming3.
This led me to the band’s January EP cry about it, which I spent much of last week listening to. Each song has evocative, poetic lyrics arranged to intricate, warm and nostalgic instrumentals. In the words of the band, these songs are ‘about grieving good times even as they’re happening’.
It’s bang-on. Opener “Resort Towns” not only evokes the feeling of finding a teenage fling over summer vacation, it sounds like the kind of song that would play on the radio throughout that same summer:
The songs on cry about it feel immediately familiar. The his and hers vocal style brings a lovely balance to the record – Beth and MJ take turns as lead vocalist, with concrete and visual lyrics about love and loss, beauty and hurt.
There’s an unhurried, contemplative quality here that often leads to surprising places. Standout “re-run” is a midtempo emo song with a false ending that leads to a swirling, extended outro that sounds like something from an Alanis Morrisette song. It’s stunning:
The EP closes with heartbreaker “taurus”, that sounds custom-built for an emotional moment in your favourite teen drama (except maybe for the f-bomb in the first line). It’s easy to imagine a nine-minute version of this song closing out a live set with tears and embraces:
With the two singles houseguest released in 2024, the band is nearing album territory. Beth promises “more music sooner than later”. They have a couple of shows lined up – one on May 1 for UBC’s radio station CITR that will be shot and shared online, and another on May 7 at Green Auto. Here’s hoping they make their way east at some point.
Further reading
Band blog (with super-deep details about gear and recording)
