Tubby’s in Kingston (586 Broadway) regularly hosts acclaimed and interesting music, from well-known names like Thalia Zedek to Oneida to up-and-coming regional acts like Hen In The Foxhouse or Silverdome. This Saturday, Nov. 2 will find the venue hosting a special regional welcome-back show of sorts for psych-folk artist and consistent anti-violence activist Globelamp.
Globelamp is the vehicle for the musical freak-folk of Elizabeth “Le Fey” Gomez. For the bulk of 2019, Gomez was stuck in California fighting the latest stage of her ongoing legal battle with Sam France of her former band Foxygen, who, she maintains, used “Darvo” — “deny, attack and reverse victim and offender — tactics on her through the abuse of the legal system. France’s goal, Gomez says, is to intimidate her from speaking out about her claims that France assaulted her several times when they were a couple. While an attempt to get a restraining order on France was thwarted, Gomez nonetheless has kept her head high and is now back on the East coast and ready to play more shows supporting her Saugerties-tracked one-year-old Nefarious Industries release Romantic Cancer.
As senior Pitchfork writer Marc Hogan noted in a July feature story, Los Angeles County family lawyer Scott Weston (who represented Gwen Stefani in her divorce from Gavin Rossdale) said, when consulted about the case, that Gomez did not get a fair hearing for her individual abuse claims against France, which, he said, should be dealt with separately from any of France’s concerns. Award-winning anti-rape activist Wagatwe Wanjuki as well as Alyssa Milano and musicians including Melissa Schuman (Dream), Dan Reynolds (Imagine Dragons), Timothy Heller and Aaron Carter have shown public solidarity with Gomez. Heller and iconic Germs drummer Don Bolles recently attended her Whisky a Go Go showcase, a gig she landed via invitation shortly after another show planned for The Redwood Bar & Grill on her birthday was cancelled due to the Redwood announcing that Foxygen supporters were threatening the venue staff via phone and online.
Jagjaguwar is the Secretly Group affiliated label that houses acts like Foxygen along with Bon Iver, Angel Olsen and others who have benefited from the label’s influence but failed to comment on Gomez’s claims. Jagjaguwar have frequently blocked various people on Twitter who tweet at the label regarding Globelamp’s abuse claims.
The Tubby’s show also features some of the region’s best local talent — the live return of Jack Manley of Cosmonaut fame (supported by a live band, including Jacob Kolbinski and Nightmares For A Week’s Steven Markota) and direct support from popular grunge/post-punk band Surmiser. Globelamp, Surmiser and Jack Manley on Saturday, Nov. 2 at Tubby’s will be a night to remember with doors at 8 p.m.
Full disclosure: Gomez and I are friends, and I recently sat down with my friend for an interview.
Morgan Y. Evans: Since you have been back to Kingston you have attended the We The People March to support Moms Demand Action, attended concerts by Show Me The Body and Shannon and The Clams (who you have played with before) and helped promote the O+ Festival. How does it feel to be back taking in the art and activist elements of our city?
Elizabeth Gomez: It feels great to be back in the Hudson Valley and to be surrounded by not only beautiful nature, but creative abundance. The O+ Festival this year was great and it was fun to go to different venues to take photos. I, of course, love to see shows in the Old Dutch Church. It was so cool how they had grave rubbings in the old graveyard for one of the events.
You have an unreleased song coming out soon called “Refugee Song” in support of the Kurds. It was not included on Romantic Cancer.
It’s always been something I cared about but after becoming close friends with a Kurdish family from Syria, my understanding and empathy opened up even more. My uncle in Germany took in a refugee family who had their house bombed in Syria by ISIS.
How has it felt to see your former Foxygen bandmate Jonathan Rado continue to get big-profile production gigs for acts like Weyes Blood and The Killers?
Really disappointing. The rich get richer and the underdog keeps getting kicked. Jonathan Rado was a nasty person to me who wanted me to be an unpaid member of Foxygen (after already touring as a member of the band for almost a year)! He was complicit in trying to silence me and is a sexist guy.
You often like Cardi B songs online and have covered her.
She is unapologetically intense. I have been tone-policed a lot and had my literal tweets read back to me in a court of law. Listening to Cardi makes me feel free and not afraid to express my angry side through music that men so easily get to often do without question.
How did it feel to get public support from Timothy Heller and also recently, Imagine Dragons vocalist Dan Reynolds? The Melanie Martinez fanbase has been horrible to you online since you and Heller started mutually supporting one another.
It was amazing. Timothy also came to my show at the Whisky A Go Go in LA — which meant so much to me. I can’t imagine all of the stress she has dealt with.
Now that Romantic Cancer is over a year old, what are you proudest of?
This is the first album I actually own myself.
Sam France admitted in a court of law to physically striking you in the mouth before. How does it feel when trolls tell you that he was allegedly startled and so it must have been an accident?
Infuriating. First of all, he wasn’t asleep and there is never a reason to assault someone. I can’t believe the justifications people will make for this act of violence. It is really a sad sign of something dark and sinister within humanity.
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