Scotty: "Coming out of the closet can be like kissing the flame."
Jes: "As a woman, I think that having a discernable personality would be really empowering."
Nick: "What's empowering for me is hating women."
Brian: "Boobies."
Sonyae: "Not being abused is really empowering. So I would say, avoid that."

Brian then gets real by making the song about killing your own inner victim after his mother's death from breast cancer broke him. So I guess that's the last of the boob jokes. I like all of their ideas except for Nick's. You hear empowerment and you prepare for the worst because nobody gets it right, but they are doing well. I am excited to hear the songs.

I think the most empowering song is probably "What It Feels Like For A Girl" because it reminds you that you are not insane: Things really are as stupid as you think they are, and everybody is paying for it pretty much all the time. But also "Higher and Higher" from Wet Hot American Summer, because it is about kissing the flame basically and because it kicks more ass than any other single song. Or like those Martina McBride songs where the disabled person gets sexually assaulted sixty times and then sets a house on fire, which could get you in the mood to throw down.

Or I guess also any song that makes you feel like a cyberpunk computer hacker in the 1990s such as "6 Underground" or "Halcyon + On + On." Or that Bat for Lashes song, any song really where you feel like a totally magical person on a horse. Getting magic elf shit done. Ke$ha songs get me really excited about making the worst decisions possible. If you feel like staying home and being normal, aka being lame, you can listen to a Ke$ha song or Mickey Avalon and instantly want to go do all the drugs and have all the sex. I guess the takeaway is that lots of things can be empowering. "Here Comes The Hotstepper" could be empowering, like, if you were a lyrical gangster for example.

Nick once again orders everybody to practice more quietly because he believes in respecting each other right now, and Brian practices less quickly in response.

HOOKIN' IT

Scotty sings his gayness song; nobody's really that moved. The Spin nerd gets all wordplay about it, but that's about it. Jes sings one of her angry Fiona Apple songs and Nick laughs at everybody for not hating it. Nick's same-as-every-song song is about how girls won't date him because they are cowards and for no other reason. Brian introduces his song by explaining the dead mom thing, clinching it, but then the song is actually very gorgeous, "excuse me while I kiss the flame" and demons/heaven clichés notwithstanding. Sonyae does her usual thing of singing and hoping they can tell the melody, and everybody nods. I think Brian should take it this week.