Not Gay as in Happy… Queer as in F**k You patches.
Pride is around the corner – and it’s a perfect time for queer punk pride. I managed to track down the creator of the “Not Gay as in Happy – Queer as in F**k you” image and got his okay to start selling patches with it. I am going to try to come up with other queer punk flavored patches and slogans so this is hopefully the first of many. I’ll be listing the patches on ebay under: Queer Punk Backpatch Queercore Not Gay As in Happy lgbt or Queer Punk patch Queercore Not Gay As in Happy lgbt. For now, the links for the back patch (around 12″x16″) is here and for 4″x4″ patch is here.
Cut&Paste Rock&Roll + my article on thenewgay.net!
I went to a party two Friday’s ago. It was in Long Beach called Cut&Paste Rock&Roll. I found out about the event from twitter and it sounded cool so I went to check it out.
When I first got there, it was a rainy night, so I wasn’t sure how much of a crowd there would be. The place was -packed-. Wall-to-wall queers. Queers from all over braved the weather and came out for the party. It was pretty awesome. There were these two guys who were doing airbrush art on people. I got a dragon done on my head. I later got a bleeding heart airbrushed on my freshly shaved head because Nancy recommended it. I saw some people I met at Homo-A-Go-Go. I chatted and had a good time.
I saw some bands played, I don’t remember who they were, but it was fun. I bonded with a queer punk quickly – because we are both queer punks and oh so rare. I sometimes wish I was old enough to have appreciated the queercore movement in the 1990’s. Events like Cut&Paste Rock&Roll give me a taste of what it was like. It must have been great.
I don’t remember when, but some Saturday a few moons ago, I had my first LGBT group lunch meeting. It was okay but I was dealing with gays and lesbians. Not queers. It inspired a piece that I wrote called, “Gay/Lesbian” verses Queer: What’s the Difference? which was published by http://thenewgay.net/.
I met Zack who’s one of the co-founder of the gay newspaper at Cut&Paste Rock&Roll. First, he came over to comment on my sweater: Sheeps being abducted by an UFO = awesome! But then we started talking about queerness and we seemed to agree on things. He asked me to write for him and I said sure. So, go read my article there and leave a comment.
When I finished my article, they asked me to have a picture to go with my writing. So, being an anarcho-queer, I decided to use the pink and black flag. It happened to draw the attention of Bash Back! which is a radical anarcho-queer group that I don’t really agree with. They seem to do things for the sake of being radical and not for the sake of productivity. I try to stay on the fringe of society – associating with the mainstream just enough to try to change it – but not being consumed by it.
I ended up writing two pieces today. One about being a radical queer and another about queercore for The New Gay. I don’t know if they are going to publish them sometime next week or make my column a weekly thing.
I am not having much luck trying to organize and Amnesty International Group out here. I thought a human rights group would be broad enough to draw a little bit of everyone but there’s so much apathy. I think I might start volunteering somewhere local and meet other activist types if they exist out here.
Queercore 101: Make Use of Your Ears
My friend requested I write something like a Queercore 101. Queercore is queer punk music. It was a movement credited to being started by Bruce La Bruce and G.B. Jones with their zine called, “J.D’s.” They wrote about how they had an awesome queer punk scene in Toronto to amuse themselves because there really wasn’t any other queer punks except for them and a few friends. However, the movement took off and boom. In the 90’s there was queercore everywhere! Queercore is about being against assimilation and heteronormalitivity. It’s about being gay, I mean really gay. Some of the music is still in print while some of it is really hard to find.
I found a site last night where to download some out of print, hard to find queercore so it isn’t lost to time. Some queercore stuff has been lost to time like the animated Green Pubes by Anonymous Boy. The website for rare, out of print downloads is: http://soulponies.com/. It’s an amazing reference to get your feet wet with queercore. Such classics on the site are Youth of Togay, Gayrilla Biscuits, Mukilteo Faeries, and Fifth Column. As well as some riot grrrl; Bikini Kill and Huggy Bear. I also found a link where you can download the Go Team! here.
Punk Rock 101: Basic Punk to Listen To: 77's, 80's, 90's
1977 Punk
What is punk music? It’s three chord rock. It’s debated if it was founded by The Ramones in America or The Sex Pistols in the U.K. I say: Who cares? It exists. These are probably two of the first bands you want to give a listen to – along with The Clash, The Damned (Damned, Damned, Damned), Dead Boys (Young, Loud, and Snotty), The Germs, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bad Brains (These guys are homophobic and I don’t agree what they sing about but they are considered to be the first hardcore punk band. They sound good, just don’t listen to their lyrics. ;)), and a personal favorite of mine X-Ray Spex. Click on the links to read some of the histories of the bands.
Listening to punk is two-folds: listening to the songs plus knowing the band histories. It’s common punk knowledge that Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols killed his girlfriend Nancy in the Chelsea Hotel and then died of a heroine overdose. Plus, Sid was famous for his lock and chain necklace given to him by Pretender’s Chrisse Hynde. Sid was a horrible musician – he could barely play the bass. Then, there was the Germ’s Darby Crash, who was gay, and committed suicide. Joey Ramone from the Ramones is often referred to because everyone wants to sleep with him – it’s a joke, his brother even wrote a book entitled, “I slept with Joey Ramone.” Johnny Rotten has since did a butter commercial.
Early punk is often referred to as “77’s punk.” There are some punks who only listen to 77’s punk and considered that to be the only true punk. My personal opinion of some 77’s punk is that it was corporate punk with money making in mind. Like, the Sex Pistols were formed by Macolm McLaren and the “Sex” of the Sex Pistol is from the name of his clothing shop. Some of the punk look was original started by Richard Hell and was taken by McLaren and Vivienne Westwood to make the big bucks. The Sex Pistols were signed to a major record label. That’s not DIY it’s EMI. Punk was about rebellion for a half a second but was really about the money. However, along came the 80’s and the punk band that would live up to what punk is supposed to be. Their name was Crass.
1980’s
Anarcho-Punk
Crass was the ultimate embodiment of punk rock. They took the idea of anarchy seriously, were activists, and pacifists. Now-a-days, you can find Crass t-shirts at Hot Topic which is why I said they were punk rock. They used to sell their music at little above printing cost. Spreading ideas mattered more than money. Crass even stopped the Falklands War by releasing a disinformation tape of Roland Reagan talking to Margaret Thatcher that got the British public so upset that the war was put to an end. Punk is the only subculture to ever have stopped a war. Which is one of the reasons why if people are going to box me into a box – I’d like it to be punk. Crass sounds very crass but their lyrics are amazing. My favorite cd of theirs is Best Before 1984. My favorite song is Big A, Little A, Bouncing B. They were as punk rock as punk rock could be. They are the founders of the punk genre known as anarcho-punk. Some other anarcho-punk bands worth listening are Flux of the Pink Indians, Conflict, Subhumans, and Amebix.
Plasmatics
I don’t know really what category to put this band into – so I’ll make them their own. The Plasmatics are AWESOME. Anti-corporate, anti-consumerism, and anti-materialism. The lead singer, Wendy O. Williams was in my opinion, the first riot grrrl. She promoted vegetarianism and animal rights before it was trendy. She blew up cars and did amazing stunts. She wasn’t the first person to wear a mohawk in punk but she was the first person who brought it to the mainstream. She was as tough as nails and amazing. She also killed herself 1998. I wish she didn’t, I would have loved to have met her. All their music is awesome. She was a real threat to the establishment.
Hardcore Punk
The 80’s was the time of hardcore punk. Most notably: Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Reagan Youth, Dead Kennedys (Fresh Fruit for Rotten Vegetables + all their stuff is good) and Social Distortion. I never really listened to Social Distortion but they are one of the better known punk bands. I see t-shirts and stuff for them all the time so they might be worth listening to. Also worth mentioning is the Misfits who were the first horror punk band.
1990’s
This is the decade that some punk bands started making it big. This is the decade of “selling out” and the birth of the “Hot Topic” punk. If you want to know about Hot Topic punk – go to your nearest Hot Topic or browse their cataloged online. Warp Tour and all that – not punk. Time period of lots of people thinking they are punk rock when they aren’t. I’ll waste no more time on them. Two big things happened during the 1990’s: the birth of riot grrrl and queercore.
Riot Grrrl
Notice something funny about almost all the punk bands mention until now except for X-Ray Spex, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the Plasmatics? Yep, punk music is dominated by men. There have been very few female punk musicians. Riot Grrrl for a brief time changed that. The girls going to Evergreen University in Olympia, WA were tired of it. Riot Grrrl is credited with being founded by either Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill or Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile. Both bands which I recommend listening too. Huggy Bear was a U.K. riot grrrl band which are pretty awesome too. Anyways, it was all DIY with zines, political actions, and activism. This ladies shared their rage with the world.
Queercore
What’s better than pissed off ladies? Pissed off queers. My favorite genre of music which very few people even know about – Queercore. Queercore is about being discontented with the agenda of gays and lesbians to assimilate and oppressing other minorities to try to fit into society. This was all DIY through zines, art, writing, and film. Bands to listen to: Fifth Column, Pansy Division, Sister George, Team Dresch (my favorite queercore band!!!!! Both albums rock. Listen to them NOW.), Tribe 8 (Love the song “Wrong Bathroom” by them.), and Limp Wrist. I also highly recommend checking out The Need and Cypher in the Snow. Both very underrated and awesome.
