10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE December 30, 2005
eveningsout
The mostly real past and the future of homocore rock
by Anthony Glassman
With the New Year comes the inevitable time-traversing glances forwards and backwards, examining the past while pondering what awaits in the future.
Top Ten lists are all the rage at this time of year, detailing the best and worst of the last 12 months. Previews of the next 52 weeks will also pop up "Look what's coming in 2006!"
Of course, the world did not begin on January 1, 2005, nor will it likely end on
HOMOCORE
December
31,
2006. Sometimes, it's necessary to look at the bigger picture, the larger, more far-reaching trends to really do
justice to a topic.
謝謝哲賜庭
Henc
e
Homocore: The
********* Loud and Raucous Rise of Queer Rock
by David Ciminelli
and Ken Knox (Alyson, $15.95, paper). Covering at least 20 years of queer rockers,
the book focuses (mostly) on the punk-inflected side of the rock spectrum, which is where homocore got its namehomosexual hardcore.
Arguments abound on where it started, whether it rose in Los Angeles or Toronto. Filmmaker Bruce LaBruce's self-published 'zine JDs talked about the homocore movement in Toronto in the mid-'80s, but LaBruce has admitted that most of it was made up, making a mecca of queer punks where there were but a few.
Of course, one thing that LaBruce's fabled homocore community did not have that mohawked grrrrrrrlz and Liberty-spiked boiz nowadays have is the Internet, bringing the
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music scenes of far-off cities into the living
room.
(Oh, and don't refer to a punk rock guy as a boi. If he accepts the word as a descriptor, he's a twink and not quite as punk as he would like to believe, and if he is really that punk, he's going to kick your booty. And grrrl? Passé.)
If anything, however, the Internet is representative of the one failing of the book-it's so broad that the term "homocore" almost completely loses its meaning. The definition in the book is probably broader than any of its early proponents ever dreamed it would be.
Of course, that can also be considered the book's major strength as well. While the historical examination of homocore may be a little more tightly focused, the looser definition in contemporary bands opens the book up to groups that might not get much national attention, even if they are local or regional powerhouses in their home
towns.
In some cases, the book is a little sadistic. Talking about Extra Fancy, for instance, makes on want to listen to Extra Fancy, dropped by Atlantic Records two months after the 1996 release of their album Sinnerman. However, as far as I can tell, the album is out of print.
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New England Roses, left, Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, above.
Thankfully, it's readily available used, both online and in discount bins at record
stores across
the country.
The one unfor-
givable sin, however, is two grown men using
words like jammin' and rockin' to make the book sound cooler, one presumes. Unfortunately, it comes off as completely artificial and forced.
While the book gives a look at where some of the pioneers are now, and some of the currently popular bands (Yay! The Butchies!), by its very nature it couldn't talk about everything, or everyone, and recently-announced releases aren't mentioned at all.
For instance, what about the New England Roses, featuring J.D. Sampson of Le Tigre? Their debut album, Face Time With Son, hit the stores in late 2005, but there is nary a mention of it.
And it can't be the mellowness of it all that precludes its inclusion, since Extra Fancy frontman Brian Grillo's most recent output has been more acoustic and low-key than the balls-out rock his former band performed.
The band's wispy vocals and strippeddown instrumentation provide an interesting mélange of sounds on their album, especially with the harmonies on the cover of Tracy Chapman's Talkin' Bout a Revolution, shortened to Revolution.
Now, the Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower is more along the lines of the classic "homocore" label. Their CD Love in the Fascist Brothel, complete with songs like "SLC Hunks," is a guitar-wailing monster, ready to stomp on Tokyo (or, in this case, Paris) while
battling Mothra and Ghidorah.
Ten songs of complete punk fill out the album, and it's hard to single out one track to praise above another, when all of them are so hard and heavy. Someone should write Revelation Records and thank them for releasing the album. Really, pick up the pen right now. Didn't your mother make you write thank you notes after receiving your Christmas or Hanukkah presents?
Pansy Division, one of the iconic pioneers of homocore, are releasing a "best of" CD in March, but their drummer Luis Illades is out now with his band The Plus Ones' album Oh Me of Little Faith provides a solid helping of indie-inflected pop-rock.
The winner of best song title goes to “Suicide Pact (You First)," but "Direct Quote" beats it for single that should become a hit. Strong instrumentation, clever lyrics and engaging vocals should have this band playing on college radio everywhere before sneaking onto commercial alt-rock stations.
The Dead Betties' Summer of '93 is another shrieking, wailing punk-fest, filled with caterwauling, Sonic Youth-inflected fun, although definitely not for the faint of heart. Or for those with an absolute devotion to melody.
A 90 percent gay trio, they're probably the most in line with the book, and are in the book, having participated in the QueerCore tour, which of course doesn't come to Ohio because of the "coasts and Chicago" mentality of the entertainment world.
However, they're cute enough and good enough to be forgiven for the slight. And how can anyone stay angry at a band with a song called "The Giggling of Ken and Barbie?" Seriously, it's just impossible to stay mad at these queer punk imps.
So, read Homocore to see where the scene has been, and listen to some CDs to find out where it's going in 2006 and beyond.
New Year's Eve
nicker
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