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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
April 10, 2009
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www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com
BANSION
THAT
29
deflowered
my life in Pansy Division
CLOSETS ARE FOR CLOTHES
FIGHT
HOMOPHOBIA
SEXUAL ANARCHIST
The Inside Story of the First Openly Gay Pop Punk Band
jon pinoli
even
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LAW OFFICES OF
Three Pansy blooms for spring Film, book, and CD celebrate queercore band's 18:
by Anthony Glassman
Three is a magic number. It obviously must be, since there is earth and sky and water, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, heart and soul and mind.
Even more importantly, Schoolhouse Rock said it, and thus it must be.
For the fabulous folks in the queercore band Pansy Division, three is the number of new releases they've sprung upon a popu-
lace either breathless with anticipation or completely unsuspecting, depending on whether or not they like Pansy Division.
The first of those three salvos into the battlefield of popular culture is founder, guitarist and lead singer Jon Ginoli's memoir, Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division, the Inside Story of the First Openly Gay Pop-Punk Band (Cleis, trade paper, $16.95). Whether or not that last bit is actually part of the title is irrelevant; at least it's descriptive.
Ginoli hails from Peoria, Illinois and is quite fond of pointing out how unbearably normal that town is. The entertainment industry trope "Will it play in Peoria?" is welldeserved, apparently.
Struggling with his sexual orientation throughout much of his youth, he eventually escaped to San Francisco, where things didn't really get much better.
It was in the city by the bay that he discovered, to his horror, that much of gay life takes place in bars and clubs, and those bars and clubs play abysmally bad dance music, unnecessarily loud, even if it's a beer-and-shot type of bar. Nary a rocking guitar to be heard.
What was a boy to do?
He started performing in Pansy Division as a solo act before adding bassist Chris Freeman. Then they added a drummer. Then they changed drummers.
Faced with a choice between signing with Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label and Lookout Records, the chose the
DAVID W. REUVEN latter, leading them to open for Green Day
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on their 1994 tour, which quickly went from 1,000-seat clubs to stadiums as the headliners hit the big time.
As anyone call tell, the band is still going strong, 18 years after forming. Unfortunately, for those 18 years, there's only eight pages of photographs. No reproductions of old flyers, no gallery of album covers, just eight pages of Ginoli's photos. One suspects the readers of this memoir would pipe up in unison, "We want more!"
Thankfully, one of two releases from
Alternative Tentacles solves that problem. Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band also covers the entire history of the band, using new and old interviews with band members, television footage, live performances, the whole nine yards.
Directed by Michael Carmona and produced by Carmona and Freeman, it is the perfect complement to Ginoli's book. Or,
years
for those with extremely short attention spans, a good replacement for it, since who has the brain power to actually read a book nowadays?
The film also comes with a second disk of live performances. For those who came of age after the heyday of Pansy Division touring, here is your chance to see why you should have been born earlier.
Continued on page 10
PANSY DIASION LIFE IN A GAY ROCK BAND
WINNER
Best Documentary Audience Award
Chicago
Lesbian and Gay
Min Festival
"... a brilliant music documentary." Reyhan Harmanci, San Francisco Chronicle
Official Selection
San Francisco
Frameline
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