Pansy Division's Luis Illades, Jon Ginoli, Joel Reader, Chris Freeman
Those boys who roared out the same 3 chord power punk with just a little more flair than their straight counterparts rocked my teenage 90s world, and they were called Pansy Division. These first and most famous gay boy punk rockers exploded queercore culture into all kinds of indie crowds. They gave me hope for a unified punk underground movement.
But best of all, they were goddamn dirty. Even the dyke punk bands that I listened to sung more about oppression and emotion than Pansy Division’s straight up songs about boot knockin’ and raunchy rimming. With titles such as “Ring of Joy” they left little to the imagination.
Founder Jon Ginoli has know chronicled the crazy PD tours and tribulations in Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division. He will be at Powell’s Books on Hawthorne (3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd) tonight at 7:30 PM.
We’re the buttfuckers of rock-and-roll/We want to sock it to your hole!” With these words written in a notebook, Jon Ginoli sets off on a journey of self-discovery and musical passion to become the founding member of Pansy Division, the first out and proud queer punk rock band. Set against the changing music industry, we follow the band from their inception in San Francisco, to their search for a music label and a permanent drummer, to their current status as indie rock icons. We see the highs—touring with Green Day—and the lows—homophobic fans—of striving for acceptance and success in the world of rock. Replete with the requisite tales of sex, drugs, groupies, band fights, and label battles, this rollicking memoir is also an impassioned account of staying true to the artistic vision of queer rock’n’roll.
