Have a happy new year, from us at QueerPunks. Get drunk, have fun, be safe, and get laid.
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Archive for December, 2007
QueerPunks.com: So the first thing I have to ask you is how do you keep in such damn fine shape? I need to take notes so I can have all the guys after me too.
Henry Rollins: Eat smart and work out hard, that’s all there is to it. Nothing complicated in the workout itself, you just have to do something with your body. We Americans can be very slothful at times.
QP: Alright, so let’s set facts straight, so to speak. There’s constantly a lot of rumor going around about your sexuality, so for what I’m sure is the umpteenth time please do our readers the favor of clearing that up.
HR: I am heterosexual.
QP: So why as a straight man do you fight so vehemently for gay/queer rights?
Continue reading ‘QueerPunks talks to: Henry Rollins’
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The Divys have released their home-made video for the club mix of their single, Freddie, Are You Single?. The song won ‘Best Electronic Song’ by The John Lennon Songwriting Contest in September 2006: www.jlsc.com/winners/2006a/winners.php
Sure, this version is not punk music, per se, but it does have a punk rock approach as the band totally wrote, acted and filmed and edited the video themselves.
It might remind you of the classic Cindy Lauper video, ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’, with the drag-queens thrown into it. It’s a hilarious video! ENJOY!
The Divys are also featured on the video game, ‘Dance Dance Revolution: Universe 2′ for XBox as of December 2007 and will be in arcades worldwide. http://xbox360.gamezone.com/news/10_25_07_08_04AM.htm
The song, ‘Get Up! Give Up! Move On!’, was the band’s attempt at writing a DEVO song. And they feel very happy with the outcome.
You can hear it at: www.punkrockers.com/TheDivys
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QueerPunks.com: So, first off let us know a bit about yourself and where you come from as a person.
Larry-Bob: There were three pivotal events that shaped the trajectory of my life. The first was my initiation into punk rock when I went to college in 1984. The second was coming out a couple years later. The third combined those first two things, and that was finding out about early queer zines like Homocore and JDs in late 1988. Most of what I’ve done in the creative sphere since then has been shaped by those factors.
Continue reading ‘QueerPunks talks to: Larry-Bob’
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It came to my mind recently that I’ve seen about a year ago a report on old French punk bands, and I was quite surprised to hear that a band that I liked a lot, Les Porte-Mentaux, was indeed one made up of homosexuals.
Now it might seem not that extraordinary, but it’s important to clarify that their career did last more or less from 82 to 89 in France, a country divided at the time between the controlling bourgeoisie and an alternative youth that struggled against an imposed repression on immigrants, political refugees, and the ones that deviated from the good old aristocratic French agenda.
It is maybe the reason why Les Porte-Mentaux did not fall under the queercore label nor did they clearly expressed their homosexuality at the time; they were most like other French punk bands and decided to attack the social stigmas as a whole, probably not to be regarded as the exclusive defenders of homosexuality alone. They didn’t have any focus; they wanted to demonstrate the unity of a youth that’s been tired of the racist and elitist model the generation that preceded them tried to establish.
Now I’m far from the French culture of the time. Hell, I wasn’t even born when they started their career. One thing remains, however: even though this band will probably not make history, they will remain as one of the building blocks of today’s revolutionary youth, a youth that’s pissed at the way their folks drove their country towards one that values the judgement and the rejection of difference.
As a bit of history, other non-gay bands that marked France’s alternative culture are Bérurier Noir (probably one of its pioneers), Ludwig Von 88, and Indochine, which is still a band today.
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QueerPunks.com: Well, let’s start off with a two for one question; let us know a bit about who you are, and how Queer Control Records came about.
Marlene: I’m a Leo, brown eyes, a dazzling smile and heart of gold. Well sort of, my names Marlene an I am one of the founders and marketing director of Queer Control Records. I reside in San Francisco, CA where I base my operations for total world domination. We started QCR a little over 6 months ago. We thought it would be great idea to start a queercore/homocore based record label since it seemed that the genre was at
a standstill. We wanted to seek out a new generation of queercore for today and get it heard!
Skip: Oh shit man, I too am a Leo and enjoy long walks on the beach but I don’t smile very often. I am a recent Florida transplant to New York City. Most of my time is spent helping to run the label, work my day job and play rugby, so basically I don’t get much sleep. QCR was a vision the 3 of us had since we were younger but thankfully as we grew older we realized it is something we can do now. At this point in our lives I think we are all at the same level and we have a pretty good idea of what needs to be brought to the table to benefit queer music. We’re not looking to take over the world (yet) but as Marlene says we just want to get queer music heard.
M: I wanna take over the world now 
S: Our time will come.
Continue reading ‘QueerPunks talks to: Queer Control Records’
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I cannot believe I’ve never posted this video before. It came out on their CD discography, and it spread to the internets. Their live shows (well, the one I caught) are insane and .. yeah, just watch this.
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So here’s a question; how many of you would be interested in cheap QueerPunks.com merch? You know: stickers, buttons, patches, maybe even shirts. Would anyone be down?
How about a comp CD? And on that note, any bands want to be a part of it?
Comment to let me know.
PS: Contribute. Now.
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Reposted from the HOMO A GOGO myspace
Let’s talk about what’s going on with our fair festival, in a, “State of the HAGG address,” sort of way. You are probably wondering when and where the next festival will be so you can start to plan your gaycation. We are working on some great big gay changes and want to keep you all updated.
We have reassessed the plan to do a 2008 festival and realize that we are not ready. Queer Arts in Action, the “parent” organization of Homo A Go Go, doesn’t have the financial resources to make Homo A Go Go 2008 a reality.
We need your help to keep Homo A Go Go go-going. We are putting our fundraising and non-profit organizational plans in motion during this next year. These include membership programs (programs that people donate to the non-profit organization on a monthly or yearly basis), fundraising parties in several cities, HAGG merchandise and online programming. This leaves us with the necessary conclusion to wait to launch the next festival on July 29-August 2, 2009. We feel this was a difficult but necessary move to make.
I’d also like to officially announce that HAGG is moving out of Olympia. This was another difficult decision to make because there are many reasons why we love to be in our home town. There are some issues that have made Olympia challenging: lack of appropriate and affordable venues and inaccessibility to attendees travelling to the festival. Another reasons is that, I as the executive director, don’t live in Olympia anymore (I live in Los Angeles), and trying to keep the festival in Olympia is difficult on the organization and on me personally. There are currently two proposals on the table for the 2009 location: Los Angeles and San Francisco. We are currently looking at production budgets and feasibility for each city. We are doing an online survey so we can get an idea of where YOU would like to be in 2009. Follow the link below to vote!
The staff also recognizes that it is necessary to adapt the festival programming to acknowledge that HAGG has become a sort of, “family reunion,” for many people. We want to keep offering amazing music, film, art, spoken word and workshops, but we also want to make sure we build in more time for connecting. The result is that instead of simply offering more music, film, art, performance and workshops, we want to change our programming to adapt to a very specific audience and to offer some more interactive programming.
Lastly, we’d like to clear up some confusion that seemed to come with the announcement that we would do HAGG in Los Angeles in 2007. We have no intention of having HAGG in multiple cities or in franchising HAGG. HAGG will continue to be a single festival produced by the non-profit organization, Queer Arts in Action (QAA). QAA will be the only producer of the HAGG festival.
Love,
Ed Varga
QAA/HAGG Executive Director
aka head homo
p.s. now go vote! LA or SF?
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Hey guys. Sam J. Miller (the guy who wrote about his feelings toward Fall Out Boy trying to appeal to the gay demographic in October) asked me to post his short story “Jerking Off To Agnostic Front”. Trust me, it isn’t nearly as controversial as the title would have you believe. Check it out here, and afterwards, go to his website samjmiller.com, and tell him what you think. I mean its the least you can do for the guy, right?
Peace,
Don
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