In the early 1990s, four gay-and- proud fellas infiltrating the notoriously macho punk rock scene was an even greater risk than it is today. But what better way to shake things up than with bold, hilarious lyrics about gay sex and homosexual relationships? San Francisco's Pansy Division became a quintessential "queercore" band, and by sharing the stage with Green Day, the Supersuckers, Mr. T Experience, and the Vandals, they exposed tons of people to a new musical subculture. The Essential presents 31 tracks plucked from the band's six out-of-print Lookout Records LPs, various EPs, compilations, and their recent Alternative Tentacles release.
Pansy Division's earliest material sounds similar to many of their Lookout counterparts-- short, upbeat pop- punk songs with catchy choruses, jangly guitars, pop-friendly backing vocals. In short, fun, three-chord punk at its best, all wrapped in song titles like "Boyfriend Wanted" or "The Cocksucker Club", both from the band's debut, Undressed.
The band's sound slightly evolved over the course of its first few albums. "Deep Water", from 1994's Deflowered, is an adolescent tale of raging hormonal confusion that blends quick acoustic guitar strumming with fuzzy punk rock. The band perfected the style on that album's "Groovy Underwear", a hilarious ode to whitey-tighties. Light-hearted love-and-lust tunes and upbeat tales of homoeroticism make up most of the tracks from Pileup (1995), Wish I'd Taken Pictures (1996), and More Lovin' From Our Oven (1997). Tracks such as "Horny in the Morning", "Dick of Death", and "Luv Luv Luv" are fine examples of how fun pop-punk can be, and "Headbanger" is a cheeky goof on heavy metal, complete with a guitar solo by "Al Shatonia", aka Metallica's Kirk Hammet.
By 1998's Absurd Pop Song Romance, the band's sound revealed a great deal of growth. The songs are slower, a little more complex, and the lyrical content begins to change a bit. "You're Gonna Need Your Friends", for example, is a sad tune about how friends help you through a breakup. On 2003's *Total Entertainment! * they dropped even more of their earlier humor and began to tackle heavier social issues. "No Protection" is a dance tune about the increasing HIV rate among gay men, and this boy-meets-boy story differs from so many of their earlier songs when our narrator turns down sex when his potential partner refuses to wear a condom.
While the social climate in the U.S. has changed considerably since Pansy Division first started-- despite the crass use of anti-homosexual ballot measures as a tool to mobilize right-wing voters, support for gay rights has increased in the past two decades-- there are still a lot of important things for queercore bands to say, and plenty of people, both straight and gay, for them to shock.
