Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band
March 26, 2009
As someone who found indie music through Bay Area punk rock, I’ll always have a special place in my heart for the old Lookout bands like Pansy Division. The San Francisco queercore pioneers were the first all openly-gay rock band and wrote some uber-catchy, fun, and often funny, pop-punk over five albums between 1993 and 2003. Friday night at 8pm, ATA screens Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band, a documentary about the band’s influential career. As the film’s description says:
Using original and archive footage and covering over fifteen years as a group, Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band is a fast paced, intimate and humorous account of one of rock’s most fearless acts. From their first days in San Francisco’s underground music scene to a full-fledged stadium tour with Green Day and beyond, founding members Jon Ginoli and Chris Freeman overcome increasingly difficult line-up changes, prejudice and near-poverty to keep the band together and create music that has truly made a difference.
You can also purchase the film and the band’s new album–their first in six years–from Alternative Tentacles.
TwinkieTwinkieLittleStar.mp3
Pansy Division – “Twinkie, Twinkie Little Star” (from the new album, That’s So Gay)
Also, Jon Ginoli of Pansy Division has a new book out about the band. He’s doing a reading tonight at Booksmith and has a couple other ba area readings. I’m currently reading the book and it has lots of interesting dish.
Oops, I ought to have said at Books Inc in the Castro – the Booksmith reading was last week.