Essay: Austin Punk Rockers Wore Drag Too
Recently, drag shows have come under attack from state legislators, beginning in Tennessee with a new law to ban public drag performances. The unjust law extends beyond drag to trans, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary individuals. Texas aims to follow suit with at least four suggested bills that may restrict drag performances as well as performances by trans, nonbinary, and GNC persons. State legislators in Texas are setting a dangerous precedent that will encourage violence against drag, trans and queer people. This is not who Texans are and flies in the face of our friendly culture. Austin punk rockers wore drag too.
Texas Senate State Affairs will hear two new bills proposed: SB12 which seeks to classify venues that host drag shows as sexually oriented businesses and SB1601 which aims to block state funding to libraries that host drag storytimes. Contentions between countercultures and americana have since fueled a rebellious streak in stubborn battleground states for decades. This led to several Texas punk bands making a name for themselves in defense of gender and sexual identity in the 1980s.
The Big Boys have a cult following around Austin, Texas. The local booking agency formerly known as Margin Walker (now Resound Presents) paid homage to Big Boys, naming their festivals Fun Fun Fun Fest and Sound on Sound Festival in tribute to Big Boys songs. Big Boys music entwined punk and funk together in a lighthearted, quirky manner (think Red Hot Chili Peppers if they didn’t give a shit about California).
The Big Boys launched the “Keep Austin Weird” slogan of Austin by embodiying the slogan, whether it was frontman Randy “Biscuit” Turner donning pink tutus and cowboy boots or hosting a food fight amidst an anniversary show for the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Big Boys formed from a group of skaters, played their first show on November 3, 1979 at a former fur coat storage facility in Austin’s old warehouse district.
Turner was open about his queerness. Saustex Records owner Jeff Smith describes Biscuit: “his sexuality and his art flew in the face of not only the prevailing mores of Texas but the punk itself as hardcore became folded into the punk side of the punk/New Wave Equation” (via Houston Press).
Biscuit brought the underdog’s zeal to punk as a self-taught musician and played the role of “mom” at shows. Even without boundaries between the crowd and the stage, Biscuit made sure if you got knocked down, you got back up. At the end of Big Boys’ earlier shows, he concluded with a famous line “Now go start your own band”, which was taken in earnest by enough people to drive Austin’s music scene.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, The Dicks were full of vitriol and rage in their music. They were amongst one of the first punk bands to address sexual identity and homophobia head on in their songs “Saturday Night at the Bookstore” and “Off-Duty Sailor”. Frontman Gary Floyd boldly put politics front and center with the raucous first track “Dicks Hate Police”. Floyd crossdressed with a large stature (he was tall) and tossed condoms into the crowd. David Yow describes Glen Taylor of The Dicks as “perpetually hammered, but always had the most intoxicating, noisy guitar crap.” In “Lifetime Problems”, Floyd’s lyrics come through as incoherent garble. Pat Deason beats the everliving, fucking shit out of his drums.
To say the Dicks were rebellious would be an understatement. Not only was Floyd flamboyantly gay, he was a staunch Marxist and conscientious objector to the Vietnam War. In Spring 1983, The Dicks relocated to San Francisco for a short while and performed with The Dead Kennedys and M.D.C. at Rock Against Reagan shows.
One last band, rarely talked about, we should give an honorable mention to: Meat Joy. No, Meat Joy did not wear drag at the shows, however, they did forge on into their own path of homosexuality with their “lezzie rock”. In 1981, Gretchen Phillips moved to Austin. Inspired by Big Boys and Dicks, Phillips started a band with Sara Hickman and several more members. Their song, “The Time of Your Life” has a whimsical quality with its theremin, just off-time enough drumming, and improvisation to make it interesting for listeners.
“For When Love is Irrelevance” precedes the commercialization of indie pop with brutal honesty of Phillips’ experience with *ahem* the male ego. They purchased 1500 album cases and hand decorated each of the covers as merchandise. In 2001, Phillips was inducted into Austin Chronicle’s Music Poll Hall of Fame. Meat Joy’s music inspired the sounds of Le Tigre and Pansy Division.
The point being here people have fought for LGBTQ rights in the shadows for years and then publicly with threats and violence. We’re seeing the same battles fought once more decades later. Sexualizing drag performances and presenting them as dangerous is misleading and simply untrue.
Please consider showing up at the Capitol for testimonies. If you are unable to provide a testimony in person, you can submit a written testimony here: https://secure.everyaction.
Featured image: Dicks – courtesy of Alternative Tentacle Records
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