Spitboy Rule

Michelle Cruz Gonzales

Description

Michelle Cruz Gonzales played drums and wrote lyrics in the influential 1990s female hardcore band Spitboy, and now she’s written a book—a punk rock herstory. Though not a riot grrl band, Spitboy blazed trails for women musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, but it wasn’t easy. Misogyny, sexism, abusive fans, class and color blindness, and all-out racism were foes, especially for Gonzales, a Xicana and the only person of color in the band.

Unlike touring rock bands before them, the unapologetically feminist Spitboy preferred Scrabble games between shows rather than sex and drugs, and they were not the angry manhaters that many expected them to be. Serious about women’s issues and being the band that they themselves wanted to hear, a band that rocked as hard as men but sounded like women, Spitboy released several records and toured internationally. The memoir details these travels while chronicling Spitboy’s successes and failures, and for Gonzales, discovering her own identity along the way.

Fully illustrated with rare photos and flyers from the punk rock underground, this fast-paced, first-person recollection is populated by scenesters and musical allies from the time including Econochrist, Paxston Quiggly, Neurosis, Los Crudos, Aaron Cometbus, Pete the Roadie, Green Day, Fugazi, and Kamala and the Karnivores.

Sujets

• Anarcho punk
• Class discrimination
• Drummer
• Racism
• Feminism
• Erasure

Informations

• Publié par: PM Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781629632551
• Langue: English

Extrait

P RAISE
The Spitboy Rule is a compelling and insightful journey into the world ofturn-t 90s punk as seen through the eyes of a Xicana drummer who goes by the nickname Todd. Todd stirs the pot by insisting that she plays hardcore punk, not Riot Grrrl music, and inviting males to share the dance floor with women in a respectful way. This drummer never misses a beat. Read it!
-Alice Bag, singer for the Bags and author of Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story
Incisive and inspiring, Michelle Cruz Gonzales s The Spitboy Rule brings the 90s punk world to life with equal parts heart and realism. Her story becomes a voyage of self-discovery, and Gonzales is the perfect guide as she writes in rapid-fire drum beats about epic road tours, female camaraderie, sexist fans, and getting accused of appropriating her own culture.
-Ariel Gore, Hip Mama
Best punk memoir that I ve ever had the privilege of reading. In a punk scene dominated by middle-class, white males, you can t forget Spitboy, four brave women playing music with the intensity of an out-of-control forest fire. Gonzales s involvement and presence in the punk scene, in particular, was significant because she represented a radical, feminist person of color, and she reflected a positive change in the scene for the Bay Area. Her memoir, chronicling her unique experience and perspective, occupies an important moment in the punk saga. This is a must-read for anyone still dedicated to social justice and change.
-Wendy-O Matik, author of Redefining Our Relationships: Guidelines for Responsible Open Relationships
Michelle Gonzales s punk rock account is inspiring on many levels. For outsider artists, women musicians, or anybody who has ever felt the desire to forge an identity in uncharted territory, this book is detailed, heartfelt, and historically important. Briskly told in clean, conversational prose, The Spitboy Rule is an entertaining read and functions as an important historical, critical, and sociopolitical document of pre-internet DIY music.
-Jesse Michaels, vocalist for Operation Ivy and author of Whispering Bodies

The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band
Michelle Cruz Gonzales 2016
This edition published in 2016 by PM Press
ISBN: 978-1-62963-140-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016930958
Cover: John Yates/ Stealworks.com
Cover photo: Karoline Collins
Layout: Jonathan Rowland
PM Press
P.O. Box 23912
Oakland, CA 94623
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the USA by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan
www.thomsonshore.com
Contents
Preface by Mimi Thi Nguyen
Foreword by Mart n Sorrondeguy
Prologue: A Band Is Not an Identity
The prologue introduces my character and tells the story of how someone like me, a Xicana growing up in a small town would get involved in punk rock. It addresses how and I why I was attracted to punk, the music and the politics, and how being in a band gave me a sense of identity but not a complete identity, as I was the only person of color in the band and not at all middle-class.
Chapter 1: Not a Riot Grrrl Band
The opening chapter immediately sets Spitboy apart from the riot grrrl movement, one of the most controversial things about the band. It explains how we dealt with the riot grrrl label, how we didn t want to disrespect the movement, but also how and why we wanted to distance ourselves from it. I also admit in the piece that we may not have gone about it in the right way.
Chapter 2: Kill White Bitch
This piece details how we thoughtfully and collaboratively made the decision for the cover of our self-titled EP and why we decided not to use a photo of some graffiti that said kill white bitch.
Chapter 3: Punk Points
The strange sort of shaming people in the East Bay punk scene did to others regarding where they grew up exacerbated my insecurities about appearing too provincial, having grown up in a small town and on welfare, a fact that I did not hide but did not broadcast either. The piece introduces the sharp class differences between me and the rest of the Spitboy, a difference that would matter a lot more than we all thought.
Chapter 4: Flowers of Evil
In which I detail how the Spitboy logo came about and how punk bands found artwork and made logos before the widespread use of the internet. It also includes a scene from our very first show.
Chapter 5: The Threat
This chapter is about recording our self-titled EP with Kevin Army, the dilemma of our backing vocals, and what did about it.
Chapter 6: The Female Phil Collins of Punk Rock Drummers
This piece discusses what it was like being a female drummer in Spitboy, and it takes the reader back to my teen years to detail why I made the decision to play the drums instead of guitar. I didn t know then how many times I would have to hear men say, You hit hard for a girl.
Chapter 7: Come Out with Your Hands Up
Have you ever been surrounded by four drug squad cars and cops with guns drawn? Well, that s what this chapter is about. That and smuggling merchandise across the border into Canada and working there without work permits, all of which was less risky before 9-11.
Chapter 8: Shut Up and Play
This piece describes our various responses to sexist and abusive comments that Spitboy dealt with over the years, including being told to spread our legs or play.
Chapter 9: Spitboy in Little Rock
I fell in love in Little Rock, though this is not really what this chapter is about. It is about a memorable show outdoors during a spectacular summer rainstorm with the Little Rock band Chino Horde.
Chapter 10: Race, Class, and Spitboy
Karin and Adrienne grew up solidly middle-class, Paula came from more of a working-class background, and I grew up on welfare. Class and race differences that hadn t been too apparent during our first year or so as a band, came to a head when I took the Spitwomen to meet my grandmother in East LA on our way home from playing a weekend of shows in the LA area.
Chapter 11: The Spitboy Rule
The title piece of the collection is about the decision we made for our first US tour to not allow boyfriends on tour and why.
Chapter 12: Fish or Fugazi
While on tour in England with Citizen Fish, Spitboy guitarist got word from home that we had been invited to play a show with Fugazi, a special request from the band itself. All big fans of Fugazi, we were disappointed to have to decline because we were already overseas, but drinking tea with and getting to know Citizen Fish cheered us right back up.
Chapter 13: Pete the Roadie
Of course this chapter is about Pete the Roadie, roadie code, service, how weird it was for me to be served, and regrets about a show we played in Prague.
Chapter 14: My Body Is Mine
When our Mi Cuerpo Es M o record was released, a riot grrrl from Olympia accused Spitboy of cultural appropriation even though the title had been my idea.
Chapter 15: Kurt Cobain Is Dead
The chapter is about new beginnings and loss. It introduces Dominique Davison, who replaced Paula on bass, and is set at Rutgers University the day the news broke that Kurt Cobain had committed suicide.
Chapter 16: Our Favorite Assumptions
This chapter details the often humorous and ignorant assumptions that people made about members of Spitboy and about feminists in general.
Chapter 17: Homesickness Cure
Spitboy s guitarist Karin Gembus loved to travel and get to know new places and people. Whenever we d get to someplace particularly beautiful and surrounded by water, she d say, Could you live here? I could. Being slower to warm to anyone new and being a person of color who only felt a sense of belonging in California, I could never say, Yes, I could live here. And once, to cure homesickness, I made out with a Latina in Australia.
Chapter 18: Soundchecks, Lesbians, and Long Sets
In this chapter, I confess that I hate soundchecks and explain why they are so horrible. This chapter is also about playing to five hundred people in Rome and a bunch of lesbians who had the hots for Adrienne.
Chapter 19: Viviendo Asperamente
Also the title of the Spitboy/Los Crudos split record, this piece covers the Spitboy/Los Crudos connection, how we all became so close, how knowing them helped me to sort out my own identity issues and see how self-hating I had been. It of course addresses my relationship with the Crudos guitarist, why it didn t work, who I married instead, and my exit from punk rock, though I know now that I never really left.
Chapter 20: Turning Japanese
This piece continues and resolves the recurring theme of my identity issues, how they affected the band, and tensions that arose while out of our element in Japan, which culminated in Adrienne telling us that she was leaving the band.
Chapter 21: Spitboy: The Creation Story
This piece details the first time I met Adrienne in 1987, three years before forming Spitboy, an event she didn t remember when we met again later. It details how we all met and formed, and it includes a scene from our first practice.
Acknowledgments
Photo Credits
About the Author
To Sue Ann Carny and Nicole Lopez-gonna hit the town; we ll burn it down to a cinder
And for Luis Manuel, my one and only
Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.
-George Orwell
Preface
Mimi Thi Nguyen
S pitboy formed in 1990, the year I discovered punk and its promise to fuck shit up. I was an awkward teenager from the outer suburbs of San Diego, angry and alienated because I felt too much the omnipresence of mi