Queercore is a 30-some-year-old hodgepodge of bands, zines, artists, films, and what-have-you that uses DIY and punk ethics to explore issues affecting non-hetero folks.
Poindexter is not that. Poindexter is a local three-piece for whom I play bass when their usual guy is out of town. Poindexter is power-pop, closer to Weezer with a cat fetish than Cheap Trick (I know, Weezer isn't all power-pop. Keep it to yourselves, nerds).
But there's some debate among band members: are we a "gay band"? Some of the lyrics are about dude-plus-dude love; the frontman is gay; wey've played Buffalo Pride Festival. Does that make Poindexter gay?
As it happens, I'm the only member with a column on a music blog, so my two cents are going public.
It's true that Jeff, the lead singer, is a proud gay man, and his lyrics, when they're about love or relationships or bad sex, generally sport two or three boners. Otherwise we play songs about things you might expect from a pop-rock act: the ennui of growing up, the weird hypocrisies that worm their way into our lives, entirely clinical, true-story butt spelunking, et cetera. Any gay-centric message is pretty much accidental.
Jeff likes dudes, which should be as eyebrow-raising and as none-of-your-fucking-business as the fact that I'm a righty, but I can switch-hit if the need arises. (If you think I'm talking about baseball, we'll just leave it at that. If you catch my actual meaning and things have suddenly become weird between us, I'm sorry. If you thought I was talking about baseball until that last sentence and things have suddenly become weird between us, I'm sorry.) But since Poindexter are making music in a part of a world and a stretch of history where some folks, for whatever reason, find homosexuality disturbing, we stand out as a "gay band."
Some bands make it their mission to explore gay issues up front. Pansy Division come to mind. As do Gayrilla Biscuits, whose schtick is repurposing hardcore songs to promote a gay message. To wit:
Gay til death!
We're gay and should be taken seriously!
You say we should change our ways and go for nasty women
You said that you can't be queer because of your lame wife
Well, we'll be gay for life!
Has your ass gone straight?
Poindexter is...not that.
Then there are bands like Propagandhi, who identify themselves as gay-positive, and who sing about and stand for a lot of things, for better or worse, including anti-homophobia and anti-racism. Also, the suckiness of ska.
I wouldn't say we're a gay-positive act. Jeff does sing about relationships - good and bad - between men, which creates a safe space to explore gay issues. But it's also a space for exploring human issues: things like love, sex, and regret, which most of us will deal with at some point. If not every goddamn day.
On some level, declaring Poindexter a gay band is akin to calling the Foo Fighters a straight band. Both groups sing about hookups and breakups, so why not? And anyway, breakup songs aren't positive toward any kind of love: they're about how much love sucks, whether it's between two men, two women, one of each, or a man and an underage Japanese body pillow.
Poindexter is gay-positive in the way that, at this point in our culture's history, not being ashamed of gayness equals a positive act. It's hard to believe it was only 15 years ago that Matthew Shephard was tortured and beaten to death by two confused, broken homophobes. And it'll be two years ago this September that our own Jamey Rodemeyer committed suicide after being bullied with gay slurs. Just ten years ago it became legal in all 50 United States to exercise our God-given right to slip our God-given body parts into whatever consenting holes we goddamn-well please (we also just got around to telling a deep-fried, diabetes-racked pharmaceuticals shill that a slave-themed wedding isn't cool either, so cheers to that).
If Poindexter is a "gay band," it's by default. When anyone has anything non-negative to say about the gay experience, it is, in a way, a positive. I look forward to the day when that's not the case. Poindexter's real message, as far as I can tell, is nothing new or controversial: growing up sucks; growing old is weird; people ought to fuck each other more and fuck with each other less.
And that's just rock and roll.
Great article!
I don't see how your band's sexuality really matters much. Themes of happiness, sadness, love, loss, and loneliness are pretty universal. If the band were a gimmick band with a "gay schtick", you'd be a gay band. That's not what I hear of Poindexter.
Of course, if intercourse with the audience is part of the stage show, I think it's only polite to let the crowd know which way things are gonna go. Aside from that, I don't see why anyone would label the band a "gay band".
I dig the tracks, too. Sounds pretty much like good power-pop rock music to me. Anyhow... Keep it rockin'
I've played in relatively successful local indie rock band for the past few years. I'm bisexual. I've played gigs and brought dude I'd be dating, played, drank and kissed him at Nietzches. I didn't do it to make a statement, I did it just because that's what I wanted to do at the time. I've been dating a girl for the past year and she comes to shows too. We behave in similar fashion. The songs I write are about my life, politics, world issues which include marriage equality, ex bfs, ex gfs, current relations and so on. The rest of the band is as straight as they come. We rag on each other like any other band, like brothers. Like Scott said, we all can relate to universal themes in lyrics. Straight people have the same problems as gay people when it comes to the core of humanity. Why does somebody's sexuality in a band automatically throw them in a genre. I'm not jerking off dildos on stage. Rockers can be gay too. Look at Morrissey.
BTW I like the article. Just wanted to vent.
I hear you, brothers.
It's sort of an accident of history that sexuality even matters at all: it shouldn't be exceptional that there are openly gay people doing anything, sort of like it shouldn't matter that there are black people or women doing anything, whether it's playing sports, running a company, being a politician, or whatever.
There is room for doing those things "on purpose," which is what queercore is for music and art: it's using gay issues as a jumping-off point to make art. Just as there are politicians who campaign with a specific set of issues in mind, looking to solve the problems (and gain the votes) especially relevant to Latinos or rural folks or women; and brands targeting any demographic you can think of.
Poindexter is making rock music. Unfortunately - or fortunately, depending on how you want to look at it - it's easy enough to pigeonhole us as a "gay band" because there aren't a hell of a lot of bands dealing openly with non-heterosexual love and sex. Now, I say "fortunately," for two reasons:
1: It's a big deal to have "someone like me" doing something cool. That's why it's important to point out gay rock stars, black presidents, and Indian comedians (I was listening to a Fresh Air interview with Aziz Ansari awhile ago where he mentioned that, when he was a kid, there were no Indian actors on American TV, let alone comedians; now there are a handful, and that's a big deal for young kids who want to see people who look like them, showing them what sorts of things they can do, while also helping that audience make a deeper connection to whatever's on screen). The more gay rock stars we have, the more gay kids have those specific role models to appreciate. Which leads to:
2: The mundane-ification of sexuality. Once there are so many gay role models, people will stop seeing non-heterosexuality as an "otherness." I look forward to the day when nobody gives a shit about superficial things like sexuality and skin color because there are just too damn many different kinds of people playing sports or rock music or building bridges that we no longer care what the lead singer does with her vagina, or where the running back comes from, or what sort of gonads are hiding inside the engineer. All that matters are your yards per carry, your sweet fucking riffs, or whether your bridge holds up or shreds under pressure like a wet tissue.
Meanwhile, it IS frustrating to be labeled as "other," whether for good or bad. Nonetheless, this conversation is, I think, a step toward achieving our goal of appreciating people for who we are, in all the weird glory that is each human being, while also ignoring superficial traits in favor of a focus on personal ability and contribution. And thanks, guys, for being a part of the conversation with me!