The theory behind the homocore scene was unity. Unlike the gay community, in which gay men and lesbian women, are strongly separated from one another, the queercore scene aimed to unite both men and women and destroy the boundaries created by sex and sexuality. Homocore nights/queercore festivals, featuring live bands, were often held to promote this idea and movement.

Musically, the queercore movement was strongly similar to that of the Riot Grrrl. Both queercore and Riot Grrrl bands often had songs which spoke about sexual/gender issues (such as identity and the prejudice which some were subjected to). Riot Grrrl and queercore bands also span many genres; bands influenced by these movements can be found in punk, hardcore, indie, noise, and experimental genres (to name a few).

    I tried to do some research on the IPU Festival, but I couldn’t really come up with too much… kinda unfortunate, but I guess this video gives an idea of what it was all about.

Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl”

Bratmobile’s “Eating Toothpaste”

Le Tigre’s “Deceptacon” (one of my all time favorites)

Sonic Youth’s “Teenage Riot”

Huggy Bear (live) “Her Jazz”

Since I talked a little about Joan Jett last post, I figured I’d follow up with Peaches’ “The Boys Wanna be Her,” seeing as how it was written about Jett.

I first heard Peaches when watching Lost in Translation and have been a fan ever since. She definitely fits in with the Riot Grrrl movement, even though she wasn’t directly involved and has come to be more well known in the recent years. Her songs are overtly sexual and she doesn’t make an attempt to abide by the rules. Peaches likes to toy around with male/female gender barriers, often blurring the line separating the two. Her album Fatherfucker was a direct challenge to the common female-oriented obscenities used today; when asked why she chose such a title, Peaches answered:

“Why do we call our mothers motherfuckers? Why do we stub our toe and say, “Aww motherfucker!”? What is a motherfucker? … We use it in our everyday language, and it’s such an insanely intense word. I’m not one to shy away from these obscene terms that we actually have in our mainstream. Motherfucker is a very mainstream word. But if we’re going to use motherfucker, why don’t we use fatherfucker? I’m just trying to be even.”

Now, I’m sure we all know her song “I Love Rock n’ Roll” (and if you’re a bit younger, hey, you might remember seeing Brtiney Spear’s rendition on her Crossroads movie, but I think we’ll skip over that whole shindig for now…). I personally think Joan Jett is amazing. Hell, she toured with Peaches, and Peaches is amongst my favorite (you can’t help but love her… you most likely have heard her too, she had songs on Lost in Translation– you know, the strip clup scene?– and in Mean Girls).

Jett first started performing at the age of 15 with her band The Runaways; her career started with that band in 1975, and she then later branched out in 1979 and began pursuing a solo career in England. She eventually moved to the US (NY & later LA) & was well-known in the music world by the mid 80′s. She had a few brief stints as an actress also. Her debut album was released in Europe at first, but was heavily rejected by major American labels, so with she suggested to her partner, Kerry Laguna that they produce and distribute the record themselves. Her record was produced on their own Black Heart Records and Jett became the very first woman to start her own record label. Such DIY acts as this were later popular within the Riot Grrrl movement.

Later on in her career, Jett helped to produce for Bikini Kill and even sang backup for them for a bit. Her influence is obvious and many Riot Grrrl and post-Riot Grrrl bands have payed their tribute to them (Bratmobile did a rendition of “Cherry Bomb” and Peaches’ song “Boys Wanna be Her” is actually about the lovely Ms. Jett). She also did guest vocals on Peaches’ album Impeach my Bush.

    This first video has an interview with Toby Vail of Bikini Kill. I think it’s a good follow-up to my attempted description and the first youtube video– hopefully it will be informative.

Tobi Vail is from Olympia, Washington (where the RiotGrrrl movement was said to originate) and was a major figure in its music scene. She worked with Bikini Kill (she played drums from ’90-’97).

She also worked with a band called The Frumpies, who later toured with Huggy Bear (another of the more well-known RiotGrrrl bands of the era). Today, she is chief editor of the record label Kill Rock Stars, which was the independent label company that produced a few of Bikini Kill’s singles and LPs.