The Secret Gay History of Indie Rock | Pchfork

Contents:

• THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF INDIE ROCK
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• NFL COACH COM OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT
• MAKINGGAYHISTORY—THE PODCAST
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY

THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF INDIE ROCK

They me up the llege town of Athens, Geia, performg clubs wh a gay clientele and makg e of the Universy of Geia library to fd queer liberatn texts. M., and troduced a new generatn to the Velvets via live was a move that David Bowie had ed more than a earlier, at a time when punk and gay culture were mglg the UK unrground.

Through Bowie (and other early glam rockers), there was a brief moment when the transgrsive athetics of VU found s way to postwar Brish rock, turng to somethg glamoro, lasciv, 1978, a year after releasg the UK’s first DIY EP The Spiral Scratch, the Buzzcks appeared on the popular mic show Top of the Pops, their ontman Pete Shelley gayg up the stage whout the y of glam or theatril drag. In 1981, the BBC banned Shelley’s synth-pop love letter to anal sex, “Homosapien, ” and the culture surroundg die took a more censor turn. The sound was easily dified by journalists; s punk and ’60s rock fluenc siarly spired bands across the scene, rultg a relatively homogeno and chaste style.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

(Journalists at the time generally failed to notice the herent gayns of Morrissey’s Osr Wil idolatry, stead terpretg as heterosexual sensivy. )“I n’t thk of one rock artist who has been gay and proud, erotic and liberatg— seizg the airwav and givg the boys boners, ” Adam Block wrote rponse to this culture shift, his 1982 say for The Advote, “Confsns of a Gay Rocker.

Through muddy distortn, Mould often sang of self-hatred, of lovers lost, and he was keen not to be seen as a “gay mician. Pansy Divisn, who formed San Francis around 1991, are oft-billed as the world’s first gay alternative rock band and creded wh briefly liftg queerre to the mastream.

NFL COACH COM OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT

Inspired by Buzzcks and the Ramon, Pansy Divisn—prised solely of gay men—“wanted to be explic bee seemed like there was no one else was gog to be, ” says sger/guarist Jon Goli, addg: “You know, fuckers like Morrissey, who would jt always tease . ”Queerre—a gay offshoot of punk, post-punk, die—began mid ’80s Toronto when two ze-makers Xeroxed illtratns of rock stars engaged gay eroti, cludg a jockstrap-wearg Anthony Kiedis.

“I didn’t thk or know if I was gay; datg Cor was jt somethg that had happened, ” Brownste later wrote her memoir.

MAKINGGAYHISTORY—THE PODCAST

In 2001, Ontar’s Joel Gibb found Hidn Cameras, a self-fed “gay folk church mic” act that helped revive the cy’s perishg die rock scene wh sexually lasciv live shows. Rock’n’roll is very gay, very flamboyant, very unapologetic.

Horn of Plenty reprented a fleetg moment of horns wh the Grizzly Bear ovre, while ontman Ed Droste’s sexualy was curly downplayed by the mastream prs, an attu he partially attribut to makg his gayns so brazen om the outset; he never had his own “g out” moment. “When we were dog our first prs release I wanted to clu that I was gay bee I didn’t want to be a qutn down the le, ” he says. I’m sure there are still tons of people that have no ia that I’m gay.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY

In gay prs, he was far more venturome.

While wrg Vampire Weekend’s send album, 2010’s Contra, Batmanglij and Ezra Koenig worked on “Diplomat’s Son, ” a tenr, g-of-age gay love song. “I knew that as soon as that song me out that I’d stop avoidg qutns about beg gay, and effectively that I would e out. “There was a culture around that was pretty homophobic, hontly”—a culture that would ocsnally follow him when he performed wh Vampire Weekend.

“To be hont, I don’t really subscribe to ‘die mic, ’ I don’t thk that’s my mic and maybe part of that is beg gay, ” he says. ”Batmanglij ultimately left Vampire Weekend 2016 to pursue solo projects, both as a mician and producer—highlights of which have clud “4Runner, ” a track of his dited to the great gay tradn of cross-untry road-trippg, as well as productn on Clairo’s queer Bildungsroman June 2015, the Supreme Court affirmed the nstutnal right of same-sex upl to marry. Vcent—who was then a highly publicized relatnship wh supermol Cara Delevigne—surrenred the safety of hetero and homonormativy for a turn towards glam-rock spired rebellns.