READER’S CHOICE: THE OPENLY GAY PUNK AND HARDCORE BANDS SUGGESTED BY BETSEY EDITION

Earlier this week, I wrote about the gay porno grind band Bear Party; subsequently, our friend Betsey e-mailed me to bring a whopping six other openly gay hardcore and punk outfits to my attention. And so I present to you…

• FRUIT PUNCH — Easily the best of the bunch, Fruit Punch make really awesome, angry hardcore that isn’t overtly funny or gimmicky. In other words: they’re actually a really good band who deserve to be commended for their music and their message. Check this band out.
• LIMP WRIST – Like Fruit Punch, if not for the band’s name and imagery, you’d never know they were gay — despite their claim that they’re “gayin up the punx.” Old-school hardcore with a lot of intensity.
• FAGGOT — The quality of the recordings on their MySpace page is not great, but from what I can hear, they seem like a reasonably straight-forward punk band. By the way: best MySpace URL ever?
• YOUTH OF TOGAY — Nope, take it back. This band has the best MySpace URL ever. This is basically really catchy comedy-punk, kind of in the vein of Butt Trumpet — only, y’know, totally gay. Brownie points for memorable song titles, like “Butthole of Doom” (with its anthemic cries of “POOP SHOOT IS LOOSE!”), “Put Your Stolen Base in Me,” and “Put Your Stolen Base in Me.” They also did a split with Fruit Punch.
• GAYRILLA BISCUITS — This band categorizes its music as “happy hardcore,” and that’s an apt description. They released their E.P., Hung Queens Can Suck It, on pink vinyl. Nice.
• BLACK FAG – – I was listening to this and thinking, “If Fred Schneider from The B-52s sang for a punk band, it might sound like Black Fag,” when I noticed that on their MySpace page, they claim to sound like “Black Flag fronted by Fred Schneider.” So, mission accomplished! Interestingly enough, there’s actually only one black guy in the band. But they all have funny, MetalSucks-ready names: Cher Dykeowski, Liberace Morris, Greg Streisand, etc.

Major props to Betsey for bringing all these bands to our attention! Feel free to suggest more in the comments section.

-AR