Tag: Tribe 8

Queen City Sounds Podcast S2E40: Nastyfacts

Nastyfacts, image from liner notes of the 2022 reissue of Drive My Car

Per the group’s Bandcamp page, “Nastyfacts were part of a Brooklyn teen punk scene that included the Speedies and The Stimulators. Their core line-up consisted of Cherl Boyze on bass and lead vocals, guitarists Brad Craig and Jeff ‘Range’ Tischler with Genji “Searizak” Siraisi on drums. These last three also sang back-up. They began playing music together while attending St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn.” And the band’s sole release during its initial run was the 1981, three song 7-inch Drive My Car originally engineered at Media Sound Studios in NYC in 1980 as produced by Ramona Lee Jan known for her work with The Ramones and Brian Eno among others. The record became a bit of an underground hit and championed by the likes of John Peel and with music appearing on old punk compilations like Killed By Death. Boyze was an 18-year-old queer POC in a band with people in the mid-teens or younger at the time of the release of the record and touring wasn’t exactly on the agenda and as would happen in the normal course of events the band drifted apart and Boyze went on to other musical projects and styles, relocating to the Bay Area and is now known as KB. But for that period when Nastyfacts were around they regularly played CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City and other venues willing to host all-ages shows. One thing that set the band apart from other punk bands of its milieu was obvious musical ability and KB’s melodious vocals. Fast forward some decades and Drive My Car has been reissued again on Left For Dead Records on November 18, 2022 available on limited vinyl 12”, CD, cassette and digital downloads via Bandcamp.

KB has since become the founder and director of Queer Rebel Productions (est. 2008), a queer and trans artists of color organization (QueerRebels.Org), was the bassist in the pit band (The Felicia Flames) for a recent production at Z Space in San Francisco of The Red Shades: A Trans Super Hero Rock Opera and is now a member of The Homobiles “The Bay’s Mainstay Queer Party Punk Supergroup” according to The East Bay Express with Lynn Breedlove formerly of queer punk legends Tribe 8.

Listen to our interview with KB about the band and the record and what the artist has been up to since those early punk days on Bandcamp. And to learn more about Nastyfacts and order copies of Drive My Car, visit the Bandcamp link below the interview.

The Oozes Give Cathartic, Seething Form to Your Churning Feelings of Betrayal on “Sickening”

The Oozes, photo courtesy the artists

Queercore band The Ooozes from the UK scorches feelings of betrayal with the pointed and cathartic “Sickening.” The distorted guitars slash through the air propelled by the rhythm as the fuel for vocalist Tom Gilbert’s outburst of righteous frustration and disgust. “You know you you did something wrong/Oh you did something so very wrong” could be about any number of things but the way the song is written it can serve as a vehicle for purging those feelings for anyone without needing to interject a specific offense. Who hasn’t felt that way and hasn’t quite heard that intensity of feeling put out there in a way that seems more like productive anger than the kind more unhinged and destructive? When Gilbert sings “I need a time out/It’s fucking sickening to think about” and “Fuck excuses/They’re all useless” despite the fire with which those lines are delivered there is a nuance of expression there that doesn’t dehumanize as the words denounce in no uncertain terms. Fans of Bratmobile, Tribe 8 and even Leslie Mah’s previous band Anti-Scrunti Faction will appreciate the raw, tuneful punk rock The Ooze has been putting out into the world since 2018. Listen to “Sickening” on Spotify and follow The Oozes on Instagram.