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Bent: A Celebration Of Queer
When enquired about the development of queer perceptibility in rock music, Pansy Division's Jon Ginoli said, "FINDING OUT, years after the fact, that there were so many queers involved in the early L.A. punk scene was both gratifying and frustrating,". The preceding two decades have seen many musicians, from Team Dresch and Tribe 8 to Fifth Column's G.B. Jones and Chainsaw Records' Donna Dresch, plainly adopt to queer sexuality, who helped to unmask the "hidden histories" and often unrevealed endeavors of queers to the punk and rock music. Many queers have started to recognize the importance to embrace queer sexuality as both a personal and political statement, while few musicians want to be delineated and discharged solely on the basis of sexual individuality. Bent has music for everyone, from Mexi-king El Vez and Erase Errata's vellication punk to the hardcore goth metal of the Haggard and the Sick Bees' rock dissension, irrespective of musical or sexual orientation. Bent, beyond any doubt, be blindly judged by critics who are more interested with identity politics than quality music, despite an impressive different and gifted lineup that includes acts such as the Turn-Ons, the Gossip, and Pansy Division. Nieto and Meinert, due to social pressure from such stereotypes, stress that Bent is not deliberate called as a political festival. It can't be considered anything but political given today's social climate is what the performers express.
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Artist Biography - Bent: A Celebration Of Queer
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Its been almost 20 years, since Ginoli's band originally formed as one of the first openly gay acts on the punk-rock radar, other bands and individuals have accompanied along to rock out, both brassy and gallant. Despite the progress and occasional media spotlights on bands such as Sleater-Kinney and Imperial Teen, queer rock still remains—as Ginoli states—"on the margins." So contrary to what the media says, and ivory-tower academics insist on otherwise, queers' places in music and the mainstream haven't come as far in terms of acceptance and perceptibility as many might've hoped 20 years ago. "There was a brief moment of supposed 'lesbian chic' in the early to mid-'90s, but homophobia and sexism seem as though they've just gotten worse since then," says the Butchies' singer-guitarist and Mr. Lady label co-founder, Kaia Wilson. "Of course, the good news is there are more and more people in the underground— activists and musicians who are continuing to do what they do." Two such individuals are responsible for this weekend's first annual Bent festival, an "homage to queer punk and rock 'n' roll" that runs through Monday at both the Crocodile Cafe and Sit & Spin. The festival showcases a 30-plus-act lineup of both regional and local bands that play with genre as well as gender, which was founded by Seattle promoters Frank Nieto and Dave Meinert. People—queers and women in general—feel the necessity to force out the 'feminist' and 'queer' labels because of their own internalized issues. It's sad when people feel the need to characterize what they're doing as 'not political." To create a public space for queer and queer-friendly performers and fans to liberate and express themselves, the fest was originally premeditated as a great queer-rock celebration. Bent is on the way to prove that obscure—and high politicized—histories don't have to repeat themselves.
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