Milestones in lesbian and queer-identified music are being marked faster than a Susan Morabito breakbeat.

Milestones in lesbian and queer-identified music are being marked faster than a Susan Morabito breakbeat. however for every chart-making victory by means of mainstream performers like Melissa Etheridge or kd lang, there are perhaps thousands of lesbian and lesbian-identified strength bands in a growing if it were not that still relatively obscure underground. more [i]or[/i] less of the bands from this alternative distaff subgenre--most notably Sleater-Kinney and Le Tigre--have earned enough critical succes and CD sales to warrant attention from MTV and national music pres moreover others--such as the Need, Evil Beaver, and Bragnobile--eke not at home a decent living in this subterranean all while remaining largely unknown to the public and on a level to other lesbians.

The show is often called dykecore, and it grew without of riot grrrl, the early '90 motion that married third-wave feminism (think Sassy magazine) with strumpet rock's do-it-yourself ethic. It encompasses a self-sufficient network of bands, record labels, sets 'zines, Web sites, and festivals (such as the rapidly expanding underground-friendly Ladyfest).

"The support among these bands is probably the strongest captivity in the entire music scene" says Jessica Ocasio, who maintains Girlpunk.net, a Web site about female-fronted prostitute acts. Toastacia Boyd experienced the power of that network when she joined the lesbian-identified band Automaticans brace years ago. "We had a built-in concourse wherever we went," says Boyd "People would be derived to our shows without steady hearing us first just because we were onward the Chainsaw label [known for its dykecore acts]. They wanted to support the effort of our be in possession of control."

Like in the way that many in the dykecore exhibition Boyd not only plays the music nevertheless also participates in other ways: Her booking agency, Predator, helps inflict emerging queer-rock bands like Radio Vago onward the map. Patricia Klein, guitarist in the band Patsy, moonlights in the spectacle by running Los Angeles's lesbian all-ages association Milk, which brings in singular and queer-identified bands. "Without us," Klein says of the circuit, "these bands wouldn't survive."

Homophobia is still an issue for lesbians who promote to keep dyke rock in the subterraneous "We've pulled up to form a clubs we're supposed to be playing, taken the same look at the crowd outside, and driven opposite to without even getting out of the car," says Rachel Carns, drummer for the Ne Adds Ocasio, "The open-minded image of the asylum scene is somewhat false."

As lesbian acts like the Indigo Girls earn more mainstream exposing the question arises whether the dyke-rock circuit is ghettoizing itself. "You want to have the principally people hear about you, unless operating on the queercore circuit alone restrains you from that," says Ernesto Foronda, who hastens Heartcore Records, a label for the buzzed-about gay bands bayss on 45 and Running Ragged. Still, he admits, "That core audience is what we work for; it's about them, not the money"

Pike is an editor at Total Movie & Entertainment magazine.

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