Award-winning doc “Queercore: How To Punk A Revolution,” feat. John Waters, Kim Gordon, Kathleen Hanna, opens in NYC, Los Angeles this week.

Film documents start of gay punk movement combating homophobia. Read interview with director Yony Leyser in The Guardian. See trailer at Into now.

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Tess at the one year anniversary of the WTO protests November 30, 2000. Photo credit: Alice Wheeler.

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“Queercore” director Yony Leyser chats about the “farce that became real,” and helped launch the gay punk movement, with The Guardian.

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See the official US trailer for “Queercore: How To Punk A Revolution,” exclusively at Into or the link below.

[WATCH]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ5ccAF2cVg

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“Queercore: How To Punk A Revolution” – Theatrical Dates

09/28-9/30: Brooklyn, NY @ Spectacle (INFO)

09/28-10/4: Los Angeles, CA @ Laemmle Ahrya Fine Arts (INFO)

10/02: Miami, FL @ O Cinema (INFO)

10/02: Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA (INFO)

10/03-10/5: Seattle, WA @ Northwest Film Forum (INFO)

10/04/2018: Yonkers, NY @ Alamo Drafthouse (INFO)

10/05-10/11: San Francisco, CA @ Roxie Theater (INFO)

10/12/2018: Santa Fe, NM @ Jean Cocteau Cinema (INFO)

10/12-10/18: New Orleans, LA @ Zeitgeist (INFO)

10/21/2018: Portland, OR @ Hollywood Theater (INFO)

11/25/2018: Harrisburg, PA @ Midtown Cinema (INFO)

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“Queercore: How To Punk A Revolution” – Film Festivals & Awards

Outfest – The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (USA)

Frameline (San Francisco, USA)

Hot Docs (Toronto, Canada)

Sheffield Doc | Fest (UK)

IDFA (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

DOC NYC (USA)

Melinka Festival (Serbia) – Best Queer Documentary

Homochrom Film Festival (Germany) – Audience Award – Best Documentary

Soundwatch – Audience Award

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Following a round of festival appearances “Queercore: How To Punk A Revolution,” a new film that documents the start of the pseudo-movement to the widespread rise of pop artists who used queer identity to push back against gay assimilation and homophobic punk culture, will make its way to theaters nationwide this fall in a limited run.

Recently acquired by imprint Altered Innocence, the Yony Leyser (“Desire Will Set You Free,” “William S. Burroughs: A Man Within”)–directed documentary opens in NYC and Los Angeles on Sept. 28^th. See above for additional theatrical dates, and watch the film’s trailer now over at queer culture website Into or at YouTube.

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More about “Queercore: How To Punk A Revolution”

What happens when the community you need is not the community you have?

Tell yourself it exists over and over, make fan zines that fabricate hordes of queer punk revolutionaries, create subversive movies, and distribute those movies widely–and slowly, the community you’ve fabricated might become a real and radical heartbeat that spreads internationally. This is the story that “Queercore: How To Punk A Revolution” tells, from the start of a pseudo-movement in the mid-1980s, intended to punk the punk scene, to the widespread rise of artists who used radical queer identity to push back equally against gay assimilation and homophobic punk culture.

Interviewees discuss homophobia, gender, feminism, AIDS, assimilation, sex, and, of course, art. The extensive participant list includes Bruce LaBruce, G.B. Jones, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, John Waters, Justin Vivian Bond, Lynn Breedlove, Silas Howard, Pansy Division, Penny Arcade, Kathleen Hanna, Kim Gordon, Deke Elash, Tom Jennings, Team Dresch, and many more.

Underscoring the interviews are clips from movies, zines, concerts, and actions iconic to the movement. As steeped in the radical queer, anti-capitalist, DIY, and give-no-fucks approach as queercore itself, the movie reveals the perspectives and experiences of bands, moviemakers, writers, and other outsiders, taking audiences inside the creation of the community–and art–so desperately needed by the same queers it encompassed.

“Queercore: How To Punk A Revolution” starts a nationwide theatrical run on Sept. 28^th in NYC and Los Angeles. Director Yony Leyser is available for interviews and appearances in conjunction with screenings. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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“Queercore: How To Punk A Revolution” Links

ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : ALTERED INNOCENCE

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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion

WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SNAPCHAT : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

Latest album (16th!) by the black watch sounds like “if Syd Barrett joined New Order.” "Witches!" to be followed-up by just-completed (17th!) “Magic Johnson”.

See Los Angeles-based songwriter John Andrew Fredrick get unceremoniously pushed into a pool by a child in music video for album’s “When We First Met”.

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John Andrew Fredrick of the black watch as photographed by Steve Keros.

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the black watch – In The Press

“Should’ve become a household name a long time ago.” — USA Today

“One of music’s most perfect and unheralded rock outfits.” — MAGNET

“Salutes the great DIY pop canon and trophy hallways of heroes.” — Impose

“Brimming with trademark wit and wisdom.” — PopMatters

“The Creation band Alan McGee never signed.” — Stereo Embers

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See John Andrew Fredrick pushed into a pool in the black watch music video “When We First Met” at Imperfect Fifth or via the link below!

[YOUTUBE]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jce4WQLBihs

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Following up two releases in 2018, the April EP “The Paper Boats” and this past summer’s triumphant new album Witches! – which John Andrew Fredrick has variously described as “a dance record without drums” like “Syd Barrett fronting New Order,” the black watch front man has now announced the completion of Magic Johnson, the 17^th the black watch album, expected to be released in early 2019. The title is indeed, a tribute to Fredrick’s favorite basketball player.

“Quite a bit of Magic Johnson was written in London,” Fredrick explains, “and per usual for me it’s a reaction against the previous record in some way. Witches! is very sparse and atmospheric and dreamy in a much more quiet and haunting way, like middle-period Pink Floyd, I think. Thus, Magic Johnson is a reaction against Witches! – a return to drums and the full band and yet very raw, with not so many layers of guitars but making each overdub really count. I always try to re-write ‘The White Album’ and of course I fail every time. But Magic Johnson has some of our most beautiful and most dissonant songs yet, so we shall see.”

With yet another album already in the can, Fredrick is now returning to the promotion of Witches! and “The Paper Boats” with the release of a fun, lo-fi music video for the Witches! track “When We First Met,” in addition to a short tour planned for the fall of 2018 (full dates to be announced.)

About the music video, and the “assault by child” that Fredrick bravely suffered in its creation, he says, “I was on a beach camping holiday with my English friends, a band called Damn Vandals, and Nev, their front man, lent me his adorable son, Stan. We guerilla’d our way into a Motel 6 and shot this video with me Charlie Chaplin-ing. You should have seen Stan’s eyes when Nev told him he was to push me into the pool! Someone paying him in ice cream to nudge a fully-dressed grown-up into the deep end?! Ace! I don’t love making videos by any stretch, but Stan’s overall glee and infectious laugh made it quite fun.”

Sixteen albums in, Fredrick is candid about his career, saying, “I reckon at this stage you could call me an artist who has been driven a bit mad by incessant creation. I know I cannot stop making things. Witches! is the work of a wee bit mad person. A functioning one -- an over-functioning one! Aren’t we all?”

“The Paper Boats” EP and Witches!, the latest releases by the black watch are out now. John Andrew Fredrick is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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“First one to 16 full-length albums wins? Somebody give John Andrew Fredrick and the black watch a prize.”  – Buzzbands.la

Visit Buzzbands.la or click here to listen to “Georgette, Georgette” from Witches!, the 16^th (!) album by the black watch.

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the black watch

Witches!

(Atom Records)

Out Now

  

Track Listing:

01. Dances For Sad Footsteps Slow

02. When We First Met (VIDEO)

03. The Beginning of The End

04. Legerdemain (STREAM | MP3)

05. Graymalkin Comes

06. Georgette, Georgette (STREAM | MP3)

07. From Hampstead Heath

08. The Weird Sisters

09. Ode To Spring

10. 1966 Or So

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the black watch

“The Paper Boats” EP

(The Eskimo Record Label)

Out Now

Track Listing:

01. The Paper Boats

02. Oh You Little Witch! (STREAM | MP3)

03. Jingle-Jangle Loop De Loop

04. Your So Dark Sleep/Goodbye (VIDEO)

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the black watch – Links

ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE

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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion

WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SNAPCHAT : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

Houston-based band The Wheel Workers to follow-up 2015’s sociopolitical “true masterpiece” (Free Press Houston) with "post-truth" on Nov. 2nd.

Eight-time Houston Press Music Awards nominees show personal side on new LP. Hear Dead Kennedys, The Clash, Pixies-influenced “White Lies”.

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The Wheel Workers (L-R): Craig Wilkins, Kevin Radomski, Erin Rodgers, Steven Higginbotham, Zeek Garcia. Photo Credit: Allison McPhail / 5AM Creative.

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“Successful political art foregrounds the artistry while making a statement that isn’t just applicable for a limited time. Musically and lyrically, it extends far beyond the political heat of the moment.” – The A.V. Club on “White Lies” by The Wheel Workers

[STREAM]: https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/thewheelworkers-whitelies

[MP3]: http://www.fanaticpromotion.com/thewheelworkers/thewheelworkers-whitelies.mp3  

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The Wheel Workers – Live

Tickets on sale now for The Wheel Workers on Nov. 16^th for the post-truth record release show at Houston’s White Oak Music Hall!

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The Houston based five-piece political rock band The Wheel Workers isn’t so political on its upcoming new album post-truth (out Nov. 2^nd, 2018.) Now, the band’s lean and quirky Dead Kennedys, The Clash, and Pixies-influenced style shoves real life in front of our eyes.

Following up an astounding eight nominations at the Houston Press Music Awards in 2015 for its previous album Citizens, which was also called “a true masterpiece” that year by Free Press Houston,  post-truth’s opening cut “White Lies” was first released in November of 2016 just before the Presidential election.

“White Lies” and the title post-truth relate to the increasing fragmentation where a lot of people only believe information they want to hear, information that often tells them they are the victim of some other group or ideology,” explains The Wheel Workers leader Steven Higginbotham. “I’d really like to see us get back to thinking of each other as fellow Americans, or even better, fellow human beings.”

As for the impact of the song on Higginbotham nearly two years later, he reveals, “I was personally caught up in the horror many liberals felt at the time. But after all the personal difficulties the band has faced since then, I’m not sure I would write that song the same way today. Two of our members had houses flooded during Hurricane Harvey,” Higginbotham continues, “and they have spent the better part of a year coming back from that.”

Higginbotham goes on to explain, “I went through an intensely hurtful break-up that put me in a dark place. But the band supported each other through it all. Some of the people that were most supportive and kind during our difficulties were people I would probably disagree with politically, but the decency and love they showed in helping us rebuild our lives is so much more important than whether we agree on this or that issue.”

“I’m definitely still socially conscious,” Higginbotham concludes, “But now I think problems are best dealt with the way we do in our personal lives, with the people we genuinely care about, supporting and loving one another with understanding and forgiveness.”

post-truth, the latest album by Houston-based band, The Wheel Workers arrives on Nov. 2^nd, 2018, preceded by the single “Desire”. The band headlines a record release show at Houston’s White Oak Music Hall on Nov. 16^th.

Members of The Wheel Workers are available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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The Wheel Workers – In The Press

“Painfully catchy.” — MAGNET

“Sincerely progressive and catchy as hell.” — Space City Rock

“Sociopolitical consciousness with a memorable hook.” — The Big Takeover

“New Wave synth stylings meet sharp lyrics.” — PopMatters

“Houston’s brightest hope. Damn. Seriously righteous.” — BLURT

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The Wheel Workers

post-truth

Nov. 2^nd, 2018

(S/R)

Track Listing:

01. White Lies (STREAM | MP3)

02. Desire

03. Doesn’t Really Matter

04. How Did I Go So Wrong

05. Games We Play

06. Burning

07. Nothing To Say

08. Sing

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The Wheel Workers Links

ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : BANDCAMP

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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion

WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SNAPCHAT : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

Lexington-based collective Big Fresh examines sexual preoccupation with sports metaphors in new Beatles-meets-electro funk “Hottie Tottie” video.

Clip for track taken from just-released “Sweeps” EP is companion TV-themed follow-up to last year’s “Fall Preview.” See it at Northern Transmissions!

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Big Fresh (clockwise from lower left): Ben Phelan, Brian Connors Manke, John Ferguson, Ben Fulton, Nick Coleman, Dave Farris, Kim Conlee, Matthew Clarke, Faith Diamond. Photo credit: Chad Stockfleth.

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Big Fresh – In The Press

“Tuneful, quirky pop.” — Brooklyn Vegan

“Big Fresh throws the listener one curveball after another.” — PopMatters

“Proud purveyors of exotically down-home art pop.” — Ace Weekly (Lexington)

“This is the bloody mythic core of pop tunesmithery.” — Power of Pop

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Big Fresh – Live

Lexington! See Big Fresh live at the Tahlsound Music Festival on Sat., Sept. 8^th! More info here.

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Northern Transmissions asks, “Is the video a modern day metaphor for Bobby Riggs vs. Billie-Jean King, or just some boys and girls having some fun, we will leave it up to you to decide.” Watch the video for “Hottie Tottie” here, and check out the song premiere via The Southern Sounding here or at the links below!

[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/BigFresh-HottieTottie   

[MP3]: http://www.fanaticpromotion.com/bigfresh/bigfresh-hottietottie.mp3

[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVUpvvEUK00

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Following up 2017’s “Fall Preview” EP with the five-track EP “Sweeps” (out now), Lexington, Kentucky-based collective Big Fresh presents a collection of tunes that is essentially the other side of the TV-themed coin that we saw the face of last year. “Sweeps” arrives on the band’s Desperate Spirits label (Jeanne Vomit-Terror, ATTEMPT, Italian Beaches) – co-founded by John Ferguson of The Apples In Stereo – and is available digitally, as well as in a limited vinyl edition.

Similar to the ebullient sonic tropes of “Fall Preview,” “Sweeps” draws from musical touchstones near and far, synthesizing the breezy harmonies of The Free Design, the lush arrangements of David Axelrod, and the gleeful deconstructionism of XTC. The first music video, for the “Sweeps” track “Hottie Tottie” is “an unsubtle ode to my (and everyone’s) preoccupation with sex, and the feelings of guilt placed on such thoughts by a superstitious and primitive culture,” Ferguson says. “Sonically, it draws from ELO, Michael Jackson, The Apples In Stereo, and XTC. It’s like if The Beatles made 80’s electro-funk.”

For the song’s Daniel Coy-directed music video, Ferguson continues, “The idea was to compliment the idea presented in the song, with a boys vs. girls basketball game providing a metaphoric backdrop for the inherent power dynamic that is present with sex between men and women. Since basketball, and sports in general, are tribalistic rituals rewarding competition in a winner-take-all charade, we felt it was the perfect visual metaphor where we could highlight the absurdity of our eternal flesh dance.”

Like its predecessor, “Sweeps” also features notable guest contributions from the band’s friends including Ken Stringfellow of The Posies (hear “The Voices” now via PopMatters), Per Sunding of Eggstone, Karen and Ryan Hover of Sound of Ceres and Candy Claws, along with vocalist Reva English of label mates Italian Beaches, and local Lexington heroes Tim Welch and Chris Dennison.

Its cover art, once again by the amazing Chad Stockfleth, is itself worthy of a biblical tome, too. Bookending the TV Guide-theme introduced with “Fall Preview,” it features nearly the same concept and composition, “Only this time the digest sits amid trailer trash, and underclass accoutrement,” says Ferguson.

The “Sweeps” EP by Big Fresh is out now via Desperate Spirits. John Ferguson of Big Fresh is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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“Summons memories of Todd Rundgren’s marriages between booty shaking rhythms and embittered observations about the soul-draining nature of conformity and well-manicured laws and lawns...” – PopMatters on “The Voices” by Big Fresh

[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/BigFresh-TheVoices   

[MP3]: http://www.fanaticpromotion.com/bigfresh/bigfresh-thevoices.mp3

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Big Fresh

“Sweeps” EP

Out Now

(Desperate Spirits)

  

Track Listing:

01. Hottie Tottie (feat. Ryan Hover) (STREAM | MP3 | VIDEO)

02. I Found Out (feat. Tim Welch)

03. Uh Oh (feat. Per Sunding & Karen Hover)

04. Cosmos Song (feat. Reva English)

05. The Voices (feat. Ken Stringfellow) (STREAM | MP3)

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Big Fresh Links

ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : BANDCAMP

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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion

WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SNAPCHAT : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL