NOW
STREAMING on Night Flight Plus: THE DICKS FROM TEXAS (2014) - In honor
of the passing of queer punk royalty Gary Floyd, Night Flight Plus is
streaming this epic documentary ft. THE DICKS, who started out as an
Austin, Texas poster band in 1979, and once formed, took off like a
hardcore rocket. Fronting the queercore band, Gary Floyd secured his
status as a punk legend with a riotous stage presence and anthems like
“The Dicks Hate the Police”.
The Dicks only released one 45 and
two LP's and were the house band at legendary Raul's Club. Every
hardcore punk act that came to Austin demanded The Dicks play with them,
from FEAR to BLACK FLAG to DEAD KENNEDYS. This is their story told by
die-hard lifelong Dicks fans and punk icons like Henry Rollins, David
Yow, Mike Watt, and Ian MacKaye.
Night Flight Plus is available to stream via Roku, Chromecast, AppleTV, AmazonFireTV, Apple iOS, Android app, + online.
WATCH: www.nightflightplus.com/signup <link in bio>
This documentary was a long time coming. After 16 years, the documentary
film project is finally done and is going to be shown this weekend at
the Dick’s hometown. The documentary is called “The Dicks From Texas”
directed by Cindy Marabito. The reason this film is getting so much
regard is due to what the Dicks really meant to the Austin punk scene in
the 1980s. The Dicks were a larger than life punk-hardcore band that
pushed the envelope of sexuality, politics, and music. They are best
known for their songs such as “Hate the Police” and “Kills from the
Heart”.
The reason this documentary is important to watch is that it is a
piece of Austin’s music history and a pivotal moment in the punk scene.
They rocked against Reagan. They played alongside MDC and the Big Boys.
Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye, and Mike Watt all want to talk about how
great this band was. I don’t think I really have to sell much more here.
They are also releasing a tribute album with such bands as The
Bulimics, Black Irish Texas, The Fuckemos, and much more. It is
currently streaming here: The Dicks From Texas and Friends
Back in early spring I heard rumblings via a Music Flim Webblog post there was an attempt to put together a documentary film about the raw and incendiary '80s Texas punk band, the Dicks!! At the time it seemed like most of the raw film was sorted, but the filmmaker, Cindy Marabito,
was hoping to crowd source the cash to finish the project. Well, it's
looking like she got the funding and she's nearly finished!!! I'm stoked; I still listen to their Dicks' first single, "Hate The Police," at least once a week!!
Soooooo, this trailer doesn't make The Dicks From Texas
look like much beyond a "the way it happened" kinda narrative, BUT I'LL
TAKE IT!! Too, it'll be nice to see the Dicks brought back into
contemporary context; do contemporary "hardcore" bands now-a-days write
songs like "Dead In A Motel Room?"
Interview with The Dicks From Texas director Cindy Marabito | By Hutch
Most compilations of ‘80s hardcore boast the amazing “Dicks Hate the
Police,” the debut single that perfectly captures the sweaty rage and
virile vehemence excreted by four punks from Austin in 1980: Dicks.
Dicks bled Texas from their audacity to the bluesy stomp embedded in
their version of punk. Their legacy evolved and mutated on labels like
Radical, Alternative Tentacles, and SST. The band embodied punk rock:
DIY, loud, abrasive, confrontational and, ultimately, fun. Cindy
Marabito was friends with these men and had the insight to press record
early.
Despite the stereotypes of Texans, Marabito equates Dicks with Texas
as she explains her new DVD documentary, “The Dicks From Texas”: “Here
is this commie, self-described ‘faggot’ hardcore punk band playing
outrageously brilliant songs like ‘Dead in a Motel Room’ and ‘Dicks Hate
the Police’ with [vocalist] Gary [Floyd] in tight mini-skirts and a
brassiere.” Floyd was one of the few openly gay musicians in ‘80s punk.
Other tracks by Dicks drip with fury and sweat, spewed by flamboyant,
sardonic provocateur, Floyd. His hatred was placed perfectly over Glen
Taylor’s surfy, harsh, swirling, dark, and churning guitar lines.
Rounded out by a sinister rhythm section, these caustic tracks remain
glorious and potent 35 years later. The film starts chronologically.
Marabito explains, “It began when I met Gary Floyd, Buxf Parrott, Glen
Taylor, and Pat Deason way back in 1979. I was going to school at
University of Texas at Austin and would lug around big ass old WWII
equipment and try to shoot the Dicks. Later on, I was living in San
Francisco and working at Monaco Film Lab. I began the project then
shooting on 16mm.”
Marabito, shooting in San Francisco, Austin, and L.A., tracked down
fans and friends of the band to comment on the Dicks’ legacy. Including
the live footage, Marabito reports having “about 300 hours. The editing
took about three months. Once [editor] Cullen [Metcalf-Kelly] and I got
started, it was a breeze. The story is so compelling, it edited itself.”
Engrossed in the visuals, the viewer feels the impact of a legendary
live band. In between, we get many comments and stories, adorned with
humor and endearing sentiment. Not one person speaks without a filter of
affection. “The people whom I’ve interviewed for the film all love the
Dicks and were very available,” reports Marabito. Some of these people
include punk icons like Henry Rollins, Mike Watt, David Yow, Texas
Terri, and Ian MacKaye.
Marabito’s journey was not easy, despite the interviewees’
willingness. “I ran out of money; paid for everything out of pocket from
wages,” she says. “I also run a pit bull rescue, Reunion Rescue, and
had to save a lot of dogs in the meantime. It took 16 years to shoot
everyone. It was worth the wait.” Audiences at fests like NOLA, CIMMfest
in Chicago, Albuquerque, UnderCannes in France, and the premiere in
Austin agreed. Marabito adds, “So far, nobody’s hated it. It’s
mind-blowing to me how many people—both hardcore Dicks fans and kids
who’d never even heard of the Dicks—love this movie. I call Gary and
read him the reviews, and he’s blown away too!”
"Nobody could put their finger on why everyone liked the Dicks," assesses filmmaker Cindy Marabito. "Here's this fat, cross-dressing, flamboyant-but-macho lead man, these criminal-looking bass and guitar players who looked like they'd slit your face open, and a fuckin' kickass drummer. But it just worked.
"That music struck a chord."
The Dicks From Texas, Marabito's raw documentary about Austin's great commie punk band, premieres Wednesday at the Spider House Ballroom, kicking off the RxSM Film Fest. Loaded with unseen live footage, the film traces the uncompromising quartet of Gary Floyd, Buxf Parrot, Glen Taylor, and Pat Deason from gigs at Raul's to the infamous Rock Against Reagan tour and beyond. Marabito, a lifelong Dicks friend, captures the band's close-knit family element as well as their national notoriety through interviews with band members, local scenesters, and big-name fans like Henry Rollins, David Yow, Mike Watt, and Ian MacKaye.
"A snot-stain on a wall would've done justice to the Dicks!" exclaims Dicks singer Gary Floyd, "but Cindy went out of her way to tell a very honest story of the band."
Floyd's particularly enthused about the doc's companion album, featuring 27 bands covering Dicks songs. The disc, organized by Marabito and poster artist Lonnie Layman, pairs punk heroes the Jesus Lizard and Mike Watt with local Dicks disciples like the Bulemics, El Pathos, and the Beaumonts.
"To get all these people to get together and record Dicks songs 300 years later?" Floyd wonders aloud. "I'm as touched as you can be."
Wednesday's premiere party, 6pm-2am, includes a movie screening (7:30pm), a Dicks Q&A (8:45pm), and 15 bands doing Dicks covers. To Floyd, that's better than a reunion.
"Who wants to see a bunch of old dicks?" he cracks.
‘80s punk band, The Dicks, are the subject of a documentary being released this month titled The Dicks From Texas, as well as a related compilation tribute album. I recently had the opportunity to screen the documentary, which can be pre-ordered here,
and it rekindled my love affair with The Dicks—who, in my opinion, are a
top shelf American punk act, worthy of as much attention and admiration
as Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys, or Minor Threat.
Head Dick, Gary Floyd
Hailing from Austin, Texas at a time when the town wasn’t quite the bastion of liberal hipsterocity
it is today, the self-proclaimed “commie faggot band” featured singer
Gary Floyd, a flamboyantly queer, communist behemoth who often performed
early gigs in drag. Floyd’s larger-than-life stage presence wasn’t
mere shock value, he had the pipes to back it up. His, please forgive
this played-out term, soulful vocals lent an impassioned
urgency to the band’s sharp trebly guitar attack. In my opinion, no
other singer from the “hardcore” era can touch him. Bad Brains’ HR and
Fear’s Lee Ving may sit in his court, but Gary Floyd is the king.
The band began humbly as not even a band, but as a “poster band”—a fake name put on posters as sort of an “art piece.”
The Dicks from Texas producer, Cindy Marabito:
The Dicks started when singer Gary Floyd returned to
Austin, TX after seeing the Sex Pistols in San Francisco. He started
claiming he had a band called the Dicks. This was known as a “poster
band.” Fliers were made with fake shows and non-existent groups.
Gary Floyd would go around town putting up posters advertising The
Dicks with crazy ass pictures and promises that the ‘first ten people
with guns drink for free.’ It was a wild and crazy time in Austin, back
when ‘keeping Austin weird’ got you thrown in jail.
The title cut from The Dicks’ first single, “Hate the Police,” released in 1980 is one of their most well-known songs, but everything they recorded in their original incarnation from 1980 to 1986 is gold. The Peace? EP, the split live LP with the Big Boys, the Kill From the Heart LP, and the These People
LP are all monsters and I’d be torn on trying to recommend any one of
those over another. Alternative Tentacles put out a compilation titled Dicks: 1980-1986—that’s a good “greatest hits” type starting place.
If you’re among the Dangerous Minds readership that has somehow never
been exposed to the glory of The Dicks, I have a few favorites I’d like
to share that have been mixtape staples of mine for decades.
Can I pick a favorite song by The Dicks? No, but this one’s up there: “Rich Daddy.”
You got money?
Well, then you’re livin’ the good life
You got a big fat daddy at home
Writin’ checks tonight
You got nothing?
Well, then you’re livin’ a bad life
You got a big, fine car
And you eye me while you pass me by
A rich daddy? No! I never had one!
A rich daddy? No! No! I never had one
</p><p>
Another favorite, “Kill From the Heart,” off the album of the same name:
When I see you walking down the street
It’s so hard to take
Come on and give me a break
You’re spending all your fuckin’ time with school
Those lessons you learn
Are making you a fool
Daddy’s boy got some brand new cash
Now you’re messin’ with REDS
Who are gonna kick your ass
Come on fucker!
Give me a break!
You fuckin’ Pig
Death is your fate!
It’s from the heart
You need to be shot
This is the first song I ever heard by The Dicks, “I Hope You Get Drafted.” It appears on their Peace? EP and on the P.E.A.C.E. Compilation,
which is where I first heard it. I think about these lyrics every
single time I ever hear anyone arm-chair quarterbacking U.S. foreign
policy:
You don’t care about nuclear war -or how many people die
You’re always laughing in the face of death
I’ll look you straight in the eye -and say:
‘I hope you get drafted,
I hope your mama cries,
You apolitical asshole,
I hope you’re the first to die’
The new documentary got me on this kick and I’ve dug out all my original
vinyl (including that original press of the “Hate the Police”
single—don’t ask how much that set me back, I don’t wanna talk about
it). The documentary itself is an obvious labor of love.
I’m not certain
that I would recommend it to someone who wasn’t already a fan, but if
you’ve followed the history of The Dicks at all, it’s pretty charming.
It’s a lo-fi DIY affair which mainly consists of old friends reminiscing
about the group. It paints a pretty good picture of what Austin, Texas
was like in 1980—certainly a different place than it is today.
The
documentary includes some crucial live footage—I found myself wishing
there was a lot more of that! If your interest is beyond passing, I
recommend it. The importance of this band as an in-your-face outfit
singing about queer issues (check out their “Saturday Night at the Bookstore” and “Off Duty Sailor”) when it was still rather dangerous—even
in the punk scene—to do so, and as a band that influenced other groups
with their refreshing originality in a hardcore wasteland becomes more
and more clear upon viewing.
Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye, and Mike Watt
all make necessary appearances (what? no Dave Grohl?), expounding on how
blown away they were upon paired with The Dicks on bills. Until the
documentary gets released later this month, you can always hit up the
YouTubes to further explore more of this classic “Rock Against Reagan”
band.
Flyer for the ‘Rock Against Reagan’ tour—organized by The Yippies!
So, today, can we just talk about how great The Dicks were? Here’s The Dicks live in 1984: And in 1985, with Gary Floyd looking a bit like a chubby Jeffrey Lee Pierce:
And my favorite live footage I’ve seen of them, this was originally
released as a VHS tape in the ‘80s titled ‘Fun With Dicks and Jane.’ It
has great sound quality and some fun interviews (with Gary Floyd in full
drag):
The tagline for The Dicks From Texas is ‘the men,
the myth, the music’ – certainly a fitting description for this documentary
film about one of the most outrageous and influential punk bands of all time.
First-time director Cindy Marabito has pulled off
a real coup with this documentary, delivering a film that looks and feels more
like a lovingly curated compilation of family movies than anything else – a
perfect touch for her subjects. Friends, family, and fans tell the Dicks story,
from their Austin, Texas, origins in the late 1970s – a place and a time when concepts
like embracing homosexuality and holding an affinity for communist
revolutionaries like Chairman Mao were not exactly going to win you many friends
in the above-ground world – to their induction into the Austin Music Awards
Hall Of Fame in 2008, and beyond.
Interviews spanning decades – with subjects
including original Dicks (vocalist Gary Floyd, also of Sister Double Happiness; late guitarist Glen Taylor; bassist Buxf Parrott, and drummer Pat Deason),
latter-day Dicks (like drummer Lynn Perko, also of SDH), Texas punk compatriots
(late Big Boys vocalist Randy ‘Biscuit’ Turner; Offenders drummer Pat Doyle; late
Offenders guitarist Tony Johnson; Scratch Acid/The Jesus Lizard frontman David
Yow; Butthole Surfers drummer King Coffey; rawk bad-ass Texas Terri), national
punk admirers (Minor Threat/Fugazi frontman Ian MacKaye; S.O.A./Black Flag
vocalist Henry Rollins; Minutemen/fIREHOSE bassist Mike Watt; Black
Flag/DC3/Misfits guitarist/vocalist Dez Cadena), and an amazing array of
friends and family – are cut with live footage and hundreds of vintage photos
to tell the tale of how a ‘poster band’ that didn’t actually exist not only
came to life, but actually went on to influence 4 decades (and counting) of
punks, activists, and oddballs.
The biggest thrill in this package, for me, is the
bonus live footage: 7 songs captured by Target Video mastermind Joe Rees at San
Francisco’s On Broadway in 1982 and 5 more filmed by Vicki Sprague at the
Akron, Ohio, stop on 1983’s Rock Against Reagan tour.
Others: We Jam Econo, The Decline of Western Civilization Parts I and III, Another State of Mind
On a certain level, it would be easy to say that punk rock as a
concept in 2016 is irredeemably stupid and retrograde (and let’s face
it, you probably could have said the same in 1977), but to be fair, the
important service it provides as a hate vaccination for stammering
misfit youth has yet to be properly supplanted (maybe someone could get
Martin Shkreli working on that?). Besides, one must concede that punk —
in its pure, non-poseur state, anyway — has also been an extremely
important signifier for freakoids searching for their place in the
world, a fact which goes a long way towards explaining why it holds a
special place in the hearts and minds of so many otherwise-reasonable
adults.
In Cindy Marabito’s new documentary The Dicks From Texas,
we get to see that special power in full and brilliant display: it is a
film which, though ostensibly about a band, is primarily a document of
the myriad oddballs which were drawn into that band’s drunken, radical
orbit during Reagan’s Morning in America.
The Dicks were, and remain, Austin’s greatest punk band (unless
you’re a skater, in which case it
might be their peers the Big Boys, or
if you’re one of those moldy figs who use “punk” as a synonym for “1960s
garage,” in which case it’s the 13th Floor Elevators… but y’all knew
that). In a time when it was still weird and dangerous to even be a new
wave band in Texas, this self-identifying “commie fag” hardcore band,
fronted by “fat queer” Gary Floyd (who frequently took the stage in loud
vintage dresses and bits of Maoist regalia), were basically asking to
get the shit kicked out of them.
Lucky for them, then, that they were
also the scariest bunch of motherfuckers in town, a sloppy, ugly band
who made little conceit to either cautious tastes or conservative mores.
That fearlessness, along with Floyd’s
Divine-meets-Chris-Farley-meets-bear stage presence and the band’s
trainwreck energy, endeared them to the nascent Austin freak scene while
also making an indelible impression upon touring heavy-hitters like
Black Flag, Minutemen, and Minor Threat (it wouldn’t be an 80s punk doc
without a couple words from Rollins, Watt and MacKaye… where are
Thurston and Jello, I wonder?).
MacKaye recalls the band as genuinely
intimidating, having been told before coming to Texas that The Dicks
“were run out of Austin because they were wanted on charges of
terrorism.” Whether that anecdote is partial truth or gleeful
mythmaking, its believability is telling.
A slick and artful documentary would hardly be the appropriate document for such notorious gnarlers, and The Dicks From Texas
is not that. No-fi and personal, the film stumbles hazily down memory
lane, interviewing its subjects in shitty bars and sprawled out on beds,
laughing about old pals and relating disjointed anecdotes for which
most viewers will have little context. This makes it a far cry, in both
construction and cohesion, from the likes of The Filth and the Fury or even We Jam Econo, but frankly, I couldn’t imagine the story told any other way. How could a Texas punk doc NOT be this folksy and weird?
The Dicks From Texas probably isn’t an ideal entry point
for the casually curious, and I would be hard put to call it a great
film. It is, however, honest and passionate as fuck; any dirty dog who’s
ever blasted “Dicks Hate the Police”
on a shitty stereo in a shitty apartment will get everything they need
out of it, plus a desire to hug the cuddly Gary Floyd of today as a
bonus treat. If you want anything more than that, you’re probably a
poseur anyway.
Screens as part of Sound Unseen in the Twin Cities on February 10th, 2016.
Texas punk legend was among the first hardcore bands with openly gay singer
The Dicks was a trailblazing punk band thanks to classics like
“Dicks Hate the Police” and “Rich Daddy,” sung by Gary Floyd, one of
the first openly gay hardcore punk vocalists.
Courtesy
Posted
Rich Tupica
On Halloween 2016, The Dicks played its final show
at Grizzly Hall in Austin, Texas—the city that birthed the trailblazing
hardcore punk band. This last hurrah came 36 years after the raucous
band’s formation in 1980—the onset of the Reagan era.
Through it all, singer Gary Floyd, the band’s openly gay
singer, wasn’t afraid to loudly ruffle conservative feathers with
Marxist lyrics and now-classic punk tracks like “Dicks Hate the Police,”
an anti-cop anthem famously covered by Mudhoney.
During its earliest years, The Dicks was a fixture at
Raul’s, an Austin dive bar that attracted local freaks, scenesters,
punks and artists. At the band’s genesis, Floyd was a 26-year-old
transplant from Palestine, Texas. Growing up in the 1960s, during the
Vietnam War, he was a conscientious objector. As the years rolled on, he
never stopped vocally questioning the system.
As the ’70s wound down, Floyd became enamored with punk
rock, then a new genre. He created a fake band called “The Dicks” and
would draw up faux flyers promoting non-existent shows and post them
across Austin. It was a fictional band, with phony gigs, that would soon
be real after he threw together a makeshift band of likeminded friends,
including Buxf Parrott (bass), Pat Deason (drums) and Glen Taylor
(guitar). The outcome? Fast, loud and gritty tunes that infused classic
punk with blasts of hardcore, blues and some free-form ranting.
The outfit officially debuted a couple weeks of after its
first rehearsal at the 1980 “Punk Rock Prom” at Armadillo World
Headquarters, a large-capacity Austin venue. Of course, with the flashy
showman Floyd at the helm, The Dicks immediately turned heads.
“Right off the bat, we were going to be different than
your regular punk band,” Floyd told KQED, an NPR affiliate, in 2016. “We
also said we were communists, we were drag queens ... we were twisting
some heads, for sure.”
By 1983, The Dicks became a San Francisco band after Floyd
relocated to California. That same year, “Kill from the Heart,” the
band’s blistering debut full-length LP released via SST Records — also
home to Black Flag, the Minutemen, Sonic Youth, the Meat Puppets, Hüsker
Dü, and a roster of other now-iconic outfits. Though, there is no doubt
that Floyd put the most thought into his on-stage looks. Think Divine
meets Iggy Pop.
“I figured my reputation would be safe no matter what I
did,” Floyd also told KQED reporter Kevin L. Jones. “It was always fun. I
was always pretty adventurous with coming up with ways to look
shocking, and shoving liver in my panties to throw on people, though I’d
use vegan liver now.”
By 1986, the first era of The Dicks ended, though the
group went through some starts and stops. Floyd also performed with
other acts, like Sister Double Happiness and Black Kali Ma. Then, from
2004 the band reunited for more gigs.
In July 2020, during the band’s 40th anniversary, the
COVID-19 pandemic fizzled a reunion show set for Austin. To date, no
future show has been announced. Still, even with no further shows, The
Dicks has no doubt carved out its groundbreaking place in punk rock
history.
“I think things needed to be said and this was a time of
punk rock [when] people were easily shocked and I took advantage of
that, I loved that,” Floyd recalled to reporter Luiz Mazetto of CVLT
Nation in July 2020, during the final months of the Trump presidency.
“We did some things that were pretty cool. The songs were sort of in
your face. And the politics were left, very left, obviously. I’ve always
been happy that we did all that. I think we did it and stopped at the
right time. I still do political stuff and I still do some of those
songs, when we play live. But I don’t feel the world stopped because we
broke up. We still did it afterwards. Like once every year or two, we
would do a show. Everything happens in the right time, I guess. Except
for Trump (laughs).”
For those looking to catch up on the history of the band,
“The Dicks from Texas,” a feature-length documentary, was released in
2016. The film, directed and produced by Cindy Marabito, features
interviews with high-profile fans like Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye, Mike
Watt, Texas Terri, and David Yow, among others.
Gary
Floyd would go around town in Austin, Texas putting up posters
advertising 'The Dicks' with crazy ass pictures and promises that first
10 people with guns drink for free. It was a wild and crazy time in
Austin, back when 'keeping Austin weird' got you thrown in jail.
Gary
was a flamboyant outwardly gay personality with a voice that still
rivals the hardest heaviest bluesiest singers from Texas or anywhere
else. He ran into Buxf Parrot and Glen Taylor at Raul's Bar on Guadalupe
and the Dicks became a reality. Pat Deason joined the band just in time
for the legendary first live performance at the Armadillo World
Headquarters.
The Dicks were together for nearly four years and put out
'Dicks Hate the Police" 45 and two albums, "Live at Raul's" and "Kill
From the Heart" which have lived on for coming up on four decades,
inspiring other musicians and fans with songs like "Bourgeois Fascist
Pig," "Dead in a Motel Room," and "Dicks Hate the Police."
The Dicks
never sold out, never budged one fraction from their militant principles
at the cost of no big record deals and acclaim. What they got in return
was the respect of longtime hardcore followers who still turn out at
the rare live reunion shows where the Dicks still deliver.
Austin, Texas hardcore punk legends The Dicks were around in the early/mid '80s with releases on SST and Alternative Tentacles, and they've been reunited since 2004. This week (Friday, 2/12), a new documentary about them called The Dicks From Texas will hit the streets.
Before it's out, we're premiering a clip from the film that includes Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye giving the band high praise and a short live clip. Henry talks about their Live at Raul's Club
split with The Big Boys getting heavy rotation at the SST offices, and
Ian discusses a show Minor Threat played with The Dicks opening.
Watch the clip, and the trailer and intro, below...
List of Great Texas Music Documentaries Adds One More
THE DICKS FROM TEXAS (2015) Mike Watt, Henry
Rollins, Austin scenesters and loads of unreleased footage help narrate
the loud-as-fuck legend of one of the most provocative and pure fun punk
bands Texas ever produced.
Trekking the stories of one of the most
underrated yet influential punk rock bands that became the harbinger for
the hardcore and more notably, the queercore movement throughout the
1980s, The Dicks From Texas cites the band that made a splash in
their hometown of Austin, TX and sent the waves crashing down on the
dawn of hardcore punk. This 70 minute feature documentary provides an
intimate insight into the weird, crude, and alienated legacy that was
one of Texas’ first big punk bands—before Dave Dictor penned his first lyrics of slandering cops, and before Randy “Biscuit” Turner
slipped on the infamous ballerina tutu with cowboy boots, the Dicks
were redefining what it meant to be a misfit in an already rebellious
subculture.
The Dicks was the brainchild of lead singer Gary Floyd who “started” the band after seeing the Sex Pistols
in San Francisco and told everyone he had a band under that moniker. In
Austin, the Dicks gained popularity as a “poster band” in which fliers
were made for fake shows for non-existent bands to play. The Dicks,
however, became a reality when Floyd teamed up with bassist Buxf Parrott, guitarist Glen Taylor, and drummer Pat Deason making their debut performance on May 16, 1980 at the Punk Prom with fellow Austin punks Big Boys.
Floyd’s outwardly gay and flamboyant personality was reflected in his
stage presence in which he’d sport the tackiest, ugliest, thrift shop
dresses, plus-size pantyhose, and intentionally whorish makeup with a
purple mohawk to round it out that would make anybody of a sound mind
gape in awe. The idea, of course, was to play some of the loudest,
fastest, and scariest music and have the lead vocalist look so bizarre
and so outlandish that it would just emphasize that nobody could fuck
with them—they were challenging a lot of political, social, and sexual
conventions through their performances. Ian MacKaye put it best, “They were a force to be reckoned with.”
The Dicks stayed as an active band for
four consecutive years before ultimately disbanding in 1986. Their
discography, consisting of a 7” entitled The Dicks Hate the Police and two albums— Live at Raul’s, their split live album they did with Big Boys and Kill From the Heart,which
all became inspirations for punk’s most important era. The Dicks were
instrumental in shaping not only the sound of hardcore, but also the
attitude—the fact that you can have an even more intimidating presence
when your dressed in drag and screaming songs like “Bourgeois Fascist
Pig” and “Dead In a Motel Room.”
Being comfortable with yourself and not
conforming in such a way that you stick out like a sore thumb are what
the Dicks lived by back then and still hold true in their views today.
The Dicks From Texas pays tribute
in the best way possible to a band like these guys—it’s raw, unpolished,
and choppy in some places, the lighting and audio isn’t perfect, the
live footage is all bootlegged, and you definitely get the feeling that
it went through a single editing process in someone’s basement. But, you
know what? That’s punk rock! And that was the Dicks! In my opinion, the
style of this documentary correlates well with the Dicks and their DIY
aesthetics, which is the way it should be. –Eric U. Norris
Bands less-subtly named after body
parts arose in the late ‘70s. The first I knew of was the Tits (from Rhode
Island, I believe), an art rock performance duo that I saw at Max’s Kansas City.
This was followed by the Clits (saw them at Irving Plaza), the Cunts, the
Kuntz, and arguably, the Dickies. Likewise, Queercore has its forerunners to
the Dicks, such as Lance Loud and the Mumps, the Student Teachers, and again
arguably, the Speedies (who were definitely more pop, but had a punk edge). But
the Dicks were a whole ‘nother ball of leather.
At a time when Texas was possibly
even more rigid than it is now (including Austin), the ‘80s spawned a number of
scenes around the State that would change and charge up some of the less
countrified young’ns, if not the old guard (or most of the rural countryside,
as their voting direction indicates). The Dicks were in the front line of that
change, fronted by the self-proclaimed out of the closet and overweight Maoist,
Gary Floyd. The rest of the band kind of formed around him, from 1980 through
1983, and then again in 2004.
This doc is, on one hand, your basic
history of the nascent scene (basically Southern Rock), how the Dicks formed,
and then how an almost new scene emerged
around the band. Most of the talking head interviews are from the Dicks, the
other bands on the scene such as the Torn Panties, Sister Double Happiness and
especially the band-members-in-arms, the Big Boys (no mention that I noticed of
MDC), and from other regular members of the audience (including the film’s director),
many of whom went on to their own fame as writers, photographers and artists.
Then, of course, there are the big name
cameos that all punk/hardcore docs must have these days, in this case the
nearly omni-documentary-presence of Ian MacKaye (of Minor Threat, Fugazi, etc.),
Henry Rollins (Black Flag) and Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE, etc.). Making a
rare appearance is Texas Terri, who is an interesting person in her own right.
But I digress…
But then, on the other hand, this
comes across more like an Oral History, which improves the narrative a bit.
Rather than single set-ups where the person tells his story and then has it
sewn into the fabric of the story, the main players are shown in various
locations, and also with others, who spurn on stories that would probably not
have been inspired if they were by themselves (such as Floyd bringing his
mother to… well, you’ll have to see it). Amusingly, for example, three members
of the aforementioned Torn Panties are laying (dressed, but under the covers)
in a twin-sided bed that is too small for all of them, or others are sitting in
bars, at home, etc.
Laced into the history are tons of
still photos and videos (b-roll type) of the Little Mexico area (the Bowery of
Austin, apparently) both then and now, including of many of the people in the
video. The documentary, though, is actually broken into two pieces, which is
appropriate because the Dicks had more than one life. After moving to San Fran,
the band went on tour, and when they played their home turf at the end of it,
the band stayed and Floyd went back to SF.
Following that segment and a brief
“In Memorium” not just for Glen Taylor, the guitarist from the Dicks who
passed, but also members of the scene, the band reformed on a lark in 2004, and
is still playing. It picks up Phase 2 at 55 minutes or so, and continues on. At
70 minutes, the film is the perfect length to keep the audience both informed
and interested.
There are some fun outtakes during
the credits, and the only extra is actually quite a special one, namely two
live shows from 1982 and 1983, when the band was in its prime and with the
original line-up. Considering it was obviously VHS tape masters, the first is
pretty clear in both sound and visual. The second has a bit more noise and fuzz
in the sound, but still helps give a better picture of why the Dicks had its
cult following.
One of the differences between this
and most of the other band/scene combo documentaries is that this does not
discuss the end of the scene, its main focus at the end is the band. This was a
nicely done film.
The great American hardcore explosion came at just
the right moment for a generation of misfits, freaks, and weirdos;
people who for whatever reason just couldn’t fit into normal life or
even into the existing youth cultures.
Austin, Texas hardcore band the Dicks was a prime
example of this. Fronted by Gary Floyd, an oversized openly gay man in
the middle of Texas who was likely to dress in drag, a nurse uniform or a
Klan outfit, the Dicks would have had their place in punk history
cemented by the release of The Dicks Hate the Police, a bluesy howl of a song using black humor to make a point against police harassment, and a true American punk classic.
The Dicks from Texas, is the latest
documentary delving into a slice of punk history unknown by many casual
fans, and strives to show the influence and importance of both the Dicks
and the early ’80s Austin punk scene.
Floyd saw both the Ramones and Sex Pistols in Texas
and was so inspired he started telling friends he was in a band called
the Dicks. The band existed in Floyd’s mind and a series of posters
until springing into existence with founding members Buxf Parrott, Pat
Deason and Glen Taylor. Self-described “stars with sweaty armpits,” the
Dicks formed friendships with fellow Texas punks the Big Boys and MDC,
toured the country, released two albums as well as the groundbreaking
debut 7″ and built up a fan base in Austin that felt more like a family a
like-minded weirdos than a usual band-fan dynamic.
Amateurish in the best way, the film captures
subjects speaking directly to the people behind the camera with asides
like “… y’all were at that party,” which adds to the documentary’s
homemade charm. Along with surviving band members including a bearded,
genial Floyd, the documentary features punk documentary mainstays Ian
MacKaye and Henry Rollins, as well as a large number of female
interviewees, which is a surprisingly nice change from the usual
male-centric documentary subjects. Utilizing old photographs and
previously unseen performance footage The Dicks from Texas is as
much a love letter to friends and family of the Austin punk scene as it
is to the band and is recommended to fans of punk history and groups of
freaks and misfits sticking together to form a community in the midst of
indifference or outright hatred.
, as well as a related compilation tribute album
. I recently had the opportunity to screen the documentary, which can be pre-ordered here
LP, and the These People
LP are all monsters and I’d be torn on trying to recommend any one of
those over another. Alternative Tentacles put out a compilation titled Dicks: 1980-1986
—that’s a good “greatest hits” type starting place. 
,
which is where I first heard it. I think about these lyrics every
single time I ever hear anyone arm-chair quarterbacking U.S. foreign
policy: 
