Tribe 8

Fist City (Alternative Tentacles)
by Joshua Brown

There’s so much quality punk rock being produced by lesbians these days that I thought I couldn’t miss with Tribe 8‘s Fist City (Alternative Tentacles). I guess I was wrong, because this is a basically uptight, humorless, and self-important diatribe telling people how they should think. I suppose you have to be a myopically militant lesbian who adheres solely to party line politics to be able to relate.

“Neanderthal Dyke” describes what supposedly goes through the mind of a woman who is what they consider an apolitical dyke: “I don’t give a shit I just wanna get laid/By curvy little hot and sexy eyeliner babes.” The message is that if you don’t agree with their “butch” standards of attractiveness then you haven’t earned the right to have the same sexual orientation as they do. It’s also suggested in this song that if you haven’t read Andrea Dworkin then you’re not a “proper” dyke.

To break up the monotony, the album has “Romeo and Julio,” a reminiscent love story about two men, but the effort is a weak one at best. The music on Fist City isn’t any better than okay and makes use of tired hardcore formulas that have been done before and better by others. What’s strange is that Tribe 8 used to actually be fun, when they were more squeaky and grrrly and not all serious.

Thanks, but I think I’ll stick with Bikini Kill.