Pansy Division
Total Entertainment! (Alternative Tentacles)
by Lex Marburger
As a soundtrack to the “new gay” media so decried by Bill O’Reilly and others on Fox TV, you could do worse than the new Pansy Division album. Granted, the self-imposed label of “queer punk” is a little shaky. Total Entertainment! is about as punk as The Go-Gos were. Still, the guys have come pretty far as songwriters, as exemplified by “Sleeping in the Cold,” a ballad-like ode to breakup second-guessing, as well as the XTC-inspired feel of “Spiral.” But for those of you who prefer the “outrageous” and “shocking” (even if such words only apply to this stuff if you actually don’t read this ‘zine), Pansy Division still comes through with classics like “Alpine Skiing” (“It takes three guys to do it right/You need a guy on your left and a guy on your right/Get a rhythm going.” If you don’t get the reference at first, just think about it for a while), and the self-explanatory “He Whipped My Ass in Tennis, Then I Fucked His Ass in Bed.”
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