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December 03, 2007
Accidental Homosexuals
After seeing Joly, the lovable spandexed hippy videographer and proprietor of Punk Cast, at the mighty Clean's show Friday night, I thought maybe he'd be industrious enough to transfer his footage instantaneously. No such luck. But trolling around his archived You Tube channel, I did find another resurrected cult act who also saw fit to climb into the poorly ventilated Cake Shop basement in 2007. Their cult is, uh, a bit smaller than the Clean's...
the Homosexuals "Astral Glamour"
(live @ the Cake Shop, 07.09.07)
The D.I.Y. output of late seventies UK punks the Homosexuals would probably have been reissued eventually, if Morphius Records hadn't pulled the trigger in 2004. But without that momentary blip in recognition, I wouldn't have been able to see "the band" open for a decrepit Suicide in one of my strangest ever concert nights that same year. I throw up the quotes because the Homosexuals then consisted of front man "Bruno Wizard" and a bunch of young New York dudes that had evidently been practicing his songs. They were more than competent, but Wizard himself was a trip. Railing against his obscurity, changing shirts multiple times mid song, and rocking a leather jacket with a giant, baffling airbrushed portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. Then Suicide came on and played abrasive salsa music, which is neither here nor there. I had no idea that Bruno had ever played another New York City gig but, as the video makes obvious, he did. I suppose the reissue didn't buy 4 years of packed rooms, but they've still got a few fans. The hired guns here (billed as the Imaginary icons) don't match my recollection of the '04 show, but what do I know? The Wiz is still an archly theatrical nutbar, and I remain amused.
Here's the track as recorded in 1979, when its brash tunefulness was still the work of odd young men. Had you been hip enough to hear it then, but had somehow missed all of Wire's records until that point, you might have been convinced that these guys were completely visionary. It's still pretty excellent, all snark aside.
the Homosexuals - "Astral Glamour"
Posted by Jeff Klingman at December 3, 2007 07:29 PM
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