ME, I love girly, because I’m man enough to take it. Guys who complain about there being too much estrogen around? They’re the ones you have to worry about, because they’re going to cut and run in a gang rumble or a bear attack. Venus Bogardus got their handle from a bisexual movie star character in a 1960s lesbian pulp fiction series by Ann Bannon. Dyke-Mikes—male versions of fag-hags—deserve all due encouragement. Venus Bogardus’ channeling of The Golden Years of Androgyny doesn’t share in that music’s ambient misogyny. There’s some kind of justice-seeking feminism going on among this trio of Brits. They boast that Judy Chicago’s assister (which is what we call a feminist assistant) Michelle Maier did the cover photo of their just-hatched album Spitting at the Glass. Creamish quavery vocals, a compressed, recorded-in-a-large-plastic-bucket sound distinguish “Fierce 70s Tomboy”; “Birds” is classic slamming art-punk rock honoring the never to be forgotten Minutemen. One song name-checks forgotten glamster Brett Smiley. The totality evinces more than just the kind of token feminist interest Mick Jagger shows for dressing up like a girl and prancing about going woo, woo.
VENUS BOGARDUS performs Wednesday (Feb. 24) at 9pm at the Blank Club, 44 S. Almaden Ave. San Jose. No cover. (408.29.BLANK)
