The Queers

Sometimes they are mistaken for a queercore band like labelmates Pansy Division, but one listen to the Queers' adolescent-boy-who-never-grew-up lyrics ("she got no tit," "I'm really goo-goo over you/I'm mentally retarded too," "she's my Burger King Queen," etc.) will dispel that misconception. While some of their songs border on sexism and homophobia, they are simply too goofy and good-natured to mean any harm with their left-back-four-grades, dumb-ass shtick. Formed in 1982, this New Hampshire group ambled their way through the 1980s, recording a few singles and compilation tracks along the way, most of which were collected on Lookout's A Day Late and a Dollar Short. Before recording their first full-length studio album, Grow Up, the group finally settled on a permanent lineup consisting of singer/guitarist Joe King/Queer, drummer Hugh O'Neill, and bassist B-Face. Grow Up was released on a small English label called Shakin' Street, which promptly went belly up after only 1,000 copies were pressed. Screeching Weasel frontman Ben Weasel got Lookout label owner Larry Livermore to sign the Queers, and in 1993 Lookout released the Ben Weasel-produced Love Songs for the Retarded. Love Songs was followed by a yearly salvo of bubblegum punk, from 1994's Beat Off to 1996's magnum opus Don't Back Down, the best late-'70s-era Ramones album the Ramones never recorded. After a long bout with brain cancer, O'Neill died on January 21, 1999; Later Days and Better Lays, issued that spring, assembled unreleased Queers material recorded during his tenure with the band. B-Face next left the band, and after signing with Hopeless Records, the Queers went through various lineups as King remained the only constant. 2000's Beyond the Valley... marked the first studio album since O'Neill's...