Phranc
Encyclopedia
Phranc is an American
singer-songwriter
whose career has spanned several decades.
scene in Los Angeles
. She had a bleach blonde crewcut and wore male attire creating an androgynous persona for her first band Nervous Gender
, which formed in 1978. The writer V/D wrote of her for the punk fanzine Slash
, "On stage, Phranc looks like a 14-year-old runaway from a boys' reform school." The band was influential in the development of what later came to be known as 'Synthpunk
'. In 1980 she left Nervous Gender to join Catholic Discipline
, in which Claude Bessey, journalist for Slash zine, was the lead singer. She was also in Castration Squad, a feminist, all-girl punk band that was pivotal on the punk movement.
Phranc appears with Catholic Discipline
in The Decline of Western Civilization
, a documentary by Penelope Spheeris
.
In the 1980s Phranc pursued a solo career. She performs in Paul Morrissey
's film Madame Wang's (1981) as Phranque. She began playing an acoustic guitar
and released Folksinger
on Rhino Records in 1985. She opened for music acts such as The Smiths
, Hüsker Dü
, Violent Femmes
, and Billy Bragg
. She styled herself the "All-American Jewish Lesbian Folksinger" and with a wry sense of humour released the LP I Enjoy Being a Girl in 1989 on Island Records
, appearing on the cover with her trademark 'flat top' hair style. Describing a live performance, Adam Block wrote "Phranc's unnerving androgyny (expressed with easy confidence) and her fervent opinions (couched in sly, laconic wit) make her a fascinating performer." Her third full-length recording, released in 1991, was Positively Phranc
.
Phranc was an important influence on the Queercore
movement, being acknowledged as such by Team Dresch
in their song for her, "Uncle Phranc". In the 1990s many queercore
bands and musicians involved in queercore music began collaborating with her. She appeared as a guest on the Team Dresch LP/CD Captain My Captain and, as well, members of Team Dresch, Tobi Vail
of Bikini Kill
, Patty Schemel
of Hole
and others have played with Phranc on her EP Goofyfoot
and other songs. Phranc performs and is interviewed in the queercore documentary She's Real, Worse Than Queer by Lucy Thane
and she has appeared frequently at queercore events such as Olympia
's Homo-a-go-go festival. In the 1990s Phranc performed "Hot August Phranc", performing as Neil Diamond
. On her full-length CD of 1998, Milkman
, she is joined by Steve MacDonald
of Redd Kross
, who plays bass. Her most recent releases, including Milkman, appear on her own independent record label, Phancy Records.
The 2001 documentary film "Lifetime Guarantee", directed by Lisa Udelson, chronicled Phranc's life with a focus on her day job as a Tupperware
consultant. Phranc lives with her partner and children in Santa Monica
, California
, and continues to sell Tupperware. She performs occasionally, but spends more time working on creative visual art projects, including the Cardboard Cobbler sculptures. In December 2007 she had a solo art show at Cue Art Foundation in New York City
curated by Ann Magnuson
; the New York Times review compared her work to Claes Oldenburg
and Andy Warhol
. Phranc is currently preparing for her first major West Coast solo show, which will take place at Craig Krull Gallery, from June 18 to July 23, 2011, where she will exhibit beach themed cardboard and kraft paper works.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
whose career has spanned several decades.
Biography
She began her performing career in the late 1970s and early 1980s punkPunk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
scene in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. She had a bleach blonde crewcut and wore male attire creating an androgynous persona for her first band Nervous Gender
Nervous Gender
Nervous Gender is a punk band founded in Los Angeles, California in 1978 by Gerardo Velazquez, Edward Stapleton, Phranc and Michael Ochoa.Their use of heavily distorted keyboards and synthesizers made them, along with The Screamers, one of the original innovators of what is today called...
, which formed in 1978. The writer V/D wrote of her for the punk fanzine Slash
Slash (fanzine)
Slash was a punk rock-related fanzine published in the United States from 1977 to 1980.The magazine was a large-format tabloid focused on the Los Angeles punk scene, though it did not restrict itself to local acts: its first cover featured Dave Vanian of The Damned. It regularly covered such L.A....
, "On stage, Phranc looks like a 14-year-old runaway from a boys' reform school." The band was influential in the development of what later came to be known as 'Synthpunk
Synthpunk
Synthpunk is a music genre combining elements of electronic music and punk rock. The term was coined by Damian Ramsey in 1999 as an attempt to retroactively identify a small sub-genre of punk music from 1977 to 1984 that involved musicians playing synthesizers in place of electric...
'. In 1980 she left Nervous Gender to join Catholic Discipline
Catholic Discipline
Catholic Discipline was a short lived Los Angeles punk rock band headed by Slash Fanzine editor Claude Bessy, nicknamed "Kickboy Face", on vocals. The band was started in 1979 and played a series of shows around the Los Angeles area before ultimately breaking up in 1980...
, in which Claude Bessey, journalist for Slash zine, was the lead singer. She was also in Castration Squad, a feminist, all-girl punk band that was pivotal on the punk movement.
Phranc appears with Catholic Discipline
Catholic Discipline
Catholic Discipline was a short lived Los Angeles punk rock band headed by Slash Fanzine editor Claude Bessy, nicknamed "Kickboy Face", on vocals. The band was started in 1979 and played a series of shows around the Los Angeles area before ultimately breaking up in 1980...
in The Decline of Western Civilization
The Decline of Western Civilization
The soundtrack was released in December 1980 by Slash Records on LP. In the late 1990s it was released on CD as well. It is currently out of print. Germs singer Darby Crash appears on the soundtrack album cover. He died shortly before the film was released, though the promotional images for the...
, a documentary by Penelope Spheeris
Penelope Spheeris
Penelope Spheeris is an American director, producer and screenwriter. She is best known as a documentary film director whose works include the trilogy titled The Decline of Western Civilization...
.
In the 1980s Phranc pursued a solo career. She performs in Paul Morrissey
Paul Morrissey
Paul Morrissey is an American film director, best-known for his association with Andy Warhol.Morrissey attended Ampleforth College, a private Roman Catholic boarding school and Fordham University, both Roman Catholic schools, and later served in the United States Army...
's film Madame Wang's (1981) as Phranque. She began playing an acoustic guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and released Folksinger
Folksinger
----Folksinger is an album by folk singer-songwriter Phranc, released in 1985.Phranc's first solo LP fused elements of her punk rock past with acoustic folk music...
on Rhino Records in 1985. She opened for music acts such as The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
, Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü was an American rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1979. The band's continual members were guitarist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer Grant Hart....
, Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes were an American alternative rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, initially active between 1980 and 1987 and again from 1988 to 2009...
, and Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
. She styled herself the "All-American Jewish Lesbian Folksinger" and with a wry sense of humour released the LP I Enjoy Being a Girl in 1989 on Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
, appearing on the cover with her trademark 'flat top' hair style. Describing a live performance, Adam Block wrote "Phranc's unnerving androgyny (expressed with easy confidence) and her fervent opinions (couched in sly, laconic wit) make her a fascinating performer." Her third full-length recording, released in 1991, was Positively Phranc
Positively Phranc
Positively Phranc is an album by folk singer-songwriter Phranc, released in 1991.Unlike 1989's polished I Enjoy Being a Girl, Positively Phranc marks a return to her raw acoustic solo work. The song "Gertrude Stein" is Phranc's cover version of Jonathan Richman's "Pablo Picasso". "Tipton" is a...
.
Phranc was an important influence on the Queercore
Queercore
Queercore is a cultural and social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of punk. It is distinguished by being discontent with society in general and its rejection of the disapproval of the gay, bisexual, and lesbian communities and their "oppressive agenda"...
movement, being acknowledged as such by Team Dresch
Team Dresch
Team Dresch is an American punk band from Portland, Oregon, originally formed in Olympia, Washington, which was initially active from 1993 until 1998. The band made a significant impression on the do-it-yourself movement queercore, which gave voice through zines and music to the passions and...
in their song for her, "Uncle Phranc". In the 1990s many queercore
Queercore
Queercore is a cultural and social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of punk. It is distinguished by being discontent with society in general and its rejection of the disapproval of the gay, bisexual, and lesbian communities and their "oppressive agenda"...
bands and musicians involved in queercore music began collaborating with her. She appeared as a guest on the Team Dresch LP/CD Captain My Captain and, as well, members of Team Dresch, Tobi Vail
Tobi Vail
Tobi Vail is an independent musician, DIY zinester, and feminist activist from Olympia, Washington, noted primarily as the drummer of the defunct punk band Bikini Kill. She formed one of her first bands as the drummer for The Go Team when she was 15, later collaborating in several other groups...
of Bikini Kill
Bikini Kill
Bikini Kill was an American punk rock band formed in Olympia, Washington in October 1990. The group consisted of vocalist and songwriter Kathleen Hanna, guitarist Billy Karren, bassist Kathi Wilcox, and drummer Tobi Vail. The band is widely considered to be the pioneer of the riot grrrl movement,...
, Patty Schemel
Patty Schemel
Patricia Theresa Schemel is an American drummer, most notably known as the drummer of the alternative rock band Hole from 1992 until 1998.-Early music career:Schemel learned to play drums after her father bought her a drum kit at age 11...
of Hole
Hole (band)
Hole is an American alternative rock band that originally formed in Los Angeles in 1989. The band is fronted by vocalist/songwriter and rhythm guitarist Courtney Love, who co-founded Hole with former songwriter/lead guitarist Eric Erlandson...
and others have played with Phranc on her EP Goofyfoot
Goofyfoot
Goofyfoot is an EP by folk singer-songwriter Phranc, released in 1995.Recorded in Olympia, Washington with session musicians including Donna Dresch and Tobi Vail, as well as members of Satan's Pilgrims, Goofyfoot is an independent tribute to the surfer-punk ethic of the Californian coast. It covers...
and other songs. Phranc performs and is interviewed in the queercore documentary She's Real, Worse Than Queer by Lucy Thane
Lucy Thane
Lucy Thane is a documentary filmmaker.One of her most notable works is It Changed My Life: Bikini Kill In The UK in which she followed the 1990s riot grrrl band Bikini Kill while they were on tour in the UK with Huggy Bear....
and she has appeared frequently at queercore events such as Olympia
Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28, 1859. The population was 46,478 at the 2010 census...
's Homo-a-go-go festival. In the 1990s Phranc performed "Hot August Phranc", performing as Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
. On her full-length CD of 1998, Milkman
Milkman (album)
Milkman is an album by folk singer-songwriter Phranc, released in 1998.After an absence from recording for a few years Phranc returned with a "comeback" set of highly personal songs. "Gary" is a song about Phranc's brother who was murdered in 1991...
, she is joined by Steve MacDonald
Steven Shane McDonald
Steven Shane McDonald is the bass player in the Los Angeles alternative rock/power pop band Redd Kross. He is also a member of the hardcore punk band OFF!, which formed in late 2009. Other projects included The SMG and Green and Yellow TV - both were Los Angeles-based groups from the 2000s...
of Redd Kross
Redd Kross
Redd Kross, a rock band from Hawthorne, California had their roots in 1978 in a band called The Tourists begun by Jeff and Steve McDonald while the brothers were still in middle school...
, who plays bass. Her most recent releases, including Milkman, appear on her own independent record label, Phancy Records.
The 2001 documentary film "Lifetime Guarantee", directed by Lisa Udelson, chronicled Phranc's life with a focus on her day job as a Tupperware
Tupperware
Tupperware is the name of a home products line that includes preparation, storage, containment, and serving products for the kitchen and home, which were first introduced to the public in 1946....
consultant. Phranc lives with her partner and children in Santa Monica
Santa Mônica
Santa Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and continues to sell Tupperware. She performs occasionally, but spends more time working on creative visual art projects, including the Cardboard Cobbler sculptures. In December 2007 she had a solo art show at Cue Art Foundation in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
curated by Ann Magnuson
Ann Magnuson
Ann Magnuson is an American actress, performance artist, and nightclub performer who first gained prominence in the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan...
; the New York Times review compared her work to Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg is a Swedish sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects...
and Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
. Phranc is currently preparing for her first major West Coast solo show, which will take place at Craig Krull Gallery, from June 18 to July 23, 2011, where she will exhibit beach themed cardboard and kraft paper works.
Discography
Albums
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Singles
Compilations
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