Tribe 8
Encyclopedia
This article is about the San Francisco based lesbian punk band Tribe 8. See Tribe 8 (role-playing game)
Tribe 8 (role-playing game)
Tribe 8 is a fantasy/post-apocalypse role-playing game designed by Philippe R. Boulle, Stéphane Brochu and Joshua Mosqueira-Asheim with visuals by Ghislain Barbe...

 for Dream Pod 9
Dream Pod 9
Dream Pod 9 is a Montreal-based Canadian game publisher. In addition to games, they have been known to work on special projects, creating worlds and stories to order for a variety of clients.-History:...

s post-apocalyptic fantasy role-playing game.

Tribe 8 was an all-women
All-women band
An all-female band is a musical group composed of female musicians exclusively. A distinction is made here with a girl group, in which the members are solely vocalists, though this terminology is not universally followed.-1920s-1940s:In the Jazz Age and during the 1930s, "all-girl" bands such as...

 outspoken dyke punk
Punk 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...

 band from San Francisco. Considered one of the first 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"...

 groups, they take their name from the practice of tribadism
Tribadism
Tribadism or tribbing, commonly known by its scissoring position, is a form of non-penetrative sex in which a woman rubs her vulva against her partner's body for sexual stimulation. This may involve female-to-female genital contact or a female rubbing her vulva against her partner's thigh, stomach,...

, a "tribe eight" being a play on the word tribade.

Band members

The makeup of the group changed over time, but Lynn Breedlove
Lynn Breedlove
Lynn Breedlove is an American trans man musician, writer, and performer.Breedlove was a founding member and lead singer of the San Francisco dyke screamcore band Tribe 8. The band's first single, Pigbitch, was released on Harp records, run by Gina Harp in 1991...

 and Leslie Mah
Leslie Mah
Leslie Mah is an American musician and performer.Mah first began performing with Anti-Scrunti Faction, a hardcore punk band based in Boulder, Colorado which she co-founded with Tracy Thomas. The group first appeared on the Flipside fanzine compilation, Flipside Vinyl Fanzine Vol.1 in 1984 and, in...

 (formerly of Anti-Scrunti Faction
Anti-Scrunti Faction
Anti-Scrunti Faction were an all-women punk trio from Boulder, Colorado, United States.The band made their first appearance in 1984 on the Restless Records compilation LP entitled FlipSide Vinyl Fanzine Volume 1, assembled by the fanzine Flipside from California, with the song "Big Women". In...

) were consistent members. Other members included Flipper (Silas Howard), Slade Bellum, Jen Schwartz, Mama T, Kat Buell, and Tantrum
Tantrum
A tantrum is an emotional outburst, usually associated with children or those in emotional distress, that is typically characterized by stubbornness, crying, screaming, yelling, shrieking, defiance, angry ranting, a resistance to attempts at pacification and, in some cases, violence...

.

Concerts

In concert, lead singer Breedlove frequently performed shirtless, wearing a strap-on dildo
Strap-on dildo
A strap-on dildo is a dildo designed to be worn, usually with a harness, during sexual activity. Harnesses and dildos are made in a wide variety of styles, with variations in how the harness fits the wearer, how the dildo attaches to the harness, as well as various features intended to facilitate...

, and encouraged audience members to interact with it. Their songs often deal with subjects such as S/M, nudity, fellatio
Fellatio
Fellatio is an act of oral stimulation of a male's penis by a sexual partner. It involves the stimulation of the penis by the use of the mouth, tongue, or throat. The person who performs fellatio can be referred to as the giving partner, and the other person is the receiving partner...

, and transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

 issues, and the band was the subject of controversy because of this.

Tribe 8 toured throughout the United States, playing at venues such as DUMBA
Dumba
DUMBA was a collective living space and anarchist, queer, all-ages community center and venue in Brooklyn, New York.DUMBA became a radical cultural nexus point around which the Queercore movement flourished and an independent film scene developed...

 and 924 Gilman Street
924 Gilman Street
924 Gilman Street is an all-ages, not for profit, collectively organized music club usually referred to by its fans simply as "The Gilman." It is located in the West Berkeley area of Berkeley, California about a mile and a half west of the North Berkeley BART station and a quarter-mile west of San...

; they also played in Europe and Canada, and released a number of recordings on independent record labels.

In 1996, the band made its screen debut in A Gun For Jennifer, directed by Todd Morris. The band performs live in the documentary film 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....

, released in 1997. Members of the band are also interviewed, speaking about a range of topics including the development of the queercore music scene. In 2003 the film Rise Above: A Tribe 8 Documentary
Rise Above: A Tribe 8 Documentary
Rise Above: The Tribe 8 Documentary is a feature film directed and produced by Tracy Flannigan that documents the all women queercore punk band Tribe 8....

, by director Tracy Flannigan
Tracy Flannigan
Tracy Flannigan is an award winning independent filmmaker residing in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles who began making movies when she was seventeen years old. She has worked professionally for the last fifteen years in the film business and has created numerous short films and music videos...

, was released, documenting not only performances by the band but the motivations and reasons behind the band and the part it plays in their lives. The movie has won many awards at film festivals throughout the U.S.

Other work

Outside of the band, Lynn Breedlove is also the author of a novel, Godspeed, published in 2002, now translated into German as Goetterspeed, and a memoir "Lynnee Breedlove's One Freakshow" published in 2009, winner of the 2010 Lambda Award for Transgender Writing. Leslie Mah has appeared in various films including The Yo-Yo Gang
The Yo-Yo Gang
The Yo-Yo Gang is a thirty minute 'exploitation movie' about girl gangs released in 1992 that has become a cult film.Directed by G.B. Jones, this 'no budget film' follows the exploits of two girl gangs, the "Yo-Yo Gang" and the "Skateboard Bitches", as a gangwar erupts between them...

 by G.B. Jones; Shut Up White Boy, co-directed by Vu T. and Thu Ha; and produced her own film, Estrofemme, in 1998.

Lynn Breedlove wrote, co-directed, co-produced, and starred in a short film Godspeed, based on the novel by the same name, which debuted in festivals in 2007. It features Jillian Lauren
Jillian Lauren
Jillian Lauren is an American writer and performer.-Writing:Lauren has an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Flaunt Magazine, Opium Magazine, Society, Pale House: A Collective and in the anthology My First Time: A Collection...

, Adam Horowitz, Leslie Mah, and Bucky Sinister, with cameos by Meliza Banales and Jewelle Gomez. The comedy solo show on trans bodies, community, and feminism "Lynnee Breedlove's One Freak Show", continues to tour worldwide.

Outside of Tribe 8, Jen Schwartz is a solo singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer who released her debut album Candy From A Stranger in 2000. She also owns Rampage Productions, a service business for musicians in Los Angeles. In 2010, she formed the band Me Of A Kind. Me Of A Kind's debut album is slated for release in the fall of 2010 on the Rampage Productions label.

Albums and EPs

  • By the Time We Get to Colorado EP, 1995, Outpunk Records
  • Roadkill Cafe EP, 1995, Alternative Tentacles Records
  • Fist City 1995 Alternative Tentacles
  • Snarkism 1996, Alternative Tentacles
  • Role Models for Amerika 1998 Alternative Tentacles
  • Thanx For the Mammaries 2005 Self


Singles

  • Pig Bitch EP 7", 1991, Harp Records
  • Bitches and Brews split 7" single with Blatz
    Blatz (band)
    Blatz was a punk band formed in 1989 in Berkeley, California. Blatz came out of the 924 Gilman Street Project scene during the late '80s, and early '90s along with bands like Operation Ivy, Filth, and Green Day.-History:...

     1992 Lookout! Records
    Lookout! Records
    -History:Larry Livermore and David Hayes formed the label in 1987. From the start, Lookout released punk rock records, but over time expanded its scope to include various types of pop rock, reggae fusion, acoustic rock, pop punk, and indie rock...

  • Allen's Mom EP 1994, Outpunk Records

Compilations

  • There's a Dyke in the Pit 7" EP, 1991 Outpunk
    Outpunk
    Outpunk enjoys the distinction of being the first record label entirely devoted to queer punk bands.The label was run out of San Francisco and began as an extension of Matt Wobensmith's fanzine, Outpunk. Outpunk ran for seven issues, from 1992 till 1997, with contributions from queer punks such as...

  • Stars Kill Rock
    Stars Kill Rock
    Stars Kill Rock is a 1993 album by various artists and was released on the Kill Rock Stars label.-Track listing:# Tiger Trap - "Supreme Nothing"# Godheadsilo - "Nutritious Treat"# Frumpies - "Fuck Kitty"# Jack Acid - "Cheap Tragedies"...

    , 1993 Kill Rock Stars
    Kill Rock Stars
    Kill Rock Stars is an independent record label founded in 1991 by Slim Moon and based in both Olympia, Washington and Portland, Oregon. The label has released a variety of work in different genres, making it difficult to pigeonhole as having any one artistic mission...

  • Outpunk Dance Party, 1996 Outpunk
    Outpunk
    Outpunk enjoys the distinction of being the first record label entirely devoted to queer punk bands.The label was run out of San Francisco and began as an extension of Matt Wobensmith's fanzine, Outpunk. Outpunk ran for seven issues, from 1992 till 1997, with contributions from queer punks such as...

  • New Women's Music Sampler
    New Women's Music Sampler
    New Women's Music Sampler is a sampler album of alternative rock songs by artists on the San Francisco, California based lesbian-feminist independent record label, Mr. Lady Records. It was released in October, 1999...

    , 1999, Mr Lady


External links

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