Gerardo Velazquez and Michael Ochoa of Nervous Gender
Imagine the Screamers, but noisier and far more antagonistic: That’s Nervous Gender. The proto-industrial synth-punk group started in 1978 with Gerardo Velazquez and Michael Ochoa, two gay Chicanos, at the helm. They were notorious for their hostile, intimidating performances – sometimes to the point of being booted offstage, even when playing for the anything-goes art-punk crowd. Their confrontational approach to subjects like religious guilt and gayness was unprecedented; they performed The Homily, an anti-Christian opera in 1980. The latter became the inspirational bedrock for the experimental B-side of their only proper LP, Music From Hell, released in 1981 on the venerable subversive imprint Subterranean Records. (Side note: It included a cameo from one of our favorite Chicana punks, Alice Bag.)
When founding member Phranc — now revered as a queercore and riot grrl pioneer — left shortly after, the lineup door didn’t close for a whole decade: In (and out) walked members of the Germs, Screamers, Castration Squad and Wall of Voodoo, among others. The 90s saw Nervous Gender revived as a trio with Ochoa, his friend Joe Zinnata, and Velazquez, who was battling AIDS. He passed in 92 in at the age of 33, and “in typical Gerardo fashion, he did not go gently into that good night.” Ochoa reformed the band in 2006 with Zinnata and founding member Edward Stapleton to play their first show in 16 years, and have since remixed that studio album, compiled more live recordings, and incorporated their former manager, Tammy Fraser, as keyboardist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWYKeN_wBK0