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One of the few hardcore bands from the early '80s to feature an outspoken and openly gay frontman -- in Texas, no less -- the Dicks, alongside the <a href="spotify:artist:5dLLOxuGeaMlFV5OAEsmtL">Big Boys</a>, were the national scene's voice from the Lone Star State. Formed in Austin in 1980, the Dicks released their first and most famous single "Hate the Police," shortly thereafter. The track, which would later get a most reverential treatment by quasi-grunge hucksters <a href="spotify:artist:7LuYiSXiWs86rwWJjEEgB9">Mudhoney</a>, is considered one of the best from the heyday of American hardcore. The band's debut, a live split LP with fellow Texans the <a href="spotify:artist:5dLLOxuGeaMlFV5OAEsmtL">Big Boys</a> titled Live at Raul's Club, was released in 1981. <a href="spotify:artist:7MMUH8tJhSNXrl7PcRqudB">Gary Floyd</a> would leave Texas and relocate to San Francisco, putting together a new lineup of the Dicks and releasing that roster's debut -- this time a studio release -- Kill from the Heart on legendary California punk label <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22SST%22">SST</a> in 1983. The band would release one more album, 1985's These People on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Alternative+Tentacles%22">Alternative Tentacles</a>. The group split up shortly afterward, with <a href="spotify:artist:7MMUH8tJhSNXrl7PcRqudB">Floyd</a> starting the more blues-rock-influenced <a href="spotify:artist:2YAefKde0TQB5NUhDlguak">Sister Double Happiness</a> in the late '80s. <a href="spotify:artist:7MMUH8tJhSNXrl7PcRqudB">Floyd</a>'s ability to identify with the gay experience in America in the late '70s and early '80s in a genre that was heavily macho and resistant to such ideas made him a great influence to subsequent bands, especially those who would make up the queercore movement in the mid-'90s. The original lineup of the Dicks (sans Glen Taylor, who died in 1997), played a serios of reunion shows in 2004 and 2005. <a href="spotify:artist:7MMUH8tJhSNXrl7PcRqudB">Gary Floyd</a> died on May 2, 2024, after a period of poor health; he was 71. ~ Christopher True, Rovi
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