Transvestite rock is the new sensation in Pernambuco
The band Textículos de Mary, from Recife, awes the audience at the Abril Pro Rock festival with a mix of punk rock, gay pornography and sheer irreverence
Alex Menotti
14/05/2001
They made a big impression at the Abril Pro Rock 2001 festival. Either because of their naughtiness or because of the porn punk presented onstage, the Pernambuco-based band Textículos de Mary (or Mary’s Texticles. The term Textículos was made up by the group. It is a combination of the words ‘texts’ and ‘testicles’) is hyped wherever it goes. The band is the materialization of New York City’s underground culture as portrayed by Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground (except for the bad trips), made of rough, garage-like songs and androgynous looks.
The lyrics to songs like Obraite and Propróstata border pornography and are very amusing. Textículos has only released two demo tapes, so far. There are only ten copies available of the first one, Xivula. "Even we don’t have a copy of it", says Fábio, also known as Chupeta (Pacifier), one of the vocalists and main writer with the band. The follow-up tape, Tivira, ran around a bit more: they made fifty copies. TDM started three years ago. "We used to get together and perform at birthday parties", he reveals.
But Fábio soon begins to tell the other version of how TDM was born, a lot more absurd and hilarious tale: "The myth of the band is Mary’s self-mutilation. She was a transvestite who used to work in Recife’s downtown area. One night, she didn’t have any money to pay for a ‘date’ with four guys. She was beaten up by them and left to die, covered in blood in some bathroom’s floor. Depressed and devastated, she grabbed the razor she used to hide inside her mouth, cut off her own genitalia and disappeared. Nobody knows where Mary is, now."
Fábio continues: "Mixed with the piss, sperm and bacteria found in bathrooms, the genitalia suffers a chemical reaction and three mutant transvestites rise from it. When they go out to town, they get struck by the madness and start scaring people off. The only people who are able to accept these three creatures are the drug addicts, street kids, the whores, the transvestites, the social scum." But the saga continues.
The attack of the mutant transvestites
Textículos de Mary are the three drag queen singers (Chupeta, Lollypop and Pixóta), accompanied by the Banda das Cachorras (Bitches’ Band) – Bambi and Caiadraga (guitars); Dúbia Katesuelen (bass); Loiranegra (percussion); Scarlet Cavalera (drums) and Cilene Lapadinha (tambourine).
Fábio Chupeta proceeds with his freaky story on the mythology of the group and "reveals" how the drags met with Banda das Cachorras: "Running from the police, after a party, the three of us stepped onto a pub where a forró band was playing. Annoyed with the music, we went right up to the musicians and bit them all. They were then turned into indefinite transvestites, because they are still being transformed. So we started making music for the poems that we found in one of Mary’s books. That’s why we’re Textículos de Mary."
TDM followed performing in well-known clubs from Recife, such as Soparia and Pina de Copacabana. They were eventually billed to play the Rec Beat Festival and PE no Rock Festival, as well as the most famous one, Abril Pro Rock. At the latter, the group presented an insane set with self-sodomy numbers where one of the vocalists used the microphone as a pleasure toy. "That was the most absurd thing we’ve ever done onstage.", Fábio swears. Such dementia granted the Textículos a lot of media. But what about an album? "We haven’t gotten any concrete proposals, yet. But we’re after it.", he informs.
The bad side of homosexuality
It would be likely that a band like this one, with a strong homosexual appeal (although tending to the jocose side) would suffer some kind of discrimination from rock fans. But it’s not quite like that. "The band is well accepted in most venues, and the people rave with it. As strange as it may sound, the gay audience is not very keen on us. They say we’re promoting the bad side of homosexuality", Fábio explains.
Leaking irony, he sums up Textículos de Mary’s philosophy. "We are everything that sucks in rock’n’roll. David Bowie’s bad taste in clothing and Lou Reed’s ‘good mood’, Sex Pistols’ ‘complex’ music, New York Dolls’ ‘good manners’ and Syd Barret’s swing... or, the best of rock’n’roll." You can hear tracks like Charles Bronson Song, Sometimes I Feel Like Crazy, Jennifer, Serviço de Utilidade Pública and Uma Linda em Berlim at the site Manguetronic.
The lyrics to songs like Obraite and Propróstata border pornography and are very amusing. Textículos has only released two demo tapes, so far. There are only ten copies available of the first one, Xivula. "Even we don’t have a copy of it", says Fábio, also known as Chupeta (Pacifier), one of the vocalists and main writer with the band. The follow-up tape, Tivira, ran around a bit more: they made fifty copies. TDM started three years ago. "We used to get together and perform at birthday parties", he reveals.
But Fábio soon begins to tell the other version of how TDM was born, a lot more absurd and hilarious tale: "The myth of the band is Mary’s self-mutilation. She was a transvestite who used to work in Recife’s downtown area. One night, she didn’t have any money to pay for a ‘date’ with four guys. She was beaten up by them and left to die, covered in blood in some bathroom’s floor. Depressed and devastated, she grabbed the razor she used to hide inside her mouth, cut off her own genitalia and disappeared. Nobody knows where Mary is, now."
Fábio continues: "Mixed with the piss, sperm and bacteria found in bathrooms, the genitalia suffers a chemical reaction and three mutant transvestites rise from it. When they go out to town, they get struck by the madness and start scaring people off. The only people who are able to accept these three creatures are the drug addicts, street kids, the whores, the transvestites, the social scum." But the saga continues.
The attack of the mutant transvestites
Textículos de Mary are the three drag queen singers (Chupeta, Lollypop and Pixóta), accompanied by the Banda das Cachorras (Bitches’ Band) – Bambi and Caiadraga (guitars); Dúbia Katesuelen (bass); Loiranegra (percussion); Scarlet Cavalera (drums) and Cilene Lapadinha (tambourine).
Fábio Chupeta proceeds with his freaky story on the mythology of the group and "reveals" how the drags met with Banda das Cachorras: "Running from the police, after a party, the three of us stepped onto a pub where a forró band was playing. Annoyed with the music, we went right up to the musicians and bit them all. They were then turned into indefinite transvestites, because they are still being transformed. So we started making music for the poems that we found in one of Mary’s books. That’s why we’re Textículos de Mary."
TDM followed performing in well-known clubs from Recife, such as Soparia and Pina de Copacabana. They were eventually billed to play the Rec Beat Festival and PE no Rock Festival, as well as the most famous one, Abril Pro Rock. At the latter, the group presented an insane set with self-sodomy numbers where one of the vocalists used the microphone as a pleasure toy. "That was the most absurd thing we’ve ever done onstage.", Fábio swears. Such dementia granted the Textículos a lot of media. But what about an album? "We haven’t gotten any concrete proposals, yet. But we’re after it.", he informs.
The bad side of homosexuality
It would be likely that a band like this one, with a strong homosexual appeal (although tending to the jocose side) would suffer some kind of discrimination from rock fans. But it’s not quite like that. "The band is well accepted in most venues, and the people rave with it. As strange as it may sound, the gay audience is not very keen on us. They say we’re promoting the bad side of homosexuality", Fábio explains.
Leaking irony, he sums up Textículos de Mary’s philosophy. "We are everything that sucks in rock’n’roll. David Bowie’s bad taste in clothing and Lou Reed’s ‘good mood’, Sex Pistols’ ‘complex’ music, New York Dolls’ ‘good manners’ and Syd Barret’s swing... or, the best of rock’n’roll." You can hear tracks like Charles Bronson Song, Sometimes I Feel Like Crazy, Jennifer, Serviço de Utilidade Pública and Uma Linda em Berlim at the site Manguetronic.