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GB Jones helped start the homocore scene in Toronto which later inspired the worldwide queer punk movement of the late 80s and early 90s. She was in the seminal, pioneering queercore band Fifth Column, to which current bands like The Hidden Cameras, Kids On TV, Xiu Xiu, and Lesbians On Ecstasy still pay tribute. She is an internationally shown visual artist. In 1996, the New York gallery Feature Inc. released a book of Jones’ drawings, and other artwork, entitled G.B. Jones, edited by Steve Lafreniere. Although widely available in the U.S. and Europe, copies were seized at the Canadian border and it was officially banned in Canada. A twenty year retrospective of her drawings, The Power and the Glory, was held in Toronto in 2005. With Bruce la Bruce, she founded and co-edited the first and arguably most important queer punk zine, JD’s, in 1985. She has directed a number of underground no-budget Super 8 films. Her best known work is The Yo-Yo Gang, a 30 minute ‘exploitation’ movie about girl gangs that has gained significant cult status even though it, like most of her films, has rarely been screened. She has starred in several underground films including Bruce la Bruce’s first feature No Skin Off My Ass. She lives and works mysteriously in Toronto.
Q&A with GB Jones
The Lollipop Generation (1993 – ?): This legendary, unfinished film, almost fifteen years in the making, about the lives of underaged porn stars is roughly to Queer Cinema what Orson Welles’ ‘The Other Side of the Wind’ is to, well, Cinema. Eternally in progress and always purportedly near completion, its current status is unknown. The artists Scott Treleaven and Paul P, who appear in the film, have confirmed that scenes were being shot by Jones as recently as 2002. A rough, short early draft of the film featuring footage shot in the early 90s has occasionally been screened at film festivals. In addition to Treleaven and P., the cast of ‘TLG’ includes Jena Von Br_cker, Johnny Noxzema, Vaginal Creme Davis, Caroline Azar, Mark Ewert, Karen Chapelle, Rachel Pepper, Diana Donato, Mitchell Watkins, and G.B. Jones.
Trailer: ‘The Lollipop Generation’
The Yo-Yo Gang (30 minutes; 1992): 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. The tag line for the film reads: “Gang girls frequently out-curse, out-fight and out-sex every boys’ gang around”. The theme song, “Yo-Yo” is performed by Fifth Column and the film also features songs by Human Ashtrays and by Anti-Scrunti Faction. The soundtrack, including these bands and songs, was a cassette tape only release on Bitch Nation Tapes. Cast: Jena von Brucker, Anita Smith, Beverly Breckenridge, Suzy Sinatra, Caroline Azar, Leslie Mah, Tracy, Candy, Mark Frietas, and G.B. Jones.
Trailer: ‘The Yo-Yo Gang’
The Troublemakers (45 minutes; 1990): The film is equally fact and fiction, documentary and performance, home movie and narrative – the line is blurred and distinctions meaningless. Shot in the condemned home of director G.B. Jones and lead actors Caroline Azar and Bruce laBruce, the total cost of the film was the price of 7 cartridges, 3 minutes in length, of Super 8 film plus developing and transfer to video with a one-to-one ratio. There are no outtakes. GB Jones: ‘“We were all really poor so I decided to make a film about what our lives were like, to really honestly portray how we were getting by. So, on one level it’s a document of how people living on the margins of society manage to exist. But on another level, I wanted the film to capture the dichotomy between how society views people like us and how we choose to be portrayed on film.’
Trailer: ‘The Troublemakers’
‘G.B. Jones has an uneasy fascination with authority and uses her gender and sexual preference to exploit fantasies of rock & roll, sex, groupies, booze, drugs, money, leather, torn jeans,motorcycles and stardom as an all out assault against values that would strive for assimilation of queer culture into the mainstream. She’s every queer girl and boy’s hero, whether you want her to be or not. Believe it or don’t, she is looking out for every queer’s best interests.
‘Her obsession with power, narrative, and the detailed reworking of Tom of Finland’s stereotypical gay male erotica is apparent in the series of drawings titled “I am a Fascist Pig.” This series recalls scenes from a dyke fantasy movie such as “Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” Here a beautiful blond female motorcycle cop is seduced by two punkrock babes, who tie her up and steal her bike. We are left to imagine that the cop was raped as the final scene leaves her tied to a tree, bare ass facing the audience, while the babes make a fast getaway.
‘The style the drawings take is usually casual, pencil on paper with heavy outlines and carefully rendered tits, asses, quads, biceps, et al.. and whether framed, pinned to the wall or just printed in a zine, they maintain the freshness of pages torn from a teenager’s school notebook.’ — Arnold Kemp, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
“ The ruined and decaying monasteries and remote, secluded spots of Caspar David Freidrich’s ink drawings are translated into this age while attempting to continue his traditions. To behold private places, to see the moment altered irrevocably, ravaged by circumstances and violence beyond our control and, afterwards, the beauty of decay. Whether discovered by chance or created by fate, the unimagined becomes visible. What was unknown becomes accessible, fleetingly merging with the aesthetic of the present till, once more, it becomes forgotten and invisible to the future.” — G.B. Jones, October 2003
2007 – 2012
‘These works portentous and precise drawings from 2007-12 depict the side of a barn, a smoking ashtray, and hard candy; dark iterations of the landscape, still life, and pop art genres, respectively. Jones’ drawings from 2016, rendered in a looser intuitive manner, portray witches, both real and from film. Jones’ subjects span the last century, and it is important to note that her images are always revised images from those found in the media.’ — P.I.
Book
Must be 21 to purchase. G.B. Jones was originally published in New York in 1994 by Feature and Instituting Contemporary Idea. In 1995, copies sent to Canada were confiscated by customs officials. All seized copies were burned.
G.B. Jones, 1994
Second printing, 2022
Edition: 500
Buy it here
Coming Soon
‘Fifth Column is an all-women experimental post punk band from Toronto, which came about during the early 1980s. Originally the group had been known as Second Unit, but they took the name Fifth Column after a military manoeuvre by Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War, in which nationalist insurrectionists within besieged Republican Madrid, called ‘the fifth column’, would aid the four columns (north, south, east and west) outside the perimeters.
‘Independent-minded, they released their recordings, including their second full length recording All-Time Queen Of The World, themselves. In 1992 they released a single, “All Women Are Bitches”, on the independent record label K Records. Despite being controversial and receiving little airplay, the recording was voted “Single Of The Week” in the UK music publication Melody Maker. Their last full-length recording, 36-C, was also released by K Records. The band’s latest release was in 2002, on the Kill Rock Stars compilation, Fields And Streams.’ — collaged
‘Like This’
‘All Women Are Bitches’
‘Donna’
Trailer: ‘She Said Boom: The Story of Fifth Column’
Xtra catches up with Kevin Hegge, Director of ‘She Said Boom: The Story of Fifth Column’
Albums
To Sir With Hate (1985, Hide Records)
All-Time Queen Of The World (1990, Hide Records)
36-C (1994, K Records)
Singles
“All Women are Bitches/Donna” 7″ on K Records (1992)
“Don’t” 7″ split single with God Is My Co-Pilot on Outpunk Records (1994)
“I Love You, But” 7″ split single with Trailer Queen on Dark Beloved Cloud Records (1995)
Cassettes
Work (1989) Hide Records & Tapes; soundtrack for the video by Paulette Philips, cassette only release
Links
Fifth Column interviewed at PunkAcademy.com
Fifth Column’s Facebook page
Fifth Column @ Spotify
The most important queer feminist band you haven’t heard of
‘J.D.s is seen by many to be the catalyst that pushed the queercore scene into existence. The editors had initially chosen the appellation “homocore” to describe the movement they began, but later replaced the word ‘homo’ with ‘queer’ to create Queercore, to better reflect the diversity of the scene and to disassociate themselves completely from the oppressive confines of the gay and lesbian communities’ orthodoxy and agenda. G.B. Jones says, “We were just as eager to provoke the gays and lesbians as we were the punks.” According to Bruce LaBruce, J.D.s initially stood for Juvenile Delinquents, but “also encompassed such youth cult icons as James Dean and J.D. Salinger.”
‘The zine featured the photos and the “Tom Girl” drawings of G.B. Jones, stories by Bruce LaBruce, and the “J.D.s Top Ten Homocore Hits”, a list of queer-themed songs such as “Off-Duty Sailor” by The Dicks, “Only Loved At Night” by The Raincoats, “Gimme Gimme Gimme (My Man After Midnight)” by The Leather Nun, “Homophobia” by Victims Family, “I, Bloodbrothers Be” by Shockheaded Peters, “The Anal Staircase” by Coil and many more. Groups like Anti-Scrunti Faction were featured in the fanzine. Contributors included Donny the Punk, comic artist Anonymous Boy, author Dennis Cooper, artist Carrie McNinch, musician Anita Smith, punk drag performer Vaginal Davis and Klaus and Jena von Brücker.’ — collaged
You can download pdfs of two issues of J.D.s for free here from the great Queer Zine Archive Project Site.
Or you can buy a special box set of meticulous recreations of the entire run of the J.D.s zine for the unpunk rock but rather art world price of $80 (Canadian) here.
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p.s. Hey. If you happen to be reading this in Paris, Zac Farley and I wil host a rare screening of our film PERMANENT GREEN LIGHT on this coming Thursday, the 20th, 5:30 pm @ GBFA Ciné-club/Paris College of Art, 241 Bd Pereirie, 75017. Admission is free, but seating is limited. Trailer. ** jay, Hi. You must be back in Blighty (how did it get that nickname) hopefully having enjoyed what Paris has to offer enough to at least feel the slightest bit less enamoured with your usual surroundings. ‘Skinimarink’ is an excellent Valentine! Anyway, what were your Paris highlights? ** Dominik, Hi!!! Yes, I thought I’d shake things up just a little bit. And, yes, I’ve heard that about love’s mucus membranes. And also that the look of shock and confusion on love’s face while you’re perving out on his body is worth the price of admission, G. ** Sypha, Hey. Happy to put a megaphone to your shout. Everyone, Sypha has news that might be of interest to some or many of you. Here he is: ‘I’d just like to give a shout-out to an upcoming Neo-Decadence roundtable discussion on Zoom that’ll be on Feb. 28, featuring Justin Isis/ Brendan Connell/ Arturo Calderon/ Golnoosh Nour, you can register here. ** Steeqhen, Thanks, my sister has never sounded better strangely enough. Keep in the mind that the ‘popular’ people in high school were at the peak of their lives and now they’re just normies. I like how when one sees that haircut nowadays you can pretty much assume the wearer is either a twink porn star or escort. I trust your brain didn’t implode, but do clarify me about that. ** James, Escorting is like being an Olympic athlete, and it’s important to have something to fall back on when the spotlight dims and/or the penises soften. I should start making a list of the things James disapproves of. Overly yellow clothes, checkmark. When you have your fist in a twink’s butt, you just slide your erection into the immersed fist. It’s not that hard. Muscle pussy, checkmark. And etc. Thank you, sir! My experience isn’t superior whatsoever, there’s just more of it. Quantity over quality. Of course with GbV you get both! Say hi to your grandma for me. Here’s how non-mainstream I am: I don’t even know what a Pikachu looks like. Can you believe it? ** Bill, We’ve submitted the film to a film festival in SF, so maybe we’ll get lucky as filmmakers and you’ll get lucky as a film buff. It’s true, back when I used to get depressed, the only thing that seemed to help was listening to Leonard Cohen’s ‘Songs of Love and Death’ or Nico’s ‘The End’. ** Steve, Those ‘hypno’ romantics seem to be people who know nothing about hypnosis and do actually think that watching videos of spinning spiral graphics overlaid over headshots of guys snorting poppers will reinvent them as braindead sluts. I won’t envy your snowfall. ‘Dutchman’, you mean the Amiri Baraka play? ** PL, Hi. I aplogize for bad news. My friend finally got back to me, and he’s at the Berlin Film Festival and said he would have to get back to me next week, so I hope you had enough on your own to satisfy and even dazzle that powers that be. How did it go? Sorry again. ‘Donating poz cum’ means being HIV-positive and have an orgasm inside someone who has the sexual fetish of wanting to catch the virus. Having been making those posts for years now and spending absurd amounts of time hunting on those sites, my fairly informed opinion is that the vast majority of what they say they do is just them fantasizing aloud together while sitting at their computers or phones. So, no, I don’t feel so concerned. No, I’ve never made contact with any of them or tried. I’m just a voyeuristic thief. ** Tyler Ookami, Well, very repetitive 20 minute long punk instrumentals doesn’t sound inherently bad to me, given what I seem to listen to. Poetry read over it, now that’s getting potentially dodgy, no? So, are you guys in the midst of working on it now? ** Nicholas., Hey there! You made it! Yes, the Cloudflare doorman monster seems to be getting lax at his job finally. Welcome back! And huge congrats on finishing your book! Awesome, what are you going to do with it now? That’s huge, my friend! ** _Black_Acrylic, Haha. I’ll keep my eye out for others, just for you. ** Lucas, The pleasure was all mine. Notley’s great. She lives here in Paris, but she’s kind of recluse, and I never see her. That makes sense about the true crime build. Huh. Interesting. Great about the Ochs post! It’s up to you. I just put the name of the writer of the text at the end of the text, or else the site name if I don’t know who wrote it, but some people put links to the actual text/site, but you don’t need to unless you want to. Awesome. My weekend was good. I just worked on the new script 80% of the time, and it’s getting there, I hope. ** HaRpEr, Hi. I really like your film. It seemed kind of masterful and ramshackle at the same time, which is the best. Really good rhythm, very involving. It was rich and relaxed, but it kind of flew by too. For me the point when you say ‘All is well’ is where the film’s internality really coalesced for me. I guess the tone reached its most complicated but clear manifestation there or something? Anyway, excellent work. I hope you do more with film. Well, I think having suspicions about the escorts is the best or at least most interesting way to read them. Oh good, about ‘Nothing’, yeah. He simplified his thing there, but it held what he’d been doing before as well. I do like ‘Disney’s Dream Debased’ indeed. ‘Off the Wall’ is the only MJ record that interests me. Post-that he’s just representing what’s already known. ** nat, They’re escorts not slaves, but apples and oranges, and they had their share of commentary, so no worries. I did hear that Cameron Picton did that with my text, and that blew my mind, but I haven’t heard it, and now I will in a few minutes, thanks to you. Wild. The world has a paucity of faggy vampires as far as I can tell, so carry on. Hm, I tend to try to stay out of games where I’m made to beat people up and vice versa, so I’m not sure if I’ll dig in. Maybe I can just bob and weave my way around them. But I don’t have a beefy pc. It doesn’t sound like fate. Enjoy it on my behalf whatever that would involve. ** Okay. Today the blog resurfaces a post I made some years ago with the purpose of introducing readers to the great artist, filmmaker, musician and pioneer of Queer Punk, the one, the only GB Jones. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 