The Dicks
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The Dicks are a band considered influential in introducing the sound of hardcore punk, particularly in their home state of Texas.
Formed in Austin in 1980, the members were Gary Floyd, Buxf Parrot, Pat Deason and Glen Taylor. Their first single Dicks Hate The Police, released in 1980, brought them much attention and is now regarded as a classic hardcore record. They often played with fellow Texans Big Boys and in 1981 released a split single Recorded Live At Raul's Club and a split album entitled Live At Raul's with them. They also played with MDC, whose independent record label R Radical Records released some of their later recordings. As a style of music, hardcore punk seemed to spring up in various cities at the same time, and it is these three bands which are credited with its conception in Texas. After a few years Floyd relocated to San Francisco and, with new members Tim Carroll, Sebastian Fuchs, and Lynn Perko (formerly of all-women band The Wrecks), a second version of The Dicks began recording and playing. The LP Kill From The Heart was released in 1983 on SST Records and These People followed in 1985 on Alternative Tentacles.
As a politically radical band they did not shy from controversy. Singer Gary Floyd was one of a handful of openly gay musicians in the hardcore scene. His songs "Saturday Night at the Bookstore" and "Off Duty Sailor" address issues of homophobia and sexual identity. The Queercore band Limp Wrist pays homage to Floyd and Randy 'Biscuit' Turner from the Big Boys, as well as Joshua Plague of Mukilteo Fairies, as pioneers in this respect on their 2004 song "Ode".
Gary Floyd later started the psychedelic rock band Sister Double Happiness in San Francisco in the late 1980s. After that band ended he began Black Kali Ma and then The Gary Floyd Band. In the early 2000s he began performing and recording blues.