Dicks

One of the scant hardcore outfits to emerge from the early 1980s with an outspoken and openly gay vocalist in Texas, the Dicks shared with the Big Boys the role of representing their Lone Star State on the wider national circuit. The group formed in Austin during 1980 and soon issued its first and best-known 7-inch, "Hate the Police." Later covered with notable reverence by the quasi-grunge act Mudhoney, the song ranks among the era’s standout American hardcore singles. Their initial full-length appearance came via the 1981 live split Live at Raul’s Club, shared with fellow Texans the Big Boys. Gary Floyd then departed Texas for San Francisco, assembled a fresh lineup, and delivered the band’s first studio album, Kill from the Heart, on the California punk imprint SST in 1983. A second album, These People, followed on Alternative Tentacles in 1985 before the group disbanded. In the late 1980s Floyd formed the blues-rock-oriented Sister Double Happiness. His willingness to voice the gay experience in late-1970s and early-1980s America within a scene marked by machismo and frequent hostility positioned him as a lasting influence on later acts, particularly those central to the mid-1990s queercore movement. The original Dicks lineup, minus Glen Taylor who had passed in 1997, staged reunion performances across 2004 and 2005. Gary Floyd died on May 2, 2024, at age 71 following an extended illness.