Aaron Detroit
Encyclopedia
Aaron Detroit is an American
musician, zine
writer, and music journalist. He first came to be noticed as a zine
writer during his mid-teens in 1992.
and Hardcore punk
scenes of the mid-1990s in Michigan
and the Northwest
. His bands included Martha Dumptruck (named after a character from the 1989 film Heathers
) and the spoof-metalcore
band Miss Thing.
In 1997, Aaron performed as the lead vocalist for the San Francisco -based dark-punk band The Little Deaths
which also featured Mikel Delgado of Cinnamon Imperials and later Whysol Lane, Scott Bradley of Bumblescrump, and, initially, Trixie of Kreviss. His style has been described as "informed by feminine sensibilities, balanced by a masculine yelp". The Little Deaths
became part of the San Francisco Bay-Area's late-90's musical renaissance which spawned bands like Subtonix, The Phantom Limbs
, Erase Errata
, The Vanishing, and the 7 Year Bitch
offshoot, Clone. The Little Deaths
toured and played shows with bands such as The Need
, Le Tigre
, The Haggard and Imperial Teen
extensively until 2000. They released one critically acclaimed album entitled Destination: Sexy on New York–based Queercore
label Heartcore Records in 1999. The Little Deaths
went through several line-up changes before disbanding in 2002.
Between 2000 and 2002, Aaron performed several performance art
pieces in San Francisco with his short-lived and mostly electronic Dark Wave musical project, Ghost Hips, and with former Little Deaths guitarist Clay Walsh.
In 2002, he appeared in the Queer Punk issue of infamous punk publication Maximum RocknRoll
. Included was an interview with Cookie Tuff of Subtonix and Aaron, as well as his participation in a round-table style discussion between several queer-identified musicians, including Martin Sorrondeguy
of Los Crudos
and Limp Wrist
, and Gary Fembot and Iraya Robles of Sta-Prest
.
Between 2002 and 2004, he played synthesizers and sang in Secret Skin (originally called Last Dance), a Rozz Williams
-inspired collaboration with Cookie Tuff. They released the track "Taped Up and Boxed In" on the Cochon Records compilation Nostalgia Del Buio alongside tracks by musical peers, The Vanishing, The Phantom Limbs
, and Lost Sounds
. The band also recorded an EP, Horrible Prettiness that has yet to be released officially.
Now living and working in Los Angeles, CA, Aaron Detroit has since collaborated with Dame Darcy
in the Dark Wave band Death By Doll (whose CD entitled Gasoline featuring Detroit was released by Emperor Penguin Recordings on October 31, 2006 ) and toured the USA with the project in the Fall of 2006. Detroit is currently running The Lovers' Will Records & Press, a boutique
record label and chapbook
press. In April 2010, The Lovers' Will released a deluxe vinyl LP edition of The Ventriloquist
by KatieJane Garside
's Folk Noir band, Ruby Throat.
style of prose
, a mix of fantasy
and reality
often touching on themes such as power imbalance and frequently death, was found in his long-running Swirlies self-publication and later in Homocore Detroit, a publication for one of the many Homocore chapters active in the early to mid-1990s. Swirlies also included many notable interviews such as 7 Year Bitch
and Babes in Toyland
.
. His music writing can also be found on the website for Amoeba Music
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
musician, zine
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
writer, and music journalist. He first came to be noticed as a zine
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
writer during his mid-teens in 1992.
Musical Output
His musical career began in the No WaveNo Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
and Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
scenes of the mid-1990s in Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
and the Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
. His bands included Martha Dumptruck (named after a character from the 1989 film Heathers
Heathers
Heathers is a 1989 black comedy film starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and Shannen Doherty. The film portrays four girls in a trend-setting clique at a fictional Ohio high school...
) and the spoof-metalcore
Metalcore
Metalcore is a subgenre of heavy metal combining various elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two genres. The term took on its current meaning in the mid-1990s, describing bands such as Earth Crisis, Deadguy and Integrity...
band Miss Thing.
In 1997, Aaron performed as the lead vocalist for the San Francisco -based dark-punk band The Little Deaths
The Little Deaths
The Little Deaths was an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1997. The band was associated with the 1990s Queercore movement and became part of the San Francisco Bay-Area's late-90's musical renaissance which spawned bands like Subtonix, The Phantom Limbs, Erase Errata, The...
which also featured Mikel Delgado of Cinnamon Imperials and later Whysol Lane, Scott Bradley of Bumblescrump, and, initially, Trixie of Kreviss. His style has been described as "informed by feminine sensibilities, balanced by a masculine yelp". The Little Deaths
The Little Deaths
The Little Deaths was an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1997. The band was associated with the 1990s Queercore movement and became part of the San Francisco Bay-Area's late-90's musical renaissance which spawned bands like Subtonix, The Phantom Limbs, Erase Errata, The...
became part of the San Francisco Bay-Area's late-90's musical renaissance which spawned bands like Subtonix, The Phantom Limbs
The Phantom Limbs
The Phantom Limbs formed in Oakland, California in 1999. They combined no wave, horror punk, deathrock, and goth to create a unique synthpunk sound.-History:...
, Erase Errata
Erase Errata
Erase Errata is a band from San Francisco, California. They often name experimentalists such as Captain Beefheart, The Fall, and the Minutemen as inspirations...
, The Vanishing, and the 7 Year Bitch
7 Year Bitch
7 Year Bitch was an American punk rock band from Seattle, Washington that was active for 7 years, between 1990 and 1997. Their career yielded three albums, and was impacted by the deaths of their guitarist Stefanie Sargent and close-friend Mia Zapata of fellow Seattle punks The Gits.-Career:7 Year...
offshoot, Clone. The Little Deaths
The Little Deaths
The Little Deaths was an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1997. The band was associated with the 1990s Queercore movement and became part of the San Francisco Bay-Area's late-90's musical renaissance which spawned bands like Subtonix, The Phantom Limbs, Erase Errata, The...
toured and played shows with bands such as The Need
The Need
The Need was a queercore band that originated in Olympia, Washington in the late 1990s. It was formed by Rachel Carns and Radio Sloan ; both were veterans of other indie rock bands...
, Le Tigre
Le Tigre
Le Tigre is an American electroclash band, formed by Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman in 1998. It also featured Sadie Benning from 1998 until 2001, and JD Samson for the rest of the group's run...
, The Haggard and Imperial Teen
Imperial Teen
Imperial Teen is a San Francisco-based indie pop group made up of Roddy Bottum primarily on guitar/vocals, Will Schwartz primarily on guitar/vocals, Lynn Truell primarily on drums and backing vocals, and Jone Stebbins primarily on bass and backing...
extensively until 2000. They released one critically acclaimed album entitled Destination: Sexy on New York–based Queercore
Queercore
Queercore is a cultural and social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of punk. It is distinguished by being discontent with society in general and its rejection of the disapproval of the gay, bisexual, and lesbian communities and their "oppressive agenda"...
label Heartcore Records in 1999. The Little Deaths
The Little Deaths
The Little Deaths was an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1997. The band was associated with the 1990s Queercore movement and became part of the San Francisco Bay-Area's late-90's musical renaissance which spawned bands like Subtonix, The Phantom Limbs, Erase Errata, The...
went through several line-up changes before disbanding in 2002.
Between 2000 and 2002, Aaron performed several performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
pieces in San Francisco with his short-lived and mostly electronic Dark Wave musical project, Ghost Hips, and with former Little Deaths guitarist Clay Walsh.
In 2002, he appeared in the Queer Punk issue of infamous punk publication Maximum RocknRoll
Maximum RocknRoll
Maximum rocknroll is a widely distributed, monthly not-for-profit fanzine based in San Francisco, USA. It features interviews, columns, and reviews from international contributors...
. Included was an interview with Cookie Tuff of Subtonix and Aaron, as well as his participation in a round-table style discussion between several queer-identified musicians, including Martin Sorrondeguy
Martin Sorrondeguy
Martin Sorrondeguy is the singer of hardcore bands Los Crudos and Limp Wrist, the founder of the DIY record label, Lengua Armada Discos, documentary film director and a prominent figure in both the straight edge scene and the queercore scene....
of Los Crudos
Los Crudos
Los Crudos was an American hardcore punk band from Chicago, Illinois that existed from 1991 to 1998. The band played in the hardcore punk style, and were a popular act within the DIY underground of the 1990s. Being Latino, they paved the way for later Spanish-speaking punk bands and helped to...
and Limp Wrist
Limp Wrist
Limp Wrist is an American hardcore punk band featuring members of Los Crudos, Hail Mary, Devoid of Faith, and Kill the Man Who Questions. Playing short, fast hardcore punk-styled music, the band touches upon themes concerning the LGBT community in their live performances and lyrics. They identify...
, and Gary Fembot and Iraya Robles of Sta-Prest
Sta-Prest (band)
-Biography:The band first made its appearance on the queercore record label Outpunk Records, on its compilation Outpunk Dance Party. Soon afterwards they released their first EP, Vespa Sex, also on Outpunk, followed later by a 7" single...
.
Between 2002 and 2004, he played synthesizers and sang in Secret Skin (originally called Last Dance), a Rozz Williams
Rozz Williams
Rozz Williams was an American vocalist and musician of several varieties, most famous for fronting the band Christian Death, then later Shadow Project with musician Eva O, though his main project throughout his career was the industrial, Premature Ejaculation...
-inspired collaboration with Cookie Tuff. They released the track "Taped Up and Boxed In" on the Cochon Records compilation Nostalgia Del Buio alongside tracks by musical peers, The Vanishing, The Phantom Limbs
The Phantom Limbs
The Phantom Limbs formed in Oakland, California in 1999. They combined no wave, horror punk, deathrock, and goth to create a unique synthpunk sound.-History:...
, and Lost Sounds
Lost Sounds
Lost Sounds was a rock band from Memphis, Tennessee. Starting in March 1999, the band was made up of Rich Crook on drums, Patrick Jordan on bass, Jay Reatard on synth, guitar and vocals, and Alicja Trout also on synth, guitar and vocals. The band, originally working within the garage rock genre,...
. The band also recorded an EP, Horrible Prettiness that has yet to be released officially.
Now living and working in Los Angeles, CA, Aaron Detroit has since collaborated with Dame Darcy
Dame Darcy
Dame Darcy is an alternative cartoonist. Her comic book, Meatcake, has been published by Fantagraphics since 1993. Darcy has also released several graphic novels, Frightful Fairytales, Dame Darcy's Meatcake Compilation, The Illustrated Jane Eyre, Dollerium , Comic Book Tattoo, and Gasoline .-...
in the Dark Wave band Death By Doll (whose CD entitled Gasoline featuring Detroit was released by Emperor Penguin Recordings on October 31, 2006 ) and toured the USA with the project in the Fall of 2006. Detroit is currently running The Lovers' Will Records & Press, a boutique
Boutique
A boutique is a small shopping outlet, especially one that specializes in elite and fashionable items such as clothing and jewelry. The word is French for "shop", via Latin from Greek ἀποθήκη , "storehouse"....
record label and chapbook
Chapbook
A chapbook is a pocket-sized booklet. The term chap-book was formalized by bibliophiles of the 19th century, as a variety of ephemera , popular or folk literature. It includes many kinds of printed material such as pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales,...
press. In April 2010, The Lovers' Will released a deluxe vinyl LP edition of The Ventriloquist
The Ventriloquist (album)
The Ventriloquist is an album by Ruby Throat, a musical act consisting of Katiejane Garside and Chris Whittingham. It was released on 8 November 2007 on a limited run of only 500 copies. This consisted of books bound from Indian vintage red leather, the CD in a cloth pocket in the back of the book...
by KatieJane Garside
KatieJane Garside
KatieJane Garside is an English vocalist, lyricist, artist and writer who fronted the first incarnation of the '90s noise rock band Daisy Chainsaw and now fronts Queen Adreena, an independent rock band from London....
's Folk Noir band, Ruby Throat.
Zine Writing
His transgressiveTransgressive
Transgressive may mean:*Transgressive art, a name given art forms that violate perceived boundaries.*Transgressive fiction, a modern style in literature.*Transgressive Records, a United Kingdom-based independent record label....
style of prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
, a mix of fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
and reality
Reality
In philosophy, reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible...
often touching on themes such as power imbalance and frequently death, was found in his long-running Swirlies self-publication and later in Homocore Detroit, a publication for one of the many Homocore chapters active in the early to mid-1990s. Swirlies also included many notable interviews such as 7 Year Bitch
7 Year Bitch
7 Year Bitch was an American punk rock band from Seattle, Washington that was active for 7 years, between 1990 and 1997. Their career yielded three albums, and was impacted by the deaths of their guitarist Stefanie Sargent and close-friend Mia Zapata of fellow Seattle punks The Gits.-Career:7 Year...
and Babes in Toyland
Babes in Toyland (band)
Babes in Toyland was an American alternative rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1987. The band was formed by Oregon native Kat Bjelland , with Lori Barbero and Michelle Leon , who was later replaced by Maureen Herman in 1992...
.
Music Writing
In 2006, he became a regular contributor to SuicideGirls.com's Newswire as a music editor. His contributions include a notable interview with rock singer Marilyn MansonMarilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...
. His music writing can also be found on the website for Amoeba Music
Amoeba Music
Amoeba Music is an independent music chain with stores in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Founded by former employees of nearby Rasputin Records, it opened on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in 1990. The stores are unusually large given their independent status...
.
Quotes
"I Feel Like 2001 is 1981, with the super-fast advancement of technology, art damage, people doing lots of coke, all this nihilism. And it scares me, and I want to talk about that and what my identity as a human being is. So much of what was written about The Little Deaths was about our sexualities...I never got asked much beyond that...it got irritating...it was really boring." From the March 2002 issue of MRR.Discography
- Cholesterol 7" (single), with Martha Dumptruck (1997) released by Bitch Kitty Inc.
- Miss Thing (demo cassette), with Miss Thing (1997) released by Starbreath Tapes
- Destination: Sexy (album), with The Little DeathsThe Little DeathsThe Little Deaths was an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1997. The band was associated with the 1990s Queercore movement and became part of the San Francisco Bay-Area's late-90's musical renaissance which spawned bands like Subtonix, The Phantom Limbs, Erase Errata, The...
(1999) released by Heartcore Records - Nostalgia Del Buio (compilation), with Secret Skin (2004) released by Cochon Records
- Horrible Prettiness (EP), with Secret Skin (2004) unreleased
- GasolineDame DarcyDame Darcy is an alternative cartoonist. Her comic book, Meatcake, has been published by Fantagraphics since 1993. Darcy has also released several graphic novels, Frightful Fairytales, Dame Darcy's Meatcake Compilation, The Illustrated Jane Eyre, Dollerium , Comic Book Tattoo, and Gasoline .-...
(album), with Death By DollDame DarcyDame Darcy is an alternative cartoonist. Her comic book, Meatcake, has been published by Fantagraphics since 1993. Darcy has also released several graphic novels, Frightful Fairytales, Dame Darcy's Meatcake Compilation, The Illustrated Jane Eyre, Dollerium , Comic Book Tattoo, and Gasoline .-...
(2006) released by Emperor Penguin Recordings