Hunx and His Punx - Gay Singles (2009)
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"Hunx and His Punx make swooning bubblegum-punk, and though they aren't the first group to marry the effortless, sugary pop of 60s girl groups with the garage-rock revival, they might be the first whose skuzzy "My Boyfriend's Back"-like songs are explicitly homoerotic. There is a wry dissonance between the songs' easy three-chord strums, resonant vintage organ flourishes, and hand-clapped percussion and their plainspoken lyrics about getting into someone's pants. The songwriters (most tracks are credited to a combination of Bogart and Justin Champlin, the garage-punk character known as Nobunny) may think they're being shocking, but the lyrics are actually charmingly innocent. Hunx is interested in winning over straight guys ("I don't think he's gonna miss her/ Cuz I'm a really good kisser," Bogart sings on "Good Kisser"), and flipping 60s girl-pop tropes like waiting for boys to call.
The outrageously tarty presentation plus faux naïve musical content highlights a winning group of influences-- John Waters, the Shangri-Las, the Ramones-- and the collection is surprisingly cohesive for a singles compilation. Bogart sings with a whining, nasal bray that may be off-putting or gratingly flat to some, but swathed in cheap, tinny reverb, it gets the rebellious, adolescent vibe right. After all the homoeroticism, this is at heart a record about the thrust and vitality of rock'n'roll: "You like Morrissey, you like U2/ What the Fuck is wrong with you?" Bogart sings on opener "You Don't Like Rock'n'Roll", and if you think it's a legit question you might want to sing it along with him.
