20th Anniversary Year for Boys' Entrance

It was 20 years ago that I first traveled to San Francisco and visited my friend Jon Ginoli. Jon had just returned from our old stomping grounds, Champaign/Urbana, Il. where he had just recorded the first Pansy Division demos. Jon first knew me as the boyfriend of one of his fellow DJs at WPGU radio- the campus radio station at the U of I. I had demos for my band, Talltrees in rotation at the station. I believe I was the first queer musician Jon ever knew. We both worked together at Discount Records and I think at Record Service too. We also worked together at The Bar, where I worked the coat check, and he spun records. And yes, Jon and I briefly "dated". Improbably, that started after a few cocktails and seeing Ultravox at Mabels Nightclub.

I sat on Jon's bed and he played me the demos- and I just laughed and laughed. We both did. The songs were so funny, and baldly in-your-face. It was the shock of the NEW! Even though I had never been in a closet as a musician, it was Jon who showed me a different way of writing. He really tore away the ambiguous pronouns and cloaked meanings. He put it out there. He wrote about "The Cocksucker Club". I actually contributed a small lyrical change to that song. He wrote about doing it in "your parent's King-sized bed". I said, "No, that should be changed to "Queen-sized bed". We laughed some more and he agreed. Later he re-recorded the lyric with my change.

As soon as I got back to Chicago, I was driving West on Belmont Ave. and I drove past a school with these words carved in stone above the door, "Boys Entrance". I thought to myself, "that sounds like a band I should be in." Soon thereafter, I found a keyboard that could record sequences. It enabled me to layer parts together in pre-production for the first Boys' Entrance album, "Exit or Entrance". I recorded it and released it in 1991.

The first album has never been released as a cd, and I am very excited to announce that I am re-releasing it as a 20th Anniversary edition later this year. It feels like a fitting bookend and commemoration of Boys' Entrance.

I will also be recording new material with Mike Ferro and M@ Ramage for release as a single or as part of a compilation album. So watch and start spreading the word. It is the 20th Anniversary of Boys' Entrance!