Michelle Cruz Gonzales (born October 29, 1969, [1] in Los Angeles, California) is a musician, author, and college English instructor. [2] She is a founding member and drummer of the groundbreaking all-female hardcore punk band Spitboy. Gonzales is featured in the Green Day-produced documentary Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk (2017), directed by Corbett Redford. [3]
Before Spitboy, Gonzales played drums in Bitch Fight and guitar and tambourine in the female pop punk band Kamala and the Karnivores. [4] The latter band reformed in 2016 to play the Lookouting, a celebration of Lookout Record bands on January 1, 2017.
Gonzales, known as "Todd" in Spitboy, [5] wrote lyrics for many of the band's songs, including "In Your Face", "Ultimate Violations", and "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"
After Spitboy, Gonzales appeared in anthologies such as Listen To Your Mother and Book Lovers [6] and has contributed to Hip Mama Magazine. [7] In 2016, Gonzales published The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band. [8]
The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band is a non-linear collection of personal essays about coming of age in Spitboy, learning to navigate artistic partnerships, touring the world as the only person of color in the band. Within her memoir, Michelle describes her experience of push back within the punk music scene as a woman of color who considered herself a hardcore punk rocker. [9]
"Michelle Gonzales's punk rock account is inspiring on many levels. For outsider artists, women musicians, or anybody who has ever felt the desire to forge an identity in uncharted territory, this book is detailed, heartfelt, and historically important. Briskly told in clean, conversational prose, The Spitboy Rule is an entertaining read and functions as an important historical, critical, and sociopolitical document of pre-internet DIY music."
—Jesse Michaels, vocalist for Operation Ivy and author of Whispering Bodies.
Bitch Magazine reviewer Sarah Century wrote, "Stories of epic road trips, high-intensity punk shows, and dealing with sexist fans are told with phenomenal good humor and the wisdom of hindsight inserted wryly into the narrative. While Gonzales's life and history are singular, her story is infinitely relatable to those of us that have felt outside of our own culture, or subculture." [10]
In 2001 and 2003, Gonzales earned degrees in English and Creative Writing from Mills College, [11] where she also minored in ethnic studies. She has published in anthologies, literary journals, and Hip Mama Magazine. She teaches English and creative writing at Las Positas College. [12] [13]
While a student at Mills College, she had her only child, Luis Manuel Gonzales Peralta. Gonzales teaches English and creative writing at Las Positas College and has been married to J. Ines Peralta Hernandez since 1998.
Bratmobile was an American punk band from Olympia, Washington, active from 1991 to 2003, and known for being one of the first-generation "riot grrrl" bands. The band was influenced by several eclectic musical styles, including elements of pop, surf, and garage rock.
Kathleen Hanna is an American singer, musician and pioneer of the feminist punk riot grrrl movement, and punk zine writer. In the early-to-mid-1990s she was the lead singer of feminist punk band Bikini Kill, and then fronted Le Tigre in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Since 2010, she has recorded as the Julie Ruin.
Lookout Records was an independent record label, initially based in Laytonville, California, and later in Berkeley, focusing on punk rock. Established in 1987, the label is best known for having released Operation Ivy’s only album, Energy, and Green Day's first two albums, 39/Smooth and Kerplunk.
Fifth Column was a Canadian all-female post-punk band from Toronto, formed in the early 1980s.
7 Year Bitch was an American punk rock band from Seattle, Washington. The band was active between 1990 and 1997 and released three albums over that time. The band formed at the same time as the emergence of the riot grrrl sub-genre, which is a subgenre of punk music from the early to mid-1990s that emphasized the role of women in rock music. The Riot Grrrl movement began as a feminist response to the violence and misogyny that became more prominent in punk music in the mid-to-late 1980s, and 7 Year Bitch, an all-female punk band, emerged as part of that sub-genre.
Heavens to Betsy was an American punk band formed in Olympia, Washington in 1991 with vocalist and guitarist Corin Tucker and drummer Tracy Sawyer. The duo were part of the DIY riot grrrl, punk rock underground, and were Tucker's first band before she co-formed Sleater-Kinney.
Excuse 17 was a punk rock band from Olympia, Washington, US, that performed and recorded from 1993 to 1995. The band consisted of Becca Albee, Carrie Brownstein, and Curtis James (drums). The band recorded two full-length albums and a single, and contributed to several compilation albums.
Allison Wolfe is a Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, writer, and podcaster. As a founding member and lead singer of the punk rock band Bratmobile, she became one of the leading voices of the riot grrl movement.
Spitboy was an American anarcho-punk band founded in the San Francisco Bay area in 1990. The all-female band aggressively criticized patriarchy and gender roles but did not associate with the contemporaneous riot grrrl movement. They released several records and toured extensively and then disbanded in 1995. Members later played in the bands Instant Girl and Aus Rotten, while drummer Michelle Cruz Gonzales and vocalist Adrienne Droogas have been active as writers.
Kent McClard is a record label owner and zine publisher from Goleta, California.
Sharon Cheslow is an American musician, composer, artist, writer, photographer, educator, and archivist. In 1981, she formed Chalk Circle, Washington, D.C.'s first all-female punk band. She has since become an accomplished artist who works between different mediums, mostly sound-based.
Fuel was a short-lived Bay Area post-hardcore musical act that created both personal and political songs, something that was unique during the "first wave" of emo in the 1990s. Fuel had a sound akin to the mostly East Coast bands on Dischord Records, especially Fugazi, with twin guitars and dueling rough post-hardcore vocals. In fact, it is noted that Fuel was often jokingly referred to as "Fuelgazi." Fuel's style resembled the D.C. sound of many Dischord bands.
Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in Olympia, Washington and the greater Pacific Northwest and has expanded to at least 26 other countries. Riot grrrl is a subcultural movement that combines feminism, punk music, and politics. It is often associated with third-wave feminism, which is sometimes seen as having grown out of the riot grrrl movement and has recently been seen in fourth-wave feminist punk music that rose in the 2010s. The genre has also been described as coming out of indie rock, with the punk scene serving as an inspiration for a movement in which women could express anger, rage, and frustration, emotions considered socially acceptable for male songwriters but less common for women.
Erin Smith in Washington, D.C., is best known for being the guitarist of riot grrrl band Bratmobile, a band with drummer Molly Neuman and vocalist Allison Wolfe.
Women have made significant contributions to punk rock music and its subculture since its inception in the 1970s. In contrast to the rock music and heavy metal scenes of the 1970s, which were dominated by men, the anarchic, counter-cultural mindset of the punk scene in mid-and-late 1970s encouraged women to participate. This participation played a role in the historical development of punk music, especially in the US and UK at that time, and continues to influence and enable future generations. Women have participated in the punk scene as lead singers, instrumentalists, as all-female bands, zine contributors and fashion designers.
Evelyn McDonnell is an American writer and academic. Writing primarily about popular culture, music, and society, she "helped to forge a new kind of feminism for her generation." She is associate professor of journalism and new media at Loyola Marymount University.
Yaphet Kotto was a hardcore punk band, named after the actor, from Santa Cruz, California active between 1996 and 2005. The band Yaphet Kotto formed after the demise of another band called Staple, of which Casey Watson and Mag Delana were members. Lyrically, the group dealt with social and political issues. They were also known for their chaotic and cathartic compositions which blended melody and extremity. The group released three full-length albums on Ebullition Records, and made several singles, extended plays, and appearances on split-albums and compilations.
Kamala Lyn Parks is an American drummer, songwriter, tour booker, and author from Berkeley, California. She played drums for Kamala & The Karnivores, Cringer, The Gr’ups, Naked Aggression, Hers Never Existed, and Plot 66.