Eastside Punks, Episode 4: Nervous Gender

Although Nervous Gender found a home in Hollywood’s original punk scene and their popularity in San Francisco’s punk scene was so strong that many have mistaken them for a “Bay Area” band, their origins actually began in Los Angeles’s eastside.
The group formed at the final performance of The Snappers, a very short-lived East L.A.-based band featuring Jesse “Fixx” Amezquita and Robert Becerra-both of the eastside’s legendary Stains-Gerardo Velázquez, and Michael Ochoa. Fed up after a disastrous Snappers performance, Ochoa and Velázquez decided to start a new band with one of the show’s attendees, U.K. expat Edward Stapleton. Co-conspirator Phranc was soon added to the lineup and Nervous Gender made swift work of attacking every taboo, stereotype, and preconceived notion about religion, sexuality, and punk rock they came across…and made their points using-GASP!-synthesizers to create a racket that often sent the most ardent Black Flag fan scrambling in piss-panted fear for the nearest exit.
Over the course of their initial run, the band endured several lineup changes, incarnations, and periods of inactivity before breaking up after Velázquez’s death in 1992. The band remained inactive until 2007, when Ochoa, Stapleton, and Joe Zinnato (who had been a member before their 1992 breakup and maintains Nervous Gender’s archive) and Tammy Fraser, reactivated the band for several years, and released the Gestalt single in 2010. The band’s legacy continues to evolve-the majority of Nervous Gender’s members remain active and work together in the studio, and Stapleton continues solo as Nervous Gender Reloaded.
More than forty years since Ochoa, Stapleton, and Velázquez met at that Snappers gig, Nervous Gender’s reputation has changed from one of confusion and derision to one that, rightfully, fetes them as pioneers of both what’s become known as synth-punk and the LGBTQIA community’s musical counterculture. Contemporary listens to their 1981 album, Music from Hell, their tracks on the legendary Live at Target compilation, and assorted other recordings still make it clear they were a whole different breed of pissed off. Their withering brand of music has influenced many across the fringes of numerous pigeonholes, from punk to goth to industrial and beyond, and still sounds as uncompromising and way ahead of its time as when they first formed.
Eastside Punks is a film series about Los Angeles’s other punk scene, one whose existence has developed parallel to, and occasionally intersected with, but remains largely marginalized from L.A.’s greater musical underground. Blending live footage and interviews with multiple generations of musicians, artists, writers, and scenesters, Eastside Punks taps into stories from the scene’s history: from its beginnings in East L.A.’s art and music underground of the 1970s to the rise and fall of its premier club, The Vex, and the bands that called it home; how its 1980s rebirth as a wholly underground scene based in backyards and advertised on flyers and traded cassette tapes led to the celebrated Chicano Groove music scene of the late 1990s; and how it remains a vibrant subculture where Chicano rasquachismo meets punk DIY to create one of the few remaining corners of punk’s true underground.
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[@iknowbilly]

So much pre-internet punk is just lost to history. Thank you so much for helping to shine some light on this band.

[@petermclaughlin3292]

Yeah but now it’s on the net n we still don’t get paid . Better off busking this on the streets then net n clubs ha we all gotta eat.

[@vinylrichie007]

Nervous Gender was the East LA band that I saw live the most.

[@urdad9853]

I grew up in this scene ....n I loved these guys....Nervous Gender was so bad that they were good....I mean they had the balls to get up in front of us and make a disaster of themselves until they got good... Just like the Germs....we all wanted to have bands but we weren't willing to pay the price......

[@Slothretro]

Nervous Gender is a great underrated synth punk band

[@kryptichands968]

Their sound scared me, i love it

[@alyssaemiko]

How serendipitous… literally wearing my Music From Hell NG/Beezlebub Youth shirt when this popped up in my KZbin feed. Thank you for making this, I enjoyed it so much!

[@dxmkrew]

I’m so glad this was made. Nervous Gender has been one of my favorite bands for the last 20 years, and so much of this history could’ve easily been lost.

[@chainsawteddybear]

YES FINALLY!!!!! NERVOUS GENDER FOREVER!!!!!! WOULD LOVE TO SEE RELOADED LIVE SOMEDAY SOON!!!!

[@johnnysnotty]

They're playing a free show Thursday September 29

[@sufferingstinks_739]

NG will forever have a special place in my heart

[@remmy6610]

That is an incredibly interesting story.

[@sharonbarry8878]

Genesis P. How exciting. My mom moved out of East L.A. in the mid-60s. We lived in Estrada Courts. My mom didn't want us to be Cholas y Cholos and moved us to South Side Whittier. You guys are great. I'm sorry I didn't get to see you play. Oh, I'm 63 now. 2023

[@edwardstapleton8220]

You did an amazing job Thanl you

[@zomeeggz]

This is awesome! Great job, thanks for doing this. Looking forward to more seeing more punk documentaries on your channel.

[@ducciocostantino5464]

AN EXCELLENT DOCUMENT !!!!

[@mpaya]

I’ve been waiting for this!!! EAST SIDE PUNKS 4 EVAAA

[@zabeeden4394]

I love them so much

[@homieflix]

great band great episode great series great channel

[@matthutchinson1520]

Awesome doc, great job!

[@comidillo]

Wow thanks so much for this

[@massgeneral9873]

thanks so much for this. amazing, lucky (for us) confluence of personalities.

[@cyberia0knight]

Awesome video.

[@jennifferssister]

so badass ❤‍🔥

[@samuelblinne6040]

Awesome

[@chainsawteddybear]

I WISH THERE WAS MORE CLARITY ON SVEN, HAVE ALWAYS WONDERED IF THEY KEPT IN TOUCH OR RECONNECTED LATER.

[@synthzz9178]

Same!

[@jimmyalvarado6752]

They reconnected a few years ago.

[@chainsawteddybear]

@@jimmyalvarado6752 wow really? How do you know this ?

[@jimmyalvarado6752]

I made this video. Edward mentioned Sven contacting him a few years back. 🙂

[@artmunoz1567]

gREAT JOB gRUMPY!!

[@samuelblinne6040]

Underrated

[@Alphastare23]

I have a copy of that Gestalt single, so good.

[@scumvillage5014]

💙

[@dntskdnttll]

Are there any full videos of Phranc fronting for this band?

[@rogra2087]

Is there any way to get any Nervous Gender on vinyl....this and all the other East Los Angeles punx need proper rerelease!!! E.g. The Stains, N.G....BTW: +hose interested , Thee Undertakers have finally bequiefed a blessed lp ...search it out on Discogs an such, much luv an respects to Razorcake, the poster, and of course these badass bands♡♡♡♡ Thanx

[@kryptichands968]

Discogs, i would start there

[@rjuangsyah]

ADA INDONESIA COOOOOOOOY

[@_Ramen-Vac_]

It's not ~just anything that disturbs Stepford family values -far beyond that obvious feeling. There are plenty of twisted freaks who'd puke about it too. Unpretentious and bucking any/every label at all.