Off the 405: Hunx and His Punx

Hunx and His Punx are ecstatic campy fun, laced with a bite. The trio—Seth Bogart, Shannon Shaw (of Shannon & The Clams) , and Erin Emslie—helped define a strain of early-2000s queer garage punk that's as indebted to analog retro-trash aesthetics and girl-group harmonies as to riot grrrl and DIY noise. Their command of dark humor does the best any of us can in a weird, wild, heavy world—only with sharper hooks and better eyeliner. It’s a sensibility that repurposes a chewed-up 20th century for the present, placing them in a lineage of outsider pop closer to the gleefully twisted kitsch of John Waters than to straightforward punk revivalism. After more than a decade-long hiatus, Hunx and His Punx released Walked Out on the World and Lived to Tell the Tale. With singles like “Alone in Hollywood on Acid” and “No Way Out,” the album is a jubilant celebration of chaotic glam and tender depravity.