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Gary Floyd, lead singer for the hugely influential hardcore punk band Dicks, has died. Floyd’s contemporary Mike Watt broke the news on Facebook. No cause of death has been reported. Floyd was 71.
Dicks started in 1980 in Austin, and they released their debut EP Hate The Police independently. Floyd was one of the first openly gay singers for a punk band, and he was both confrontational and defiant about his sexuality. The band arrived early in the very first hardcore wave in America, and their frenzied riffage and withering lyrics proved influential, with bands like Mudhoney and the Jesus Lizard covering their songs. The Butthole Surfers named a 1984 song after Floyd.
In 1983, Gary Floyd moved to San Francisco and started a new version of Dicks. They released their debut album Kill From The Heart on Black Flag’s SST label, and they followed it with 1985’s These People on Alternative Tentacles. Floyd went on to form Sister Double Happiness, a bluesy indie band who released four albums before breaking up in 1995. Dicks reunited in 2004, and they were the subject of the 2015 documentary The Dicks From Texas. They played their final show in 2016.
Below, check out some of Gary Floyd’s work.