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The Dicks

In their rage-driven, nonpolemical stance against racism, homophobia, and police brutality, the Dicks embodied the most extreme confrontational and liberating aspects of the punk rock aesthetic. East Texas-bred vocalist Gary Floyd met guitarist Glen Taylor and bassist Buxf Parrot at Raul's, the storied punk dive on Guadalupe. After recruiting drummer Pat Deason, the Dicks played their first show May 16, 1980, at the Armadillo World Headquarters. Although the roar of their classic debut single, "Dicks Hate the Police," anticipated the hardcore explosion to come, Floyd's larynx-shredding expressionism had roots in the blues of the mean Old South. The quartet teamed up with fellow Austin punk pioneers the Big Boys for a split live album at Raul's in September 1980. Released the following year, the Dicks' side featured "Wheelchair Epidemic," later covered by the Jesus Lizard. Taking a cue from Austin ex-pats MDC, the band moved to San Francisco in October 1982. They performed on the Rock Against Reagan tour and SST Records released 1983's Kill From the Heart, the only full-length by the original Austin lineup. Taylor, Parrot, and Deason returned to Texas after the Reagan tour, so Floyd formed a "new" Dicks in San Francisco with guitarist Tim Carroll, bassist Sebastian Fuchs, and future Imperial Teen drummer Lynn Perko. This version of the band recorded 1984 single "I Hope You Get Drafted" and 1985 LP These People (Alternative Tentacles) before disbanding in 1986. Floyd went on to perform in Sister Double Happiness and Black Kali Ma. Parrot performed with Deason in Trouser Trout and with Taylor in Pretty Mouth before Taylor died on May 2, 1997. In 2004, the surviving Austin-era Dicks began playing reunion shows with Brian Magee and later Davy Jones on guitar. They released another live album, Hungry Butt (HotBox) in 2006. – Greg Beets

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PAST RECOMMENDED SHOWS:
02/17/10 @ Red 7
The Dicks
It’s 8pm on Hump Day – do you know where your parents are?
07/25/09 @ Room 710
The Dicks/Make Austin Weirder Fest
AUSTIN POWELL
03/27/09 @ Room 710
The Dicks
Forget the jokes about “Wheelchair Epidemic” being the theme song for aging punks. Anyone who saw the Dicks’ incendiary performance at the Austin Music Awards last week knows Gary Floyd and company still strip rock music to its bare bones and rattle the cage with anti-authority like they’re twentysomethings at Raul’s. C’mon, when’s the last time you braved the pit?
MARGARET MOSER
03/18/09 @ Austin Music Hall
2008-09 Austin Music Awards
RAOUL HERNANDEZ
03/06/08 @ Room 710
The Dicks
Gary Floyd and company roar back to life with their raw, epochal hardcore assault on bass-ackward Lone Star conventions. More than 27 years after dropping “Saturday Night at the Bookstore” on the Armadillo, the Dicks remain highly potent. The leery, beery fury of the reunited Chumps and Dead End Cruiser descendants Summer of Blood recall the high-water mark of Red River’s Blue Flamingo era. Old-schoolers Roger's Porn Collection and macabre roots-punk outfit Shootin’ Pains open.
GREG BEETS
03/30/07 @ Emo's CLOSED
The Dicks/Richard Buckner
It’s the return of the Austin expats. Gary Floyd comes home from San Francisco for another reunion of hardcore Eighties punks the Dicks following up last fall’s live album, Hungry Butt (HotBox). Need we say more? Locals Summer of Blood and Bastard Sons of the Apocalypse open. In the Lounge, now-Brooklynite Richard Buckner hits the opposite end of the spectrum with rasp and anguish off last year’s Meadow (Merge). Kent, Ohio’s mostly instrumental Six Parts Seven and Austin’s Friends of Dean Martinez open. It’s Friday night at the bookstore.
DARCIE STEVENS
05/18/06 @ Emo's CLOSED
Chaos in Tejas
Need a little chaos in your life? This year’s Chaos in Tejas festival presents a mob house of local, national, and international hardcore and punk. Though the fest technically started in Atlanta as Prank Fest, offering straight-ahead hardcore, it moved to Austin last year, where it became Rikki Fest or Chaos in Tejas, depending on whom you talked to. Organizer Timmy Hefner wanted this year’s shows to be a little more varied. “I try really hard at making it kind of weird,” he says. “It’s definitely mostly hardcore, but I try to mix it up.” As far as Texas hardcore goes, Thursday night’s headliner the Dicks are the seminal touchstone, a combo of raw punk rage and hardcore politics. Also on the bill are Limp Wrist, the Pedestrians, Sweden’s the Victims, and locals Army of Jesus and Iron Age. In Hefner’s spirit of keeping it weird, Friday’s headliners Dead Moon are perhaps the least hardcore. The Portland trio has been making fuzzed-out garage punk since the late Eighties, and singer Fred Cole’s been in bands since the Sixties. “They’ve been one of my favorite bands forever,” Hefner says. “It took some work to track them down, but they were stoked on doing it.” “I know Chaos is supposed to be a hardcore fest, so maybe they think that some of these bands need to learn that faster is not always better,” Cole jests. Friday night opens with sets from Severed Head of State, Career Suicide, the Marked Men, Criminal Damage, Bastard Sons of Apocalypse, and Signal Lost. Saturday’s headliner, Portland hardcore quartet Tragedy, promises their cult following a blistering set of particularly chaotic assault. Helping them out are Japan’s Forward and Warhead, Fucked Up, Look Back and Laugh, Bayonettes, and locals Krum Bums and Manikin. Each night you can check out an aftershow at the Eastside space 423 Tillery. Visit www.emosaustin.com for info.
AUDRA SCHROEDER
10/09/05 @ Emo's CLOSED
Randy "Biscuit" Turner Benefits
MARC SAVLOV
10/07/05 @ The Ritz
The Dicks
Downstairs at the Ritz, with Hobble; Oh, Beast!; and Trashcan Baptism – just like Austin’s punk rawk past.
06/11/05 @ Room 710
Room 710 Five-Year Anniversary
This weekend Room 710 celebrates a half-decade of rock on Red River with killer bills guaranteed to raise both steins and fists. New Jersey’s venerable Electric Frankenstein bring their garage rock juggernaut through town Friday. The quartet’s latest, Burn Bright, Burn Fast, immolates the path to freedom with a righteous amalgam of Stooges, Dead Boys, and Black Flag. Warbling fuzzmongers Drunken Thunder, glam-addled punks the Black Novas, and ill-minded sewer rockers the Poor Dumb Bastards all provide ample local support. On Saturday, Room 710 resurrects Raul’s with reunited Austin punk legends the Dicks. Although guitarist Glen Taylor is no longer with us, the Dicks’ raging lead boot in the ass of the status quo hasn’t lost its kick. Blues-belting Dicks vocalist Gary Floyd brings his Buddha Brothers to bear on the festivities, while country kickers Shootin’ Pains feature Dicks bassist Buxf Parrott and drummer Pat Deason. Japan’s Green Milk From the Planet Orange closes out the weekend on Sunday with King Coffey’s heavy-hitting Rubble and the Buddha Brothers.
GREG BEETS
Last Updated: August 30, 2007

A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Origin: 1980-1986
Genre: Punk
See Also:
Big Boys
Austin Music Awards:
2008: Hall of Fame Inductee
Record Reviews:
Hungry Butt
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Full Discography:
Kill From the Heart
SST (1983) 		 
These People
Alternative Tentacles (1985) 		 
Dicks 1980-1986
Alternative Tentacles (1997) 		 
Hungry Butt
Hot Box (2006) 		 
From the Archives:
East Texas Pines (Music Story July 13, 2012)
BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ
Mondo Texas Platters Part 2
Never Say Goodbye (Music Story March 13, 2009)
BY AUSTIN POWELL
Past and present mash up at the 2008-09 Austin Music Awards
Matt Stokes: These Are the Days (Arts Story January 23, 2009)
BY RACHEL KOPER
Start your own damn band
testsite 08.5 ~ Temporary Services (Arts Story November 14, 2008)
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Barbara Jordan, punk rocker?
TCB (Music Column November 10, 2006)
BY CHRISTOPHER GRAY
The Greatest Gift (Music Story September 1, 2006)
BY GREG BEETS
When Scratch Acid scorched the earth, an oral history
One Two Three Faw! (Music Story December 27, 2002)
BY MARGARET MOSER
A brief history of Texas garage rock
Page Two (November 16, 2001)
BY LOUIS BLACK
Austin music clubs are usually one of the first casualties in an economic downturn.
Hello Dottie (Music Story October 13, 2000)
BY CHRISTOPHER GRAY
Feisty, Flame-Haired Veteran Punkaroo Dottie Farrell Cuts Loose
Indian Summer (Music Story June 30, 2000)
BY KEN LIECK
Saturday Night at the Bookstore (Music Story May 12, 2000)
BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ
Gary Floyd: Once a Dick, Always a Dick
ALL THE DICKS ARCHIVES