aaamusic | On 20, Oct 2010

When GAY FOR JOHNNY DEPP’s debut full length, The Politics of Cruelty was released in 2007, it was received to first-class acclaim; the rare example of a hardcore band receiving positive reviews in publications such as New Music Express, Q, The Guardian and Uncut as well as heavier rock publications such as Rock Sound, Terrorizer and Kerrang!. Instead of featuring the usual biographical material, advance copies of the album sent to the media contained a highly explicit fan letter to actor Johnny Depp, purported to be written by someone simply known as ‘Brad’. This approach was in keeping with the band’s previous promotional material, which have included bottles of amyl nitrite, surgical rubber gloves, condoms, explicit photographs and further explicit letters from ‘Brad’. The album appeared in the NME Chart’s Top 10 throughout November of 2007 and that same month singer Marty Leopard was invited to take part in the NME’s annual Christmas Pub Golf (highlights of the evening have subsequently appeared on the internet).

However, in keeping with the band’s anti-mainstream model and anti-marketing manner, the singer subsequently referred to NME and other British music journals as “the enemy” and when asked to comment for a press blurb, he screamed, “We don’t want to be in fucking NME!”  The band’s approach has been consistently unflinching; GAY FOR JOHNNY DEPP particularly embraces acrid relationships with rock critics, prominently displaying negative reviews on its website (www.gayforjohnnydepp.com). The Politics of Cruelty received airplay on all the major UK rock radio stations (including Radio 1 Rock Show with Mike Davies, the BBC Rock Radio Show with Daniel P. Carter, Radio 1’s One Music with Huw Stephens, the XFM programs Ian Camfield’s Rock Show and XFM X-posure and the London-based, international radio station Total Rock) and quickly sold through its 7000 copy pressing.

Now, with a U.S. label home in place (Shinebox), GFJD prepares its stateside crusade and is ready to rock its home country to its very foundations. The October release of Sex Vid Singles Club will see each song on the burly EP accompanied by its own sleek music video. The UK will not be neglected, with ‘Pink Flag’ available as a free download via the band’s website from 22^ndNovember. These will be followed quickly by the band’s sophomore album, due for release on both sides of the Atlantic in February 2011.

GAY FOR JOHNNY DEPP is the perfect symbiotic melding of GG Allin, Marquis De Sade, Quentin Crisp, JeffStryker and The Germs, and their music clearly represents that point at which the nihilism and paranoia of the late 90s / early 00s consumer-driven milieu dissipates and gives way to post-recession, pan-international feelings of hope, change, and more sex for everyone. Rare it is that the innovators and pioneers get recognized in their own time, yet GAY FOR JOHNNY DEPP is changing opinions concerning sexual politics, censorship, public indecency, international relations, gender and religious divisions and the capacity for the human ear to accept music at deafening volume levels one by one. At this rate the sky’s the limit. Maybe not even that.

See the band live in the UK on the following dates:

17^th Nov          Milton Keynes Craufurd Arms – Headline Show

18^th Nov          Newcastle Cluny with PABH

19^th Nov          Dundee Hustler’s with PABH

20^th Nov          Inverness Ironworks with PABH

21^ST Nov         Aberdeen Drummonds with PABH

23^rd Nov          Glasgow Oran Mor with PABH

24^TH Nov         Preston 53 Degrees with PABH

25^TH Nov         Wrexham Central Station with PABH

26^TH Nov         Stoke Sugarmill with PABH

27^TH Nov         Sheffield Leadmill Steel Stage with PABH

28^TH Nov         Liverpool Shipping Forecast – Headline show

29^th Nov          Leicester 02 Academy 3 with PABH

30^TH Nov         Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms with PABH

1^st Dec             Brighton Audio with PABH

2^ND Dec           London Garage with PABH