Girls Against Boys

Girls Against Boys' dual-bass attack and Scott McCloud's wheezy sing-speak vocals (reminiscent of the Fall's Mark E. Smith) produce an energetic, if sometimes noisy, sound that would probably annoy listeners if it weren't for the Baltimore band's great Fugazi-influenced songs. The band's 1989 debut album, Tropic of Scorpio, appeared on the Adult Swim label, followed by a leap up to the major indie Touch & Go for Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby. The albums that followed -- 1995's Cruise Yourself and 1996's House of GVSB -- charted the growing fortunes of Girls Against Boys, but their jump to major label Geffen, 1998's Freak*on*ica, was the worst record of their career. After a lengthy hiatus, the band returned to the underground with a contract for Jade Tree and a 2002 full-length, You Can't Fight What You Can't See. Girls Against Boys broke up the following year, but subsequently reunited to tour Europe (with a lineup now featuring bassist John Schmersal from Enon) in February 2005. The group also scheduled a tour of the Czech Republic, Poland, and Russia for February 2009.

from Wikipedia:

Girls Against Boys are an indie rock/post-hardcore band, originally forming in Washington, D.C. in 1988 and currently based in New York City.

Career

The group began as a side project of Eli Janney and Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty. Canty left the project by 1990 due to his commitments with Fugazi. Janney went on to recruit three former members of D.C. hardcore punk group Soulside—Scott McCloud, Johnny Temple, and Alexis Fleisig—to complete the line-up. Girls Against Boys are perhaps most notable for employing dual bass guitars, a rarity in rock music. Their second album, Venus Luxure No.1 Baby, was a heavy yet nuanced entry into early 1990s post-hardcore, and was performed live in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties-curated Don't Look Back series, and at the 25th anniversary concert for Touch and Go Records held in Chicago in September 2006.

They provided music for the soundtrack to the film Series 7: The Contenders, and one song for the soundtrack to the 1994 film Clerks. They also contributed the song "Freaks" to the soundtrack for the cult film Hedwig and the Angry Inch and covered the song "Boogie Wonderland" for the 1999 movie 200 Cigarettes. The band also appears in the film. They contributed to soundtracks of the films Permanent Midnight, White Oleander, SubUrbia, Terror Firmer, Mallrats, Psycho and Songs of the Witchblade.

The band has toured extensively throughout Europe, Japan, Australia and the United States and Canada. The last tour took place in 2009 in Poland and Russia. They have performed in numerous festivals including Lollapalooza 1993, 1995 and 1996, All Tomorrow's Parties, Reading Festival, 1994 Phoenix Festival, Dour Festival, Primavera Festival, 1997 Fuji Rock Festival, Pukkelpop, Lowlands Festival, Les Transmusicales. They have appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the Jon Stewart Show, Canal+ and MTv. Touring included stints with bands such as Jawbox, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Helmet, the Jesus Lizard, Garbage, Rage Against the Machine, Interpol, Fugazi, Brainiac, Pitchshifter, Atari Teenage Riot, Foo Fighters, Luscious Jackson, Tar, No Means No, Les Savy Fav, Magic Dirt, Big Chief, Edsel and others. Bands who supported them before going on to have mainstream success include the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, dEUS and Placebo.

Side Projects/Current Projects

Scott McCloud and Johnny Temple also played together in a side-project called New Wet Kojak, releasing 2 records on Chicago's Touch and Go Records - New Wet Kojak- 1995 and Nasty International - 1997. They followed with 3 more on Beggar's Banquet - Do Things (2000), No. 4 EP (2001), and This Is the Glamorous (2003). The group featured Geoff Turner (ex-Gray Matter), Nick Pellicciotto (Edsel), and Charles Bennington.

Alexis Fleisig performed with Moby on his album Animal Rights.

Scott McCloud, Johnny Temple and Alexis Fleisig toured with Gina Gershon in 2002 in support of her film Prey for Rock and Roll, a film focusing on the struggles of an all female band based roughly on the life of Cheri Lovedog. The tour consisted of Gershon and 3 members of Girls Against Boys performing songs penned by Stephen Trask and Linda Perry. The tour resulted in the reality series/documentary Rocked with Gina Gershon.

Scott McCloud currently plays in Paramount Styles with Alexis Fleisig and have released 2 records on Dutch Label Cycle/Konkurrent Records - Failure American Style (2008) and Heaven's Alright (2010). The group has toured extensively in Europe and less extensively in the United States and Canada. The group features revolving guests including Richard Fortus (Guns N' Roses, The Psychedelic Furs), producer/bass player Geoff Sanoff (Edsel), Julia Kent, Michael Hampton (The Faith S.O.A., One Last Wish, Manifesto), John Schmersal (Brainiac, Enon, Caribou), Simon Lenski (DAAU), Chris Smets and Libor Palucha.

After Girls Against Boys became inactive in 2003, Eli Janney became a full time producer for many bands including Obits and James Blunt. Johnny Temple founded Akashic Books, an independent publisherhttp://akashicbooks.com/ widely known for many books including Go the F* to Sleep, Hairstyles of the Damned and an extensive Noir Series.