In his great book Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres, Kelefa Sanneh makes the following observation about punk rock: “How do you stay loyal, anyway, to a genre built on defiance? And why would you? Punk rock is fundamentally incoherent, an anti-traditional tradition that promises ‘anarchy,’ or a whiff of it, while providing its devotees something tidy and recognizable enough to be considered a musical genre.”
Punk is a conservative form of music, and yet it can’t prevent real musical talent from breaking out of the template of three chords and self-righteous anger. The Replacements started by making drunken incoherent noise but couldn’t defy Paul Westerberg’s talent. Siouxsie Siouxsie went from reciting “The Lord’s Prayer” in front of a band that didn’t know how to play to recording magnificent songs. Paul Weller broke off from the Jam after discovering American soul music. He’s still producing great records. Joan Jett went from raw and ragged to ballads.
Such is the case with Destroy Boys. Described as a punk band from southern California, Destroy Boys is the musical vehicle for Alexia Roditis, a musician of captivating passion and talent. The band also includes guitarist Violet Mayugb, drummer Narsai Malik and drummer David Orozco. The new Destroy Boys record Funeral Soundtrack #4 does have some punk songs (“Beg for Torture,” “Should’ve Been Me,”), but it also has indie rock (“You don’t Know Me”), a Spanish-language ballad (“Amor Divino”) and some straight rock. “I’ve been listening to a lot of Latin folk music to the point where there’s times when I don’t want to listen to anything else,” Roditis said in a recent interview. “Sometimes I’ll get really into bossa nova, but then I’ll go and listen to Chappell Roan and girly pop music.” Roditis' less a punk rocker and more a genuine musician.
Roditis is a non-binary person, and because I’m a right-wing asshole who doesn’t play the pronoun game, I’ll only refer to Roditis as Roditis. If you want to shame or coerce me for that then you know nothing about punk. You can fuck off.
The important point is that Alexia Roditis is a talent, the kind of person for whom music seems to emit naturally from a cellular level. Like Westerberg and Jett, Roditis needs to move beyond punk and flower into the great artist that’s evident here. Many of the songs on Funeral Soundtrack #4 address the issue of being transgender, and the lyrics are raw and honest. Gender dysphoria is a tortuous ordeal for people who suffer from it.
In “Boyfeel” the lyrics adumbrate the struggle:
Button up my collared shirt
Might fuck around and wear a skirt
Darken the hair that shouldn't be there
Hide your kids, best beware
Get problems lifted off my chest
Or at least suppress 'til further notice
Not to be contained
Though I'm a fan of a boxy shape
This is the poetry of a person trying to come to grips with an issue that touches them. The lyrics and how they’re sung are clever and funny (do boys know “that their bodies are erotic?”). The anger is also not the phony rage of poseurs—Green Day—but comes from the soul. The driving, anti-harassment protest anthem “You Hear Yes” is a collaboration with bands Mannequin Pussy and Scowl. It’s worthy of Bikini Kill or even the Clash:
When they don't stop when you say stop
When they don't stop when you say stop
When they stand too close on the sidewalk
My clothes don't have pockets
And I'm forced to want it
Complain about a condom
I hate and love you, it's Stockholm
Not your pretty girl, I never will be
Don't look me up and down like I'm a piece of meat
I see how you degrade with no shame
Funeral Soundtrack #4 drew me into Roditis’ world, opening up empathy and understanding for someone much younger than me and living on a different coast and a different life. I got goosebumps from some of the songs—a sign, as Sammy Hagar once noted, of a great musical performance. Roditis also has charisma when playing live. Still, I was left wondering what Roditis thinks about other subjects—war, peace, ordinary things that happen in life, Taylor Swift, censorship, TV, movies and beer? It’d be fantastic to find out, and there’s every reason to believe that it’ll happen. She could be the next Elvis Costello or Kate Bush.
At the end of his section on punk rock in Major Labels, Kelefa Sanneh offers this: “By the time I returned to college, after my yearlong record-store sojourn, I was spending more and more time listening to hip-hop, R&B, and dance music, and I modified my appearance to be less genre specific: I shaved off my scraggly dreads and started wearing collared shirts instead of punk tees.” Alexia Roditis should do the same.