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Slut Boys

The Slut Boys were a notorious North Florida proto-punk band based in Tallahassee, Florida, primarily in the early 1980's. The band formed, under that name, in 1979 and performed through 1984, putting out a mix of original material along with classic and cutting-edge punk, hard-rock, and dance-music covers, all performed in a fast-paced, fun-based pumped-up style. Their music and performances were as culturally aggressive as was their name, yet they succeeded in packing the beer halls and private clubs with happy, fist pumping, dancing fans. Yet, despite the acclaim, the Slut Boys didn't put on any airs or engage in any imitation. They remained truly sui generis, wearing no high-style or low-style costumes, adapting no affectations; but simply dishing out occasionally insightful and always energetic rock music organized around having a good time. Without a doubt, much of the fun came from the lyrics and their assault on the dominant, regressive culture; as the Slut Boys always seemed to be, at least metaphorically, poking their collective fist in the air, or their collective finger in the eye of authority, as they made fun of the real and the pretend powers-that-be. Indeed, the band's shows sometimes took a turn toward performance art (there was a television or two smashed, for example), before most in their audience had ever heard of the term. One newspaper reviewer described them as "a kind of cultural cabaret." But perhaps the most enduring quality of the Slut Boys was their ability to play their furiously fast music with a collective smile; and to write and sing songs that critiqued, on an artistic level, the surrounding spectacle in which the band, and its fans, were unwillingly but enthusiastically enmeshed. "Pump It Up!" The Slut Boys were Ben Wilcox, on Vox organ, Bill McCluskey on lead guitar, Donny Crenshaw on Drums, and Jim Ballard on bass and as the lead vocals.

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