The '90s Jersey Chicks Making Erotic Queer Metal

This article originally appeared in the April 1997 issue of OUT.

"The future is in the shape of a woman," predicts Sexpod's singer-guitarist, Kryn Kuhl. Look out, rock world, here she comes: Sexpod, three "metal chicks from Jersey"--to quote Kuhl-- who take their cues from androgynous greats Patti Smith and David Bowie, thrashing and flailing like '70s heavy rockers.

After more than four years of pounding the Manhattan nightclub pavement and releasing an indie EP, Sexpod (bassist Alice Genese, drummer Tia Sprocket, and Kuhl) are delivering the long-overdue fruit of their collective womb, Goddess Blues (Slab Recordings), a highly charged and erotic affair. It's a sound Kuhl describes as "demons and angels colliding in sexual ecstasy."

Like her early heroine, Smith, Kuhl makes huge, ambitious statements--"A Sexpod is a holy trinity of sex, death, and life; it's a realm in which one can transcend the barriers of sex role and gender"--and backs them up with an enormous sound. In her lyrics, and onstage, Kuhl slips effortlessly between a raw, sweaty toughness and open vulnerability; offstage, she rejects all labels: "If anyone reads my lyrics, they're going to know I'm not hiding anything," she says. "I think at this point, defining your sexuality is passe--thank goodness for that."