Book: “The Spitboy Rule” by Michelle Cruz Gonzales

Michelle Cruz Gonzales played drums and wrote lyrics in the influential 1990s female hardcore band Spitboy, and now she’s written a book – a punk rock herstory.

Though not a riot grrl band, Spitboy blazed trails for women musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, but it wasn’t easy. Misogyny, sexism, abusive fans, class and colour blindness and all-out racism were foes, especially for Gonzales, a Xicana and the only person of colour in the band. This memoir chronicles Spitboy’s successes and failures, and for Gonzales, discovering her own identity.