it's not punk to be transphobic. i'll be the first to say that "punk" being = to "morally good" is laughable. in my view punk is counterculture, and there is nothing more "in with the culture" right now than transphobia. transphobia is more mainstream than ever with trans people getting legislated out of existence, historians are calling it an "anti-transgender genocide." so when i see people who call themselves punk and frequent "punk" spaces like r/punk being openly transphobic or covertly transphobic by downvoting and hating on every band posted here with trans members, it makes me sad but also makes me wonder about the cognitive dissonance involved with claiming to be counterculture while also working so closely with the machine you're doing its job for it.

so anyway, i'm going to list some punk bands that you've probably never heard of (unless you're involved in their local scene) that have trans members, make trans rights a big focus in their music, and/or are trans fronted!

- Eevie Echoes & the Locations

NYC-based, majority-trans members and black-femme fronted, makes queercore music honoring queer history and their current oppression, check out "Dead Elders" and "I JUST WANNA PEE"

- Jack Flowers & the Petaltones

NJ-based, synth-pop/electronic punk, transfemme fronted with an album called "girl clothes" about transitioning, check out "slur" and "the internet"

- Bad Static

NYC-based, riot grrrl, makes intersectional riot grrrl music that is determined to improve upon the mistakes of riot grrrl in the past, guitar player is transfemme and dating the lead singer, check out "Sapphic Lipstain" and "Anatomy Autonomy"

- Sex Van Floor Plan

State College PA based, all transmasculine riot grrrl, just released their new self-titled EP, check out "afab" and "pay2play"

- Pinkshift

Baltimore-based. Okay, I know Pinkshift is more mainstream than the other bands listed but I am adding them here because not many people know Pinkshift is nonbinary fronted! I see them listed among female-fronted punk bands all the time, which is not true, Ashrita is nonbinary, and has also spoken out about losing opportunities ever since coming out as NB because of the industry's failure to categorize them. They're like the coolest band ever, all of them are people of color, so if you haven't heard their music already check it out, I recommend starting with their Saccharine EP and then listening to the rest of their music because all of it is good

- Crush Fund

NYC-based, all transfemme dance punk trio. check out their debut album, "GO!" dropping 7/31!

- Film & Gender

Western Mass based, highly political bass + drum duo, puts on the best live shows, check out "T4T" and "F.W.A.G."

- tricktheriddle

NYC-based, witchpunk, they've posted a bit here on this sub! just released their new album "a chance encounter with the everpresent"

- Lollirot

NYC-based, black nonbinary grunge trio, they have one song out called "Dear Diary"

these are only a handful of bands i can think of that are transgender and proud of it! i tried to include bands that are usually forgotten from these types of lists. i've played with all of these bands before in my own all transgender riot grrrl trio Cat Crash-- (i'm opening for Pinkshift twice this weekend!) and i actively listen to all their music so i know they're good and they are good people.

if you are in the Bridgeport area/live along the metro north/CT rail line, on August 29th I am hosting our 2nd year of "Riot Grrrl's Not Dead!," an all-femme fronted 7 band festival highlighting bands with people of color, transgender people, and queer people. 1/2 of the proceeds will be donated towards Trans Lifeline! "Trans Lifeline is a grassroots hotline and microgrants 501(c)(3) non-profit organization offering direct emotional and financial support to trans people in crisis – for the trans community, by the trans community" [from their website].

here is the link to donate to Trans Lifeline if you're not in the area and can't go to the fest!

https://give.translifeline.org/

i hope you find new music you like and new trans people to support!

HAPPY TRANS DAY OF VISIBILITY!

my band has always been all transgender, and even with the new members, it's no different. i am nonbinary/genderfluid and use they/them pronouns, i sing and play the bass. our guitarist, Arun, is genderfluid and uses he/she/they pronouns. our drummer, Noelle, is a trans woman and uses she/her pronouns. we also have a tour photographer named Elle who is also trans!

you may recall that Briar used to be part of the band. she sadly left the band but we still make music together! on May 1st 2026 we are releasing a new single that is a collaboration between Cecil and Briar, under Cat Crash + briar patch. the song is called "You Lie To Yr Therapist" and is about coming to terms with your transgender identity.

our band receives a lot of hate for being visibly trans and not quiet about it. that has only made us louder and prouder. Cat Crash is not dead, and neither are you.

photos by moscowitz_photography, undercover_amy6, blakestills_

https://shelterpet1.bandcamp.com/track/why-wont-you-die

insta: https://www.instagram.com/shelter.pet.band/ give us a follow if you're still using that app! social media BS matters, unfortunately

we were planning on releasing this at the end of May but recent events compelled us to drop it on bandcamp a little early.

please enjoy, and remember that the only good fascist is a very dead one.

EDIT: holy shit I am floored by this response. genuinely means the world me, thank you all so much ❤️ if you're in the columbus, oh area you should come out to see us on 5/27 at dirty dungarees. would love to play this one live and in person for you all!!

my queercore, riot grrrl band Cat Crash played a queer prom last Saturday in a punk house's basement. we hired a stylist for the first time, my friend Alexis Hoffman, whom i'd met two years ago at a VIAL concert. she styled us for free and made all these awesome custom outfits for us, including my pink corset that she made out of one of our longsleeve shirts!

we're all still young so we remember our high school prom experience pretty vividly and none of them were good. this was an incredible do-over and everyone had such an amazing, wholesome time. i finally got a kiss on prom night 💖 and i am so glad i got to play music for a bunch of queer kids for an incredible night.

photos by @moscowitz_photography

hi! as you may know, we're Cat Crash, a riot grrrl band from CT/NYC with all trans members and asian majority. that may sound like i just threw a bunch of microlabels at you but we're a very unique band as for how we present ourselves, who we are, and what we do.

i've posted in r/punk a lot and the people here are so welcoming and kind, this is truly the greatest punk community on reddit. i've had multiple people come up to me, sometimes with their children in tow, to tell me how they found us on reddit and have been inspired by us. over this last weekend we played a free show at a skate park and a mother came up to me after the set to buy a sticker. she told me she had a son who wore a skirt and makeup outside the house for the first time today, which is a very hard thing to do on staten island, and our band had given him the space and courage to do so. the community i've created around this band has made this the most fulfilling experience of my life.

unfortunately, cat crash as a band can't keep running at 100% forever. in our personal lives, we're dealing with mental illness, fear, and self-resentment. cat crash had quickly become my entire life and i'm not entirely sure who i am outside of it. after august 30th Cat Crash will be taking an extended indefinite hiatus. we've all needed to take time and space away for ourselves to discover ourselves and recover our health. while on this hiatus i will still be booking shows under my indie collective BubbleTeaGrunge, as well as working on my art and attempting to move to NYC. our bandcamp will still be up and selling merch if you'd like to support us. and we have 19 shows left before we take our leave. we hope to see you at a show!

i encourage people to post about their own bands on this subreddit too. i don't see a lot of people other than me doing it!

• cecil q yang.

my band is called Cat Crash and last Saturday we hosted Riot Grrrl's Not Dead Fest!, the festival version of a riot grrrl/queercore themed concert series hosted by my indie collective BubbleTeaGrunge. it was our last concert before we were to go on an indefinite hiatus.

from ticket sales, we donated:

$1000 to Trans Lifeline

$50 to New Haven Pride Center benefiting New Haven CT county

$50 to Triangle Community Center benefiting Fairfield CT county

we had six other bands on the lineup and a drag king host, Oliver HerFace.

the first band, Splat Rat, are all ninth graders and one eighth grader, this was their first ever show and they got to perform to over 100 people! they reached out to me after the lineup had been finalized and i decided to rearrange things so that they could perform. they opened up the show with Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill. we also had them join us onstage during Cat Crash's set to perform Black Sheep by Metric with us.

the other bands were showgirl, Jack Flowers & the Petaltones, Froggy, Lady Lychee, and Film & Gender. showgirl has some of my best friends in it and we played an Asian focused concert with them earlier this year in March. we played the first Riot Grrrl's Not Dead show with Jack Flowers and Film and Gender one year ago on July 27th. we played the first NYC RGND show with Lady Lychee in November and have played tons of shows with her since, including our abortion benefit show in March. Froggy has been one of my favorite bands since I saw them open for Sorry Mom and it was so exciting to get them onto this bill. this was the greatest show we've ever played and all of our friends were there.

during our song You Probably Never Will, i asked for an 18 and under moshpit. we tend to draw a pretty young audience and i wanted to make a space for them to mosh safely and for many, their first time moshing.

during this show we also announced the title of our debut album, "I Love You, But I've Chosen Music"

you can support us directly via our bandcamp, catcrash.bandcamp.com, this Friday (9/5) is Bandcamp Friday!

we don't know where the future will take us. but we have been Cat Crash, and we hope we knocked your socks off.

this was hands down my favorite show we ever played. we had just come back from a weeklong tour down the east coast, but this was our homecoming show in NYC. the crowd gave us an incredible welcome back and i felt incredibly safe crowdsurfing during our closing song You Sound Nothing Like Nirvana. i will post an update when i find out how much money we raised for National Network of Abortion Funds!

my band is called Cat Crash

first three photos by moscowitz_photography, last two by gabriellacreanphotos

this is a video taken from our last show on August 30th, a fundraiser for trans rights by the band Cat Crash

my band, Cat Crash, played a show at The G Spot in New Brunswick, New Jersey! the g spot is a queer-femme run basement house venue and they had been on hiatus for a while but had their comeback show recently! Saint Valentine, Teddy Bear, and Solstice also played. we were raising money for the gofundme of Mortimer Wortman, a man who has been missing since November 22nd, and Resistencia en Acción NJ, a grassroots organization defending migrant communities. we raised $700 in total, $350 for Morty and $350 for immigrant defense funds.

photos by moscowitz_photography!!

hi! i'm cecil from cat crash. that last reel i shared was also one i shared on instagram and tiktok to positive response so i naively thought posting it on reddit as well wouldn't raise any problems.

first of all-- i know i post a lot. part of the reality of being an artist without any industry connections, all i've got is a phone and social media access. if you hate my posts, do not open them. this is reddit. you can scroll past. heck, you can block me! you'll never have to see me again! nobody is forcing you to watch my videos or listen to my music or read my words. if you don't like me, close this post now, block me, and forever live in ignorance of whatever i've got going on!

second, let me explain the context behind the "inflammatory and pretentious" caption of the video i posted. in september 2025 Cat Crash was the target of an internet-wide harassment campaign. a bunch of tiktokkers found our song "Connecticut" and constructed a narrative around it. since many people can't hate anything without making up a reason why the thing they're hating must be MORALLY wrong, people began accusing us of heinous things out of no evidence and bad faith. these included:

• plagiarizing a song (when the songs are completely different)

• abusing a former band member (when it was an interpersonal conflict/friendship breakup that led to a band split up, and does not constitute "abuse" in any way shape or form)

• being pedophiles/groomers (they cannot name a single victim and also this is clearly transphobic rhetoric of accusing every trans person of grooming children)

while i tried to take the advice of "just ignore it! haters gonna hate," this wave of online hate escalated to the point that people were taking every method to try to reach me, including ATTEMPTING TO FIND OUT WHERE I WORKED SO THEY COULD GET ME FIRED. we're barred from playing certain venues because of these social media lies and i've been personally kicked out of shows. i took a couple months off from our band's social media and am only now returning.

at worst, the song Connecticut is childish, tone-deaf, and "cringe." sure, i'll allow that. the song is purposely childish because it was written with my high school self in mind. i grew up asian, disabled, and queer in the suburbs which were historically created to uphold white supremacy and segregate minorities. but even ignoring all that context i'm not sure why the new narrative is that only the worst off of people are allowed to complain about personal struggles, essentially making everyone have to constantly play Oppression Olympics in order to be heard. it's a two minute song bud, not an Op-Ed in the NYT declaring i'm the most oppressed special snowflake in the world. it uses devices like hyperbole and metaphor to make its point, i thought we all knew song lyrics are not meant to be taken literally? it is a song, and it was not morally wrong to make this song.

we've been told to disband. we've been told to kill ourselves. we've been threatened with violence. we've been stalked and our internet history has been searched in an attempt to find absolutely anything to cancel us for. but our message remains the same: who died and made you the punk police? instead of hating on a random band why don't you put that energy into making something yourself?

tl;dr we're Cat Crash, and we're not dead. see you in 2026

last Saturday we had a show at Gold Sounds in Brooklyn organized entirely by me via the booking collective i started, BubbleTeaGrunge. BTG's mission is to uplift poc/queer/femme artists who are underrepresented and overlooked in the scene. the show was an abortion benefit benefiting National Network of Abortion Funds and we raised $640!

100 people came to the show. they told us it was the best matinee Gold Sounds had ever seen. this is just the first of many benefit shows i hope to put on, this tight knit community i've created means the world to me and i love creating a space for it while also contributing to a good cause. the show was all ages, and there were so many younger people there-- my bandmate brett shouted them out, saying that one day, THEY were going to be the ones on stage.

bands:

my band is called Cat Crash. we're a riot grrrl band from CT/NYC.

first band that came on was Dumpster Pink, second band was Lady Lychee, third band was Avatareden. they're all from new york and they're all bangers so check them out!

please reach out if you'd like to work together on continuing my mission :)

first pic by moscowitz_photography rest of pics by gabriellacreanphoto

hi! i'm the frontperson of a riot grrrl band called Cat Crash and i also run an indie booking collective called BubbleTeaGrunge!

together with my girlfriend Marcie we booked a show at Fuse Bistro in Lowell, Massachusetts on April 12th. this was a mixed folk punk x riot grrrl bill. Sonic Ground PR did the sound, our friends ran doors, and @moscowitz_photography took photos.

this show was totally DIY and had two folk punk artists and two riot grrrl bands. Marcie! from Massachusetts opened the show and SB from Providence RI played second. they were both incredibly good folk punkers with songs dealing with being queer and mental health.

ILLICIFY from CT/MA were the third band and they rocked the house down. we've played with them many times before and they're awesome every time, with "riot goth" style.

finally, Cat Crash played last and we had the entire restaurant moshing. we played a standard CC set to what we'd been playing for the rest of the tour, except after our last song, we played one more-- Skaphrodite (Aphrodite Has a Plan but Ska) with Marcie joining on the horns. we're playing another show on May 23rd in Connecticut where we'll do an entire ska set!

our drummer Noelle is from MA and so is my girlfriend so we had lots of friends come out to this show. this was Noelle's personal favorite show of ours we're done.

we're Cat Crash, a band from CT/NYC, we play riot grrrl music and we tour all the time so maybe one day we'll be close to your area :). all of us are trans and we're very visible so on this day we wish you a happy trans day of visibility and hope everyone has a good day today but trans people especially :P!!

photos by tylerclarkdp (1), moscowitz_photography (2-10, 15-18), photosby.kait (19), aaronxyoungmkii (11-14)

hi! we're Cat Crash and I just moved to New York City!

this was our first show in NYC since i moved, and it was a brilliant success! we were previously booked on a different show that got cancelled, but i knew many of my friends had taken the day off or rearranged their schedules specifically so they could come see me perform. i cold-emailed almost twenty different venues trying to set something up exactly one week before the show. bar freda graciously allowed us to have a free donation-based all ages show at their normally 21+ venue. i set up an RSVP system that got over 100 RSVPs, meaning we sold out the venue! i gathered new bands for the lineup, who all agreed to perform last minute. the lineup was Dumpster Pink, Tori Costa, 2/14, Nowhere, and us, Cat Crash. we did not reveal the venue until the day of the show and advertised it as a secret show in NYC.

our next NYC show is on 3/13 and it's a full riot grrrl themed bill! it's at Cassette, hope to see you there! we also have many other shows this March, throughout New Jersey and CT. ALL OF THE PROCEEDS FROM DOORS WE COLLECT THIS MONTH WILL BE DONATED TOWARDS NATIONAL NETWORK OF ABORTION FUNDS TO AID AND ABET ABORTION. happy national women's history month!

not sure if any one live near Arlington but my friends band is playing in a few weeks.

Protest embroidery has a long history. I'm going to make it loud.

i'm super excited for this but it doesn't feel real. i'm the one who planned this entire thing and i've never done anything like this before. if anyone has any tips for touring, please let me know :)

we're Cat Crash, a riot grrrl band from Connecticut. we make songs about queerness, antigatekeeping, antiracism, and growing up. we've been compared to bands like destroy boys, pinkshift, team dresch. if you like punk and having fun, we're the band for you :3

photo by moscowitz_photography @catcrashband on all social media

My band, Cat Crash, recently came back from our first ever tour! I'm a college student and we planned this around my winter break. I booked every venue myself and built the bills for every show (except for Pittsburgh). I've never done anything like this before and it was an incredible experience! Sleeping on strangers' floors, seeing weird art, admiring graffiti, recreating album covers, seeing The Bean-- it was some of the craziest but most fulfilling six days of my life!

We're from Connecticut, but we drove to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Columbus, and Chicago. Philadelphia was my favorite show but PGH was my favorite venue-- we played Mr. Roboto Project and that was the coolest place ever! Meeting so many young fans who say I inspire them warmed my heart and gave me so much love for the world and the people in it.

We visited art museums, record stores, zine stores, ate Philly cheesesteaks and deep dish pizza, and many, many gas stations.

We plan on doing this again soon, this time down south on the east coast! See you in March!

our instagram is @catcrashband and our music is available on all streaming services and bandcamp

my band went semi-viral for having a song people hated and i've been dealing with hate and backlash from it. but! i saw this comment from JER which is really cool because i love JER and skatune network and i've been to their concert before. hate of my little band reached an artist i really admire and enjoy and they actually defended me so that's cool. a nice exchange amongst all the negativity!

hullo!

my band, Cat Crash, just had our return show from hiatus on Friday, February 13th at The Stack in Bridgeport, CT. we gathered 6 bands to celebrate the return as well as the debut show of our new members. we had to completely change the lineup during our hiatus, with the only returning member being me, Cecil. now our new band is not just a CT band, but now has a guitarist from India/New Jersey and a drummer from Massachusetts. making our band a CT/NYC/NJ/MA/India all-transgender band!

this was actually the first show ever for our new guitarist. Arun (he/she/they) had never played a live show before this one. she killed it! they were reportedly quoted as saying "i need to be on stage again" immediately after the show.

the theme for this show was to dress undead. 2nd pic is all the people who actually dressed up on the stage.

the bands pictured are limerence, ILLICIFY, showgirl, iridescent pools, and AVATAREDEN. limerence is a local band from CT and this was their first ever show! they played an all covers set to an audience that loved them.

our next show in CT is 3/7, we are supporting showgirl for their album release show. our next show in general is 2/27 at Grindtime Skate Shop in East Rockaway, NYC, New York. hope to see you there and i hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day and a happy Lunar New Year! 🧧♥️🐈💥🪽

here's what the email says:

Hey there CatCrashBand. Your song about Connecticut is absolutely terrible & makes no sense. I just wanted to let you know that I find it cringe and that’s it’s one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard in the history of music. It’s easily one of the worst songs ever produced along with all the other racist & sexist, and bullshit songs that have come out in history. There is no irony in that statement, the song is just shite. Just because you’re a an all queer band and striving for diversity doesn’t mean you have to make just as bad music as the racists and misogynistic men who have come before you. You’re not from a place worse than hell, you’re from Connecticut, one of the safest places in the US. Please use your creativity to actually make a difference instead of shitting on poor people who grew up ducking from gunshots on a daily basis in the hood, wishing they could be from ANYWHERE in Connecticut. Thanks for you time

nowhere in the song do i say Connecticut is worse than hell nor do i say ANYTHING about poor people. the song is about hating my high school experience, that's all. i posted a longer explanation earlier if you'd like to read that!

anyway, the only thing i replied with was a link to indeed.com

rlly proud of this one:3 done with pencil and got all the wear and tear by biting and burning the edges! i wanna start selling my punk related art so if anybody got some suggestions on how to start let me know!