Teri Gender Bender

Teri Gender Bender is the performing nom de plume of El Paso-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Teresa Suárez Cosío. Though best known as frontwoman of Guadalajara's post-punk feminist rockers Le Butcherettes, she also co-led Bosnian Rainbows (with longtime collaborator Omar Rodriguez Lopez), and fronted Crystal Fairy. Her music embodies so many genres they blur together when her name is mentioned. Le Butcherettes' 2011 debut long-player, Sin Sin Sin, received international attention. 2014's Cry Is for the Flies and the following year's A Raw Youth afforded more opportunities for touring. From 2010 on she regularly contributed to Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's solo records and co-founded Bosnian Rainbows with him. Their Live at Clouds Hill appeared in 2013, followed by an eponymous effort in 2016. She and Rodriguez-Lopez joined the Melvins' Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover in forming Crystal Fairy. Their self-titled debut arrived in 2017. Le Butcherettes returned with bi/MENTAL in 2019 and followed it with 2020's Don't Bleed. Suárez released Cuando Yo Era Una Nina, her first solo album, in 2022. Teresa Suárez Cosío was born to a Mexican mom and Spanish immigrant dad in Denver, Colorado. At ten, she began having recurring dreams about playing the guitar and started to learn soon after. At 13, her father died after a heart attack and she, her mother, and younger brothers emigrated to Guadalajara. At 17, she and drummer/classmate Auryn Jolene founded Le Butcherettes. They were still in high school. They were a duo who incorporated '50s fashions and props -- from brooms and feather dusters to bloody aprons and raw meat -- as metaphors for Mexican women in particular, who they saw as slaves in a macho male culture. They quickly established a formidable reputation in the Mexican underground music scene. Their club shows were sold-out and international music and cultural critics gushed about them. Further, Suárez adopted the last name "Gender Bender" as her own feminist statement. Their debut EP Kiss & Kill drew attention in Texas, Arizona, California, and Mexico City, but their stage show drew even more. After Jolene left, several drummers joined and left before Alejandra Robles Luna claimed the chair permanently in 2016 Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez caught an early gig. The power went out during the show; undaunted, Suárez dove into the crowd and continued singing through a megaphone. Impressed, Rodriguez-Lopez introduced himself and shortly thereafter signed them to his own label. He produced their 2011 debut long-player Sin Sin Sin that drew attention from critics, listeners, and international DJs. The set offered her original songs in an entirely un-self-conscious and emotionally raw presentation, employing zig-zagging melodies, jagged chord and riff changes, and unlikely yet infectious hooks. For a year before and after its release, Rodriguez-Lopez toured with Le Butcherettes as their bassist. In addition to his work with Le Butcherettes, the guitarist's primary outfit, the Mars Volta, went on an extended hiatus, and he and Suarez co-founded post-psych/post-punk rock band Bosnian Rainbows in early 2012 with MV drummer Deantoni Parks and keyboardist Nicci Kasper of KUDU and We Are Dark Angels. Their eponymous debut album appeared on Sargent House in 2013. Meanwhile, Le Butcherettes were active and in-demand. They played clubs and opening slots on tours across 2013. In 2014 they toured until summer, then recorded their globally acclaimed sophomore album Cry Is for the Flies -- also produced by Rodriguez-Lopez -- that saw release on Ipecac in September. It was followed by an opening tour slot with the Melvins. Le Butcherettes grew more ambitious as their popularity increased. In September 2015 they released their third effort, A Raw Youth. Again produced by Rodriguez-Lopez, it features guest appearances by guitarist John Frusciante and Iggy Pop. The album was lauded by critics, some of whom claimed the wooly, jagged recording marked the band's entrance into the rock mainstream. Suarez found the notion laughable. After its release, Le Butcherettes toured Europe with a reunited At the Drive-In and played headline shows in the U.S. Suarez also provided guest lead vocals on "Rebel Girl," the Melvins' cover of the Bikini Kill anthem. 2016 proved exceptionally busy for Suarez. In addition to playing or singing on a full dozen albums by Rodriguez-Lopez that year, she also issued a cover version of Depeche Mode's "I Feel You," backed by the Lions and Rodriguez-Lopez. She also co-founded Crystal Fairy with Rodriguez-Lopez and half the Melvins. Their first single, "Necklace of Divorce"/"Drugs on the Bus," appeared that year, as did the Le Butcherettes' singles "House Hunter" and "My Mother Holds My Only Life Line." Before the year ended, Crystal Fairy were playing shows on tour and had finished an album. In February 2017, Crystal Fairy released its self-titled long-player on Ipecac. Both Melvins' members were so into the project, they were ready to put their primary band on hold. However, given the artistically restless natures of Suarez and Rodriguez-Lopez, Crystal Fairy disintegrated before that could happen. The two free spirits worked together on four albums by the guitarist that year -- Zen Thrills; Chocolate Tumor Hormone Parade; Azul, Mis Dientes, and Doom Patrol. Suarez also reconvened Le Butcherettes in the studio by year's end. The album they completed, bi/MENTAL, was produced by ex-Talking Heads' keyboardist Jerry Harrison and scheduled for a 2018 release, but wouldn't hit the street until February 2019. They took to the road, playing across Europe and North America. In September, the band released a cover of the Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen in Love with Someone You Shouldn't've." Given the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the only recorded appearance by Suarez in 2020 or 2021 was in a guest spot for CocoVera's" Feel Better" single. In 2022 she returned in earnest as a solo act and proved prolific. Now based in El Paso, she issued the electronically drenched cuando yo era una nina EP for Clouds Hill in June; consisting of four tracks, it became Suarez's aesthetic signature for the remainder of the year. In August she offered up a slew of releases, beginning with the vanguard pop EP olivia, she wanted me to leave her alone on August 1. It was followed only three days later by madre would not allow it though. On August 8, she issued pestering became a virtue, and three days hence, the experimental breakbeat electronica of leaving her to be was just not an option. On August 15, the mutant electronic avant-pop EP erik, even he found it to be obscene hit the street. August 18 saw the issue of the raw, dubby X-rays were taken to make sure i am there, that i exist. On August 22, she released I Suddenly Remembered That I Am Not (It Feels Too); Funny appeared on August 25, and You Were Truly the One That Made Us Laugh on the 29th. The four-track Saturn Sex EP was released in October and was followed in December by the State of Fear EP. All told, Suarez released 48 songs, enough music to fill four albums.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo