The Clitboys weren’t around long enough to create a legacy on par with their contemporaries, Die Kreuzen. But this teen trio with the purposefully vague name (they’re all guys without transgender inclinations) made a significant, if brief, impression on Milwaukee’s hardcore punk scene in the first half of the ’80s.
If the sonic attack on their lone vinyl release, the just-reissued We Don’t Play The Game, differs little from what was coming from the punk undergrounds elsewhere, the band’s attitude was at least a bit more developed than many. Their idealism is evinced by the peace sign over Earth on the cover art, but their lyrics go at least a couple steps better by addressing issues such as ideological conformity within their subculture and embrace of non-traditional sexuality. Michael Konik, currently a jazz singer-polymath in Hollywood, sells it all with slightly hoarse conviction and sincerity.
