“What can you do when you’re a martyr? What can you do when you’re a holy mess?” Gerardo Velazquez asks on “Sodomite Song.”
Its computer rock sound grows more urgent as the tune progresses, forming a tense and tight track that’s catchy and painful. Velasquez is posing a string of questions dripping with sarcasm and anger, bringing together religious imagery and gay identity in a way that lashes out against homophobia and all that it had wrought.
“Sodomite Song“ is part of Late Valentine Tape, a collection of solo work and recordings with the experimental/punk group Nervous Gender. It was originally compiled as a mixtape and given by late L.A. artist/musician Gerardo Velazquez to a few close friends.
It was a final gift of music from a life nearing its end. The homemade release was intended to be distributed on Valentine’s Day in 1991, although it was completed later that year. Velazquez died of AIDS in March 1992.
“He was dying,” said Joe Zinnato, a member of Nervous Gender in Velazquez’s final years. “He knew he was sick. He knew he was going to die.”