Teri Gender Bender
Quick Facts
Biography
Teresa Suárez, commonly known by her stage name Teri Gender Bender, is an American singer and musician, known primarily as the founding member, lead singer, and guitarist of Guadalajara-based rock band Le Butcherettes since 2007. With Omar Rodríguez-López, she is a member of Bosnian Rainbows (founded in 2012), Crystal Fairy (founded in 2016) and Kimono Kult. Her performance persona and artistry have been compared to Björk, Siouxsie Sioux, and Karen O.
Biography
Suárez was born in Denver to a Mexican mother and a Spanish father, who worked as a prison guard. At age ten she began to have recurring dreams of playing guitar, and was able to convince her father to buy her one. She lived in Denver for the first thirteen years of her life, until she moved back to Mexico with her mother and two younger brothers after her father's death from a heart attack.
Suárez and drummer Auryn Jolene founded Le Butcherettes at age 17 while still in school in Guadalajara. Jolene was later replaced by Lia Braswell. The all-girl band incorporated graphic elements such as raw meat and bloody aprons into their stage performances and Suárez adopted the last name Gender Bender as feminist statements of the treatment of women in Mexico. Suárez met Omar Rodríguez-López at one of their local gigs. He was impressed by her performance when after a power outage had interrupted the show, she jumped into the crowd and continued singing into a megaphone. Rodríguez-López signed the band to his label, went on to produce their first album Sin Sin Sin in 2011, and also briefly served as the band's bassist. Suárez contributed lyrics and vocals to Rodríguez-López' Octopus Kool Aid in 2012, and starred in his unreleased film project Mi No Y Esperanza. Le Butcherettes' 2014 album Cry Is for the Flies was written about her experience moving from her family in Mexico to Los Angeles in 2012.
In February 2016, she released a cover of Depeche Mode's "I Feel You", recorded together with Omar Rodríguez-López and With Lions, and made available via the latter's SoundCloud account.
Discography
Bosnian Rainbows
- Bosnian Rainbows Live At Clouds Hill LP (2012)
- Bosnian Rainbows LP (2013)
- TBA LP (TBA)
Le Butcherettes
- Kiss & Kill EP (2008)
- Sin Sin Sin LP (2011)
- iTunes Live: SXSW EP (2011)
- Cry Is for the Flies LP (2014)
- A Raw Youth LP (2015)
- Chaos As Usual (With Melvins) [vinyl split] Single (2015)
- Sólo Soy Pueblo (Llanto) Single (2015)
- Shave the Pride Single (2015)
- House Hunter Single (2016)
- My Mother Holds My Only Life Line Single (2016)
Omar Rodríguez-López
- Octopus Kool Aid LP (2012)
- Hiding In The Light EP (2014) as Kimono Kult
- Sworn Virgins LP (2016)
- Corazones LP (2016)
- Blind Worms Pious Swine LP (2016)
- Arañas en La Sombra LP (2016)
- Umbrella Mistress LP (2016)
- El Bien Y Mal Nos Une LP (2016)
- Cell Phone Bikini LP (2016)
- Infinity Drips LP (2016)
- Some Need It Lonely LP (2016)
- A Lovejoy (2016)
- Zen Thrills (2017)
- Chocolate Tumor Hormone Parade (2017)
Crystal Fairy
- Necklace of Divorce / Drugs on the Bus Single (2016)
- Crystal Fairy LP (2017)
Teri Gender Bender
- Insect Legs (from Unspeakable Volume One compilation) (2014)
- Rebel Girl (Melvins. feat Teri Gender Bender) Single (2015)
- I Feel You (with With Lions and Omar Rodriguez Lopez)