Music
Get ’em, girls
By Daniel A. Kusner - Life+Style Editor
May 8, 2008 - 6:35:17 PM

Latina rockers Girl in a Coma wake up Oak Lawn with fierce guitars
Girl in a Coma - Michael Rubenstein

Three women — tattooed, Texan and seemingly tireless. San Antonio’s alt-pop band Girl in a Coma seem like they’re constantly on tour — crisscrossing the South, Midwest and the West Coast since 2004. Since last October, they’ve played North Texas three times. And this week, they’re headed back for number four: playing Sue Ellen’s, their first gig in the gayborhood.

It looks like the work is handsomely paying off. The band’s profile keeps getting bigger: They were recently added to the 2008 True Colors tour.

Formed when they were 12 year olds, Girl in a Coma consists of the Diaz sisters, Nina (vocals) and Phanie (drums), and lesbian bassist Jenn Alva. Their music is like a throwback to The Smiths envisioned by Joan Jett. Actually, their demo disc was produced by Morrissey’s musical director, and Jett released their debut album “Both Before I’m Gone” on her Blackheart Records label.

Their songs can be sexy: “Only” begins with the line “I suck your tongue;” and the song “Racecar Driver” is about James Dean. And most of the lyrics seem queer because Nina writes often writes sexually ambiguous lyrics. Arguably their best video featured transsexual superstar Amanda LePore lip synching on “Road to Home.”

But Girl in a Coma’s biggest queer coup was impressing the Pope of Mope himself. While the band takes its name from The Smiths’ single “Girlfriend in a Coma,” they opened for Morrissey. And The Moz was so taken with the Latina rockers, he asked them to open his U.S. and European tours this past autumn and winter.

— Daniel A. Kusner