Personal Best (album)

Personal Best is the first studio album by the American queercore band Team Dresch. It was released on January 23, 1995, by both Candy Ass Records and Chainsaw Records.^[3] It was reissued on Jealous Butcher Records in May 2019. The label reissued their entire back catalog in order to help reaffirm the band's legacy as queercore icons.^[4]

Personal Best
Studio album by Team Dresch
Released	January 23, 1995
Recorded	August 12–16, 1994[1]
Studio	Avast! in Seattle, Washington
Genre	Punk rock, queercore
Length	24:14
Label	Candy Ass, Chainsaw
Producer	John Goodmanson, Team Dresch[2]
Team Dresch chronology
Hand Granade (1994) Personal Best (1995) Captain My Captain (1996)

Recording and release

Personal Best was produced by John Goodmanson and the band and recorded at Avast! in Seattle, Washington, from August 12 to August 16, 1994.^[1] As the band's first album,^[5] it was released in January 1995 on the singer and guitarist Jody Bleyle's label Candy Ass Records and the bass guitarist Donna Dresch's label Chainsaw Records.^[6][7] The album's title and cover are a reference to the 1982 lesbian-themed film, Personal Best.^[8]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[7]
MusicHound Rock	[2]
Pitchfork	9.1/10[9]
The Village Voice	[10]

Johnny Histon of Spin praised the album's LGBT lyrical themes, writing that they had never been explored before in rock music. He concluded, "Team Dresch knows that simply being itself and making great music is a political act. On Personal Best they do both."^[8]

Retrospectively, Jason Ankeny of AllMusic declared the album a "call to arms" that "explodes on contact", writing, "Of all the punk records to come out of the 1990s, Personal Best comes closest to actually recapturing the sheer passion and rage which originally spawned the movement two decades earlier". He praised how the band "never put their politics ahead of their songs — each of these ten tracks is airtight, with melodies as blistering as the lyrics".^[7] The Washington Post writer Chris Richards called Personal Best "a fiery, all-but-forgotten punk masterpiece".^[11]

Track listing

1. Fagetarian and Dyke – 2:45
2. Hate the Christian Right! – 2:35
3. She's Crushing My Mind – 1:42
4. Freewheel – 1:39
5. She's Amazing – 3:03
6. Fake Fight – 3:07
7. #1 Chance Pirate TV – 3:04
8. D.A. Don't Care – 2:21
9. Growing up in Springfield – 2:19
10. Screwing Yer Courage – 1:39

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.^[1]

• Donna Dresch  – guitar, bass guitar
• Jody Bleyle  – guitar, bass, vocals
• Kaia Wilson  – guitar, vocals
• Marcéo Martinez  – drums

References

1. Personal Best (CD booklet). Team Dresch. Seattle, Washington: Candy Ass Records and Chainsaw Records. 1995. CHSW11, CAR11.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
2. Prickett, Barry M. (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. p. 1127. ISBN 9781578590612 – via Internet Archive.
3. Inc, CMJ Network (March 1995). CMJ New Music Monthly. CMJ Network, Inc. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
4. "Portland Riot GRRRL Legends Team Dresch Are Reissuing Their Entire Catalog and Going on Tour". 8 March 2019.
5. Brett Atwood (May 6, 1995). "Queercore Punk Rock Ready To Face Market". Billboard. Vol. 107, no. 18. pp. 74–75. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
6. Natasha Stovall (March 1995). "Kicking Against the Pricks". Spin. 10 (12): 40. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
7. Jason Ankeny. "Personal Best". AllMusic. Archived from the original on June 21, 2012. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
8. Johnny Histon (February 1995). "Personal Best". Spin. 10 (11): 78–79. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
9. NM Mashurov (8 June 2019). "Team Dresch: Personal Best". Pitchfork. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
10. Christgau, Robert (November 14, 1995). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved 2023-12-22 – via robertchristgau.com.
11. Chris Richards (June 22, 2007). "Team Dresch Digs Deep Into Its Playbook". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 13, 2018.

External links

• Personal Best at Discogs (list of releases)