Phranc
| Phranc | |
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Phranc
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Susan Gottlieb |
| Born |
August 28, 1957 Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Punk rock, folk |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1970s–present |
| Associated acts | Catholic Discipline, Nervous Gender |
Phranc is the stage name of Susan Gottlieb (b. August 28, 1957, in Santa Monica, California), a Californian singer-songwriter whose career has spanned several decades. She is also known for her cardboard and craft paper fine art.
Phranc began her performing career in the late 1970s and early 1980s punk scene in Los Angeles. She had a bleached blonde crewcut and wore male attire, creating an androgynous persona for her first band, Nervous Gender, which formed in 1978. The writer V/D wrote of her for the punk fanzine Slash, "On stage, Phranc looks like a 14-year-old runaway from a boys' reform school." The band was influential in the development of what later came to be known as 'electropunk'. In 1980 she left Nervous Gender to join the post punk and new wave band Catholic Discipline, in which Craig Lee (Bags) and Claude Bessy, journalist for Slash punk fanzine, were the lead singers. She was also in Castration Squad, a feminist, all-girl punk band that was involved in the punk movement.
Phranc appears with Catholic Discipline in The Decline of Western Civilisation, a documentary by Penelope Spheeris.
In the 1980s Phranc pursued a solo career. She performs in Paul Morrissey's film Madame Wang's (1981) as Phranque. She began playing an acoustic guitar and released Folksinger on Rhino Records in 1985. She opened for music acts such as The Smiths, Hüsker Dü, Violent Femmes, and Billy Bragg. She styled herself the "All-American Jewish Lesbian Folksinger" and with a wry sense of humour released the LP I Enjoy Being a Girl in 1989 on Island Records, appearing on the cover with her trademark 'flat top' hair style. Describing a live performance, Adam Block wrote "Phranc's unnerving androgyny (expressed with easy confidence) and her fervent opinions (couched in sly, laconic wit) make her a fascinating performer." Her third full-length recording, released in 1991, was Positively Phranc.
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