30 Years Later: Portland, Oregon Queercore Icons Team Dresch Return With 'Furthermore' and a Hometown Show

Portland, Oregon queercore pioneers Team Dresch are back with Furthermore, their first album in 30 years, out now on Jealous Butcher Records. This Wednesday, Oct. 28, they bring it home to Portland's Revolution Hall with Heavens to Betsy and Altar Girl, kicking off a West Coast run.

Thirty years after Captain My Captain

The band formed in Portland in 1993, with early practices at Jody Bleyle's house in Southeast Portland, according to BroadwayWorld. Rolling Stone named Personal Best (1995) one of the greatest punk albums of all time, and Captain My Captain followed in 1996.

For a generation of queer punks without representation, the band was a lifeline, as The Line of Best Fit describes it. Shows in 2025 celebrated the 30th anniversary of Personal Best, and the momentum carried straight into a new record.

Those first practices had Kaia Wilson on guitar and vocals, Donna Dresch on guitar and bass, and Bleyle on vocals and drums before she moved to guitar and bass. Today the band is a five-piece with two drummers: Marcéo Martinez, who played on Personal Best, and Melissa York, who played on Captain My Captain. Résumés stretch across Screaming Trees and Dinosaur Jr. (Dresch), Hazel (Bleyle), Adickdid (Wilson), Calamity Jane (Martinez) and Vitapup (York).

Coraline animators and a Lance Bangs video

The single "Growing Underground" came with a stop-motion video by Jason Thibodeaux and Cynthia Star, whose credits include Laika's Coraline and ParaNorman. Its silhouetted imagery draws on queer history, and the band says the song is about "chosen families, interconnection, and the networks that have always sustained one another."

Follow-up "Heard A Bang" got a video from director Lance Bangs. The 12-track album runs from opener "One Song" to closer "Protectors," with stops at "Jamie," "(Where Do) I Belong" and "Last One At The Party."

The fall tour

The band warmed up with an August support slot for the Breeders, per The Line of Best Fit. After a September run through Switzerland, Germany and a London date at Downstairs at The Dome, the band heads down the West Coast. Following Portland, they play Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco Nov. 4 and 5 and Zebulon in Los Angeles Nov. 7, both with Longstocking and The Third Sex.

The run wraps Nov. 12 at the Spanish Ballroom in Tacoma, Washington, with Neko Case. Former Washington Post critic Chris Richards once described the band's appeal as "heroic loudness," BroadwayWorld notes. Three decades on, Portland gets to hear it at full volume again.

Where to listen and follow

Stream and buy Furthermore on Team Dresch's Bandcamp.

Sources

BroadwayWorld — "Team Dresch Releases FURTHERMORE, First Album in 30 Years"
The Line of Best Fit — "Team Dresch preview first album in 30 years with "Growing Underground" video made by Coraline animators"
Bandcamp — "Team Dresch – Furthermore"