Pwr Bttm
American queer punk duo formed in 2013
Pwr Bttm (disemvoweling of Power Bottom), stylized PWR BTTM, was an American queer punk duo formed in 2013 at Bard College by Ben Hopkins and Liv Bruce. The duo's debut album, Ugly Cherries, was released in 2015. Their second studio album, Pageant, was released in 2017 to critical acclaim. Pageant's release was preceded by sexual abuse allegations against Ben Hopkins, which led to the duo being dropped by both Polyvinyl and Big Scary Monsters. Pwr Bttm denied the allegations and the band broke up that same year after a falling-out between its two members.
History
Formation and Ugly Cherries (2013–2015)
Bruce and Hopkins met in 2011 while they were both attending Bard College in southeastern New York State. The band was originally a trio which played many shows at Bard College. Bruce and Hopkins spent several months working together and developing their skills as a pair before playing their first show and releasing their first demo, Cinderella Beauty Shop (2014).
Inspired by Limp Wrist and other queercore bands, Liv Bruce came up with potential band names like Hissy Fit and My Ass Hurts before deciding on Pwr Bttm. The duo's name is a vowel-less take on the term "power bottom", which is described by Fusion writer John Walker in a September 2015 article as "a receptive partner who eschews submission to play a dominant role during sex", meaning that while someone is "bottoming", they maintain the dominant power in a sexual interaction.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pwr Bttm” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.