I used to hate Valentine's Day. (Come to think of it, I still do.) Boyfriendless throughout my adolescent years, I used to beg my mother to let me stay home from school every February 14-- a holiday I perceived as a well- orchestrated ploy to make me miserable. As I approached legal drinking age, I devised a coping strategy and began cramming as many friends and co-workers as possible into my tiny apartment for anti- Valentine's Day parties. We'd stay up drinkin' and druggin' until 4:00 a.m., then wake up for work four hours later. A jolly time was had by all.

Queercore band extraordinaire, Pansy Division, captures my sentiments about Valentine's Day quite accurately in a song that appears on their fifth full- length release, More Lovin' From Our Oven. But a Pillsbury Bake- Off, it ain't: Say it loud, Pansy Division's gay and they're proud!

The 21- track punk extravaganza boasts demo tracks, previously- released songs and covers galore: The Police's "On Any Other Day" Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law" and Depeche Mode's "What's Your Name?" are all reworked to reflect gay viewpoints. The boys explore everything from attraction in "Fem in a Black Leather Jacket" and life in "Manada," a land where ready, willing, and able young studs run wild and free. And political and religious leaders who wax homophobic in the name of morality are relentlessly assaulted in "Political Asshole."

As with most records, the music is only half the story. Loaded with nods to boys the trio have laid, long to lay, or plan to lay in the near future, the inner sleeve is the stuff that gay- boy (and straight- girl!) dreams are made of. (The phallic references alone were enough to bring out the insatiable pervert in me. I mean, there's dick everywhere!) While Pansy Division's unabashedly pro-gay, pro-sex attitudes are joys to behold, the prudish are unlikely to appreciate tracks like "I'm Gonna Be a Slut," "Bunnies," and "Two Way Ass."

-Susan Moll