Pussy Galore was an American
noise punk band that formed in
Washington D.C. during 1985. They had a constantly fluid line-up until their demise in 1990.
History
The band's earliest incarnation consisted of guitarist and vocalist
Jon Spencer, guitarist
Julia Cafritz and drummer John Hammill though this line-up would be subject to both change and expansion in later years. Following the self released 7"
Feel Good About Your Body, they added guitarist
Neil Hagerty, and replaced Hammill with former
Sonic Youth drummer
Bob Bert after the band moved to
New York City. They further expanded the line-up by taking on then 16-year-old
Cristina Martinez as a guitarist though she was not really a musician, she had simply taken the photograph for the 7", and recorded the
EP Groovy Hate Fuck. The EP, like all of their early releases, would be self-released on their own
Shove Records label.
Just prior to the EP's release, they publicly vented their hatred for
Dischord Records boss
Ian MacKaye and made themselves even more unpopular amongst Washington D.C.'s
hardcore punk scene. They subsequently left for
New York where they released a limited-edition
cassette-only cover album of the
Rolling Stones'
Exile on Main Street. They followed this up in January 1987 with another self-released mini-set
Pussy Gold 5000. Shortly after this Martinez left the band and formed
Boss Hog a few years later.
In September 1987, Pussy Galore recorded their debut album and their first recording for another label,
Right Now! on
Caroline Records. Shortly following the release of
Right Now!, Hagerty left the band and was replaced by
Kurt Wolf but he was to return to the Pussy Galore line-up following the release of the
Sugarshit Sharp EP with Wolf leaving to join
Loudspeaker.
Sugarshit Sharp is probably best known for the garage rock interpretation of
Einstürzende Neubauten's industrial/dance classic from the mid-80's,
Yu-Gung. Pussy Galore used sampling in their music, drawing short samples from both the original track and the
Public Enemy rap classic,
Don't Believe The Hype.
F.M._Einheit, a member of Neubauten, was said to have been quite impressed with the cover version.
[F.M. Einheit Interview on CBC Radio's Brave New Waves (circa 1990)] The EP also introduced Pussy Galore's new logo, which consisted of Neubauten's "Yu-Gung Man" emblem with a grainy, almost indecipherable photocopy of the Rolling Stones' trademark lips-and-tongue image superimposed over its head.
Their second full-length set
Dial M for Motherfucker, was released in 1989 and continued their formula of
nihilistic guitar noise and punk rock provocation, with additional studio trickery filling out the material. Originally intended to be titled
Make Them All Eat Shit Slowly, the name of the album was ultimately vetoed by Caroline Records. The album is sometimes wrongly referred to as
New Album By Pussy Galore. This is largely due to the fact that the cover of the album has no text except for a sticker that appeared on the plastic shrink wrapping that bears those words. Dial M represents a move away from a simple noise formula to something more experimental. It is, for example, difficult to determine where some songs begin and end. Many sequences on the album appear to run in reverse, sometimes mid-song, seemingly for no apparent reason. Cafritz appears on some of this album but not the entirety.
Dial M marks a point at which Cafritz and the band began fighting, ultimately leading to her leaving the band.
They released a split single in 1989, a cover of
Black Flag's "Damaged II" with
Tad covering "Damaged I" on the other side, for
Sub Pop Records and another split single with
Black Snakes for
Japanese indie
Supernatural Records.
By now, Cafritz had quit the line-up. The trio of Spencer, Hagerty and Bert released one final album in 1990 called
Historia De La Música Rock for Caroline Records before calling it a day the same year. Historia is far more blues influenced than the previous albums and bears little resemblance to their earlier releases. Elements of the
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion are clearly apparent in this final album. The cover of Historia is parody of a music compilation vinyl series from Spain called Historia de la Música Rock. These were "greatest hits" collections for well known rock acts like Elvis and David Bowie that flooded the used record racks of the 1980s. Strangely enough, the cassette releases of Historia have a completely different cover which doesn't appear to bear any connection to the Spanish compilation series.
Spencer co-founded
Boss Hog with former Pussy Galore guitarist Cristina Martinez in the late '80s just prior to the dissolution of Pussy Galore itself. Spencer and Martinez had married in 1989 (and are still married today). He also went on to form the
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Neil Hagerty continued his 'noise-terrorist' career with his girlfriend, Jennifer Herrema, in
blues-rock duo
Royal Trux, which the pair had formed in
Chicago during 1987. Cafritz and Bert joined forces briefly in the early '90s to put out a self-titled album under the name, Action Swingers, the style of which is tenuously reminiscent of Pussy Galore.
Two years after the breakup, their CD compilation
Corpse Love: The First Year was released. It included four tracks from the highly sought after
Exile On Main Street cassette, as well as some previously released early material, some of which included short interviews.
Albums
- Feel Good About Your Body EP 7", 1985
- Exile on Main Street Cassette (1986, Shove) (limited edition of 550 copies, although four tracks from this appear on the Corpse Love CD)
- Groovy Hate Fuck EP (1986, Shove)
- Pussy Gold 5000 EP (1986, Shove)
- Groovy Hate Fuck (Feel Good About Your Body) LP (1987, Vinyl Drip) (UK collection of early releases)
- Sugarshit Sharp EP (1988, Caroline; reissued 1998 Matador Records/Mute Records with bonus track "Penetration In the Centerfold")
- Dial M for Motherfucker (aka Make Them All Eat Shit Slowly, aka New Album By Pussy Galore) LP (1989, Caroline; CD version contained 5 of the 6 tracks from Sugarshit Sharp, with a cover of Devo's "Penetration In the Centerfold" replacing "Yu-Gung"; reissued 1998 Matador Records/Mute Records with original vinyl contents only)
- Historia De La Música Rock LP (1990, Caroline)
- Corpse Love: The First Year CD (1992, Caroline)
Videos
- Maximum Penetration VHS (1987, Atavistic Video)
