Pussy Galore (band)

Infobox musical artist
Name = Pussy Galore


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Origin = Washington D.C., USA
Years_active = 1985—1990
Label = Caroline, Matador, In the Red Records
Associated_acts = Boss Hog, Royal Trux, Blues Explosion, Heavy Trash
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Past_members = Jon Spencer
Cristina Martinez
Julia Cafritz
Neil Michael Hagerty
John Hammill
Bob Bert

Pussy Galore was an American trash rock 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 Einsturzende 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)
* "Right Now!" LP (1987, Caroline; reissued 1998 Matador Records/Mute Records)
* "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)
* "Live: In The Red" LP last live show, recorded at CBGBs (1998, In the Red)

Videos

* "Maximum Penetration" VHS (1987, Atavistic Video)

Notes

Related Acts

*Royal Trux
*Boss Hog
*Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
*RTX
*Heavy Trash
*The Howling Hex
*Free Kitten

External links

* [http://www.pop-catastrophe.co.uk/pussy.aspx Pop-Catastrophe.co.uk: Pussy Galore discography]
* [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=71490476 Pussy Galore fan MySpace]