'Dial M for Motherfucker' 25 years later

To mark the 25th anniversary of Pussy Galore's "Dial M for Motherfucker," Nick Hutchings at The Quietus tracks down the band members (Jon Spencer, Julia Cafritz, Bob Bert, Neil Hagerty and Kurt Wolf) to discuss the making of the record.

An excerpt from Mr. Spencer:

Pussy Galore, while we were working on familiar tropes and recognisable forms and genres was very much sort of anti-music or reacting to, kicking against something.

I think that confrontation was a big part of Pussy Galore.

It was an honest to goodness rock & roll band as well. I don't think you'd be doing this interview if there weren't some cool rock songs in there, if there wasn't some meat. If it was just a conceptual affair and it was just confrontation full stop then we wouldn't have mattered as much to people.

According to the always-reliable Wikipedia, a song from the record, "Kicked Out," is played in an episode of the Fox show "House" titled "Games" ... "when Gregory House plays it to annoy Wilson and induce a seizure in a patient."

Heh.

Anyway, here's a live Pussy Galore performance from a few years earlier … 1987… if you want to annoy your neighbors… or just to enjoy!

The Alright stuff

Pussy Galore in Times Square

Recent Times Square in the 1970s/1980s/1990s posts by Alex at Flaming Pablum and Ken at Greenwich Village Daily Photo prompted me to dig out one of my favorite records, Pussy Galore's "Corpse Love." The CD sleeve includes each of the five band members standing in front of an appropriate marquee on 42nd Street. Only included the shots of Messrs. Hagerty and Spencer here...

The song in my head

There were times when I'd walk around the neighborhood...and the vibe I'd get could be set to a song and video like the following from Pussy Galore.



Now, given all the condos and fancy shops and clueless young people with too much money, it seems more like this from the band Whiny Dork Who Could Never Date the Model in the Video. (Actually, that may not be the name of the band. Whatever.)