Dial P for Pussy
Galore: Part Four

Click here for part three

I asked Jon, "What about the
song 'Fuck Ian MacKaye.' Did you
ever record that?" Pussy Galore
used to perform it live while they
were based in DC, which the band
left because they never felt they
fit into that city's music scene.

"No," Jon replied. "We played it just to get attention." And
it worked (see Unrest's "answer" record, Fuck Pussy Galore
and All Her Friends). That comment confirmed my suspicion
that he really has been courting controversy from the start,
rather than just falling into it by accident time after time.

Jon did acknowledge, however, that he thinks Minor Threat,
MacKaye's early, straight-edge hardcore band, was "all right."

I didn't get the impression that he ever hated their music, or
that of the Dischord label's other acts; he probably just didn't
have much in common with those influential punks, not be-
ing straight-edge or hardcore, but I'm just speculating.



At this point, I queried Jon about the kind of stuff he listen-
ed to while he was growing up; anything that might have in-
fluenced what he's doing now or that he was just "really into."

"Nothing," he replied.

Bewildered, I volleyed, "Well, how did you end up making music?"

His answer had to do with getting aggression out and attracting at-
tention, as opposed to a love of music. That kind of surprised me.

"Weren't there certain groups you really got into in high school?"

"Well, yeah," Jon admitted, but he didn't elaborate, so who knows.

"So, what do you listen to the most these days?"

"Rap. NWA. We've been listening to them a lot lately."

"Do you like Public Enemy?"

"Yes. And Tad. Stuff like that."


Einstürzende Neubauten - "Yu-Gung" (Adrian Sherwood remix, 1985)

"Did you get Public Enemy's permission to sample the line,
'Don't believe the hype' in your cover of EN's 'Yu-Gung'?"

"Are you kidding?" Jon asked in amazement.

[Uh, no.]

The way he sees it, hip-hop acts have been ripping off
James Brown, et al. for years without giving them any cre-
dit, so why should his combo give those guys any credit?

What's the other sample you use in 'Yu-Gung'?" I asked.

"Rob Base and, and..."

"DJ E-Z Rock?"

"Yeah." The sample comes from "It Takes Two," a monster
hit in NYC the summer of its release, especially in Manhat-
tan, where he couldn't escape it no matter where he went.

"But otherwise, they suck," Jon stressed (several times, in fact).

Click here for part five



Endnote: Image from The Boston Phoenix.