Ride ’em, cowboy!
The soundtrack to a Spaghetti Western that does not exist.
No. 1: Jane Bond and the Undercovermen, ‘Kiss My Gun’.
Polish film poster for the French (!) Spaghetti Western
Les Pétroleuses (1971).
The explosion of musical creativity that followed in the wake of punk threw up an incredible variety of sub-genres I still find staggering. When you turned on your radio and tuned into Peel you never knew what would come
tumbling out next: a cheerful slice of DIY mayhem or some sombre piece of post-industrial angst; swirling layers of electronica would be followed by an exercise in gothic horror; you could get frenzied, atonal experimentalism rubbing shoulders with brittle, jangly indie-pop; there’d even be the occasional flight of nostalgic whimsy—all sunny afternoons and pooh-sticks—and of course much that simply defied any attempt at classification.
And every once in a while you’d come across a tune that sounded like it had escaped from the score of a spaghetti western circa 1968. I clearly have time on my hands because I’ve collected (a better writer would, of course, have said corralled) a few of these curiosities and will be wheeling them out from time to time.
I don’t know much about Jane Bond (or the Undercovermen for that matter) except that they put out an album, Politically Correct, in 1985 or 1986, from which Kiss My Gun is taken. As far as I know
this has not been re-issued on CD. If anyone knows anything more about the group, please get in touch.
To sample the delights of Kiss My Gun, click on the 'Dansette of Destiny' below:
ALMOST THERE | ISSUE ONE