NASHVILLE PUSSY

Though they've been around longer than a decade, grit rockers NASHVILLE PUSSY get the royal rub from their current label, SPV/Steamhammer with a two-disc mini-retrospective, "Ten Years of Pussy". This anthology contains sixteen tunes on the main program and a six track bonus disc from a live performance in Nottingham. The main track selection here is, of course, strewn from NASHVILLE PUSSY's SPV studio catalog comprising of "Get Some!", "From Hell to Texas" and 2014's terrific "Up the Dosage".

As NASHVILLE PUSSY's moniker comes by way of Ted Nugent's intro spiel to "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang" on "Double Live Gonzo", it's fitting the cover of "Ten Years of Pussy" takes a nod to the former with axe mistress Ruyter Suys peeling off the salute. The Nuge, but more so AC/DC (both represented on "Pillbilly" from "Up the Dosage") have figured into NASHVILLE PUSSY's pulled-back lean upon blues and piss rock, as opposed to the punk-oriented chaw and speed of their earlier material including the definitive "Let Them Eat Pussy".

"10 Years of Pussy" grabs five cuts from "Up the Dosage", NASHVILLE PUSSY's most acclaimed album in years. You get the title track, "Rub it to Death" (one of the faster songs the band's done since the old days),"'Til the Meat Falls Off the Bone", "The South's Too Fat to Rise Again", "Pillbilly" and "Before the Drugs Wear Off". Surprising that "Pussy's Not a Dirty Word", an instant classic amongst the band's fans, didn't make the cut.

There's "I'm So High", "Ain't Your Business", "Stone Cold Down", "Why Why Why", "Lazy Jesus" (featuring a guest performance by Lemmy Kilmister from MOTÖRHEAD) and "I'm So High" with Danko Jones from "From Hell to Texas". Then "Pussy Time", "Come On Come On", "Hate and Whisky", "Going Down Swinging" and "Good Night for a Heart Attack" check in from "Get Some!"

While taming down the velocity in their run with SPV if hardly taming down their boozing and swinging antics, NASHVILLE PUSSY reserves their fullest impact for the stage, embodied pretty well in the Nottingham live cuts on the second disc.

"This is about God and monkeys," utters Blaine Cartwright as lead into an unruly live presentation of "One Way Down", and he churns into the mike with a spit-laden slog. As some (including AC/DC biographer Joe Bonomo) claim, NASHVILLE PUSSY right now is playing to a rowdy boogie-rock hilt, prompting comparisons to Seventies-era AC/DC. The live whirls of "Struttin' Cock" and "The Late, Great U.S.A." just might stake a reputable claim to that. Ruyter Suys and Bonnie Buitrago provide estrogen-laced background chimes, though they raise equal hell with Blaine Cartwright when pushing the songs to their maxes. The main attraction of the Nottingham tracks is a guest appearance by the SUPERSUCKERS' Ron Heathman on a choppy pull through "Nutbush City Limits". However, for longtime NASHVILLE PUSSY fans, the inclusion of "Go Motherfucker Go" and "You're Going Down" from "Let Them Eat Pussy" are the true highlights, and the band plays them with just as much jizz-flinging gusto as the old days.

Though a NASHVILLE PUSSY anthology seems not only remiss but all fucked-up without songs from "Let Them Eat Pussy", "Higher than Hell" and "Say Something Nasty", "10 Years of Pussy" is still a cool place to get started if you're one of the uninitiated. NASHVILLE PUSSY is one of the great bands of the American underground who have pollinated the world with their unbending orgy of commotion. This band has always been tighter than a virgin's you-know-what, yet there appears no settling down until that thing's been greased like sloppy seconds.