NYC’s Boss Hog Are Back After 16 Year Hiatus With A New Single “Wichita Grey”

by Meghan Sara

The 90s are officially BACK!  NYC’s “punk blues” band Boss Hog has just released their first single in 16 years. “Wichita Grey” is one of four tracks off of Brood Star, their “amuse bouche” preview for their impending new full-length album, Brood X

BroodStarEP

Boss Hog’s roots stretch back to NYC in the early 1990s. Married couple Cristina Martinez and Jon Spencer (of the Blues Explosion) anchor the group, with Jens Jurgensen, Hollis Queens, and Mickey Finn rounding out the deliciously unsavory quintet. Appearing as themselves in the made-for-MTV movie Joe’s Apartment, Boss Hog secured a foothold in the 90s music video pop culture scene.  

With driving percussion and plaintive riffs, “Wichita Grey” is as dense and fuzzy as a hangover.  The track’s elegantly distorted opening lyrics, “Welcome, madame and monsieur/to a day at the races,” sung by lead singer Martinez, conjures the voice of a lady barker shouting through a megaphone. The ensuing track is gritty, assertive, pushy, and erotic; like hooking up with a carny in a pile of cigarette butts behind the sideshow.   

“Wichita Grey” is a delightful return for the band, proving they can remain faithful to their signature sound as in earlier track “Some Sara” off their 1993 EP Girl+while refining and innovating to stay current and enticing.  If “Wichita Grey” is any indication, Brood Star is going to be the perfect album to blast through your speakers while drinking beer and hooking up in the bed of your pickup truck in a field on muggy summer nights.  We say, “Welcome back, Boss Hog.  Don’t wait so fucking long next time.”

Lucky west coasters can catch them on their mini tour this July:

July 11  – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
July 12 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
July 13 – Eugene, OR – HiFi Music Hall Lounge
July 14 – San Francisco, CA  – Slim’s
July 15 – Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex (In The Red 25th Anniversary)
July 16 – San Diego CA – Casbah

Photo by Doerte Fitschen-Rath

 

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