Pussy Cactus

Connecticut musician Pussy Cactus is more than just another quirky and boisterous noise pop girl. With her new five-track EP entitled He’s Fast, Pussy Cactus shows that she can lyrically be very wise and philosophical.

On her glum “I Call My Dick Cheney,” Cactus preaches to the human race that “we are all a baby/ we are all a teenager/ we are all an adult/ and we are all an old man at the same time.” The funkalicious “Sex Ed” stresses that parents speak with their children about sex safety and the danger of STDs - especially crabs (she calls it “the worst STD”).

Pussy Cactus is highly similar to Meredith Graves, frontwoman of another “pussy” band: Syracuse lo-fi punk outfit Perfect Pussy. Like Graves, PC’s vocals are super discordant and angrily toned. Both musicians are also prudent and intuitive, which Graves proves with her intelligent essay on TheTalkhouse.com about gender values in contemporary music and PC with her intriguing lyrics. The main difference between the two, though, is that PC’s cadences aren’t as heavily muffled and obfuscated in the mix as Graves’.

The material on He’s Fast impeccably embodies its creator’s name: its harsh and prickly like a cactus, but it has the grace and hipness of a pussy cat.

7.9 / 10 — Eli Zeger