Women of Sodom
Boots (PussyKitty)
by J. Lianna Ness
Originally conceived as a side project of Sleep Chamber vocalist John Zewizz, Women of the SS featured some of the Sleep Chamber “dancers” – The Barbitchuettes – singing and performing some of John’s own experimental music.
After heated debates over the Nazi connotation of the name, performance artist Cynthia Von Buhler (a.k.a. “Ilsa”) decided to start her own band. She recruited Xavier, the bass player from former industrial band, Flail, to write the music, and thus was born Women of Sodom.
For those not familiar with either group, both are noteworthy Boston-based “performance” bands with a large B&D cult following. For Sleep Chamber, John Zewizz expresses his fantasies through his dancers, who act out the sexual content of the songs on stage with each other – groping, fondling, kissing, whipping… just another typical sexually suggestive stage show.
Women of Sodom is basically the same idea, but instead, the girls humiliate men and not each other. A naked male “submissive” is brought out in shackles, and another is placed and locked into a cage, and from there the women proceed to degrade them through kicking, biting, slapping, scratching, and whipping. The climax of the show (pun intended) is when Ilsa, aided by her “nurse,” gives the slave in the cage an enema.
All the familiar favorite songs are here on this 12-track CD. “Manwich” features Ilsa spouting feminist spew while vocalist Anneka sings a lovely little lullaby in the background. “Boots” is a cover of “These Boots Are Made For Walkin'” by Nancy Sinatra, but you’d never recognize it because the melody has been changed and the chorus is sung in German. “Watersports” is a jazzy, lounge music-type ditty with Anneka crooning Sade-like in the background while Ilsa issues commands to her slave (“Get down on your hands and knees and lick my shiny boot ‘cuz that’s what you deserve!”). My personal favorite track is “The Doctor Song,” which is also the single. Set to a dance groove, it’s sure to make you shake your shiny, patent-leatherbooty.
Most of the songs revolve around the B&D thing (shouts of “You are nothing!” pop up frequently), with some religious themes thrown in (“Valentine For Jesus” has Ilsa crooning about what she likes best about Jesus, while Anneka recites various prayers in the background). The production is medial, the music sounds a bit “tinny” – the music translates much better in a live setting – but overall, this is a decent effort. This band is a must-see live. Even Penthouse thought they were too shocking.
