“You could call it a metaphor but it feels true to me,” she explains regarding the album title which she pulled from the album’s title track. “I’ve never been shy about being provocative or too ironic but I saw no reason to pull any punches on this one.”
Kitten Robot Records originated as an offshoot of Kitten Robot Studios, the recording studio near Echo Park in L.A. The label’s first release was Josie’s single “Ukrainian Cowboy” (b/w “Cold War Spy”).
Eager to give listeners another sample of her forthcoming album, last year she also released the rockabilly duet with Kevin Preston, “The Ballad of Elvis Presley.” The only track she didn't write on the album, the song was originally written for Brian Setzer (of Stray Cats) years ago by Josie’s longtime producer and mentor, Larson Paine, who had also written her ‘80s breakthrough single “Johnny, Are You Queer?” with his brother Bobby Paine. She adds that Larson’s sudden passing this year came as a shock. “He was a huge influence in my life. He was one of the greats.”
She says that the aforementioned “Cold War Spy” was by far “the most challenging song I wrote for the album.” The lyrics were inspired by her love for John le Carré spy novels which are “always ominous,” James Bond and intensive research on the Cold War.
"I started sleeping with a notebook and pen in case any lyrics came to me in the middle of the night.” Drawing from multiple sources of influence, the dark humor of her song “Painting In Blood,” for instance, came from her adoration of Italian composer and conductor Ennio Morricone and the '70s Giallo and Spaghetti Western films he scored.
"Too Beautiful” was written while driving down the coast highway from San Francisco with her band at sunset. “It was so beautiful it made me want to cry. There was a sadness there I had never fully noticed before and that eventually became a song.”
“The Fathomless Tale of Silky and Sam” came from a dream about a spider.
Produced and mixed by Cotton and her longtime collaborator, Paul Roessler (TSOL, Richie Ramone, The Screamers, Nina Hagan), Day of the Gun features guest appearances by Kevin Preston (Long Shot, Prima Donna), Eddie Spaghetti (Supersuckers), Clem Burke (of Blondie), and Lee Rocker (of Stray Cats). Kevin Preston and Lee Rocker also appear in the official video for “The Ballad Of Elvis Presley” that was filmed last year in Pioneertown.
Josie Cotton "The Ballad of Elvis Presley": https://youtu.be/vpiLRrs-jcY
Recorded over a four-year time frame at Kitten Robot Studios, Cotton took her time with Day of the Gun while touring and doing multiple collaborations. “I kept getting asked to do these amazing projects that I really wanted to do."
While she says singing a duet with Justin Pearson (The Locust and Planet B) for his new record was “the most avant-garde thing” she’s ever done, she also sang a duet with Ben Weasel on the 2020 Screeching Weasel’s album Some Freaks Of Atavism (“Turn It Around”), as well as recording (“Fading Fast”) for a GoGos tribute album (If you Gotta Go-Go, Go-Go Now).
In addition, she recorded a Marianne Faithfull song for a benefit record with Peaches, Tracey Bonham, Shirley Manson and other luminary female artists and added her flair on a “Bad Reputation” cover on Mikey and His Uke Series with Offspring’s Noodles, Dead Kennedy’s Klaus Flouride, No Doubt’s Adrian Young and Kevin Preston of Longshot and Prima Donna.
Last Easter she had the chance to perform with John Waters at the Madonna Inn in celebration of the 30th Anniversary screening of the classic film Cry Baby (1990) and joined Mr. Waters again this past October for his Halloween Meltdown in Mosswood.
Over the last four years, Josie has released the singles “Ukrainian Cowboy”/ “Cold War Spy,” a holiday track "Every Day Like Christmas,” “Sheena is a Punk Rocker,“ “Female Trouble” and the album Everything Is Oh Yeah! (her lost record from the 80s, finally released in 2019).
She also re-mastered and re-released her breakthrough debut album Convertible Music, as well as her other albums, From The Hip, Movie Disaster Music, Frightened By Nightingales, Invasion of the B-Girls and her electro-pop masterpiece Pussycat Babylon.
Track list:
1. “Circle Dance”
2. “The Fathomless Tale of Silky and Sam”
3. “Day of the Gun”
4. “Overturning”
5. “The Ballad of Elvis Presley”
6. “Ukrainian Cowboy”
7. “Disco Ball”
8. “Painting in Blood”
9. “Cold War Spy”
10. “Too Beautiful”
11. “Headlights”
12. “Snappy”
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