Boss Hog is an American punk blues band including the husband and wife duo of Jon Spencer (guitar) and Cristina Martinez (vocals) along with Jens Jurgensen (bass), Hollis Queens (drums) and Mickey Finn (keyboard). The band achieved some notoriety, not only due to their abrasive sound, but more to Martinez's confrontational use of nudity on the band's record sleeves. In their 27-year history the band's releases have been relatively sporadic, but comprised four full-length albums, a mini-album, three EP's and several singles. Between 2008 and 2010 the band played live and toured Europe and the US.
Boss Hog was formed in 1989, as something of an accidental side project, when Cristina Martinez and Jon Spencer were told of a last minute vacancy on the bill at the influential New York punk club CBGB's. The pair put together a group of musicians from members of The Honeymoon Killers and Unsane, along with Kurt Wolf from Pussy Galore.
Links to Peel
As a fan of Pussy Galore's music, which was Jon Spencer's main band, Peel took an interest in the musical career of the guitarist and invited the group to do a session for his show in 1991. He also saw them perform live at the Marquee in the spring of that year.
