Kiss Them For Me | Siouxsie and the Banshees

I’ve been obsessed with Aisha Tyler’s Girl on Guy Podcast. It’s interesting, smart, funny, and I just love it. She’s had some of the most hilarious and fascinating interviews with Baratunde Thurston, Lisa Kudrow, Questlove, Chuck Klosterman, and Saul Williams. But one of my favorite interviews by far is the one with Shirley Manson.

The two of them talk about being artists, being women in the entertainment industry, not giving a fuck about what people think, depression, toddlers and tiaras, and meeting J-Lo after saying you wanted to kick her ass. You know…just your normal random and awesome conversation. The type of conversation you overhear and could easily join in without feeling uncomfortable because it’s between two kick-ass, intelligent strangers who you can totally relate to and who respect the uncontrollable art of conversation.

At one point Shirley talks about the artists that were her inspiration: Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, and Siouxsie Sioux, and I fucking loved it. I loved it because I love Siouxsie Sioux. I love Siouxsie and the Banshees. To be honest, I didn’t get on the SatB bandwagon until way later. Until I saw the video for “Kiss Them for Me”. When I wondered who was this woman dancing around with these stoic bleach-blonde-leather-jacket-clad guys just hanging in the background. It was weird but I liked it. I liked her. And when my mom bought our first CD player and let me buy the first CD to be played on it, that’s what I picked. And that’s what I played. And that’s what I danced to in the dining room for days on end.

It took me a while to hear more music by Siouxsie and the Banshees. To hear the earlier stuff. The music that really made her awesome. The music that really made me want to dance. But for as awesome as that earlier music is, “Kiss Them for Me” will always have a special place in my heart…and my dinning room dance floor.