A new wave cult figure for many and a guardian of the gates of hell for others, Josie Cotton is best remembered for her divisive 1981 “hit” “Johnny Are You Queer?”. The Los Angeles gay community loved it and in New York the same crowd read it as homophobic, while a television Evangelist played the 12” single at 33 rpm to prove that she was really a he out to entice clean-living heteros to the darkside. Nevertheless, after the dust had settled, Cotton slipped off most listeners’ radar. She was dropped by her label Elektra, while her recordings became increasingly more sporadic as the years passed. Until now, that is. Following on from last year’s triumphant return with Movie Disaster Music, Invasion of the B-Girls is a too-cool-for-school pet project bringing together reinterpretations of nine classic themes of pure grindhouse magic. From the revved-up, ‘60s girl group rumble of Herschell Gordon Lewis’s She Devils on Wheels theme “Maneaters (Get Off the Road)”, with Cotton’s sexy growl recalling the seductive vocal stylings of Eartha Kitt, to Ted V. Mikel’s groovy “Girl in Gold Boots”, to the string-arranged sunshine pop of “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”, and peaking with the scintillating, swinging go-go-sound of “Run Pussy Cat” (Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!), the latter two themes taken from classic Russ Meyer films, this is sleazy, sweet-sounding movie music mayhem minus the dodgy grindhouse print.  Go, Baby, Go!

• Multiple songs MySpace