My mother’s entire television viewing experience is divided between Television Española Internacional and the Travel Channel. My mother doesn’t understand much English. The Travel Channel is mostly visuals and worthless narration, and TVE is, of course, in Spanish.

Today they played a show that does a countdown of old news, whether they’re from last year or from 50 years ago. I was working on a computer when one segment caught my attention. It was a very brief piece from 1983 on an all-girl punk band from Bilbao. The segment explained how the broadcast of the band’s first music video caused a nationwide uproar.

I had to look this up.

Las Vulpess first formed in 1980. The name vulpess is Latin for foxes, which also means sluts in Spanish. About 10 girls came and went, until the band’s final lineup in 1982:

They rehearsed daily but still had a long way to go. Even though they had plenty of material by 1983, recording a punk album was difficult then. Studios didn’t know how to record guitar distortion properly, or that kind of singing.

Still, they managed to record a single: A 7″ record featuring the songs “Me gusta ser una zorra” (I Like Being a Fox) and “Inkisición” (Inquisition). “Me gusta ser una zorra” is composed of original lyrics over the band’s rendition of Iggy Pop’s “I Wanna Be Your Dog”.

The girls caught the attention of Carlos Tena, who produced a Saturday-morning TV show called “Caja de Ritmos” (Box of Rhythms). The show featured music videos by up-and-coming talent. Tena invited Las Vulpess to make a video for “Me gusta ser una zorra” and broadcasted it on March 16, 1983.

The shit hit the fan on May 1st when ABC, a conservative newspaper, published an article with the song’s lyrics. Here’s my translation of a few verses:

“I’d rather masturbate alone in my bed, than sleep with someone that talks to me about tomorrow. I’d rather fuck with executives, that talk crap and then forget you”.

That doesn’t go over well on Saturday mornings.

It was election year and conservatives milked it all the way. Las Vulpess took a lot of flak and just stopped playing, with the exception of a venue’s benefit event 2 years later. They reunited on 2003, which was the 10 year anniversary of Lupe’s death. Their single was re-released this year.

Here’s the infamous video. This also provides further proof that YouTube will contain every single piece of video on Earth by year’s end.

Wikipedia (Spanish)
POPes80 (Spanish)
Interview with Loles Vazquez (English translation)