Biography
It was during one of Al Jourgensen's raucous evenings that the phrase attached itself to the project, after a bartender ejected the Ministry singer and his companions with the label "revolting cocks." That moniker attached itself to a new endeavor in 1985 when Jourgensen teamed with Luc Van Acker and Richard 23 of Front 242 to fuse avant-garde impulses with club rhythms. As sessions continued, the material veered toward abrasive, mocking, and prurient textures, prompting Richard 23's departure amid artistic disagreements in 1986—the same year Wax Trax! issued the debut Big Sexy Land. The record contained the Blade Runner tribute "Attack Ships on Fire," which became a dance-floor staple, while its cover art introduced "the Three Guys," anonymous figures from a vintage photograph that would serve as the group's visual emblem on subsequent releases. Ministry colleagues Paul Barker, Chris Connelly, and Bill Rieflin augmented the lineup alongside Van Acker and Jourgensen for touring, and those performances later surfaced as the 1988 live album and video You Goddamned Son of a Bitch.
By then the group's nihilistic revelry had eclipsed earlier conceptual ambitions; the reception of 1989's Stainless Steel Providers confirmed an audience attuned to that shift, as did the saturation of college playlists and clubs with 1990's "Beers, Steers + Queers." The full-length Beers, Steers + Queers arrived the same year, incorporating two renditions of "(Let's Get) Physical," one of them an extended thirteen-minute loop built solely on the word "physical." To mark the release the band crisscrossed the country alongside the Skatenigs—whose singer Phil Owen had already appeared on the record—and the notoriously provocative Mentors. Though 1993's Linger Ficken' Good... adopted a comparatively restrained tone, Sire, then linked to Warner Bros., still issued it, yielding another club favorite via the group's take on Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?"
After a long hiatus the collective resurfaced in 2004 when "Prune Tang" surfaced online, signaling an impending album titled Purple Head. That year Ryko reissued the first two studio albums with added tracks, yet the new project never materialized. In 2005 a version of Bauhaus' "Dark Entries" featuring Butthole Surfer Gibby Haynes surfaced on the Saw II soundtrack. Haynes then joined Jello Biafra, Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen and Robin Zander, Davíd Garza, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, and returning members Jourgensen and Owen—now credited as Phildo Owen—for 2006's Cocked and Loaded, the first Revco release on Jourgensen's 13th Planet imprint and the first without "the Three Guys" on its artwork. Sex-O Olympic-O followed in 2008, succeeded by Got Cock? in 2010, the latter containing a cover of 2 Live Crew's "Me So Horny."
By then the group's nihilistic revelry had eclipsed earlier conceptual ambitions; the reception of 1989's Stainless Steel Providers confirmed an audience attuned to that shift, as did the saturation of college playlists and clubs with 1990's "Beers, Steers + Queers." The full-length Beers, Steers + Queers arrived the same year, incorporating two renditions of "(Let's Get) Physical," one of them an extended thirteen-minute loop built solely on the word "physical." To mark the release the band crisscrossed the country alongside the Skatenigs—whose singer Phil Owen had already appeared on the record—and the notoriously provocative Mentors. Though 1993's Linger Ficken' Good... adopted a comparatively restrained tone, Sire, then linked to Warner Bros., still issued it, yielding another club favorite via the group's take on Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?"
After a long hiatus the collective resurfaced in 2004 when "Prune Tang" surfaced online, signaling an impending album titled Purple Head. That year Ryko reissued the first two studio albums with added tracks, yet the new project never materialized. In 2005 a version of Bauhaus' "Dark Entries" featuring Butthole Surfer Gibby Haynes surfaced on the Saw II soundtrack. Haynes then joined Jello Biafra, Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen and Robin Zander, Davíd Garza, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, and returning members Jourgensen and Owen—now credited as Phildo Owen—for 2006's Cocked and Loaded, the first Revco release on Jourgensen's 13th Planet imprint and the first without "the Three Guys" on its artwork. Sex-O Olympic-O followed in 2008, succeeded by Got Cock? in 2010, the latter containing a cover of 2 Live Crew's "Me So Horny."
Albums
