As short-lived as they were inventive, Osaka, Japan's Aunt Sally stretched punk's creativity to its limit. Though they were heavily inspired by the Sex Pistols, the band's musical range was wider and wilder. On their lone 1979 album Aunt Sally, they incorporated nursery rhymes, pop standards, and an avant-garde sensibility into punk's brash D.I.Y. aesthetic, resulting in a subversive style that was entirely theirs. Not long after the album's release, the group called it quits, but Aunt Sally's leader, Phew, took this inventive spirit in even more challenging directions as a solo artist in the decades that followed.

The band was the brainchild of Phew (aka Hiromi Moritani), who became so fascinated with punk music as a teenager that she flew to London in 1977 to see the Sex Pistols play. When she returned, she formed Aunt Sally with guitarist Bikke (aka Yasuko Mori), keyboardist Mayu, bassist Kataoka, and drummer Takashi Maruyama. At first, the group played the Ramones and Who covers that many other bands on the local punk scene performed, but Phew quickly realized they needed to write their own songs. Combining tunes as well known as "Heart and Soul" and "Frère Jacques" with their own experimental vision, Aunt Sally released their self-titled debut album in early 1979 on Vanity Records in a limited edition of 400 copies. Just a few months later, feeling that punk's moment had passed, the group disbanded.

Phew embarked on a solo career soon after, working with Ryuichi Sakamoto on her first single and with members of Can on her self-titled 1981 debut album and 1992's Our Likeness. Thanks to Phew's status as a well-regarded experimental musician, Aunt Sally's legacy grew in Japan, and along with reissues of their debut album in 1984 (on Joystick) and 2002 (on Undo Records), P-Vine released Live 1978-1979 in 2001. In 2009, Phew reunited with Bikke -- who had gone on to play with bands including Bamboo Net, Mint Sleepin', and Lovejoy -- for the collaborative album Phew X Bikke. Aunt Sally was reissued to a wider audience by the New York-based label Mesh-Key in December 2021, a few months after the release of Phew's album New Decade. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi