Gun Club: Classic or DUD

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Actually I've only listened to a small percentage of their output so I'm asking just to know whether further investigation is needed...

― Simone, Tuesday, 3 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Oh, classic, all the way around. Jeffrey Lee Pierce, the only bleach-blonde, Debbie Harry obsessed, blues-crazed LA punker from the late seventies/early eighties -- and he actually had talent too! Try the early albums or _Mother Juno_, produced by Robin Guthrie.

Fave JLP quote ever -- "The rehab place I went to was pretty scummy, but I hear Nick Cave's was fabulous."

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 3 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Thanx for the advice! what about Miami?

― Simone, Tuesday, 3 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

I love MIAMI...as its actually the only Gun Club album I've ever heard. I wore out my vinyl of it, however. Criminally, it is OUT OF PRINT on compact disc, and incredibly hard to find (yes, I've tried eBay, but am always outbid at very high sums).

― Alex in NYC, Tuesday, 3 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Really? that turns up 2nd hand & cheap all the time out here...their best album too i reckon...at the time i recall it being regarded as the 1st of a career-long run of disappointing follow-ups...their next few disappointing follow-ups really were pretty bad tho' & i lost interest for years...until i picked up a cheap 2nd hand 'Miami' a few years ago i guess. anyway now that I've said that I'll probably never see a copy again, but i could try & locate one for you......

― Duane Zarakov, Wednesday, 4 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

I tried for years to unload my vinyl copy of Miami, and no used record store would have it. It ended up in the garbage. It's a terrible record. By my count, there's one and a half good song ("Mother Of Earth" and maybe "Carry Home"), plus Pierce's singing is spectacularly grating. I don't usually pay that much attention to singers, but boy is that guy impossible to ignore. I might have enjoyed most of the record is someone less tone-deaf was singing.

― Patrick, Wednesday, 4 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

I happen to think "Carry Home" is completely sublime, but I can understand why Jeffrey's oft-off-key voice could leave someone cold. Whatever mows your lawn, I s'pose. Next time you see MIAMI in a cheapy used bin, give me a holler! I'd love to find it on CD. Thanky.

― Alex in NYC, Wednesday, 4 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Classic.

The first album, "Fire of Love" is completely classic and holds up as well as anything from the period, period. Later albums weren't as good. Insanely great live band for the first few years.

― dan, Wednesday, 4 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

funny, i was just listening to Fire of Love and Miami just the other night after years of neglect. Fire of Love is definitely my favourite, while I only like perhaps 2 songs on Miami, and I agree that Pierce's voice is pretty damn grating on most of it. I don't think I've ever listened to all of "Watermelon Man" at one go, for example. I've not heard much of the stuff since some EP that came out after Miami (which I disliked at the time). But even just on the basis of the Fire of Love LP, and even if all the other LPs were awful (and I'm not qualified to speak on that) I'd have to vote for "classic", at least on a personal level. I bought the Fire of Love album in 1982 (I think) without knowing anything about it. Still don't know why I bought it. It just looked right. I'd maybe heard the Cramps once or twice before this, and was listening to a lot of american "roots" stuff like the Blasters at the time, as well as the Ramones. For me, the Gun Club was perfect. A link between blues and all out wierdness....not that blues can't include all out wierdness...

Fire of love: covered in slide guitar. acoustic blues tunes and rip- offs thereof, done by a somewhat competant but mostly just damn enthusiastic bunch of LA punks. How else can you describe that? Classic.

― paul, Wednesday, 4 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

She's like heroin to me, she cannot miss the vein... Wow. Fuck "Miami", it's indeed all about "Fire of Love"... Oddly the GC is currently being revived here in Montreal by an up and coming band which regularly plays covers of their songs during their live sets. The Club's really another one of these obscure bands from which spring various cult figures... the Kid, Patti Morrison... It's a bit like Crime & the City Solution, confidentially yours...

And "Sex Beat"! What an album-opener!

― Simon, Wednesday, 4 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

revive

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Thursday, 12 June 2003 12:06 (9 years ago) Permalink

tsss, no revival?
(care to put in something yourself, Custos? i suppose there's a reason for reviving this thread?)

Absolute Classic! albums i know:
"Fire of Love" - Enough praise already
"the Las Vegas Story" - Wonder why nobody's mentioned it. Powerful manic big city swampblues songs wonderfully sung. Everybody should hear this one.
"Mother Juno" - 1987 comeback album. Less manic, more introspection & melody (Yellow Eyes, Port of Souls, great slow songs), Jeffrey "you look like an Elvis from hell" Lee Lewis's voice has aqcuired more depth & variation and would only get better on subsequent records.
"Pastoral Hide & Seek" The Gun Club at its most accessible & compelling? "Emily's Changed", "I hear your heart singing", "Flowing" ah, too many to mention. (Great singalong album when cycling to university it was.)
"Lucky Jim" the contemplative album, songs written in Vietnam & Cambodia, recorded in the Netherlands (yay!:). Very strong cuts, (and I suppose) the last he would compose since he died in '96.

― willem (willem), Thursday, 12 June 2003 17:59 (9 years ago) Permalink

Willem, Custos just hits "random" and revives threads for no reason. I must admit that I was glad to see one of my favorite bands hit the Custos-revival circuit, though I do find his habit tiresome at time. Classic anyhow obviously.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Thursday, 12 June 2003 18:08 (9 years ago) Permalink

That's what I've noticed as well J0hn, hence the remark about some more input from the Lord himself ;)

― willem (willem), Thursday, 12 June 2003 18:32 (9 years ago) Permalink

Willem, Custos just hits "random" and revives threads for no reason.
No, J0hn. My choices for revivals are very intentional. I choose old threads that either...a) Have some oh-so-faint connection to a current thread thats getting a lot of debate. or...... b) Which interest me personally.
In this case, both were true. Because a) because I wanted to get a reaction about Jeffrey Lee Pierce (since I had brought him up when talking about Ian Astbury in one of the recent Doors threads.) and b)
I also suspect that I'd like the Gun Club, but I've never heard them before...and would like to hear what the Nu-ILM crowd has to say about them.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Thursday, 12 June 2003 20:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

That's what I've noticed as well J0hn, hence the remark about some more input from the Lord himself ;)
As the above post states: I don't have enough knowledge to offer a cogent or useful opinion.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Thursday, 12 June 2003 20:19 (9 years ago) Permalink

First two albums absolfuckinutely Classic...

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 12 June 2003 22:49 (9 years ago) Permalink

Terrible production on Miami, though. Chris Stein is the culprit, I think. I would like it much more if it weren't so muddy.

― nickn (nickn), Thursday, 12 June 2003 23:40 (9 years ago) Permalink

I need to hear more of the early stuff, but the In Exile era is pretty dud. Just makes me want to hear either the Cocteau Twins or some X, not some weird ass mixture of the two. Though I kinda like the song "Pastoral, Hide & Seek."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 12 June 2003 23:50 (9 years ago) Permalink

Arthur once braided Jeffrey Lee Pierce's hair! Fact!

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 13 June 2003 01:05 (9 years ago) Permalink

Apologies for misrepresenting you, Custos! Fire of Love is the must-have, and then if your love for it starts to get irrational, investigate the rest.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Friday, 13 June 2003 01:38 (9 years ago) Permalink

At least from the couple of albums I have (Fire of Love & Mother Juno), I'd say neither classic or dud.

Fire of Love is real good. It is similar to X lyrically (damnation punk blues) and somewhat musically (of course no Exene), but much darker in tone. "Sex Beat" is a great song. Oh yeah, Jane's Addiction ripped off the back cover.

Mother Juno is a weird one. The sound is total reverbed out and it takes a bit away from the songs and it doesn't help that Pierce's voice sounds real thin. "Bill Bailey" and "The Breaking Hands" are both really good songs. It is much more subdued than "The Fire of Love"

Pierce was a good songwriter with a shady voice.

I've had both of these albums for years and give them a listen now and then but haven't yet got the bite to get another Gun Club record.

― earlnash, Friday, 13 June 2003 03:39 (9 years ago) Permalink

Jeffrey was an incredible guitar player. It's a shame he didn't play guitar live very much.

Also, I really miss Rob Ritter.

― Arthur (Arthur), Friday, 13 June 2003 03:44 (9 years ago) Permalink

I love that they were so improbable, and yet it all worked. Jeffrey Lee was like a baby Meat Loaf, all chubby and melodramatic and feral. But the enthusiasm you could feel pouring from the grooves in the vinyl. He had this Beat poet thing and this reggae (filtered through L. A. punk and Blondie) thing and like someone said, his voice whooped and soared all over the notes (actually, consistently sharp... or was it flat). I haven't heard a lot of their later stuff, but Fire of Love is absolute Classic.

I also have JLP's solo Wildweed which has its moments.

And yes, they were incredible live.

― David A. (Davant), Friday, 13 June 2003 03:46 (9 years ago) Permalink

I found Wildweed on LP 2 months ago and it is indeed somewhat patchy, but great nonetheless. I found out about a month later that inside the LP-cover there was a 7" containing the extra stuff that would later be added on the CD re-issue! Great stuff, Jeff sounding very drunk on "the Fertility Goddess" (thus pronounced "the Fertililidy Goddss").

I forgot one essential release upthread, maybe strictly for Gun Club devotees only, but it offers a nice insight into the influences of JLP. It's a double CD "Early Warning" containing demos, outtakes & live-material on one disc and a haunting disc 2 containing home-recordings of JLP at his most delta-bluesy (e.g. "the Devil and the Nigger", about you-probably-know-who)

― willem (willem), Friday, 13 June 2003 07:56 (9 years ago) Permalink

Fire of Love is the must-have, and then if your love for it starts to get irrational, investigate the rest.
Hahahahahaha.
Weird Side Fact: I saw a pic of Jeffrey Lee hanging off the arm of a hot goth babe (I'm not sure if it was Patricia Morrison or not, she looked vaguely Japanese) and was shocked to see how much JLP looked like Bill Hicks. Weirder still, every other pic of Jeffrey Lee i've seen is either blurry, taken from very far away or has JLP's metalhead hair covering most of his face.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Friday, 13 June 2003 10:48 (9 years ago) Permalink

7 months pass...

las vegas story does not get the attention it deserves . it seems to be the forgotten sister of miami.really wish some record label honcho read this thread and re-released both of these.

j.l.p.'s death was a tragic waste.

― william (william), Monday, 26 January 2004 06:49 (9 years ago) Permalink

Yes.

― David A. (Davant), Monday, 26 January 2004 07:14 (9 years ago) Permalink

Gun Club at Astoria, London (c.1986/87) was the first gig violence I ever saw.

There was an argument in the crowd and, before anyone could stop him, this guy leapt over the bar counter at the back, grapped a bottle, leapt back over and hit someone over the head with it.

The music was unmemorable though. I'd just seen the Fall (Brix Smith era) there a few weeks and they ROCKED - the Gun Club suffered in comparison.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Monday, 26 January 2004 07:38 (9 years ago) Permalink

las vegas story does not get the attention it deserves.

hear hear! i like this one as much as fire of love.

― aleksandr supertramp (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 26 January 2004 14:36 (9 years ago) Permalink

Are there any books on the Gun Club or the late JLP? Intriguing character, hopelessly self-destructive, his early death felt like a self-fulfilled prophecy.

― stevo (stevo), Monday, 26 January 2004 14:52 (9 years ago) Permalink

Stefan, as far as I can tell there's no book, unfortunately. Short historical overviews as well as (links to) articles can be found here and here. The latter site does mention a book by JLP himself though, containing stories and lyrics.

― willem (willem), Monday, 26 January 2004 15:11 (9 years ago) Permalink

Thanks willem.

― stevo (stevo), Monday, 26 January 2004 15:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

PLUG! As a member of Kid Congo's current band I invite all innerested NYC area ILMers to email me so I can let you know when we're playing next. We might go to Europe for a couple of weeks later in the year, too (Kid's got a solo record coming out).

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Monday, 26 January 2004 17:50 (9 years ago) Permalink

This just in: Miami still out of print.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 26 January 2004 18:37 (9 years ago) Permalink

As a member of Kid Congo's current band

Why the FUCK do you not tell me these things! I even have the unreleased Congo Norvell record on Priority for crying out loud.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 26 January 2004 18:55 (9 years ago) Permalink

A Fan!

Oh, Ned --Don't be angry. I thought you knew. I promise to tape the next show for you if I can, ok?

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Monday, 26 January 2004 19:59 (9 years ago) Permalink

:-) :-) Thanks!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:18 (9 years ago) Permalink

In Exile definitely sounds better to me now then I felt it did back when I made my original post. I still need to buy Fire Of Love and the song about fucking you till you die, burying you and kissing this town goodbye.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 26 January 2004 23:55 (9 years ago) Permalink

I think that's on Fire of Love. ("Jack On Fire")

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 00:33 (9 years ago) Permalink

really? for some reason I thought it was on a follow up EP, maybe Death Party.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 00:35 (9 years ago) Permalink

U people just put another one on my MUST have list. I have been looking for FOL but never heard anything by them but now I don't need to.

― sucka (sucka), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 00:41 (9 years ago) Permalink

It is from the first LP. Here are the lyrics.

Jack On Fire
(typed in by Ger Potze, taken from "Go Tell The Mountain")
I am like Jack, I am from southern land
I'm holding your happiness in my hand
the sun behind me is a sexual red
and all your bounty-hunting ghosts are dead

I am like Jack and I tell you this
I will be your lover and exorcist
In the stillness of the mosquito sunset
you will make love to me to your very best

Hey, hey, I'm a Jack On Fire
hey, hey, your lips kiss Jack on Fire

Way back in the Indian days
nothing could drive the heat away
drive the search and murder of lost enemies
drive deep into what is never seen

And like Jack, there is a heat to the fight
like a moth detects a heat to the light
and like Jack, I will covet everything that is you
because, the heat in you will temporarily do

Hey, hey, I'm a Jack On Fire
hey, hey, your lips kiss Jack on Fire

(noise)

When you fall in love with me
we can dig a hole by the willow tree
then, I will fuck you until you die
bury you and kiss this town goodbye,

it will be unhappy, it will be sad
but, it will be understood that I am BAD!
so don't you go and lie to me
'cause everyday is judgement day with me

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 01:01 (9 years ago) Permalink

jay - tell kid keith in scotland said hi and if you come to europe you must play glasgow.

― stirmonster, Tuesday, 27 January 2004 01:05 (9 years ago) Permalink

rock! I was worried I've have to hunt that song down on something out-of-print. I MUST BUY FIRE OF LOVE ASAP.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 02:51 (9 years ago) Permalink

This Ger guy missed the line "Some Creole boy was lyin' dead and I used his blood to paint my costume red." line that is somewhere in there.

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 05:01 (9 years ago) Permalink

5 months pass...

Reposting from the Savage Republic list

I just followed up a comment on another list about a rerelease of
the Gun Club's Miami + Las Vegas on Sympathy for The Record Industry
by writing and asking about it and got this response pretty rapidly
(1/2 hour?)

'they'll be out in october on cd/lp then put together eventually in a
nice box set with booklet and lots of extra stuff... '

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 18:48 (8 years ago) Permalink

abou-fucking-t fucking t-fucking-ime.

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 18:51 (8 years ago) Permalink

NICE. Looking forward to that already.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 19:09 (8 years ago) Permalink

nice!!@!@@!@!@!!@!@

― ¥¤±²£¢Ð¼æ®ª«¶Þ÷³¹ß½Ø×©§¾¿¥¤±²£¢Ð¼æ®ª«¶Þ÷³¹ß½Ø×©§¾¿¥¤±²£¢Ð¼æ®ª«¶Þ÷³¹ß½Ø×©§¾¿ (ex , Wednesday, 30 June 2004 19:11 (8 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 17 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Ah thanks. Found Kid Congo's website; I'll keep an eye out for future tour dates.

― willem (willem), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 12:57 (7 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

so goddamn classic

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 05:32 (7 years ago) Permalink

they just leave me cold. i just don't get them.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 06:00 (7 years ago) Permalink

dud

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 07:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

I hate you both.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 12:08 (7 years ago) Permalink

Classic! A couple of months ago I saw the White Stripes live, and before getting to the stage they put "Fire of Love". They were playing in this really big arena, so it was weird (but refreshing) to be part of a 15000-people crowd where everybody were listening to this album.

(Though my personal favorite's probably be Miami)

― iodine (iodine), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 13:20 (7 years ago) Permalink

I still love The Las Vegas Story far more than their other output. Is it just me?

― Si.C@rter (SiC@rter), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 22:24 (7 years ago) Permalink

Fire of Love is one of my 10 or so favorite "punk" albums.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 28 September 2005 22:25 (7 years ago) Permalink

their last album, lucky jim is one of the saddest and most touching albums i have ever heard. i can hardly listen to it anymore these days. miami was a little disappointing i found, it really pales next to fire of love. of the cds i have divinity is my fave, i guess. there is something diabolic about jeffrey lee pierce and i find it extremely attractive.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Thursday, 29 September 2005 10:21 (7 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

Classic, I TELL YOU AGAIN.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 06:25 (7 years ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

I just bought Fire of Love on a friend's recommendation. I hadn't heard them before at all, and I fuckin' love the album. It's the best of the current crop I've bought/downloaded, and that includes albums by the Rolling Stones, John Lennon, S.O.D., Anthrax, Slayer, Prince, Jane's Addiction, The Pop Group, Captain Beefheart, The Kinks, and Jimi Hendrix. So there! Totally fucking CLASSIC!! I'm about to go on a listening binge with Fire.

― regular roundups (Dave M), Monday, 13 February 2006 06:30 (7 years ago) Permalink

definitely classic

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 13 February 2006 06:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

Unfortunately this band broke up too, but I'd like to mention that 16 Horsepower is the closest I've heard any other band approach Jeffery Lee Pierce's spirit. A mix of Gun Club, Joy Division, Nick Cave and bluegrass. You can hear their cover of "Fire Spirit" on the live Hoarse album, alongwith covers of Creedence and Joy Division, and some of David Eugene Edwards' most intense originals. I hope Edwards keeps making records.

― Fastnbulbous (Fastnbulbous), Monday, 13 February 2006 11:15 (7 years ago) Permalink

not just classic,one of the best bands ever (or better:one of the best jeffry's ever)

― howld, Monday, 13 February 2006 12:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

May be of some interest.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Monday, 13 February 2006 12:54 (7 years ago) Permalink

7 months pass...

What's with JLP's use of the "N-Word". Is that the proper way to say it? "N-Word"?

I know there's a lyric or two on Fire Of Love or Miami (both records I love) but I'm listening to a great bootleg from 1982 and at the beginning of Jack On Fire he just says "N-Word".

Is this ok?

― derekerdman (Derek Erdmany), Sunday, 8 October 2006 20:27 (6 years ago) Permalink

No. Bootlegs are illegal because they constitute the sale of artistic property for which the artists and record companies receive no royalties. Until the Gun Club's surviving members agree to release a recording of this 1982 concert to the public domain, you have no right to listen to and speculate about this curious version of "Jack on Fire" -- and aye, you are a criminal for doing so.

To address the heart of the matter, Jeffrey Lee Pierce was not a racist; he loved and respected black people, and he was an avid follower of many blues and reggae artists. He certainly wasn't a bigot on account of his lyrics. In his music he used a device called a persona, which is to say he delivered his songs from the perspective of a fictional character whose views were not necessarily consistent with his own. If the line "I was hunting for niggers down in the dark" makes you uncomfortable, just pretend the narrator of the song is a deranged mid-20th-century Kentucky preacher whose wife just left him for a black woodcutter whose name is probably LaDerrick. And if you're offended by Jeffrey's casual use of the word "nigger" at the beggining of "Jack on Fire," just pretend he was hopped up on heroin -- and thuis deprived of his social conscience -- for the duration of the concert. [/prolixity]

― King-a-Ling (King-a-Ling), Sunday, 8 October 2006 21:59 (6 years ago) Permalink

Basically, Jeffrey Lee's authenticity gave him the right to invoke the language of racism and evil.

― King-a-Ling (King-a-Ling), Sunday, 8 October 2006 22:04 (6 years ago) Permalink

7 months pass...

"It is not an art statement/to drown a few passionate men"

Fire of Love totally beyond classic

― J0hn D., Tuesday, 22 May 2007 23:07 (6 years ago) Permalink

And "Sex Beat"! What an album-opener!

-- Simon, Wednesday, April 4, 2001 12:00 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Link

i wonder what band this was/is

― s1ocki, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 02:15 (6 years ago) Permalink

mother of earth (from 'miami') is one of my favourite songs of all time.

― estela, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 02:48 (6 years ago) Permalink

are the gun club really obscure these days? i remember tons of kids seeming to dig/ at least know about them -- goths, rockers, punkers, mockers...

but then i do speak of twenty-plus years ago.

and yeah i love them a lot, in small doses. best rev. gary davis cover, ever.

― Mike McGooney-gal, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 03:31 (6 years ago) Permalink

ohh wait that's son house, doh.

― Mike McGooney-gal, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 03:32 (6 years ago) Permalink

are the gun club really obscure these days? i remember tons of kids seeming to dig/ at least know about them -- goths, rockers, punkers, mockers...

but then i do speak of twenty-plus years ago.

lol

― latebloomer, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 03:34 (6 years ago) Permalink

i wonder what band this was/is

Godspeed You Sex Beat

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 03:51 (6 years ago) Permalink

are the gun club really obscure these days?

yes

― Curt1s Stephens, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 03:56 (6 years ago) Permalink

Waht! I thought they were pretty well known.

― Trayce, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 04:00 (6 years ago) Permalink

I wouldn't have heard of them if not for the Left of the Dial comp which I only came across thanks to the internet. Even then they were still buried amongst 50 other artists.

― Curt1s Stephens, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 04:00 (6 years ago) Permalink

I knew about them cause of the Guthrie production, apparently "Breaking Hands" is awesome tho I dont know if I have it/have heard it.

― Trayce, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 04:14 (6 years ago) Permalink

I know their music from way back when.

Kid Congo's living in DC these days. He was in the row ahead of me seeing "the Fabulous Stans" movie at the Library of Congress a little while back.

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 04:35 (6 years ago) Permalink

His new album's pretty nice, and there's ILXor involvement...

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 04:48 (6 years ago) Permalink

Yes.

― Capitaine Jay Vee, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 07:22 (6 years ago) Permalink

Two Lone Swordsmen are doing their best to revive them.

― baaderonixx, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 08:39 (6 years ago) Permalink

My typo above--Kid Congo was seeing the "Fabulous Stains" movie. I am also trying to remember if I ever saw the Gun Club. I know I missed them opening for the Cramps at the Bayou in Georgetown (DC) because I was studying for a final. Hmmmm, I wonder if they ever came back to town.

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 13:06 (6 years ago) Permalink

9 months pass...

Lucky Jim's a bit crap though, IMO.

― Colonel Poo, Friday, 29 February 2008 16:26 (5 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

I wouldn't have heard of them if not for the Left of the Dial comp. . . . .

And what a fantastic -- utterly classic -- comp it is.

― Daniel, Esq., Friday, 30 May 2008 02:59 (4 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

Original drummer Terry Graham has got a Kickstarter going for a book project on the time/place -- looks well worth it!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1417342148/its-a-book-punk-like-meliner-notes-for-a-revolutio

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 4 August 2010 18:25 (2 years ago) Permalink

"Lucky Jim's a bit crap though"
no it isn't. it is one of the great last albums. like nirvana's unplugged.

― alex in mainhattan, Friday, 6 August 2010 12:42 (2 years ago) Permalink

coming after pastoral hide & seek and divinity I thought lucky jim was a drop in quality for sure

― gross rainbow of haerosmith (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Friday, 6 August 2010 12:56 (2 years ago) Permalink

5 months pass...

want to give some special extra shine since nobody seems to really talk much about it, but damn, the las vegas story is something else. totally engrossing, lynchian subversive america shit. i'll take that record over ANY psychobilly album ever recorded including the whole of the cramps catalogue

― you sleazy prostitute (jk), Friday, 7 January 2011 04:25 (2 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

Jose Esteban Muñoz, "Calling Up Thunder: The Gun Club and the Punk Rock Commons"

EMP Pop Conference presentation scheduled for March 25th

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 24 January 2012 15:41 (1 year ago) Permalink

"Calling Up Thunder: The Gun Club and the Punk Rock Commons"

What does that even mean?

Anyway, been listening to Miami lately and it's really good. I am new to this band.

― the box cutter killer from the calcutta gutter (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 06:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

Google tells me that Munoz is an NYU professor who listened to the Gun Club, Germs and other LA bands when he was younger, and he writes about that in his book Cruising utopia: the then and there of queer futurity . I still do not know what the "calling up thunder" phrase refers to.

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 13:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

It's a Gun Club song title. The "Punk Rock Commons" is what I don't quite get.

― the box cutter killer from the calcutta gutter (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 13:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

i think it just means punk-rock's tropes & shared values etc in this instance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_commons

― quick brown fox triangle (schlump), Wednesday, 25 January 2012 13:46 (1 year ago) Permalink

Thanks.

I guess drummer Graham has still not gotten his book published yet, although the kickstarter financing was successful.

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 25 January 2012 15:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

The lyrics to "Jack on Fire" (posted way upthread) reminds me of Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian".

― Mule, Thursday, 16 February 2012 09:44 (1 year ago) Permalink

I will fuck you till you die

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Thursday, 16 February 2012 09:45 (1 year ago) Permalink

Like the judge

― Mule, Thursday, 16 February 2012 10:10 (1 year ago) Permalink

Interesting, hadn't known this existed as video until earlier today.
Am assuming it's the source of the image here
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Party-Gun-Club/dp/B0002DRKYY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1329434582&sr=8-2
and here http://www.discogs.com/Gun-Club-Love-Supreme/release/913496

Rob Ritter departed, to reappear in 45 Grave. Patricia Morrison brought in as his replacement. She stayed in the band until they split at the end of '84, but wasn't in New York when Tex & The Horseheads recording session ran short and Death Party was recorded. Jim Uliana was, so is on that but wasn't in the band.

Not sure if the video is the same gig as the recording on the 2 discs pictured above. Love the garage rock take on A Love Supreme on them.
The lp of that title is 1/2 of what's on that Death Party disc. The other half was released as Sex Beat '81.
The 2 lps were released when Terry Graham and Ward Dotson sold the tapes to a European record label cos they were making no money from being in the band.

The video is from around the time Miami was released but Rob Ritter was already gone by the time that came out hence his face not being on the cover and his weird sleeve billing. I think that record has one of my favourite covers ever which I find almost synaesthetic to the record inside. not sure too many would. But I find a record that was recorded in a cramped NYC studio fills my head with visions of wide open plains as well as swamp fronds. Love the psychedelic touches, the swirls of pedal steel guitar etc. One of my all-time favourite records.

― Stevolende, Thursday, 16 February 2012 23:36 (1 year ago) Permalink

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