Gun Club: Classic or DUD

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (117 of them)

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

Unless it's "CSI: Miami & Las Vegas Story" The Gun Club

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 19:15 (8 years ago) Permalink

I so pine for Miami's release on CD.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 19:50 (8 years ago) Permalink

...sweet!!! the following is cut and pasted from the sftri site::

THE GUN CLUB

For all of the usual idiotic reasons including having the audacity of being vastly ahead of their time, one of the most legendary and increasingly influential Los Angeles bands of the last 2 1/2 decades has characteristically never received the respect and success they so richly deserve. Although always revered in the U.K. and in Europe, The Gun Club virtually escaped any notoriety in the U.S., where adulation is based on record sales rather than artistry and talent. However an abundance of Gun Club bootlegs are currently making the rounds and their original records demand exorbitant collectors' prices. Has the time really come to recognize the immense contribution of The Gun Club?

The Gun Club were irreverent upstarts and genuine innovators. They were among the first to incorporate the punk ethic and flaunt that attitude. They injected it into a resurrection of the dark spirit of Blues and Roots music and thereby created a unique new hybrid genre.

For leader/guiding light Jeffrey Lee Pierce, The Gun Club was an intense and cathartic medium to broadcast and exorcise his personal demons with a repertoire concerned mainly with themes of sex, vengeance and a preoccupation with death. On stage he was known for his substance abuse and unpredictable behavior. Unfortunately his talent and vision was silenced forever in 1996 when he died of a brain hemorrhage.

Working directly with the family of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Animal Records owner Chris Stein, Sympathy For The Record Industry is excited and honored to be re-releasing 3 long out of print
GUN CLUB records.
sftri 740
THE GUN CLUB "MIAMI"
cd/lp - OUT IN OCTOBER

Following their ground-breaking debut, "Fire of Love", MIAMI was released in 1982 and has been out of print for more than 10 years. Produced by Blondie's Chris Stein, it has a cleaner sound than its predecessor, yet manages to retain a similar urgency and overall intensity as well as Pierce's ominous trademark howl. Debbie Harry sings back-up on various tracks under the pseudonym D.H.Lawrence.

TRACKS
Carry Home, Calling Up Thunder, Brother and Sister, Run Through the Jungle, Devil in the Woods, Texas Serenade, Watermelon Man, Bad Indian, John Hardy, Fire of Love, Sleeping in Blood City, Mother of Earth
sftri 741
THE GUN CLUB "DEATH PARTY"
cd ep/12" - OUT IN OCTOBER

After a lineup shake-up, DEATH PARTY (1983) is the only recording by this version of The Gun Club.

In addition to Jeffrey on guitar and vocals there is Dee Pop (Bush Tetras) on drums, Jim Duckworth (Panther Burns) and Jimmy Uiana on bass. This is a strange record. "Death Party" (the track) was co-written by San Francisco band Flipper and Pierce, and according to Duckworth "it was based on a moronic rock riff that made us all laugh." The standout track among the apocalyptic preaching is the haunting and beautiful "The House on Highland Avenue. "

TRACKS
The House on Highland Avenue, The Lie, Light of the World, Death Party, Come Back Jim
sftri 742
THE GUN CLUB "LAS VEGAS STORY"
cd/lp - OUT IN OCTOBER

Although Jeffrey would reform and reignite The Gun Club up until his death, this release from 1984 marked the end of the original era. Kid Congo Powers was back on guitar after serving time with The Cramps and Rob Ritter who left to join 45 Grave was replaced by Patricia Morrison on bass. Including peculiar choices for covers by Pharoah Sanders and Gershwin, LAS VEGAS STORY begins with a Bo Diddley drum beat and continues through a pastiche of styles and storylines that encapsulate the warped ideals of middle America.

TRACKS
The Las Vegas Story, Walkin' With the Beast, Eternally Is Here, Stranger In Our Town, My Dreams, Master Plan, My Man's Gone Now, Bad America, Moonlight Motel, Give Up The Sun
bonus track on CD"Secret Fires"

― william (william), Thursday, 1 July 2004 05:25 (8 years ago) Permalink

THE GUN CLUB "MIAMI"
cd/lp - OUT IN OCTOBER

Utterly great!
When I was kid Gun Club, together with Wall of Voodoo and Thin White Rope, were my psychopomps to the exploration of a highly mythologized Californian pit of the damned.
See the damages of american culture around the world. :)

― Marco Damiani (Marco D.), Thursday, 1 July 2004 11:54 (8 years ago) Permalink

Good news.

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 1 July 2004 12:09 (8 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

Related news: we've (Kid Congo & band) just recorded basic tracks for our first album and will hopefully find someone to release it within the year. It sounds like a big glowing ball of RoxyMorriconeContortionsSexGlitch.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Monday, 13 September 2004 23:48 (8 years ago) Permalink

:-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 00:14 (8 years ago) Permalink

CLASSIC for Fire Of Love, even if they never recorded another note. How Fun House might've sounded if the Stooges specialized in Delta blues & rockabilly. Miami was OK but kinda redundant. Can't remember what Las Vegas Story was like - which is not to say it's necessarily unmemorable.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 00:26 (8 years ago) Permalink

RoxyMorriconeContortionsSexGlitch

This sounds fantastic in theory!

I've just put Fire Of Love on because of this thread. Let's go kill Ivy, woah-oh!!

― Hayden (Pow, Pow, Pow) (haitch), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 01:19 (8 years ago) Permalink

9 months pass...

I only have the first two -- but they're completely fucking classic. I'm not sure which one I like more -- Fire of Love has better sound (although I'm used to the production of Miami now) but I think Miami just might have better songs. I didn't get to acquire The Las Vegas Story and Death Party though when I came back to Vinyl Fever for them several months back they haven't restocked the reissues since.

― Ian Riese-Moraine has been xeroxed into a conduit! (Eastern Mantra), Monday, 4 July 2005 15:45 (7 years ago) Permalink

ihttp://www.ago.net/info/ago_exhibitions/exhibition_large.cfm?ID=2740

Cool piece of art, named "Gun Club". Strips of dyed velvet. Apparently it IS named after the band.

http://www.ago.net/info/ago_exhibitions/exhibition_large.cfm?ID=2740

― pauls00, Monday, 4 July 2005 16:08 (7 years ago) Permalink

Trippy!

― Ian Riese-Moraine has been xeroxed into a conduit! (Eastern Mantra), Monday, 4 July 2005 16:34 (7 years ago) Permalink

This is David Smay's piece on them from our anthology Lost in the Grooves...

The Gun Club - Fire of Love (Ruby, 1981)

This isn't southern gothic, it's feral white trash. Jeffrey Lee Pierce is Jack White’s charming older brother until the Wild Turkey comes on; then he’s an arrogant prick swathed in a cloud of Aqua-Net.

The Gun Club had a long career after this album and never hit this mark again. The rhythm section of Rob Ritter and Terry Graham hounds Jeffrey Lee through the scrub pine, chasing down the hollow keen of his voice. Ward Dotson's slide guitar slashes wildly at Pierce, coming after him from the shadows like a trucklot whore with her pimp’s buck knife.

The lyrics whip past your head until you catch one in the face: “I’ve been a real good tombstone / but now I’m blown away.” Gun Club co-founder (but absent from this first record) Kid Congo later covered “She’s Like Heroin To Me” with Sally Norvell, where it loomed in the half-light with an eerie, narcotic allure. "We sit together drunk / like our fathers used to be / I'm looking up and God is saying, 'What are you gonna do?' / I'm looking up and I'm crying, 'I thought it was up to you.'" Pierce sends murderous, adoring valentines to Ivy Rorschach ("For the Love of Ivy") and gets at a piece of Robert Johnson on "Preaching the Blues" that nobody else ever touched.

Then there’s the "Sex Beat," which isn’t sexy or erotic but base, urgent, murderous, nothing more than a criminal motive as unconsidered as the reflex at the base of a dog’s hunched spine. The sex beat hammers away like an all day speed freak. It’s dry hump sex; it’s a black pubic hair caught in a crust of blood on polyblend panties. It’s just a fact, a part of the mosquito landscape.

This record forges the earliest link between punk and blues. For hippies the blues represented a base truth and authenticity. For Pierce it’s raw, repetitive, hypnotic, clangorous, syphilitic. Ultimately, Jeffrey Lee drugged and drank and fucked himself into the grave, but don't get this record because he lived out his blues cliche. Get it because he knew his special rider in the dark, and he had a band that could preach the blues in hell. (David Smay)

― Kim Cooper, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 01:08 (7 years ago) Permalink

This is David Smay's piece on them from our anthology Lost in the Grooves
(more info at http://www.scrammagazine.com/scrambookslitg.html)...

The Gun Club - Fire of Love (Ruby, 1981)

― Kim Cooper, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 01:09 (7 years ago) Permalink

Big Ol' PLUG:

The new Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds album should be (indie label gods willing) out by September, but if you're on Myspace you can listen to two of the tracks here: http://myspace.com/kidcongoandthepinkmonkeybirds

I'm in the band. I'd like to know what my fellow ILM'ers think. xox

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 04:00 (7 years ago) Permalink

When you say new album does that mean you've released material before? I'm very interested in hearing it, will it be released/distributed worldwide? European tour, any time?

― willem (willem), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 05:52 (7 years ago) Permalink

This is our first album so the "new" shouldn't have been in that description. It's on the Trans-Solar label out of Berlin and, yes, it'll be available pretty much worldwide. Tour of Europe possibly in autumn.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 12:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

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

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

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 (5 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

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.