Gun Club: Classic or DUD

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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 (twenty-three years ago) link

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 (twenty-three years ago) link

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 (twenty-three years ago) link

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 (twenty-three years ago) link

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 (twenty-three years ago) link

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 (twenty-three years ago) link

two years pass...
revive

Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Thursday, 12 June 2003 12:06 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

First two albums absolfuckinutely Classic...

Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 12 June 2003 22:49 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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

Sean (Sean), Friday, 13 June 2003 01:05 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

seven 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 (twenty years ago) link

Yes.

David A. (Davant), Monday, 26 January 2004 07:14 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

Thanks willem.

stevo (stevo), Monday, 26 January 2004 15:16 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

This just in: Miami still out of print.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 26 January 2004 18:37 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link


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 (twenty years ago) link

:-) :-) Thanks!

Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:18 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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

nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 00:33 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

five 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 (nineteen years ago) link

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

dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 18:51 (nineteen years ago) link

NICE. Looking forward to that already.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 19:09 (nineteen years ago) link

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

dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 19:15 (nineteen years ago) link

I so pine for Miami's release on CD.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 19:50 (nineteen years ago) link

...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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

Lucky Jim's a bit crap though, IMO.

Colonel Poo, Friday, 29 February 2008 16:26 (sixteen years ago) link

three 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 (fifteen years ago) link

two 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 (thirteen years ago) link

"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 (thirteen years ago) link

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 (thirteen years ago) link

five 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 (thirteen years ago) link

one 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 (twelve years ago) link

"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 (twelve years ago) link

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 (twelve years ago) link

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 (twelve years ago) link

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 (twelve years ago) link

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 (twelve years ago) link

three 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 (twelve years ago) link

I will fuck you till you die

puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Thursday, 16 February 2012 09:45 (twelve years ago) link

Like the judge

Mule, Thursday, 16 February 2012 10:10 (twelve years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvTM8XtF-kA
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 (twelve years ago) link

one year passes...

great interview with Nick Cave about his friendship with Pierce:

http://messandnoise.com/articles/4448221

lorde willin' (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 6 November 2013 17:02 (ten years ago) link

So sad re Pierce's medical issues

curmudgeon, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 17:27 (ten years ago) link

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

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Still don't see via google any sign that his "Punk Like Me" book has been published

curmudgeon, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 17:33 (ten years ago) link

No no sign of Tery Graham's book and he's said that he couldn't get it printed for the money raised or something to that effect, not apologised to anybody who sent him money through Kickstarter and no sign of the book.

There have been a load of bootlegs of the band in various incarnations upped to various places over the years. & Hellione's dvds of their tv appearances etc have been good watching.
I think the official dvds are also still in print. THe 2 from manchester & the from Spain at least.

JLP put out a book called Go Tell The Mountain which conssisted of reminiscences and a load of lyrics, think it was through Rollins's imprint. I should have it around somewhere but need to be more organised.

& I think most of the lps are in print on cd. Plus some other unreleased at the time stuff.
Oh & there have been 2 reasonably successful tribute sets covering various songs he wrote.

Stevolende, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 17:58 (ten years ago) link

Forgot The Ghost On The Highway bio film too.
Think I get credited on that too.

Stevolende, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:00 (ten years ago) link

NC:" I think Henry Rollins might have been there as well actually. Jeffrey and I sat around and took loads of drugs and watched Henry do push-ups. "

Best drug story EVAH

chr1sb3singer, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:02 (ten years ago) link

YES!

x-post

and this book

Interview courtesy of Gene Temesy to be used in his upcoming book documenting the history of The Gun Club. Used with permission.‘The Journey Is Long’

curmudgeon, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:04 (ten years ago) link

That should be in every scared straight program in the world.

"If you do drugs eventually you will just watch people exercise"

chr1sb3singer, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 18:05 (ten years ago) link

two years pass...

damn man didn't know about this. want one. demos of mother juno without all the cocteau action. really need to hear demo port of souls. can't buy records right now but will buy this when i can.

https://www.discogs.com/The-Gun-Club-Mother-Berlin/release/7722652

scott seward, Wednesday, 2 November 2016 14:47 (seven years ago) link

hmmmm, does sound intriguing but...

Limited edition release of early recordings of the Mother Juno album, recorded in Berlin.
Gatefold sleeve.
Limited to 500 copies.

Vinyl issue of the Flow Records bonus CD with their 2006 reissue of the "Mother Juno" album.

curmudgeon, Wednesday, 2 November 2016 14:56 (seven years ago) link

ah, so maybe i just need that. good looking out, curmudgeon.

scott seward, Wednesday, 2 November 2016 15:27 (seven years ago) link

I have it. It's pretty good but I still prefer the Cocteau frills that Guthrie provided.

Acid Hose (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, 2 November 2016 21:02 (seven years ago) link

one of my favorite bands of all time, and they make it work, but I would wager actual money that JLP was legitimately tone deaf -- could not carry any actual melody, and that his style develops because of that pretty harsh formal restriction. there is not one song in the discography where he's consonant with the tonic anywhere. this is especially notable in "yellow eyes."

though she denies it to the press, (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Wednesday, 2 November 2016 21:07 (seven years ago) link

best voice. the most soulful of bobcat goldthwait impersonators. and 4000% times better than that horror show jack white. and better than frank black too. as far as pretenders to the death rock throne go.

i like the cocteau frills too! it's one of my favorite records. i just like the idea of hearing different studio versions.

scott seward, Wednesday, 2 November 2016 23:42 (seven years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeWixeZwQmg&feature=share
Hadn't seen this before Kid shared it on Facebook. Looks like it was only upped to youtube last night.
Las Vegas Story line up of GC joined onstage by Bryan Gregory who Kid, at that point another Brian, had replaced in the Cramps. Though I think there were possibly a few short term guitarists between as can be seen in Urgh a Music War.

Not sure how frequently the Gun Club played this song. there is a version released on The Birth< The Death, The Ghost which was recorded before Brian Tristan left the band the first time.

I had thought the song was called Bo Diddley's A Gunslinger but it looks like that's the original lp title and the song is just Gunslinger on it.

Stevolende, Thursday, 3 November 2016 21:40 (seven years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeWixeZwQmg&feature=share

Stevolende, Thursday, 3 November 2016 21:41 (seven years ago) link

I've got that playing on another tab and it doesn't seem to be appearing on here.
Gun Club Gunslinger is what it's down as on youtube if it stays up there
Cleveland 1984-8-16

Stevolende, Thursday, 3 November 2016 21:44 (seven years ago) link

Try that one more time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeWixeZwQmg

Stevolende, Thursday, 3 November 2016 21:47 (seven years ago) link

three years pass...

Reissue of Miami in December with some demos:

DISC 2
1. CARRY HOME (DEMO)
2. LIKE CALLING UP THUNDER (DEMO)
3. BROTHER AND SISTER (DEMO)
4. RUN THROUGH THE JUNGLE (DEMO)
5. DEVIL IN THE WOODS (DEMO)
6. TEXAS SERENADE (DEMO)
7. WATERMELON MAN (DEMO)
8. BAD INDIAN (DEMO)
9. JOHN HARDY (DEMO)
10. FIRE OF LOVE (DEMO)
11. SLEEPING IN BLOOD CITY (DEMO)
12. MOTHER OF EARTH (DEMO)
13. WALKIN’ WITH THE BEAST (DEMO)
14. PRUNE DICKS FROM MARS (DEMO)
15. VAMPIRES (DEMO)
16. JOURNEY TO ZATAR (DEMO)
17. BLUE HAIR (DEMO)
18. PIG BOYS (DEMO)

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 7 October 2020 18:25 (three years ago) link

eleven months pass...

The last 5 o9f the Demoes are versions of songs from teh Death party e.p. not sure if they are all from teh same source , the Death party version here sounds very very close to the released version so I would think it was Duckworth. I think a couple of others may have some variance. Only listened to each track once and not heard them in direct contrast to the released versions. but would think that since Terry Graham and Ward Dotson have pretty different styles to Dee pop and Jim Duckworth it would be noticeably different.
Seems like these may be working pre production recordings of the released tracks. Not sure.
Just thought it might be interesting to hear what the different line ups did with teh same song. I know that Walking With The Beast is very different in its b-side Dotson/Ritter/Graham version to its released Powers/Morrison/Graham version .
Also the difference between the early 80s live version of I Hear YOur Heart Singing to the 1990 version on PastoraL Hide & seek is somewhat interesting. Very different line up too.

Stevolende, Sunday, 19 September 2021 12:28 (two years ago) link

Oh yeah, I still need to check this---from Rolling Reissues:

THE GUN CLUB’S 1981 PUNK-BLUES CLASSIC DEBUT FIRE OF LOVE RETURNS WITH DELUXE DOUBLE-VINYL AND DOUBLE-CD REISSUES VIA BLIXA SOUNDS
Both the LP and CD Editions Come with 10 bonus tracks and the Previously Unreleased Live At Club 88 – March 6, 1981

Street date July 23, 2021

LOS ANGELES, CA. (Tuesday June 1, 2021) — With a howling and unholy mix of punk rock and the blues, Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Gun Club exploded upon the L.A. club scene in the early ’80s. They recorded their classic debut, 1981’s Fire Of Love, for the local Slash/Ruby Records label. And now that legendary album has been unearthed and brought back to life as a deluxe two-CD and two-LP set.

Both the double-CD and double-vinyl editions contain a digitally remastered version of the original 11-track album, produced by fellow L.A. scenesters Chris D. of The Flesh Eaters and The Plugz’s Tito Larriva. The CD version will include 10 previously unreleased four-track demos and alternate versions, while the LP will include a download card for the digital version of the 10 bonus tracks.
Both the CD and the vinyl versions will include a second disc, the previously unreleased Live At Club 88 – March 6, 1981, a concert recording capturing the band’s incendiary live set at the legendary West L.A. dive bar.

The double-vinyl version will be released as a two-LP set packaged in a gatefold cover with extensive liner notes by drummer Terry Graham and remembrances from producer Tito Larriva and co-producer Chris D., as well as rare photos and ephemera. The CD version will include a booklet with liner notes, photos and ephemera.
Born on June 27, 1958, Jeffrey Lee Pierce grew up in the East Los Angeles suburb of El Monte, California, before moving with his family to the San Fernando Valley, where he attended Granada Hills High School. Back then his main passion was acting. Eventually, his interest veered to music, but he held on to his love of drama and would later inject it into his music and performances. He’d been toying with guitar since the age of 10, and by his late teens and early 20s, he’d formed a few bands and wrote about reggae for Slash magazine under the pen name Ranking Señor Lea.
It was in Creeping Ritual, a band Pierce formed with guitarist Brian Tristan, in which Pierce found his footing. He’d discovered the Delta blues from the record collections of Canned Heat singer Bob Hite and L.A. scenester Phast Phreddie Patterson, and decided to make them his own. Although his first bassist and drummer bailed, the band — rechristened The Gun Club by Circle Jerks’ singer and Pierce’s one-time roommate Keith Morris — became a reality with the addition of the fully formed rhythm section of bassist Rob Ritter and drummer Terry Graham. They had already played together in punk band The Bags and could hold down a solid foundation for Pierce and Tristan — now known as Kid Congo Powers — to improvise over. “He was injecting blues into the heart of punk rock, struggling to give life into something new and brilliant even if it was old and obvious at the same time,” Graham says of Pierce, in the book More Fun in the New World: The Unmaking and Legacy of L.A. Punk.

Fire of Love captures the Gun Club at their rawest on such originals as the unforgettable album-opener “Sex Beat,” the addictive “She’s Live Heroin to Me” and the psychobilly stomp of “For The Love Of Ivy,” an ode to Cramps guitarist and future Kid Congo bandmate Poison Ivy Rorschach. The band also delved into their influences on the set, digging up Tommy Johnson’s “Cool Drink Of Water” and Robert Johnson’s “Preaching The Blues” and jolting them back with jumper cables via Pierce’s new arrangements and “Elvis from Hell” howl.
As Graham writes in the liner notes, “I couldn’t be more thrilled to know Fire Of Love has given so many a nice kick in the ass…I not only loved fighting off the Devil while a member of Gun Club, but I’m proud of what we did on Fire Of Love with Chris and Tito as our guides. And if this music continues to irk the purists, I couldn’t be more proud. Jeff, you were one hell of a great musician, but you knew that.”
The Gun Club went on to record several other albums — including 1982’s Miami (reissued by Blixa Sounds in 2020) — before Pierce’s death in 1996, yet Fire Of Love is their finest hour.

CD TRACK LISTING
DISC 1
1. SEX BEAT
2. PREACHING THE BLUES
3. PROMISE ME
4. SHE’S LIKE HEROIN TO ME
5. FOR THE LOVE OF IVY
6. FREE SPIRIT
7. GHOST ON THE HIGHWAY
8. JACK ON FIRE
9. BLACK TRAIN
10. COOL DRINK OF WATER
11. GOODBYE JOHNNY
BONUS TRACKS
12. BAD INDIAN (ALTERNATIVE VERSION)
13. COOL DRINK OF WATER (ALTERNATIVE VERSION)
14. FIRE OF LOVE (ALTERNATIVE VERSION)
15. FOR THE LOVE OF IVY (ALTERNATIVE VERSION)
16. GHOST ON THE HIGHWAY (ALTERNATIVE VERSION)
17. FIRE OF LOVE (4 TRACK DEMO)
18. DEVIL IN THE WOODS (4 TRACK DEMO)
19. GOODBYE JOHNNY (4 TRACK DEMO)
20. PREACHING THE BLUES (4 TRACK DEMO)
21. WATERMELON MAN (4 TRACK DEMO)
DISC 2 / LIVE AT CLUB 88 – MARCH 6, 1981
1. DEVIL IN THE WOODS
2. BAD INDIAN
3. SHE’S LIKE HEROIN TO ME
4. PREACHING THE BLUES
5. KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
6. JACK ON FIRE
7. RAILROAD BILL
8. FIRE OF LOVE
9. SEX BEAT
10. GHOST ON THE HIGHWAY

LP TRACK LISTING
LP1
SIDE A
1. SEX BEAT
2. PREACHING THE BLUES
3. PROMISE ME
4. SHE’S LIKE HEROIN TO ME
5. FOR THE LOVE OF IVY
6. FREE SPIRIT
SIDE B
1. GHOST ON THE HIGHWAY
2. JACK ON FIRE
3. BLACK TRAIN
4. COOL DRINK OF WATER
5. GOODBYE JOHNNY
LP2 / LIVE AT CLUB 88 – MARCH 6, 1981
SIDE C
1. DEVIL IN THE WOODS
2. BAD INDIAN
3. SHE’S LIKE HEROIN TO ME
4. PREACHING THE BLUES
5. KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
SIDE D
1. JACK ON FIRE
2. RAILROAD BILL
3. FIRE OF LOVE
4. SEX BEAT
5. GHOST ON THE HIGHWAY

Fire of Love EPK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7kwkoRyI5w

dow, Sunday, 19 September 2021 17:02 (two years ago) link

eight months pass...

3 part interview with Terry Graham . First part here. I think you should be able to find teh link to next 2 from there.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1MOkNP6zwWzK5SPvMFkcOs?si=50d44bff29604e07
Probably on other platforms if you don't like this one.
Think I found the podcast from something else then found they had this as episodes

Stevolende, Saturday, 11 June 2022 17:29 (one year ago) link

You know all these recent Gun Club reissues are pretty nice -- the Las Vegas Story one came out today and as I said on Twitter just now...

So it should be said that the Blixa Records reissue series of the early Gun Club albums has been pretty great, and this liner note anecdote from Patricia Morrison in the just-released _Las Vegas Story_ about their sessions at Ocean Way Studios rules. pic.twitter.com/xlXygJXGe9

— Ned Raggett (@NedRaggett) June 18, 2022

Ned Raggett, Saturday, 18 June 2022 04:22 (one year ago) link

ha!

kid congo's book seems to be finally on the way.

stirmonster, Saturday, 18 June 2022 16:20 (one year ago) link

It has a release date in October

Stevolende, Saturday, 18 June 2022 17:35 (one year ago) link

signed copies here (not to UK though) - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/some-new-kind-of-kick-kid-congo-powers/1140976960?ean=9780306831447

stirmonster, Saturday, 18 June 2022 22:15 (one year ago) link

The 80s cable TV music series Night Flight has come back as a streaming service, and here's this:

A Night Flight Streaming Exclusive - The Gun Club on the Road
1984 Home Move: The Gun Club on the Road includes never-before-seen footage of the band backstage and onstage during their legendary 1984 tour.

This classic line-up only stayed together for this one album, featuring original drummer Terry Graham, as well as guitar from Kid Congo Powers (The Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) and bassist Patricia Morrison (Sisters Of Mercy).


Might be one of their DVDs later, if they still do that. Meanwhile. here's the whole press release, w cool pix etc.:
https://mailchi.mp/nightflight/icarus-971694?e=42851f1305

dow, Saturday, 18 June 2022 22:29 (one year ago) link

That home movie is a bonus DVD with the Las Vegas Story reissue.

Ned Raggett, Sunday, 19 June 2022 00:22 (one year ago) link

ten months pass...

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Pdb6DrUkhuoLBGGPC8G6Q?si=ca9b68bee95f421f
KId interview from The Vinyl Guide interview.

Hope he writes some more. Would be good if he did a book on his personal tastes etc. Anyway, enjoyed the memoir so would read more from him.

Stevo, Monday, 1 May 2023 11:17 (eleven months ago) link

i just finished the memoir last night. so good. i can't really see there being a second volume but do hope he writes more too.

stirmonster, Monday, 1 May 2023 20:49 (eleven months ago) link


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