February 23, 2022 by A.S. Van Dorston

L.A.’s punk blues/garage noir pioneers release their most poetic, powerful batch of songs into the wild frontier.

America’s most enduring, influential innovators of swamp sick punk blues psychobilly garage noir came out of the unlikely partnership of the bleached blonde Blondie fanclub president Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Kid Congo Powers, who played in L.A. punk clubs as Creeping Ritual in 1980. Renamed The Gun Club, they released the classic Fire Of Love (1981), produced by Tito Larriva and Chris D. of Flesh Eaters. Popular opinion was that the debut remained unmatched, but hindsight shows their follow-up, Miami, produced by Blondie’s Chris Stein, is just as great. The 2020 Blixa Sounds remaster makes the case a no-brainer with it’s slightly beefed up sound, not that the originally actually suffered next to the debut.

There is a progression between the two, with the debut all feral howls and eyebrow-raising obsessions with voodoo, sex and death, while the follow-up reveals their tortured souls in a more poetic manner. The first two tracks alone “Carry Home” and “Like Calling up Thunder” feel deeper and more affecting than anything they’ve previously done. After such a strong start, the Creedence Clearwater Revival cover “Run Through the Jungle,” seems a bit too obvious, but it is a pretty perfect fit. The chooglin’ train rhythm speeds up on “A Devil in the Woods,” kind of a sequel to “Ghost on the Highway.” “Sleeping in Blood City” shows the band holding up the apocalyptic menace, while “Watermelon Man” establishes some eerie atmospherics that would anticipate Sixteen Horsepower. “Fire of Love” stomps like The Cramps with extra heavy snake boots. Pierce steps up his songwriting to achieve some real visceral impact with the mournful “Texas Serenade,” which would be topped at the end of the album by the devastating “Mother of Earth,” their greatest song, a song Johnny Cash really should have covered before he passed.

The Gun Club carried on a while longer while Pierce struggled with addiction, eventually passing in 1996. But if there was nothing but Miami, their legand would be endure. The reissue includes a second disc of demos, which were pretty well recorded, including a half dozen songs not included on the album, an essential listen for fans.

#80 Slicing Up Eyeballs
#20 Acclaimed Music

I’ve gone down the river of sadness
I’ve gone down the river of pain
In the dark, under the wires
I hear them call my name

I gave you the key to the highway
And the key to my motel door
And I’m tired of leaving and leaving
I can’t come back no more

Oh, my dark eyed friend
I’m recalling you again
Soft voices that speak nothing
Speak nothing to the end

Oh, Mother of Earth
Blind they call
But yet, stay behind the wall
Their sadness grows like weeds
Upon my thighs and knees

Oh, Mother of Earth
The wind is hot
I tried my best but I could not
And my eyes fade from me
In this open country

Johnny Cash never sang “Mother Of Earth,” so what’s the next best thing? Certainly not me singing it (yeah, that happened, one night at Delilah’s in 1994). No, it’s our own grunge Paul Rodgers, Mark Lanegan, singing “Carry Home.” Rest in Pieces mate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddhkPJ0MB08

Posted in: Reissues, Reviews