The Gun Club were formed by Jeffrey Lee Pierce (guitar and vocals) with friend, chief of the Ramones
fan club and fellow music enthusiast Brian Tristan, also known as Kid Congo Powers. Pierce was the former head of the Blondie fan club in Los Angeles and previously a member of the Red Lights, the E-Types, the Individuals, Phast Phreddie & Thee Precisions, and the Cyclones.
One of the most unusual bands to emerge from the Los Angeles punk rock scene of the late '70s and early '80s, the Gun Club took the musical and thematic influences of blues, merged them
with the frenetic attack of punk, and conjured a sound that was aggressive, evocative, and emotionally complex without pretension. Led by guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Jeffrey Lee Pierce -- the sole constant throughout the band's history -- the Gun Club went through significant stylistic evolutions during their 16-year life span, with jazz, country, rockabilly, pop, and hard rock informing their sound.
In 1980, Snowden and Dunning quit the band, and were replaced by Rob Ritter and Terry Graham (the
rhythm section of the The Bags). Powers accepted an invite to join The Cramps, and his place on guitar was taken by Ward Dotson. The new band went on to record the group's classic first two albums, "Fire Of Love" & "Miami". Ritter left the band in 1982 just before "Miami" was released - which is the reason the band is seen as a trio on the LP cover. Dotson soon quit as well.
Ritter taught his basslines to former Bags band-mate Patricia Morrison before leaving so she joined in his place. Graham quit, and gave his place to Dee Pop. The next release, the "Death Party" EP, came
from an improptu recording session that featured Jim Duckworth, and a bassist friend of Pop. For their next album - the only release to feature Morrison on bass - "Las Vegas Story" out in 1984, Kid Congo Powers returned on guitar, and Terry Graham on drums. After some successful tours, Pierce started to travel around the world and the band came to a halt for a period, as he started to work on his solo album.
It was the internal struggle most clearly evoked in the blues, however, that was Pierce's enduring
obsession, and at a time when a growing number of L.A. bands were incorporating roots music into their approach, the Gun Club did it in a way that was unique. The group's most direct bluesy attack can be heard on their 1981 debut Fire of Love; they returned to that strength with 1987's Mother Juno, and came to a surprisingly nuanced and perceptive end with 1994's Lucky Jim.
On March 25, 1996, Pierce was found unconscious at his father's home in Salt Lake City, Utah.
He was hospitalized and remained in a coma until his death from a brain hemorrhage on March 31, effectively ending the Gun Club. The White Stripes played "For the Love of Ivy" and "Jack on Fire" (both from Fire of Love) at live shows. That band's vocalist and guitarist, Jack White, said, "'Sex Beat', 'She's Like Heroin to Me', and 'For the Love of Ivy'...why are these songs not taught in schools?".
THE GUN CLUB - MOTHER JUNO 1987 (2 CD REISSUE 2006)
The Gun Club collapsed within a year of the release of 1984's The Las Vegas Story, so more than a few fans were surprised in 1987 when Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Kid Congo Powers returned with a new
version of the band, featuring Romi Mori (Pierce's significant other) on bass and Nick Sanderson (ex-Clock DVA) on drums. Even more startling was that the group's comeback album, Mother Juno, was produced by Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins, who would hardly have seemed a likely choice to channel the Gun Club's fiery blues-punk assault onto vinyl. But against the odds, Mother Juno turned out to be one of the band's best albums.
The Gun Club – Mother Juno
Label: Flow Records – FR 011-2
Series: 9 Lives – No 3
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered May 26, 2006
Country: Netherlands
Released: 1987
Genre: Rock
Style: Blues Rock, Garage Rock
CD1.
01. Bill Bailey 3:40
02. Thunderhead 3:27
03. Lupita Screams 3:12
04. Yellow Eyes 6:29
Guitar [Inexplicable Guitarist] – Blixa Bargeld
05. The Breaking Hands 4:12
Lead Guitar – Romi Mori
06. Araby 2:58
07. Hearts 3:59
08. My Cousin Kim 2:46
09. Port Of Souls 4:49
10. Crab Dance 2:56
11. Nobody's City 4:06
12. Breaking Hands (12" Version) 4:15
Lead Guitar – Romi Mori/Remix – Robin Guthrie
Flac Size: 344 MB
CD2.
01. Port Of Souls 5:24
02. Araby 3:04
03. Lupita Screams 3:16
04. Funky Junkie [Yellow Eyes] 6:39
Guitar [Inexplicable Guitarist] – Blixa Bargeld
05. Hearts 4:12
06. Bill Bailey 3:43
07. Sleepy Time Blues [Nobody's City] 4:14
08. My Cousin Kim 2:44
09. Thunderhead 3:32
10. Breaking Hands 4:32
Lead Guitar – Romi Mori
11. Crab Dance 3:04
12. Country One 3:08
Flac Size: 347 MB
LINE - UP
Jeffrey Lee Pierce - vocals, guitar, whistle
Kid Congo Powers - guitar
Romi Mori - bass; lead guitar on "The Breaking Hands"
Nick Sanderson - drums
WITH
Blixa Bargeld - guitar on "Yellow Eyes"
THE GUN CLUB - PASTORIAL HIDE & SEEK 1990/ DIVINITY 1991
On 1990's Pastoral Hide & Seek, Jeffrey Lee Pierce had promoted himself to lead guitar (Kid Congo
Powers was still on hand to provide slide licks), and his concise, stripped-down guitar lines lead the band away from the blues structures of their earlier work and into a leaner, more contemporary R&B-styled direction (especially on "St. John's Divine" and "The Straits of Love and Hate"), though the passion and attack of the band is still pure rock & roll throughout.
The Gun Club – Pastoral Hide & Seek / Divinity
Label: 2.13.61 Records – thi 21327.2
Format: CD, Compilation 1997
Country: US
Released:
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock
PASTORIAL HIDE & SEEK 1990
01. Humanesque 3:17
02. The Straits Of Love & Hate 4:17
03. Emily's Changed 3:12
04. I Hear Your Heart Singing 3:55
05. St. John's Divine 4:25
06. The Great Divide 3:10
07. Another Country's Young 5:05
08. Flowing 4:51
09. Temptation And I 4:24
10. Eskimo Blue Day 5:27
BONUS TRAX
11. Crab Dance 3:20
DIVINITY 1991
12. Sorrow Knows 7:00
13. Richard Speck 2:08
14. Keys To The Kingdom 3:16
15. Black Hole 2:16
16. Yellow Eyes (Live) 8:52
17. Hearts (Live) 3:45
18. Fires Of Love (Live) 2:14
LINE - UP
Slide Guitar, Sounds [Ominous] – Kid Congo Powers
Vocals, Guitar, Lead Guitar – Jeffrey Lee Pierce
Bass, Guitar [Counter Guitar], Backing Vocals – Romi Mori
Design – Mark Droescher
Drums, Triangle – Nick Sanderson
NOTES
Originally released in 1990 (Pastoral Hide & Seek) and 1991 (Divinity)
Flac Size: 409 MB
THE GUN CLUB - LUCKY JIM 1993 (2CD REISSUE 2005)
The final Gun Club album, Lucky Jim was released in 1994, less than two years before frontman Jeffrey Lee Pierce's death at the age of 37 from complications due to liver disease. Pierce was a
wasted, hollow-eyed ghost when he and the last incarnation of the Gun Club convened in Holland. Haunted from a trip to South Vietnam and Cambodia, Pierce wrote 11 new songs for the sessions and forged ahead despite the departure of longtime mate and fellow guitar slinger Kid Congo Powers, who left to concentrate on his own band, Congo-Norvell. With Pierce handling all the guitar chores, there's more overdubbing than there would normally be on a GC disc.
Perhaps the most telling track on the album is "A House Is Not a Home," an electric scorcher with Pierce telling his, and his band's, life story; by the end they were a band without a country, dismissed in
America and met with indifference everywhere else except in the Netherlands. Pierce expresses his agony vocally, wailing above the guitar storm, riffing and stinging the center of the melody with razored blues fills and the odd James Burton lick. Much of the rest of the disc is nocturnal, including the odd lounge-y blues shuffle of "Cry to Me," with Pierce doing his very best Albert Collins in the intro. Lucky Jim, it turns out, didn't just signify the passage of a man, but the disappearance of the only real American rock band left in the world. Rest easy Jeffrey Lee, and thanks for the music.
The Gun Club – Lucky Jim
Label: Flow Records – FR 009-2
Series: 9 Lives – No 2
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered 2005
Country: Netherlands
Released:1993
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock
CD1.
01. Lucky Jim 3:44
02. A House Is Not A Home 4:03
03. Cry To Me (Organ [Hammond] – Bart van Poppel) 5:55
04. Kamata Hollywood City 5:08
05. Ride 3:57
06. Idiot Waltz 6:43
07. Up Above The World 4:50
08. Day Turn The Night 2:52
09. Blue Monsoons (Drums – Simon Fish/Written-By – Romi Mori) 2:52
10. Desire 5:08
Guitar [Melody] – Romi Mori
11. Anger Blues (Organ [Hammond] – Bart van Poppel) 7:45
Flac Size: 366 MB
CD2.
01. Be My Kids Blues 3:18
Arranged By – J.L. Pierce
Dobro – Rene Van Barneveld
Written-By – Traditional
02. L.A. Is Always Real 3:46
03. I Can't Explain 1:44
Written-By – Townshend
04. Land Of A 1000 Dances 2:42
Written-By – Kenner, Domino
05. B-Side Jammin' 3:31
06. Zonar Roze 2:48
07. In My Room 3:37
08. Shame And Pain 3:46
09. City In Pain 3:56
10. A House Is Not A Home (Live In Salzburg, Austria 1993-05-25) 3:46
Guitar – Rainer Lingk
11. Another Country's Young (Live In Salzburg, Austria 1993-05-25) 5:41
Guitar – Rainer Lingk
12. Ride (Live In Salzburg, Austria 1993-05-25) 5:41
Guitar – Rainer Lingk
13. Go Tell The Mountain (Live In Salzburg, Austria 1993-05-25) 7:21
Guitar – Rainer Lingk
Flac Size: 381 MB
LINE - UP
Jeffrey Lee Pierce - vocals, lead guitar, arrangements
Romi Mori - bass
Nick Sanderson - drums
WITH
Bart Van Poppel - organ on "Cry to Me" and "Anger Blues"
Simon Fish - drums on "Blue Monsoons"
NOTES
Disc 2 contains 13 never before released tracks.
Tracks 1-1 to 1-8, 1-10, 1-11 recorded at Bananas Studios Haarlem (Holland) and track 1-9 at Zeezicht Studios Spaarnwoude (Holland) January 1992 and February 1993.
Tracks 2-1 to 2-9 recorded at Bananas Studios, Haarlem, The Netherlands, February and June 1993.
The Gun Club: Fire Of Love 1981 on Urban Aspirines HERE
The Gun Club: Maiami 1982 on Urban Aspirines HERE
The Gun Club: The las Vegas Story 1984 on Urban Aspirines HERE
