Archive for the ‘Jeffrey Lee Pierce’ Category

The Gun Club

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Death Party / Gun Club

Death Party / Gun Club

Listen: Death Party / The Gun Club GunClubDeathParty.mp3

Did you ever get to see The Gun Club live? I hope so. I was simply taken with Jeffrey Lee Pierce, his guitar playing and especially his voice. Funny thing was, I didn’t notice for at least ten years that he never really sang in key. But his style was so powerful, it worked.

I have many favorite songs by them, and I was bumping into myself trying to decide which one to post. So I’ve settled on ‘Death Party’. It’s probably a more obscure one, and I’ve certainly never seen copies of this 7″, other than the two I own. It also represents their live sound, that raw, jagged, perfectly sloppy groove from beneath hell, as JLP once said. And it’s around the time of my favorite Gun Club lineup, with Kid Congo, Terry Graham and Patricia Morrison. Even though they’re not on this, they delivered a live sound and a recorded one (THE LAS VEGAS STORY) precisely like this record’s.

I recall the time, after they played a local club show in August of ’84, which I made an audio recording of, the only live show I ever recorded in fact, that they all came back to my place to watch a video they had made of that night’s performance on a clumsy video machine the size of an air conditioner, as they were known to be then. In very un-RnR style, we sat and devoured a chocolate cream pie and drank tea. A great memory. Please check out the whole song. It is relentless.

Kid Congo Powers

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

CrampsGoo, The Cramps, Kid Congo Powers, Lux Interior, Ivy Rorschach

CrampsGooB, The Cramps, Kid Congo Powers, Lux Interior, Ivy Rorschach

Listen: She Said / The Cramps CrampsSheSaid.mp3

There are not near enough Cramps singles with Kid Congo Powers. There are many members who traveled through the band’s revolving door of a rhythm section (which in the early lineups redefined the term ‘rhythm section’ to mean drums and 2nd guitar/avant noise inventor), but very few were real Cramps. Others might contest my statement, including Ivy herself – and if anyone would know, it would be her. But this is my opinion – and other than Congo, Bryan Gregory, Nick Knox, Slim Chance and Harry Drumdini, there were no other REAL Cramps beyond Lux & Ivy. Well maybe Candy Del Mar, maybe.

The shows I saw with Kid were all priceless, for everything else there’s Mastercard or some such smart ass slogan. Hair, clothes, swirling on stage tornado – he will never be topped.

And talk about a lovely person, with a gentle smile and the sweetest sense of humor. Kid Congo is just a higher form of life.

‘She Said’, Kid’s first 7″ with the band, is so Cramps – it almost out Cramps The Cramps. Like the rest of the band, Kid stripped his contribution to the song of every excess not needed and documented the raw, naked power of primal purity.

CrampsCrusher, The Cramps, Kid Congo Powers, Lux Interior, Ivy Rorschach

Listen: The Crusher / The Cramps CrampsCrusher.mp3

PSYCHEDELIC JUNGLE was my favorite of the early few albums, a hard and unsteady position to take when you’re tampering with a few of the wonders of the world. But, yeah, if forced to choose in front of a firing squad, I’d go with PSYCHEDELIC JUNGLE.

‘The Crusher’ was one of the two singles from it, and like ‘Caveman’, will time travel you back to their live shows from ’80/’81- or sadly inform you of what you missed.

CrampsKick, The Cramps, Kid Congo Powers, Lux Interior, Ivy Rorschach

Listen: New Kind Of Kick / The Cramps CrampsKick.mp3

Have a look back at my L7 post from May 4th, 2010. It ends with the following few lines:

“………a song as good as ‘Drama’, which also has one of the two best guitar solos ever committed to tape. EVER. And the other one is..coming soon.”

Well come it has – the world’s other greatest guitar solo ever committed to tape. Yes, it’s the great Kid Congo Powers break on ‘New Kind Of Kick’, B side to ‘The Crusher’, above. B side!!!!!

If I am unfortunate enough to be inflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease, I hope it doesn’t erase my memory of Kid letting it roll out of him as though he were having a simple drink of water, seemingly something anyone could do. When the band launched into ‘New Kind Of Kick’ live for the first time, I stood in anticipation and wonder: how is he gonna pull this one off. Wow. He showed me.

This particular occasion was at the old Peppermint Lounge on 44th Street, the last week of that club’s lifespan at said location. And thank the heavens above – I have a tape of it. So powerful was that show – I’ve never even needed one listen to relive it’s force.

GunClubBeastPS, The Gun Club, Sympathy For The Record Industry, Jeffrey Pierce

Listen: Walking With The Beast (Single Version) / The Gun Club GunClubBeast.mp3

When Kid decided to go back to Jeffrey and The Gun Club, I was not happy. And I doubt I was alone. There was no place for Kid in The Ramones or Suicide, so the only other seminal, world great band, The Gun Club, was the logical move. Their album, THE LAS VEGAS STORY, is flawless, scary almost in it’s greatness. ‘Bad America’, ‘Stranger In Our Town’, ‘Give Up The Sun’, ‘Eternity Is Here’ – forget it. And the US tour in support was debilitating to those not ready, even those of us that were. Kid played flawlessly, all the while swigging from a bottle of…..Pepto Bismol.

It doesn’t get any more Kid Congo than that.

I’ll never forget my lucky date seeing that show: 8/8/84. Another one I have a tape of, now a file, and in between, a cd. When I need to be swept into oblivion, I put it on.

Here’s the 7″ version of ‘Walking With The Beast’ and a very different version from that on the album. You need both.