The Gun Club (band)
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For information on "gun clubs", see shooting ranges.
The Gun Club was a rock band from Los Angeles in the 1980s led by flamboyant singer/guitarist Jeffrey Lee Pierce.
The Gun Club injected punk rock with doses of blues and country music. Pierce's wailing vocals were an ideal delivery for his songs, which generally had a spooky, haunted quality.
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[edit] History
The band was formed by Jeffrey Lee Pierce, guitar and vocals, Brian Tristan [later renamed himself Kid Congo Powers], guitar, Don Snowden (who was at the time a music critic for the Los Angeles Times) on bass and Brad Dunning on drums and initially called The Creeping Ritual. They went through several lineup changes before settling on "The Gun Club", a name suggested by Circle Jerks singer Keith Morris.
Kid Congo left before the first album to join The Cramps. Other notable members include bassist Rob Ritter and drummer Terry Graham, who had both previously been in The Bags. Rob left after the debut album to form 45 Grave, and changed his name to Rob Graves. Later, Patricia Morrison, then known as Pat Bag, one of the founders of The Bags, joined to play bass on two LPs Danse Kalinda Boom and Las Vegas Story before leaving to join The Sisters of Mercy and then The Damned.
Their first album, 1981's Fire of Love, is regarded as a classic by many rock critics, and is perhaps their strongest effort. Critic Stevo Olende has written that the "album's lyrical imagery is plundered from voodoo, '50's EC comics and the blues," while another notes that "Nobody has heard music like this before or since."[1] Fire of Love sold well and arguably received the best reviews of any release from the band.
Along with The Cramps, X, and other bands, they set much of the tone for the Hollywood rock scene in the 1980s. (Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe is rumored to have borrowed some of Pierce's distinctive look for his own early career.)
Powers rejoined the Gun Club for Mother Juno (1987), which received very positive reviews and seemed to prepare the group for greater fame. Unfortunately, Red Rhino records went out of business shortly after the album's original release, and Pierce's alcohol and drug abuse didn't help matters.
Lucky Jim (1994) was the band's final album. Pierce died two years later.
In 1992, Pierce returned to his musical roots by recording an album of mostly pre-war blues songs with his long time collaborator, the British blues Guitarist Cypress Grove.
Pierce continued leading various incarnations of the Gun Club up until his death in 1996.
Romi Mori and Nick Sanderson went on to found the band Freeheat, with ex-members of Jesus and Mary Chain Jim Reid and Ben Lurie.
[edit] Discography
- Fire of Love (1981)
- Miami (1982)
- Death Party EP (1983)
- Sex Beat '81 (Live) (1984)
- The Birth, The Death, The Ghost (Live) (1984)
- The Las Vegas Story (1984)
- Danse Kalinda Boom (Live) (1985)
- Mother Juno (1987)
- Pastoral Hide and Seek (1990)
- Divinity EP (1991)
- In Exile (1992) Compilation
- Live In Europe (1993)
- Lucky Jim (1993)
- Early Warning (1997) Rarities and demos
[edit] References
- Band history at The Gun Club and Jeffrey Lee Pierce website
- Various members' articles about the band
- Olende, Stevo Preachin' the Blues: The Gun Club Story. Perfect Sound Forever. (2002)
