Customer Reviews

Grab That Gun

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

You know how every time a band has a female lead singer Debbie Harry's name pops up? Well, this time it's a fair call, as you'll swear that you're hearing Blondie's lead vocalist, right down to phrasing, tone and timber. This is a good thing in this case, as The Organ recall the glory days of Souxsie and The Banshees, The Cure, Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen, albeit with THAT voice. A terrific album that's really fun to listen to if the early-to mid eighties era of chorus-laden guitar floats your particular boat. It certainly does mine.

The Organ are an all-female band from Canada. They basically sound like a band that was getting airplay on college radio in the late 80's/early 90's when alternative music was golden. More than anyone they remind me of a female version of Joy Division. Their music is moody, melancholy and aching & dripping of emotion and even has a sense of humor, hence the title - The Organ "Grab That Gun".

Standout cuts are the 1st three on the record - "Brother" (which is irresistible), "Steven Smith" & Love, Love, Love".

If you were raised on 80's/90's alternative music this is a can't miss. It really is a solid release from front to back and definitely worth discovering.

Just a wonderful, wonderful album. I was very lucky to have The Organ recommended to me at a music thread in an internet forum I post at. I just fell in love with the album after one listen. And throughout the next few weeks I just kept listening to it. Then I forced myself to stop lest I made myself sick of the album.
Saw them live in nyc, great show.
The songs are great. Very college rock. Reminiscent of The Smiths and The Cure, bands I just adore. Very gloomy, very melancholy. The album is very "college rock", hopeless yet hopeful. Of love gained and lost, of crushes, hopes and dreams.
The album just resonated with me, and hopefully it will resonate with you as well.

For the first few bars of The Organ's Grab That Gun, you'd swear that you were listening to a great lost Cure album circa Boys Don't Cry. That is, until Katie Sketch begins to sing in her fluid Debbie Harry-meets-Morrissey style - "Here we go, they're back again!" - and you're in a thrilling hall-of-mirrors. You can spot the influence throughout - Blondie, of course, The Smiths, sure, but also Echo and the Bunnymen, The Charlatans, Electrelane. Yet retro as it all is The Organ's debut succeeds on the strength of Sketch's voice, and her nearly slavish imitation of Morrissey's phrasing. We've heard his influence on a vast number of male admirers, but this is the first time I can hear him so fully in a female. That switch is bracing. Sketch might sound melancholy, but she's tough-minded, never victimized. Plus, her plucky bandmates aren't getting mired in the minor-chords that anchor each of these ten songs. They're pushing her forward to the next catchy chorus, the next bass run, the next goddamn dilemma.

I was first introduced to The Organ one Sunday night watching The L Word. While in my kitchen, I heard this incredible song permeate through the speakers in my living room. I immediately was entranced by what I heard & ran into my living room. The voice that I heard reminded me of Debbie H's of (early) Blondie. The Cure also came to mind, but with a more modern edge due to the drum line in the background. The way these woman interlace there guitar cords really caught my ear. They performed their song "Brother." This song was locked in my head for the rest of the night. I had no choice but to run out the next morning and purchase it. As a rule, I like to listen to samples of different songs on a CD before buying it. In this case I didn't. I guess I was going on instinct here. The entire CD is amazing. I mean truly AMAZING. The song that most speaks to me on this album is "there is nothing i can do" because it feels very intimate. I feel very fortunate to have found this band. Out of the many CD's that I have bought this year, it is honestly in my top 3. It is captivating, sexy, and defiantly worth the listen.

While they have their own unique style and sound,
* The Debbie Harry/Blondie influences are hard to ignore
* Joy Division undercurrents
* some Cranberries/O'Riardon similarities

If they sound or look a bit familiar, you have seen them perform in an earlier episode of Showtime's The L Word.

Grab this CD! :)

If you love 80's music such as the Smiths, The Cure, Depeche Mode, etc..then chances are you will love this CD! Surprisingly entertaining, and worth the $$$

The late, lamented The Organ (And HOW am I gonna get through a whole review without any you-know-what jokes?) have bequeathed us a simple but stunning album which subtly and poignantly tells a disturbing story in an emphatic and emotionally charged way.
But is modern music in all its forms THAT GOOD that an album THIS GOOD can be sidelined, eased to the margins, conveniently surpassed?
I can imagine the subject matter might bother some people, but where are the student accolades? Where are the superlatives from the Great-Goth-Masses?
Is it misogyny? (The Organ are an all-girl group, though the Shangri-La's they most definitely are not!). You feel it would be a different story if some-one like R.E.M had done it (No chance!).
Rock as exasperating enigma: pt.73.

It's an album you buy on the off-chance. You might have read a half-decent review or heard a snippet, and because you can't find anything sure to startle that day its: "OK. I'll try this."
That's how I came across it anyway, and I'm really glad I did because it's a great gushing surprise of a record, more so because the opener 'Brother' isn't that strong. Not a disaster by any means, just not on a par with a lot of the stuff that's to follow. This immediately gives you an insight into The Organ, they're opening their album with the weakest song. Hmmm...

They're either hopelessly naïve, (which I doubt) or are massively over-confident (again...). They've every right to be the latter, because the next song 'Steven Smith' is an absolute cracker, and gives the now VERY interested listener an exquisite glimpse into the warm- fluid heart of 'Grab That Gun'
"Steven Smith, we all lose. One look at you,
And they're suddenly covered in shrapnel too.."

I don't know who Steven Smith is, he sounds like a nasty murderer that The Organ are immortalizing with a beautiful song, but we'll forgo judgment and give him credit for kick-starting their album in such intriguing fashion(My patently futile resolve not to read other reviews, keeps me from important facts, merely providing literary freedom).

"And then there will be silence" singer Katie Sketch intones on the fade-out; pre-fixing not only the fate of S.S. but of the group themselves.

The plot thickens. A analogous autobiographical work? A (whisper it..!) concept album? As a debut? Do people do things like that these days? Did they have a premonition this would be their only work? Was that their intention all along?
Answers please to Steven Smith's prison cell....

'There Is Nothing I Could Do' is the stand-out on 'Grab That Gun'. Deliciously (and deceptively) simple with a killer guitar riff, and it's not just brilliant, it kicks hard as well:
"My neck hurts, cos I've been cutting moons"
Do they still have the death penalty in Canada? Was it raining? Was this Steven Smiths 'Pace Ultima'? Is there enough Amazon cyber-pages to properly explore this?

Musically it's perfect. Early Felt, Repetition maybe, with lashings of that neo-psychedelia that so many of those excellent early 80's groups had. Sketch's vocals are good and intense, her lyrics bite hard, and the Organ-music itself is a crystal clear thrum.
A throb of perfectly merging guitars and keyboards, which sweep the words along to the albums haunting (haunted?) conclusion.

The album ends with a sing-along anthem 'Memorize the City', followed by a few seconds of funereal church (organ!) music, slightly distorted by a synthed wind effect. It's as if some-one is recollecting better times before a final journey, and the church music, compromised by modern technology, seems to imply a successful arrival, if not necessarily a happy one.

Is Steven Smith calling from some kind of after-life? And who is Dale Henry Spooner, to whom the album is dedicated? A roadie? A Canadian rock writer who championed the band early on? Or is he indeed, the forlorn Steven Smith, whose sleepless spirit coldly touches you insidiously as you listen to the album, and obviously tormented The Organ as they recorded it.

It makes a funny kind of sense I suppose, that they should tell this story so eloquently and poetically, and then disband. Their life's work completed. Job done.

"And in the back seat of your car,
You showed me every single star,
And how the zenith and the sounds,
Changed in every single town"

The Organ moved me with this work more than I've been moved in a long time. And the tragic tale of Steven Smith, whoever he may be, couldn't have been related better; throwing up as it does, as many questions as it does answers.
I hope it's not the romanticism that certain killers can elicit in their myths that's engaged me, but the off-chance discovery of a scandalously passed over modern classic -
Because that's what this is.

Too bad this band called it quits after one EP and one full-length. Their unique and well crafted sound really stood out in a sea of corporate crap that passes for indie/alternative these days. When I first heard 'Memorize the City' it made the hair on my neck stand up,which for a jaded soul like mine, doesnt happen too often. The rest of the CD is mighty fine too. I think that out of all of the 80's bands, Moev seems like the most accurate comparison. Thats just my NSHO. Its too bad that I didn't find out about this band earlier. When you think about the sad,sorry state of even 'indie' music these days,'Grab That Gun' is an absolute must have for your collection.

Ever since I put on "The Woods" by Sleater-Kinney I found myself fascinated by all female rock bands. I ordered this album back in May but decided to memorize the lyrics and song titles before writing a review. The song that definitely sticks out for me is Track #2 "Steven Smith." I love the way the song gets right to the point "As I Was Saying I Know That I Have Been One Of A Few Who Walks Away From You Steven Smith We All Lose..." The more I listen to the song the more it feels like I am right there involved in the coversation. One of the more clever songs is Track #4 "Basement Band" I adore the lyrics "You Really Brightened Up My Basement Suite..." and "I Love Your Honey, Honey Harmonies..." Who would ever think of talking like that it is just perfect. But I have to be honest the song that really drew me into this album is "Brother" I kept on hitting the repeat button to listen to the sound clip provided by this site and it didn't hurt that features The Organ's websites as one of their band links. This album is surely one of my all-time favorites and I love it even more than when I brought it. It is that addicting!