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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why is this album worth reviewing twice you ask?, January 9, 2005
You might notice that I've gone and reviewed this album twice. Why? Well, the first time I did so was when this album was out of print, and CD copies were selling on ebay for anywhere from $50-$100 (no joke), and therefore you really had to think twice about buying it. I'm one of the more devoted Gun Club fans you will probably ever encounter, and even I didn't buy the cd at that price. However, since the album has now been reissued, there's really no reason not to get it.
The Gun Club were somehow always identified as a punk rock band. Maybe its because of the time and place of their inception (los angeles in the early 80s), or maybe it was because of who they hung out with (Debbie Harry, Nick Cave and the Cramps are always mentioned in the same breath as them). Whatever the case, this album really illustrates how that term was inadequate to describe the band.
Sure, there are a few tracks that have the requisite jagged guitar playing and 4/4 drumming to qualify, but there's so much more here than that. It explores various different strains of American roots music, with a particular emphasis on country via the use of pedal steel guitar, and treats each with the same stripped down, back-to-basics approach. Its a demonstration that you can make very complex and compelling music without having 10 minute long, virtuosic solos or recording studios that look like they were designed by NASA. I suppose that sort of mentality about music is at the core of what punk rock is about, but there's probably more people out there who hear the term punk and automatically think mohawks and leather than there are who hear it and think of stuff like this.
The album starts off with "Carry Home", a rolling, dirty garage song that changes tempo suddenly and wouldn't sound out of place on the Nuggets box set. It goes from there through a sort of review of the aforementioned roots thing, and on to some weird tribal psychedelia ("Watermelon Man"), some traditional punk ("Bad Indian", "Sleeping in Blood City", etc), and then back to the roots thing with "John Hardy" and "Mother of Earth". The sound throughout is tinny and almost ghostly, as if it were recorded in the period it continually references. Throughout it all, Jeffrey Lee Pierce demonstrated his uncanny knack for conjuring up vivid imagery with the simplest language. He was one of the few rock songwriters capable of writing in a style that had attitude and sex appeal without sacrificing any emotional depth.
I'd hate to say something as trite as, "well if you like the White Stripes, you'll love this!", but I'm sure you'll hear echos of that same sort of vibe in the Gun Club's music. I'm not trying to put down anyone like that either, but there's something about the Gun Club, and this album in particular, that makes the most recent wave of garage-inspired hit-makers seem somewhat uninspired.
In other words, for less than $15, this album won't do you wrong. Unless you are the sort of rock fan who listens exclusively to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and the usual staples of classic rock radio, I think you will like this album.
EDIT (6/11/06): I think the cover of Miami is one of the coolest album covers ever, if you feel similarly, check out the cover of the Twilight Singers' album "Blackberry Belle".
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hard to find, but worth it if you do..., September 5, 2003
This album is very hard to find. It has a very rootsy sound to it, with the squealing slide guitar licks of "Fire of Love" giving way to a more weepy, country sort of vibe. The songs match up well with any other Gun Club album, although at times it sounds as if this were an entirely different band than the one that recorded "Fire of Love" or "Mother Juno". The tone is a little more jangly and sharp than in either of those two albums. It resembles CCR in a way, and features Pierce's cover of "Run Through the Jungle". My favorite song on the album is "Bad Indian", on which the very simple punk rock drumming sounds superb. Jeffrey Lee Pierce had amassed a cultish following in his lifetime (like any underground rocker worth their salt), and consolidated it upon his death. There are those who regard him as the most gifted pop songwriter of the last 25 years, if not ever. Its quite an extreme position to take, if you ask me, but certainly understandable once you delve into the Gun Club's body of work. His music and lyrics, neither of which seem particularly inspired upon first listen, have a peculiar way of getting under your skin and infecting your soul. It is strange to think how this band was lumped in with other 80's acts like Nick Cave and the Cramps, when the Gun Club was worlds apart from those bands.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Mexican neighbors' women are crying, November 10, 2006
The second greatest rock album ever recorded. The entire album has an organic transition, and should be listened to on "repeat," but stand out songs include "Calling Up Thunder" "Watermelon Man" and "Fire of Love." But the most outstanding song is the ballad "Texas Serenade" in which guitars and vocals alternate the lead and a haunting slide guitar cleans up and transitions us into the ether after an extended lead guitar solo has rent every last tear from your heart. It is as if we are watching the corpse twitch to stillness and the soul rise, while still surrounded by heat in the sweat of recent violence and the faint iron smell of rust and blood. A beautiful and moving song.
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~ The Gun Club
~ The Gun Club
~ The Gun Club
~ The Gun Club
~ Ramblin' Jeffrey Lee
by The Gun Club 
