POW POW BANG BANG

For some unfathomable reason one of the greatest bands to come out of the U.S.A. in the last 25 years has never seemed to receive the respect it is due. Coming straight out of the L.A. punk scene in 1980, The Gun Club were one of the first to take a really punk attitude to roots music. True, they had been predated by several bands like The Blasters, NRBQ, etc. but these were really way too respectful of the material they were recreating. The Gun Club, according at least to bandleader Jeffrey Lee Pierce's autobiography Go Tell The Mountain, set out on a mission to destroy.

Instead, they appear to have fathered, or at least heavily influenced, the whole No Depression alternative country genre. Don't let that put you off; most progenitors of similar influence are stellar compared to their bastard offspring. Take Nick Cave's (one of Jeffrey Lee's personal friends) work with both the Birthday Party and The Bad Seeds as a prime example. There was a short lived reissue campaign afoot over the last year with Buddah records having re-released Mother Juno and Pastoral Hide and Seek/Divinity in December and Rhino reissuing Fire of Love, viewed by many as their classic recording in January. This was actually the 3rd time it had been re-released in the space of a year. For a little recognised band there also appear to be a plethora of bootlegs doing the rounds. One classic one Moonlight Motel was also re-released under a different title last year. Deprived of the iconic loop none to say the least, Gun Club is still at the fore front of lyrical couragousness with a brash array of genre bending audio to back it up.