Search - Gun Club :: Early Warning

Oh, come ON.

Zachary Hoskins | USA | 12/03/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sound quality?



How can somebody listen to a set as intense and raw and brutally beautiful as this and worry about SOUND QUALITY? Kids, the Gun Club were never meant to seep out of $1000 Bose "home entertainment center" speakers, and if you haven't figured that out yet, then you're beyond hope anyway. The songs on the second disc sound like dirty home recordings because they ARE dirty home recordings, and frankly I'm just thrilled to be able to hear them. Disc One, it's true, is hardly a multi-million dollar, post produced within an inch of its life, Frampton Comes Alive-type affair...and thank god for that. The fidelity ain't nearly as bad as Metallic KO either, and if that record can become an essential part of Iggy's canon I don't see why this one can't become a must-have in Jeffrey Lee's. Because this is the bottom line, people: the performances on this record absolutely scorch. Nobody with red blood, a heartbeat and a love for authentic rock'n'blues should be able to listen to the 1982 live versions of "For the Love of Ivy", "Preachin' the Blues" and "Fire Spirit" and think, "gee, this mix is a little trebly." This is intense, fantastic stuff. Admittedly not as essential a purchase as the first three studio albums...but close enough. Ignore the whining, do yourself a favor and listen to this record. You won't regret it."

The flame that burned brightest...

Michael W. Draine | Acton, MA United States | 12/31/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Seductive, pelvic grooves, blazing Delta slide guitar, and lyrical vision on par with Jim Morrison's made up The Gun Club's explosive compound. The early Gun Club played with passion, commitment, and an ear for tradition that set them apart from the monochord macho of West Coast Hardcore and freeze-dried irony of British New Wave. The founding fathers of the blues provided Gun Club founder Jeffrey Lee Pierce with inspiration, but JLP reached deeper into the darkness of the American collective unconscious than his predecessors dared. Images of desolation and depravity, haunted highways, and deadly women roam through Pierce's lyrics, sung in his plaintive, desperate tenor. JLP's ego and drunken onstage conduct began thinning The Gun Club's ranks after only two albums. The forces that fueled the artist destroyed the band, and ultimately, the man. Disc 1 opens with five 1981 demos that strike like lightning; the incredibly tight 13-song May, 1982 set (dubbed from a vinyl bootleg) is a thrilling, harrowing ride on the edge of an abyss. This show may well have been the original lineup's finest hour, providing definitive performances of most of JLP's best songs. The second disc of oddly poignant demos captures a twentyish Jeffrey Lee Pierce at home, playing mix of blues standards and originals on acoustic guitar. The poor sound quality on disc 1 is the only drawback to this document of short-lived brilliance."

Buy Fire of Love

Michael W. Draine | 03/12/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of those CDs with the home recording, bad tracks and live songs. First of the home records sound like they where taped on a dirty tape recorder. The studio tracks are not on any real album cause they sound awful. Last lets face it Gun Club was one of the greatest bands to ever exist but they suck live. Every time I say them JLP was drunk and made no sense. They are great to watch live but you can not capture that feeling with a poor recording. This is great if you want to hear outtakes and stuff. I gave it 2 stars because it has some historical value. If you really want to hear a great Gun Club album by Fire of Love."