Fire Of Love

 

In the late 70's/early 80's the heads of Blondie and Ramones fan club. Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Kid Congo Powers started their band The Gun Club. Not knowing that they made a groundbreaking album with Fire Of Love from 1981 when they combined classic blues, rockabilly and punk to a melange named psychobilly blues and a never heard before slide guitar . In the early and mid-80s, The Gun Club were probably one of the most influential bands on the Los Angeles music scene, if only because of their legendary debut album "Fire of Love". What made Pierce and his band stand out was their wild, raw fusion of punk and blues, captured in killer songs like Sex Beat and She's Like Heroin to Me, roughly comparable to what The Cramps had done with rockabilly in a similarly legendary way at almost the same time. When I bought the album and played it for the first time, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This mixture of priestly enlightenment and punk was unusual and disturbing. But this music captivated me right from the start and Miami, the follow-up album, was another highlight. For me, it is still an album that is almost perfect and should appear in SWC's series.

The Gun Club - She's Like Heroin To Me

The Gun Club - Sex Beat

The Gun Club - Preaching The Blues

The Gun Club - For The Love Of Ivy

He Walked In

 

In February Kid Congo Powers released Swing from the Sean DeLear an unexpected EP with The Pink Monkey Birds after a few years of absence. Delear was was the singer of LA punk band Glue who died four years ago. Kid Congo is now living in Austin, Texas and some could think he lost his power in the Texas heat were wrong. The first three songs show that he is still able to play a powerful garage sound with the Birds. On the second side of this EP he turns into another way. For 14 minutes he turns into an another direction. The music has a laid-back Chicano flavor reminding me a bit of Santana with flutes and bongos coming step by step to the forefront. As far as I know, the song came into being after Powers had a dream about late friend and bandmate Jeffrey Lee Pierce, who passed away in 1996. Power's voice is reminiscent of Vincent Price's, giving the song and eerie vibe especially when he sings 'Although you've been dead for quite some time, you walked into my room, you walked into my mind'. This could be featured in our Monday's series but it could be also a good start into the weekend.