release date: Jun. 1984
format: cd (2004 remaster)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,82]
producer: Jeff Eyrich
label: Sympathy for the Record Industry - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 2. "Walkin' with the Beast" - 3. "Eternally Is Here" (4 / 5) - 4. "The Stranger in Our Town" - 5. "My Dreams" (4 / 5) - 7. "My Man's Gone Now" - 8. "Bad America" - 10. "Give Up the Sum"
[ full album ]
3rd studio album by The Gun Club follows nearly two full years after Miami (Sep. 1982) and was originally issued by Animal Records. The 2004 remaster comes with one bonus track.
In the aftermath of Miami, The Gun Club experienced a major change in the line-up with only Jeffrey Lee Pierce as the remaining member, which may explain the longer time in between albums. Patricia Morrison had been brought in to replace Rob Ritter as new bassist in the many new formations of the band in the following years. Drummer Terry Graham had been sacked and replaced but returned, then he refused to carry on, then he was replaced, but eventually he is still the drummer on this album. Guitarist Kid Congo Powers also returned from a period playing with The Cramps and Ward Dotson was subsequently sacked, and together they constitute the new quartet who recorded The Las Vegas Story.
The album is nicely put together, the songs are better, and the album is better produced and mixed than the predecessor. The style is with less reminiscences of post-punk and psychobilly, and instead it has a more profound blues rock at the base of an alt. rock sound. Strange as it may seem with the ever-changing band members, it's still an album with a sound and style that is unmistakably The Gun Club, which only goes to show that Jeffrey Lee Pierce is nearly synonymous with the band.
To me, this is one of the band's most memorable albums. It demonstrates a fine balance of alt. rock maintaining a clear blues-line, and that certain Jeffrey Lee Pierce combo of white energy and trembling fragility lifts the album to their so far best.
Within less than six months after the album release, tensions within the band had Pierce decide to put an end to the band and they performed a number of farewell concerts before disbanding after their final live performance in Dec. '84. Kid Congo Powers briefly joined Patricia Morrison in Fur Bible before moving to Berling where he initiated his work with Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Morrison joined The Cramps, and Jeffrey Lee Pierce then recorded and released his first solo album Wildweed (Apr. 1985). However, already as of 1986 Pierce regrouped a band and restarted it as The Gun Club.
Highly recommended.
[ allmusic.com, Mojo 4 / 5 stars ]
