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elcome to the Digital Meltd0wn Music Blog. The aim of this blog is to introduce the readers to music that is out of print, commercially unavailable, released under a creative commons license, or with approval by the featured artist. The majority of the music posted here would be considered underground. Don't let that fool you into thinking that the music featured here might be any less enjoyable than that of the mainstream artists you hear on the radio, as this couldn't be further from the truth. Please keep in mind that the majority of the artists that appear on this blog, along with their respective record labels, are not wealthy and need your support. If you enjoy the material that you find here, please support the artists/labels by purchasing their material afterwards. If you are an artist/label that would prefer to have your material removed from this blog, simply leave me a comment, and I would be more than happy to promptly remove the offending post. In addition to running this blog, I also work on a few other projects during my spare time. You can find links to those, as well as a few other important links associated with Digital Meltd0wn in the menu bar above.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Gun Club - Fire of Love


The Gun Club's debut is the watermark for all post-punk roots music. This features the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce's swamped-out brand of roiling rock, swaggerific hell-bound blues, and gothic country. With Pierce's wailing high lonesome slide guitar twinned with Ward Dotson's spine-shaking riffs and the solid yet off-the-rails rhythm section of bassist Rob Ritter and drummer Terry Graham, the Gun Club burst out of L.A. in the early '80s with a bone to pick and a mountain to move -- and they accomplished both on their debut album. With awesome, stripped to the frame production by the Flesh Eaters' Chris D., Fire of Love blew away all expectations -- and with good reason. Nobody has heard music like this before or since. Pierce's songs were rooted in his land of Texas. On "Sex Beat," a razor-sharp country one-two shuffle becomes a howling wind as Pierce's wasted, half-sung half-howled vocals relate a tale of voodoo, sex, dope, and death. The song choogles like a freight train coming undone in a twister. Here Black Flag, the Sex Pistols, Son House, and the coughing, hacking rambling ghost of Hank Williams all converge in a reckless mass of seething energy and nearly evil intent. As if the opener weren't enough of a jolt, the Gun Club follow this with a careening version of House's "Preachin the Blues," full of staccato phrasing and blazing slide. But it isn't until the anthemic, opiate-addled country of "She's Like Heroin to Me" and the truly frightening punk-blues of "Ghost on the Highway" that the listener comes to grip with the awesome terror that is the Gun Club. The songs become rock & roll ciphers, erasing themselves as soon as they speak, heading off into the whirlwind of a storm that is so big, so black, and so awful one cannot meditate on anything but its power. Fire of Love may be just what the doctor ordered, but to cure or kill is anybody's guess. (Year of Release: 1981)

Track List:
1. Sex Beat
2. Preaching The Blues
3. Promise Me
4. She's Like Heroin To Me
5. For The Love Of Ivy
6. Fire Spirit
7. Ghost On The Highway
8. Jack On Fire
9. Black Train
10. Cool Drink Of Water
11. Goodbye Johnny

Download Gun Club - Fire of Love (46MB)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jeffery Lee Pierce was a floored genius that was taken from us way too soon. I remember being stopped in my tracks over 20 years ago when I first heard this album. And still, after all these years, I haven't heard anything quite like it. The Gun Club were a great outlet for him, even the Robin Guthrie produced stuff is mesmerizing.
All lovers of blues and punk should hear this. Thanks.

Zer0_II said...

You're very welcome and thank you for visiting my blog. I was blown away the first time I heard this album as well. I'm surprised that more people haven't heard of them or this album. A very talented yet underrated band indeed.

New Texture said...

This record kicks ass! I wish I had a case of these so I could hand out to the uninitiated.

For more work by Chris D., check out www.newtexture.com

Anonymous said...

a fantastic work that i still listen to often, all these years later

Melvillain said...

Wow! Another one of my favorites! You have excellent taste!