Recent excavations

I recently had a chance to listen to a few titles that had never made it into my ears.

The Gun Club's Death Party "album" is every bit as lousy sounding as the TP entry for that band indicated. "Utterly crappy" would be charitable. That would be bearable if the performances were stellar. They're not. So do like I did and leave that turkey in the "Used" bin. I wouldn't have taken it for anything more than $3.99 - they wanted $14.00 or so. French Import ... la-di-dah.

The Shaggs. Whatever that comp is on Rounder (???) that has the first LP and a bunch of other stuff tacked on. It might be their entire second album. Wow. No amount of preparation would have made that record any easier to sample. Is this the sort of record you have to "live with" a while before it all makes sense? I knew from the TP entry that it was going to be (ahem) a loose affair. Wow. They make the late Capt. Beefheart sound slicker'n hell. It's also still sitting in the record store. $9.00?

I love "Death Party," great tunes! The title song is the loudest, rowdiest mayhem imaginable. And "The Lie" is awesome. The Gun Club are pretty godhead in my book.

Oh, how I wish I could be there the first time someone hears the Shaggs. "Is this the sort of record you have to "live with" a while before it all makes sense?" On a musical level, it will never make any sense, that's the beauty of it. It's like cavemen picking up instruments, not having actually heard music before, and inventing it from scratch. It is the most honest record ever made. Not a trace of show biz, or artistic pretentions. Like a young girl singing her diary.

I used to play The Shaggs as part of the evaluation argument exercise in my comp classes. It always brought on the "is this just a joke?" response. If they didn't have the Alternative Take of "Who Are Parents", then I'd never have believed that what they were doing was intentional, but it obviously was. I enjoy it, but I don't play it often, and never just 1-2 songs -- always the whole thing.

The Gun Club are kinda infamous for having, shall we say, subpar live records (and DVDs for that matter; I borrowed a Patricia-era live DVD from a friend and even as a fan I couldn't make it more than halfway through).

The Shaggs: I'll just say that they're an example of something that shouldn't work, but they do. (of course I like Beefheart and Ornette Coleman as well so...)



Post Edited (03-11-11 01:27)

I got the Shaggs Rounder deal from a friend. I listen to it once every 2-3 years, having last listened to it a few months ago. The vocals are mind blowingly atrocious. Despite being born and raised in the U.S.A. and English being their language, they sing in such bizarre fashion that you'd swear they barely knew the language.

I'm with Fab on Death Party, one of my all time favourites, especially The Lie. When Miami came out I loved the songs but the production was way too fluffy and cuddly.

Quote

I'm with Fab on Death Party, one of my all time favourites, especially The Lie. When Miami came out I loved the songs but the production was way too fluffy and cuddly.

"Agreed" as far as Miami goes. But I'll have to stick to my guns on the live GC document. I have no problem with crappy sounding live albums (Television's Blow-Up sounded real bootleggy ... the performances made it worth hearing). Jeffrey Lee sounded bloated and be-fogged.

I own every Gun Club thing I've ever had the chance to buy. But this was simply a bridge too far.

Edited to include this:

The thing I was listening to didn't feature a tune called "The Lie."



Motley Crue?



Post Edited (03-10-11 22:57)

Hmmm...maybe we're talking two different releases then, cuz 'The Death Party' I'm thinking of is a studio EP, not live...

Part of the joy of The Shaggs is that the entire thing sounds like they mastered it so that every voice and instrument is at the exact same level. The background "vocals" especially. It sounds like clumsy robots trying to create rock music.

Yep, I'm thinking of the studio ep as well, although the CD has bonus tracks from a French live-to-air session. The extra songs are Strange Fruit, Fire Of Love, Heebie Jeebies and Run Through The Jungle.

Iterestingly though, I had a live Gun Club album which was easily the worst recording I ever owned. Sometimes the voices of people talking in the audience is louder than the songs. Like the person had a walkman in his pocket.

The Shaggs are one of those hipster-artifact type things that get resurrected ever so often. Their story is funnier and much more entertaining than their puzzling, inept stab at "music".

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