The release of 1984’s saw the Gun Club step away from the ramshackle DIY ethic of their first two albums. The album saw the return to the lineup of guitarist Kid Congo Powers after three years spent touring and recording with the Cramps. The raw fervor of (1981) and (1982) remained undimmed, but singer Jeffrey Lee Pierce, who formed the band with Powers in 1979, had decided to start playing guitar again for their third album.
The songs benefited from the extra textures and layers that the twin-ax attack afforded, with Powers and Pierce winding in and around each other’s guitar parts. is the only album recorded by what many consider to be the band’s classic lineup, with Patricia Morrison on bass and Terry Graham on drums. The Gun Club split up a year after its release, with Pierce going on to reform the band a number of times with varying lineups, until his premature death in 1996 from a cerebral hemorrhage.
Powers joined Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in 1986, remaining with Cave for four years. Powers rejoined Pierce in the ever-shifting lineups of the Gun Club until 1996. He formed the Pink Monkey Birds the following year and has been fronting the band – on guitar and vocals – ever since.
They’ve just released , a swirling melange of voodoo jazz, soundscape instrumentals and psychotic lounge music that will instantly resonate with fans of any of Powers’ previous bands. “Jeffrey and I were definitely creatures of whim, musically. We were always looking to move f.
