Perhaps the most insightful moments on this double album are within the rough, acousticbased demos that comprise most of the second CD. Listening to the pre-band demo recordings of Jeffrey Lee Pierce reveals where his musical roots lie: firmly in a mixture of true blues and Velvetsinspired grubby tales of scrapping round the streets for whichever version of the American Dream is in fashion that week.
There are some surprises to be had, too: Desire By The Blue River falls somewhere between Dylan and Springsteen, giving something of a lie to the noise and the blues-rash gnarliness of Disc One, split between five early studio demos and a spring 1982 gig. That live appearance, at Buffalo’s Continental Club, features a host of tracks with varyingly dodgy tuning (but effervescent performances throughout), ranging from Goodbye Johnny and Devil In The Woods to covers of Robert Johnson’s Preaching The Blues and the haunting Strange Fruit, worked over by the band with suitably ugly effect. The gold for any Gun Club fan may well be the inclusion of a 1982 audio fanzine interview, long lost in the mists of time until now. It sees the band in suitably nihilist mood, with plenty of laughter and LA-scene baiting to boot.
