Day 0490 - Fire of Love

The Gun Club "Fire of Love" (1981)

Another album that I'd listened to when I first read through the 1001 albums book a few years ago.  I'd judged it by its cover and thought it was going to be something like "Dr John the nighttripper", a bit of voodoo-laced New Orleans rhythm and blues.  Much like the Cramps and X though, this is more of a rockabilly-meets-punk stripped down sound.  This album takes the stripped-down thing a bit further with the music being laid almost bare, with very little studio trickery to airbrush it.

The lyrics are occasionally in-your-face and uncomfortable with racial slurs and lines like  "I will fuck you till you die" thrown in to the mix.... possibly delivered with a sense of humour, but it's hard to tell.

Day 0451 - Machine Gun Etiquette

The Damned "Machine Gun Etiquette" (1979)

Things that make you go "oooh"

Outside of a fairly rote cover of one of these songs by the band the Offspring, I was aware of the Damned by name only, including the names of its band members, who sport such spicy monikers as Rat Scabies and Captain Sensible.

This sounds like a Ramones album and a Kinks album got shoved in blender with glorious results. Snarling punk attitude one moment, eccentric British pop the next.  Most of the time it falls partway in between, in the form of high-velocity melodic punk with a decidedly British flavour and some great little lead breaks.

Fun fact: Lemmy from Motorhead and Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon from the Clash help out with some bass, backing vocals, and hand claps.