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Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Rock Musician, 37 New York Times", "Obituary: Jeffrey Lee Pierce People News", "in exile: the rootless cosmopolitanism of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and the Gun Club", "Preaching The Blues: Remembering The Gun Club's Jeffrey Lee Pierce", "Returning to the supposedly troublesome 'Miami', "Rockbrat Remembers: When Spencer Jones played with The Gun Club", "NEW YORK NIGHT TRAIN issue 1: Kid Congo Powers Oral History Pt. 181737469. subject named as. June 27, 1958 Jeffrey Lee Pierce is born to Margie and Robert Pierce in Montebello, California at Montebello Community Hospital. [41][45][44], The third album from the project is Axels & Sockets, released by Glitterhouse Records on May 2, 2014, with contributors including Iggy Pop, Cave, Harry, Lanegan, Race, Thurston Moore and Primal Scream. Jeffrey was full of digressions. But it was after witnessing Pere Ubu at LAs Whiskey A Go Go in 1978 that the idea of band was hatched. The Gun Club and perhaps this more than anything explains their continued marginalization were rarely if ever fun. Punk had left its mark on both of the young friends, with Pierce and Powers running the Blondie and Ramones fan clubs respectively. His last TV appearance was with the Bad Seeds on Later with Jools Holland, recorded on May 14, 1994.[21]. And in a handful of others Like Calling Up Thunder, The Fire of Love, and Mother of Earth Pierces absorption of all those influences, his near-assimilation by the prevailing ancient creepiness of American roots music spliced with the then-still-novel exuberance of punk, allowed him to hunker down and create something not only timeless but seamless, as if Johnny Cash, Johnny Thunders, and Johnny Rotten had dropped all their differences in order to embrace whatever nameless idolatry secretly united them. [citation needed], Pierce's life is the subject of the documentary, Ghost on The Highway: A Portrait of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Gun Club, directed by Kurt Voss, and produced by Voss and editor/composer Andrew R. Get our latest storiesin the feed of your favorite networks. [6] Becoming disillusioned by the evolution of punk rock into what he saw as strict formality, and feeling that reggae was an import, Pierce developed a keen interest in and extensive knowledge of the Delta blues, taking influence and inspiration from his own culture's history. Jeffrey Lee Pierce: Age 37 | Cause Of Death: CEREBRAL HEMORRHAGE Born in Montebello, California to a Mexican mother, he felt alienated growing up and considered himself a half-breed. Here, the latter was almost out. It kind of sounds like a Christmas song but Jeffrey always described it as a love song.. He was one of the founding members of the band The Gun Club, and released material as a solo artist. Pierce was also known for his strong admiration for Debbie Harry of Blondie, and was president of the Blondie fan club. [17] With Mori now on bass, the band recorded 1987's Mother Juno, produced by the Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie, and featuring songs such as "Thunderhead", "Araby" and "The Breaking Hands". But in Jeffrey's world, sometimes it was very inspiring and illuminating and other times it was painful and depressing. Despite the continued alcohol and drug abuse, Pierces talents were flourishing. When he formed The Gun Club, he wanted to destroy everything. Jeffrey Lee Pierce, the founding member of The Gun Club, was one of the most interesting figures in rock music history. The Gun Club's last ever gig, with bassist Elizabeth Montague replacing Bradbury, was at The Palace in Hollywood on December 18, 1995. Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy. If he inspired Jack White musically (and he did), he more readily recalled Jack Black, physically while embodying, in his own agitated head at least, Jack on Fire. He was the biggest influence in my life and thats a pretty big thing to take away. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Jim Duckworth has this big, archtop semi-acoustic Gibson and he was getting feedback to go from his monitor and into his amp, and Id never heard anything like it. During his two-decade career, hes interviewed the likes of Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Ozzy Osbourne, and has been ranted at by John Lydon. "It was Jeff's musical misery tour.". The film will cover Jeffrey Lee Pierce's life and career through his death in 1996 at the age of 37, using original interviews and archive footage. He returned to Los Angeles in 1995. His Anglo father worked as a union organizer. [4], The Gun Club's debut album, Fire of Love featured the songs "Sex Beat" and "She's Like Heroin to Me". Id heard that he was an oddball and difficult and all the rest, but when I heard the songs the ones on Miami I just thought they were fantastic., But she also saw another side to him: My favourite bit of being in The Gun Club was when Jeffrey would write songs and hed get a hold of me, and Id drive out to the valley where he lived with his mum and his sister. June 27, 1958; Died. They were going to be playing that night and I said, Jeffrey! [29] Blondie paid tribute to Pierce in its song "Under the Gun", from the 1999 album No Exit. The Gun Club/Jeffrey Lee Pierce - From The Archives It was just punk rock. Creeping Ritual Productions was formed June 27th 2007, not only as a tribute website to the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce but most importantly its primary purpose is to archive and protect the legendary memory of this rock . Born in 1958, Jeffrey Lee Pierce was raised in the east LA suburb of El Monte. Jeffreys idea was to be as antagonistic as possible. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. The propulsive downstruck open-E chords: F, A, E, G. The echo-twang of the rockabilly substratum, the trebly punk veneer, cockroach legs skittering on pockmarked concrete. Not even Elvis: I hate Elvis. Jeffrey Lee Pierce And The Gun Club - Discogs At no point did The Gun Club ever really break into the broader public consciousness. Produced by The Flesh Eaters Chris D and released in 1981, The Fire Of Love was the perfect distillation of Pierces vision of punk and blues coming together. Not that you can blame him, given Pierces increasingly erratic substance-augmented behavior. The latter acted as producer on Miami, the second Gun Club album, which also featured Debbie Harry on backing vocals. By the late 1970s, Pierce was also performing as a musician. [4], Pierce's early musical interests were glam and progressive rock, including bands such as Sparks, Genesis, and Roxy Music. Between these two lies a solid body of work, though. Despite being recorded in London during the short gestation period between The Gun Club's breakout trilogy and the ethereal Mother Juno, Jeffrey Lee Pierce's Wildweed is coated in a fine, gritty cloud of Americana, starting from its Southern Gothic album art and then threaded through familiar themes of death parties, the abandoning God and This is what The Gun Club and Jeffrey Lee Pierce at their best managed: they showed us that all the loneliness of the world can be if for only a song length, for a propulsive drum beat, for the wail of a slide guitar, for the few precious seconds it takes for a defiant and fleeting shriek to disperse into the night all that apparent abandonment by the world can be momentarily defeated by spirit, by the fire spirit, by Jack on Fire, by the Indian wind along the telegraph lines. (Shes Like Heroin To Me.). That was part of his charm. Jeffrey Lee Pierce, . Remembering Gun Club'S Jeffrey Lee Pierce 19 Yrs After His Death! Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. At the center of everything was Jeffrey Texas-born, Los Angeles raised a music fanzine writer, an obsessive Blondie stan (as a teenager, he was president of their fan club and was fairly regularly ousted from hotel rooms by members of the Blondie contingent for overstaying his welcome) with an unscratchable reggae itch and a compulsion for Delta blues as well as country murder ballads. Jeffrey Lee Pierce, singer, guitarist, composer: born Texas 27 June 1958; married Romi Mori; died Los Angeles 31 March 1996. Jeffrey was 37 years old at the time of death. Pierce continued working despite failing health, and reformed a Gun Club lineup for two shows in Los Angeles in August and September 1995, including guitarists Powers and Mike Martt, formerly of Tex & the Horseheads, and the Wayne Kramer rhythm section of bassist Randy Bradbury and drummer Brock Avery. He looks plain lost. "[7], The Las Vegas Story (1984) was the band's third album, seeing the return of Kid Congo Powers, drummer Terry Graham and a new bassist, Patricia Morrison. But Im also amazed that you can make such great music when youre that fucked up on drink and drugs. Terry and Rob joined and we pretty much had a ready-made rhythm section. Pierce had a relationship with singer Texacala Jones, and together they formed the band Tex and the Horseheads, with Pierce providing arrangements of traditional songs and playing the guitar in some of their initial performances. An obsession for record collecting in his early teens led to him meeting fellow music fan and future Gun Club guitarist and co-founder, Kid Congo Powers (ne Brian Tristan). A lot the bands that I work with owe a debt to The Gun Club, and that includes The Jim Jones Revue.. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. He tragically died of a brain hemorrhage on March 31, 1996. Elvis From Hell is directed by Heiko Lange and Jessica Andree, and it features interviews with artists including Nick Cave, Jack White, Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop, Jim Jarmusch, Mark Lanegan, Moby, and more. His guitar had arrived and ours hadnt come yet, sighs Morrison. (Jeffrey Lee Pierce photo: via fanpop.com). The film will cover the singer/guitarist's life and career through his death in 1996 at age 37 from causes related to heroin addiction, alcoholism, and HIV. It was just punk rock.. The band upped sticks to New Yorks Blank Tape studios to record the follow-up album, Miami. I See a Rainbow: An Interview with Award-Winning Songwriter Brenda Russell, Working on Not Feeling Alone: An Interview With Josh Ritter, Living Colours Vivid Turns 35: An Interview with Vernon Reid, Satirical Miniseries White House Plumbers Is an Uneven Glimpse into Proximity to Power, PopMatters Seeks Film Critics and Essayists, PopMatters Seeks Television Critics and Essayists. By Gregg L. Friedman MD, Nirvana were really great - never liked any other 'grunge' bands, only later liked some Mudhoney - though i did own a flannel shirt, but, SAM CUTLER: LIFE WITH THE STONES, THE DEAD & OTHER WONDERFUL REPROBATES, ALL THE RAJ: HOW NORWEGIAN WOOD UNLEASHED THE INDIAN INVASION, THE KNACK AND HOW TO GET IT: AN INTERVIEW WITH PRESCOTT NILES, PLEASE READ ME: THE BEST OF PKM FOR 2021, PART II, UTOPIA PARKWAY: THE ENDURING MYSTERY OF JOSEPH CORNELL, THE TOP TEN MOST SHOCKING, BIZARRE, AND HISTORIC DEATHS OF ROCK & ROLL DRUMMERS ONSTAGE. Still, the Gun Club was always Jeffrey Lee Pierce's band. As the Deputy Online News Editor at Xfm he revealed exclusively that Nick Caves second novel was on the way. When I told Jeffrey that Id been asked to join The Cramps, he said, Do it, but get us gigs! With Powers joining The Cramps to record their second album, Psychedelic Jungle, The Gun Club recruited slide guitarist Ward Dotson and set about making their debut album, Fire Of Love. "[19] In May 1994, Pierce joined the band on-stage during the "Let Love In" European tour,[20] culminating in a show at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London, where he sang a cover of the Johnny Cash/Bob Dylan song "Wanted Man". 1999-2021 PopMatters Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Jeffreys voice was unbelievable, says Mori. We already had Sex Beat and For The Love Of Ivy, but having guys that could really play was a really big step up, says Powers. [48], Jeffrey's Blues was a documentary filmed in 1989, directed by Bram van Splunteren for VPRO's Onrust and re-edited with unseen footage in 2016. He slithered away in Salt Lake City, Utah, on. Reflecting the singer's burgeoning interest in the blues, Fire of Love, Gun Club's debut album, included possessed covers of Robert Johnson's "Preaching the Blues" and Tommy Johnson's "Cool Drink of Water" alongside Pierce's own compositions ("Sex Beat", "She's Like Heroin to Me") which already reflected his unhealthy fascination for the seamier side of rock 'n' roll. They embarked on a highly successful tour of Europe that saw The Gun Club play with a renewed vigour and sense of musical dexterity. It is the only official release of the Jim Duckworth and Dee Pop line up of the band which existed for about eight months. Pierce arrived in Australia with bass player Patricia Morrison and enlisted two members of support act "The Johnny's", Billy Pommer Jr and Spencer Jones, to fill in,[10] plus Kid Congo, who flew from the United States to join them after being convinced by Pierce. Guitarist, bass player and photographer Romi Mori was Pierce's longest romantic partner and a member of the second incarnation of The Gun Club. Or can, I forget which). It stopped him doing what he wanted to do. Harry contributed backing vocals on the album Miami under the pseudonym D.H. Lawrence, and was a longtime mentor and supporter of Pierce. Jeffrey adored Debbie Harry and carried a signed note in his wallet from her which included hair dye instructions. With Pierces drinking escalating to the point of blackout, relations within the band rapidly deteriorated. 13 October 2015. stated in. Hed play the songs to me and Id learn the bass parts. The former couplet is from Fire of Love and the latter The Gun Clubs 1993 curtain call, Lucky Jim. Dissonance on the former (Black Train) becomes plain ugliness on the latter (Day Turn To Night), while Fires haunted and unhealthy lyricism (Ghost On The Highway) is tempered by Lucky Jims sonorous melancholy (Idiot Waltz). From his days as a peroxided, Debbie Harry-fixated Los Angeles teen-punk, through a lengthy era when he seemed convinced he could channel the spirit of Robert Johnson, to a more recent probe of the seedier side of continental balladry, Pierce who died of a cerebral blood clot in Utah at the end of March 1996 always . Metallica mix it up on second night of World Tour in Amsterdam, Kids doing well, Slipknot slaying, new record label: Life is pretty great for Corey Taylor right now, Buses for upcoming Avenged Sevenfold tour will cost $2million more than pre-Covid. It was an even trade! laughs Powers. (part 1)", "OFF! Jeffrey decided that he wanted a girl in the band and they were wary of who they were going to get, so they said, Would you do it? says Morrison of her entry into the band. With his tousled blond-dyed hair, Jeffrey Lee Pierce was in many ways the archetypal American cult musician, at the crossroads of many musical styles (the goth scene, the swamp blues now revived by G-Love & Special Sauce) which later came to prominence. His premature death at the age of 37 on March 31, 1996, was shrouded with a tragic inevitability, and sadly he never saw his legacy truly take shape while he was still alive. Pierce returned to Los Angeles before relocating to Utah to stay with his father and write. The cause was a stroke, said Kim White, his manager. By subscribing, I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. From reinventing the blues for a punk crowd to the demise of frontman Jeffrey Lee Pierce, The Gun Club were magnets for chaos, but they influenced the generation that followed. On top of Pierces fascination with Tom Verlaine, elements of be-bop and beat literature found their way on to the album. At night, the coyotes would howl as the moon rose over the peak to the east, and occasionally, a lone cougar would descend from the hills. Essaying the pop culture that matters since 1999. She would soon discover that life in The Gun Club around Pierces personality would be far from easy. She left him and began a relationship with her future husband, Nick Sanderson. By now Pierce had begun to take his health more seriously and took up an unconventional method to lose weight. By initially flirting with it, he accidentally ended up inhabiting it. Suddenly the songwriting just happened. Hardtimes Killing Floor Blues, filmed in 1992 and released in 2008, documents Pierce's time living in Knightsbridge, London. Pierce encouraged his friend Brian Tristan, aka Kid Congo Powers, to play the guitar and develop his style, eventually recruiting him to form the band Creeping Ritual, which evolved into The Gun Club with the addition of drummer Terry Graham and guitarist Rob Ritter. He was being deported and he needed somebody to take him to the airport. When Jeffrey Lee Pierce died from the accumulative damage of years of drug and alcohol abuse and a brain aneurism in 1996, he left an impressive and ever changing catalogue of work behind him, both with the Gun Club and as a solo artist. Its now 20 years since the untimely passing of Jeffrey Lee Pierce, and his legacy is apparent in any number of current bands now active, as well as his contemporaries who are still performing. Bluntly, they never quite got famous enough to sustain themselves in the down times, of which there were many. Garnering much critical acclaim, it would prove to be an influential album, not least on the UKs nascent psychobilly scene and the 80s garage band revivalists that followed. [7][46] Axels & Sockets opens with a rendition of "Nobody's City", for which Iggy Pop, Nick Cave and Thurston Moore used an original Gun Club demo recording from the Berlin demo tapes from the Mother Juno album in 1987. Country:UK: . The Gun Club's Jeffrey Lee Pierce Gets New Documentary No two gigs were ever the same on that tour.. Pierce taught Powers how to play the guitar using an open-E tuning and one finger. [7], Although the project's third and final album, The Task Has Overwhelmed Us, was due for release in late 2012,[47] the schedule was changed after the release of the second installment. Every generation since the boomers onwards has had a gateway band into the blues, and for those taken by punks brief but seismic blast, that group was The Gun Club. And I could navigate Jeffrey when he was saner. Then wed get together with the rest and they picked things up quickly.. Fire Of Love: A Jeffrey Lee Pierce Retrospective - The Quietus And it was there that the next stage of The Gun Club began to take gestate. 1 reference. Springheel Jack. Bath He remained in a coma until his death from a cerebral hemorrhage on March 31 at the University of Utah Hospital. But also I take away all the things I learned from Jeffrey. [43] In some cases, the contributing artists had to finish the songs themselves, with Pierce appearing posthumously on the recording via the inclusion of his original parts. Jeffrey Lee Pierce, the leader of the Gun Club, a trailblazing Los Angeles band that began mixing punk rock with American roots music in 1979, died on Sunday at Utah University Hospital in. Literally. Im an important man! But it was with a depressing sense of inevitability that the band would collapse once again. [16] A different line-up including Romi Mori, Dean Dennis and Nick Sanderson also recorded with Pierce, completing the six-track "Flamingo"[16] The EP featured a remix of Wildweed's opening track "Love and Desperation" and two cover tracks. Digging into layers of hopeless desperate acts, excavating strata for singular sacred artifacts, aching to merge the atavistic with the advanced. To this day, however, that voice still causes the hairs to raise, the hackles to rise in fight or flight. home [jeffreyleepierce.com] In addition to directing the documentary, Andree and Lange will serve as producers alongside Scott Crary , Anahita Nazemi, Katrin Sandman and Alexander von Sturmfeder. Though the material was as strong as the debut Texas Serenade features some fine slide playing by Dotson while Mother Of Earth practically invents alt.country Steins production all but ignored the bottom end to create a trebly document that, as testified by live bootlegs from the time, was hardly representative of the bands sound. 'Elvis From Hell' Rock Doc Profiles The Gun Club's Jeffrey Lee Pierce Menu. Hed have a few drinks at lunchtime first and then do a few rounds at the Holland Park running track. Come back, Darby Crash. Jeffrey Lee Pierce - IMDb Heres how it works. He got back in touch with his initial blues roots, began dressing like a rambling cowboy, and finger-picked a resonator guitar. [33] He described Pierce in 2010 as "not only one of my heroes, he's totally inspirational to me. With Meg White pumping her bass drum, Jack stomps on those overdrive pedals again and hollers, You look just like an Elvis from hell! For those older heads it all clicks into place and at the same time The White Stripes acknowledge forebears every bit as important to their oeuvre as Robert Johnson, Lead Belly or Son House: the song is For The Love Of Ivy and The White Stripes are paying dues to The Gun Club. All rights reserved. In the early 80s, emerging from the sombre aftershocks of a Manchester recently bereft of another driven, misunderstood boy Joy Divisions Ian Curtis and beginning to discern, through the Mancunian perma-drizzle, welcome hints of light via that bands enigmatic progeny New Order, I inexplicably uprooted and moved south to the nondescript town of Northampton. Perhaps, indeed, there are no right questions.