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Gunfire Dance |
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Bliss Street... Gunfire Dance were the quintessential flash metal rock n' roll group and were on the very forefront of the whole trashy glam flash metal movement, along with Motorcycle Boy, Manic Street Preachers, Comatones, the Loveless, the Rose Hips, the Bounty Hunters, Dogs D'Amour, Grey Spikes, Ultras, Miniskirt Mob, Thee Hypnotics, Soho Roses, etc.,etc. You know-filthy, black leather sleaze rock shades of the Paul Black era L.A. Guns, the Joneses, the Lords, Dogs, alla Darrel Bath's bands, etc.,but with a decidedly sixties Brit Pop sensibility ala the Kinks, Stones, Pretty Things, etc. Any righteous band of he-dog rock bros., bound by a common empathy worth their salt is comprised by a buncha different personalities who've come together to create a synergistic effect larger than the sum of it's parts, inevitably attracts individual factions of groupies, yesmen, and hangers-on, by design. Nancy/Courtney types, who hone in on guy insisting, "You're the real star, Sid, you don't need the Sex Pistols". The trick is to ignore the static, fuck the press. Every guitarist's old lady is gonna tell him he's a better singer than the singer, or she ain't doing her job, but that don't make it so. ANT had charisma, penned excellent lyrics, chicks loved |
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| him, he was the total rock package ala Ian Astbury, David Jo, Jim Jones, Stiv Bators, whoever. Me, I still ain't shook this stubborn propensity for calling a spade a spade and admonishing bands with a vital synergy to find a way to put aside their "solo artiste" pretensions and entourage-fed ego trips to create that wild untamed thing everybody gets to feel. Jeff Ward's surreal space rock's cool enough, especially if you smoke alot of weed and wore out all yer Spacemen Three, Syd Barret, and Robyn Hitchcock l.p.'s, but face it-that guy really blew it by leaving Gunfire Dance. Ant, Birchie, and Ozzy backed Tyla for five minutes and then became the garagey STEPPIN' RAZORS, who released a demo CD called "Stereotypes" and a kickass song on I-94's essential compilation, "Drunk On Rock part two", but none of these talents have come close to reclaiming the lost glory of their early demos. GUNFIRE DANCE are still deeply beloved worldwide for their guts, soul, style, and catchy songs by a dwindling party of lost and alone flash rawk survivors who profoundly appreciate authenticity over the put-on's of wardrobe budgets, and fix it in the mix studio polishers. Ain't you sick to death of musical make-over models? Reunite Gunfire Dance! Songs like "Make You Cry", "Give Me Back My Heart", "Archway Of Thorns", "Darlin' Anne", "Suit & Tie"-all their stuff was so good. _____________________________________________________________________________________ | |
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Killin' Time... The Gunfires made a lasting first impression on NYC's flash metal glitterati and their memorable debut performance on U.S. soil was enthusiastically received (and documented, I believe by noted glam video archivist, Deane Clapper) by the cream of the downtown scene. Members of the Senders, Pillbox, Murder Stars, Waldos, Heartbreakers Lunachicks, Piss Factory and Dimestore Haloes were all wowed by this landmark showcase, that sadly preceded Jeff Ward's departure from the group and formation of his hurdy gurdy lo-fi psychedelic experimental outfit, ELECTRAJET Nowadays, there's zillions of mediocre greasy kid bands who lack that elusive x factor so crucial to succeed at bashing out their original twist on the traditional Dolls inspired rockarolla shtick. The Gunfires shoulda been rockstars. Their "Killin' Time" e.p. and seven inch on Jeff Dahl's sadly defunct Ultra-Under Records label (produced by the Damned btw) only hinted at how great this band could have been given proper access to a decent studio budget and cultivated a little bit. They were amazingly talented, irrefutably badass, they just had it, babies! I was always hoping a producer was gonna spot 'em and help 'em record for a major, |
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and tour with the Cult, Throbs,
N.Y. Loose, Black Crowes, or Circus
Of Power ,but it was not to be. They tossed off sixties pop and soul
covers with great passion way before we were inundated with sub-par
Detroit Cobras style cover bands. Their originals were invested with alot of verve, heart, and stylish panache like vintage David Jo and co. Songs like "Temptation", "Blue", "Pretty As Sin", etc., were all so memorable, promising, righteous, and real. These guys were stellar performers, both Ant and Jeff had charisma to burn. If you've ever seen old footage of Hanoi, or Iggy when Brian James was in the band, Trash Brats, or any of the primo live greats, GFD had the stuff, that rare rock majesty and we here on Planet Sleaze have spent years singing their praises, and rooting for them to reunite and reclaim it. Now I'm not sayin they were likely to break big in the states like Guns N Roses did, they obviously lacked that American redneck , flyover-state populist Nuge appeal like Axl's bunch, but with the right production you never know. Gunfire Dance were the criminally neglected black sheep of Flash Metal punknroll. They certainly could have found a broader, commercial poprock niche, had they only stuck to their guns and stayed together. I've been a fan of both Steppin' Razors and Electrajet, but neither project can hold a candle to the original Gunfire Dance. I'd still rather hear their demos than Velvet Revolver or the Distillers. There just ain't enough elegantly wasted, obnoxiously swaggering real rock bleeding courage and real emotions left in the culture wars wasteland anymore, it's all fifth generation warmed over rehash and televised karaoke night. The late great Gunfire Dance even held their own with the outstanding Tony Coiro (RIP) era Waldos, and definitely deserve to be reassessed. Will they make a glorious 11th hour comeback and help the Dictators save real rocknroll for the generations to come? "Gimme, gimme, gimme an answer..." Further:
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-Pepsi Sheen ____________________________________________________________________________________ |
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Back
when we fancied ourselves teenage sleazegrinders and neon messiahs, two of
our favorite bands were the Comatones outta L.A. and Gunfire
Dance outta Birmingham England. Both groups issued half-assed
EP's only hinting at the promise of their live shows and raw demos, and
both bands have been seemingly forgotten and tragically neglected by those
well paid to redefine underground music in their own image revising rock
history in these slick ass mags that you oughta boycott. ("Who you gonna
believe-me or Rolling Stone?") The Comatones and Gunfire
Dance were two genius, trashy, authentic rock bands who
foolishly split up before ever achieving their rightful notoriety beyond
their respective zipcodes and the pages of the more discerning fanzines of
the flash metal heyday (Ray Zell
in Kerrang!, Burnout Recluse, Sonic Iguana,
Machine Gun Etiquette,etc.) Both groups e.p.'s and killer demos
were reviewed and, indeed, help provide the soundtrack for the venerable
Sleazegrinder's low budget, ramshackle, early 90's shock rock cable
access television show, "Weird City", which influenced film, MTV,
and advertising. Tragically, both bands broke up under the predictable
strain of creative differences and disappeared into the teeming legions of
inferior gimmick hungry fraud stars who stole their thunder with access
and costumes and meticulous but half hearted, relentless rehashing of
Kiss, NY Dolls, and Deadboys cliches, minus the real
heart of the originators. Hailing from the land of the Jacobites
and Tenderhearts, if my bourbon wrecked memory serves me at all,
GFD was a soulful glam band comprised of Ant, Birchie (Ray
Birch), Twiggy (Jeff Ward) and Ozzy (no, not "Ozzy
the Rose-the guy who carries Andy McCoy's dentures around, but the
guy who went on to "replace" ex-Barracuda turned rap industry
weasel Nick Turner in the great Brian James' misguided
Lords Of The Nu Church) and they were once seemingly poised to become
the 90's sleaze rock Beatles or the post goth Bay City Rollers
or something, but they dumbly dropped the ball after storming Gotham and
effortlessly blowing D-Generation off the stage at CBGB's. It's a
cryin' shame, too, cos they were so, so viable as talented
songwriters, phenomenal performers, and once imminently marketable pin up
idols. They looked like T.Rex and Hanoi Rocks in their
vintage publicity photos and rocked like primo Deadboys onstage.
Ant even wrote really great lyrics, by Flash
Metal standards, you know: "Spike me drink with a happy end in
the nick of time 'til I'm on my knees and laughin', I was laughin'..."
and he and Ward co-wrote tunes that reminded one of the perfect
cross between the Kinks and Stiv's Wanderers.