is this the thread where we convince jess to like the gories?

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i may need to get hip again, daddy-o, cause i just looked on allmusic and the albums seem all out of order to me, like i don't recognize half the songs and "i know you fine, but how you doin" has like five thousand songs on it, and they give "houserockin" the LOWEST rating even though i think it's the funkiest one of the bunch! i had a tape - a long time ago, i don't know where it is now - with outta here on one side and houserockin on the other, and even though i fucked up the recording of houserockin so that it only came out of one ear, i still like it best. i wrote the names of the albums right on the plastic shell of the cassette in permanent gold pen, with a big swooshy gories logo, of my own design.

none of the garage-rock revivalism i've heard comes close to them. peg certainly played "within herself" (pretty much requisite for a drummer unless you're god-like) but the other guys kept pushing themselves way beyond their abilities. might as well lead with your needs, try to communicate first and hope to god your fingers know what they're doing as you barrel thru towards whatever it is.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 7 November 2003 15:18 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe we can come up with a C-90 to convince him? all of their songs have a certain canonicity to me now though - they're one of those bands for me.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 7 November 2003 15:21 (twenty-one years ago)

i take it the answer is no.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 7 November 2003 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

i would like to help but i don't know any gories stuff! i only hopped on the bandwagon after ultraglide in black

― minna (minna), Friday, 7 November 2003 15:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Ditto...know only a few tracks ("Nitroglycerine," "The View From Here") I have on comps. They're great, of course. Additional advice?

― M Specktor (M Specktor), Friday, 7 November 2003 15:57 (twenty-one years ago)

you can check allmusic for tracks. maybe if we can get the C-90 list together you'll have some ILX-approved wisdom to go on, but really, they only have three albums and in a just world they would each have gone multi-platinum (they were 10 years too early or 30 years too late, i guess!!)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 7 November 2003 16:04 (twenty-one years ago)

jess: "no, they were just half-assed"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 7 November 2003 16:08 (twenty-one years ago)

no they were not!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 7 November 2003 16:09 (twenty-one years ago)

10 years too early? Surely you aren't suggesting they could have ridden the White Stripes bandwagon to MTV? (NB: love love love the gories, but don't think they have even the limited mass appeal of the stripes)

― flightsatdusk (flightsatdusk), Friday, 7 November 2003 16:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Poor jess, always being pre-empted!!!

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Friday, 7 November 2003 16:13 (twenty-one years ago)

shhh flightsatdusk we're supposed to be convincing jess!!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 7 November 2003 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

tracer, do not forget their string of singles (almost all incredibly worthy)... they were on a hell of a roll... one coming seemingly one month after the next:

Nitroglycerine / Makin' Love
Here Be The Gories: Telepathic / Hate (Their finest moment AFAIAC)
Give Me Some Money / You Don't Love Me (ehh...)
Baby Say Unh! / Idol With The Golden Head
To Find Out / Ichiban (awesome b-side, the beginning of all the obscure detroit garage covers)

Search: Superdope Magazine Gories Interview by Jay Hinman (now of Agony Shorthand)

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 7 November 2003 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

gygax is totally tom with his choices. i named some good ones on minna's dirtbombs thread, too.
i was confused, also, by allmusic's categorization/classification. i think the "i know you fine..." they reference is a cd reissue that i know as "i know you be houserockin'". it combines both records.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 7 November 2003 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

i luv the gories but who cares whether some guy i don't know does or not

― you may recognise duane as the "construction worker" from the village people, Friday, 7 November 2003 23:00 (twenty-one years ago)

jess their best song is "let me hear the choir sing" or "sister ann" ok

― duane, Friday, 7 November 2003 23:02 (twenty-one years ago)

sorry about my 1st post, i have tourettes syndrome

― duane, Friday, 7 November 2003 23:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Back in Detroit in the early '90s, as I recall, most of the people I knew just assumed the Gories were another dumb Cramps ripoff band, like Snakeout or all those other lampshade-wearing silly billies on Tremor Records (if I'm getting the label name right). But seeing how so many good Detroit bands since then have claimed them as seminal, maybe we were wrong. I need to explore them myself one of these days, I suppose. (But the Dirtbombs STILL suck when they're not covering other people's songs; on that there can be no argument at all.)

― chuck, Friday, 7 November 2003 23:20 (twenty-one years ago)

hmmm you're probably right, i hardly ever heard a song by them that didnt turn out to be a cover now that i think about it

― duane, Friday, 7 November 2003 23:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Chuck, are you thinking of Art Phag? haha...

I still remember when I first heard the Gories - it was on WDET (public radio in Detroit) shortly after Houserockin' came out. The DJ played "Give Me Love" sandwiched in between Pussy Galore's "Little Red Rooster" from Historia and the Rolling Stones' "Just Want to See his Face" from Exile. Awesome sequence!! (and one I copied a few times when I got my first college show the next year) WDET was a great station, I wonder if they're still any good? I instantly fell in love with the Gories sound, but then again I had not heard the Cramps at that point either.

Anyway, I actually listened to I Know You're Fine last night after reading the Dirtbombs thread cuz I hadn't listened to the Gories in a while. It sounded great! But I can certainly understand if people aren't into it. It's not the kind of thing I would really be disappointed about if I played it for a friend and they didn't dig it. It is supremely sloppy stuff...

― Broheems (diamond), Friday, 7 November 2003 23:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, I probably meant late '80s more than early '90s; I forget when the Gories even started. (My problem with the Dirtbombs' new CD, though, isn't that it's sloppy {I like LOTS of sloppier music}; it's that it's not catchy, and that the songs just sound really generic amd unrocking and inept compared to all the songs they covered on their previous album -- many of which I'd never heard before.)

― chuck, Friday, 7 November 2003 23:42 (twenty-one years ago)

'Hey, Hey, We Are The Gories' is the only song I've heard by them. So by default, they 0\/\/n.

― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Saturday, 8 November 2003 03:53 (twenty-one years ago)

That's one of my least favorites, fwiw, so I guess that makes them 0\/\/N even harder!

"Sovereignty Flight" is a good one. It's not mentioned much, poss. because it starts so ugly and gets even uglier. Mick sounds really evil, talking about this girl, wanting to possess her. It doesn't sound like fun for him, it sounds like an obsession that he's turned over in his brain for weeks now, pacing manically around the house, throwing things around, getting progressively drunker. But if you stick with it, the song soars up, improbably, and breaks free of itself for the chorus. They allow the song to transform this mood "like what drunks describe as a rare moment of clarity" where he actually remembers what it's like to love her, where he's not afraid to tell her how he cried. And then he catches himself, crying in the mirror, or spacing out looking down to the street, and the hardened look returns in an instant with an off-key "resolution" to the chorus: "you're the girl I WANT" and the note for "want" is all wrong, it's too low, the floor lurches and the manic pacing begins again, all his evil intentions found again and redoubled. The way that chorus shines through is amazing though; after that solid minute of vile teeth-gritted introduction it's easy to forget that it's there—at least that's what happens to me.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 10 November 2003 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

crap that needs a little decompression. BREATHE, tracer! ah well jess your brainwashing and conversion to total gories freak-a-zoid will have to wait

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 10 November 2003 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

how did i miss this thread?!

anyway, i own a copy of this:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDMISS70311082139051403&sql=A0fq8g4antv5z

but, like 90% of my other records, it's 2900 miles away so i can't just throw it on.

as i remember i liked "nitroglycerine" and the cover of "ghost rider". the rest i can't remember for the life of me. i like the ones where mick sings better than the ones where dan sings.

― goato mountington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:01 (twenty-one years ago)

i am extremely picky when it comes to "garage rock" and as far as i can tell my pickiness follows no known patterns.

― goato mountington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

also plz keep in mind an emo band is the pinnacle of rock and/or roll for me, so i may be beyond the pale when it comes to the real deal

― goato mountington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:04 (twenty-one years ago)

"i like the ones where mick sings better than the ones where dan sings"

we have this in common, my friend

this + the fact that you like nitroglycerine = you need no convincing

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 10 November 2003 16:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Yer forgetting Mick's missing link between gories and dirtbombs, I mean BLACKTOP. Check they're rereleased/expanded "I got a baaaaaad feelin bout this" it'll rock the shit outta yer shit.

― HUMAN FLY, Tuesday, 11 November 2003 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I saw Blacktop play in Chicago at the Empty Bottle, and they did indeed RULE. Demolition Dollrods played right after - PHA! amazing!! I don't have of their stuff tho. I don't even have any of the GOries singles that aren't on the albums!! Is the mega-CD "I Know You Houserockin" the way to get these?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

no way jose, those things go for $$$ on eBay.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

oh i like blacktop! the "we desist" double 7" is probably my favorite collins-related thing.

― erico b. rakimington (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

The Blacktop CD isn't that good, either, to be honest. I mean, like, neither that one or the new Dirtbombs (which I now notice that deaf people are comparing to the MC5, geez) would be one of the 40 best garage-rock albums to come out this year (maybe not even one of the 10 best to come out of DETROIT this year), probably. Most interesting song on the Blacktop one is the children's game one, where the singer does here we go loopdy do loo or whatever, and all those kinda playground dances. But mostly, especially after liking the Dirtbombs' covers LP a couple years ago, I'm astounded by how GENERIC these guys sound. Given their record collections, you'd think their rhythm section would figure out how to be more DISCO or something. But no....

― chuck, Tuesday, 11 November 2003 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyway, now I get the idea that they may be more connected to that stiffassed '90s style hardcore-bands-pretending-to-be-garage-bands (like, you know, New Bomb Turks -- maybe Demolition Doll Rods too, I forget; SOMEBODY with a name like that) than I'd at first figured.

― chuck, Tuesday, 11 November 2003 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Murder City Devils? Maybe I mean them instead of Demoltion Doll Rods. I get lots of those bands mixed up.

― chuck, Tuesday, 11 November 2003 17:47 (twenty-one years ago)

i think you mean murder city devils. (the doll rods are certainly "hardcore" but in a very different way ha ha.)

the devils became someone else not too long ago right?

― erico b. rakimington (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 17:48 (twenty-one years ago)

there is no hope for old man chuck eddy. ;-)

― jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

there is absolutely no stiff-assedness, 90s hardcore style or otherwise, involved in the demolition doll rods.

― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 18:08 (twenty-one years ago)

i think monsieur jess is correct in that mr. eddy is confusing them with the murder city devils, parts of which become Dead Low Tide (now deceased) and one of them become Pretty Girls Make Graves (a band I don't get at all).

― jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I might mean NEITHER band (though I DEFINITELY mean new bomb turks, who were a fucking joke), but i DO know that both the demolition doll rods and murder city devils stuff i've heard (and given their names, i definitely TRIED with both of them) sounded way more forgettable than either the dead low tide or pretty girls make graves stuff i've heard. (in fact, come to think of it, both bands' forgettability may well be the main reason i can't remember what they sounded like!)

― chuck, Tuesday, 11 November 2003 18:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Which is not to say that Dead Low Tide or Pretty Girls Make Graves are all THAT memorable themselves, but still -- at least they're not inept, rhythm-impaired punk-rock hacks pretening to sound "Detroit" (which the DDRs and MCDs may or may not be. Again -- I forget!)

― chuck, Tuesday, 11 November 2003 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

*bites tongue in restraint*

― jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

What's the "expanded" reissue of Got a baaaad Feeling? Is it just the tracks from the original lp augmented by the stuff that was on the Au-Go-Go version? ANyone?

― Broheems (diamond), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 19:03 (twenty-one years ago)

"I wrote a hit play!"

― max fischer (gygax!), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

the expanded version also includes the blacktop singles -- pretty sweet all in one package with great liner notes inside telling the sordid Blacktop story.

― jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

i just spit ginger ale against the monitor

― erico b. rakimington (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

on the other hand, i just got this email from my friend tina:

>>I have to interview the chick from Pretty Girls Make Graves this week. How do you say, "why does your new album suck" nicely. Figure you're a pro.<<<

The album i thought was okay was their singles comp from a couple years ago, i think. (Reminded me of Romeo Void AND the Avengers.)

― chuck, Tuesday, 11 November 2003 22:26 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

I Know You Fine But How You Doin' is a great album.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 03:36 (twenty years ago)

Damn straight it is.

Thunderbird!!

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 03:50 (twenty years ago)

the new dirtbombs singles collection is quite nice, especially the 2nd disc of covers including Soft Cell and Flipper.

gawd, this thread should be put in a lead lined container and shot into space.

― jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 04:34 (twenty years ago)

Fourth'd or whatever. It's bizzombin'.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 04:42 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

I don't know why there is know thread for the Gories. You make it move is brilliant!

― I know, right?, Monday, 24 December 2007 18:01 (seventeen years ago)

i've never seen so much pretend forgetfulness in one place, or maybe i have. i don't remember!

― omar little, Monday, 24 December 2007 18:29 (seventeen years ago)

i don't think i ever found out exactly why tracer thought i needed convincing on this subject

― strongohulkington, Monday, 24 December 2007 18:32 (seventeen years ago)

I didn't know jess was still around!

― Curt1s Stephens, Monday, 24 December 2007 19:42 (seventeen years ago)

I just can't believe I wrote "know" when I meant "no" talk about a waste of letters.

― I know, right?, Monday, 24 December 2007 19:44 (seventeen years ago)

I only have Outta Here. didn't grab me as immediately as Dirtbombs stuff but I eventually warmed to it a bit; now I think it's a pretty good album to listen to when I'm in a certain sort of laid-back mood (which, unfortunately, I'm not in very often). it'll probably make more sense to me when summer rolls around again.

― bernard snowy, Monday, 24 December 2007 19:59 (seventeen years ago)

-- chuck, Tuesday, November 11, 2003 6:26 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Link

this is like a pretend forgetfulness rosetta stone.

― s1ocki, Monday, 24 December 2007 20:50 (seventeen years ago)

two years pass...

Hell of a drum sound they had.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 July 2010 03:05 (fifteen years ago)

seven years later i am still confused by this thread.

― strongohulkingtonsghost, Monday, 26 July 2010 19:06 (fifteen years ago)

seven years later i am confused that i am still reading this thread seven years later.

― strongohulkingtonsghost, Monday, 26 July 2010 19:07 (fifteen years ago)

three years pass...

Seven years later, alla the Gories albums have clicked with me, HARD

― endzone selfie (bernard snowy), Sunday, 11 May 2014 22:00 (eleven years ago)

The point of no return with these guys (& gal) comes when you start to look forward to Dan's songs instead of skipping over them

― endzone selfie (bernard snowy), Sunday, 11 May 2014 22:03 (eleven years ago)

one year passes...

~54min doc:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_M-sDhlliI

"We're gonna be the worst band in the world!!!"

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 9 June 2015 18:51 (ten years ago)

one year passes...

^ omg!

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, 13 March 2017 11:32 (eight years ago)

two years pass...

incredible 1989 full HQ set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvETU8xe0Bg

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 30 October 2019 03:18 (five years ago)

wow the sound is amazing!!

― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 30 October 2019 10:00 (five years ago)

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