NEWS: And a Bunch of Stuff About Gun Outfit

GUN OUTFIT ANNOUNCES HARD COMING DOWN DUE 4/2 VIA PPM
 HEAR THE TRACK "FLYIN' LOW, MARIA"
WATCH THE TRAILER FOR "WHERES ANTON" A SHORT FILM SURROUNDING GUN OUTFIT
TOURING W/ THE MEN & MILK MUSIC

 

Gun Outfit returns with Hard Coming Down, their third album for PPM. Hear a taste of what is to come in "Flyin' Low, Maria," streaming here. With this album also comes "WHERES ANTON", a short film surrounding Gun Outfit from Joe DeNardo, shot on 16mm, blending the shared narratives of document and artifice. Watch the trailer here.

It’s not an easy task to shake up a scene famous for the twee groups of the K Records catalog, but with Gun Outfit barreling through hundreds of shows in the late 2000′s, they were key in the renewal of the loud and plaintive to the historically vibrant scene of Olympia, WA. Reviewers compared them to Sonic Youth, Wipers, Dino Jr – because, just like Gun Outfit, these bands combined the caterwaul of Black Flag with the twining harmonies of folk. However, Gun Outfit retained a vision original enough to appeal way beyond a mere re-hash of the late 80′s SST playbook, and in Hard Coming Down they have created something more serene, bold, and confident than anything in their prior output.

Slow burning dirge-y jams on Hard Coming Down such as “Flyin’ Low, Maria”, “Lau Blues”, and “Songwriter” align themselves with the most downbeat and darkened folk rock. And their knack for embedding the sublime within the punk ripper too finds its most clear success in album standout “Death Drive”, a flawless take of ennui and angst in Gun Outfit’s high-energy signature. It’s a classic of its type. “Young Lord” is the rootsy centerpiece to the album – ably percussed by drummer Daniel Swire – drawing out a shambling psych-country walk through a torpid day: “High / high as I’ve always been / It never meant that much to me / Breeze, through my doorway / You might find me still asleep.” There is enough range on Hard Coming Down to appeal to a variety of tastes, as Gun Outfit’s sullen ventures in psychedelic guitar music are stylistically boundless.

What’s more unique still about Gun Outfit is its decentralized line-up, as Dylan Sharp and Carrie Keith share lead guitar and vocal parts almost evenly. There is no egoistic frontman with servantile backing group. And this is fitting, as members of Gun Outfit’s competing artistic impulses outside music lie with experimental film making, which is an even more collaborative medium. Though their film-work deals with the fragmented realities of consciousness, fried to absurdity by the restraints of capitalism and human relationships, the music of Gun Outfit deals more simply with the coping, the pain, and the escaping of it. In the case of mind-altered, love-worn Gun Outfit, their 3rd album is about how it’s Hard Coming Down, and the music to be made once you’re there.

HEAR: "FLYIN' LOW, MARIA"

WATCH: "WHERES ANTON TRAILER"

TOUR DATES

3/15 Seattle, WA - Black Lodge*
3/16 Vancouver, WA- Biltmore Cabaret*
3/17 Olympia, WA- Northern*
3/18 Portland, OR - Star Theater*
3/20 Reno, NV- The Holland Show Space at Rainshadow*
3/23 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill*
3/24 Las Vegas, NV – Bunk Bar*
3/25 Santa Ana, CA – Unit B Studio*
3/29 - Palm Springs, CA - Ace Hotel
3/30 - Pomona, CA - VLHS
4/10 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom @
4/11 Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall @
4/12 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue and 7th Street Entry@
4/13 Northfield, MN - The Cave at Carleton College @

* w/ Milk Music
@ w/ The Men

GUN OUTFIT
HARD COMING DOWN
(PPM RECORDS)
APRIL 2nd, 2013

1. Flyin' Low, Maria
2. Lau Blues
3. High Price to Pay
4. I've Got A Gift
5. Young Lord
6. Fools Gold
7. My Love is Wanting Me
8. Death Drive
9. You'll Go First
10. Fallen Sun Song
11. Another Human Being
12. Songwriter

[Gypsies Take: The song is available to stream on Sound Cloud-- that's where the link takes you when you click it.  Let the comparisons to Hole begin.]