Killer Dolls - Devil Sounds A-Go-Go

Hurrah for the surprises that charity shops can throw up. I recently picked this up on CD after noticing it was produced by Jeff Dahl, and expecting it to be sound along the lines of, say, the Detroit Cobras.

I was wrong, and pleasantly so.

This is a much punkier, trashier album than I was anticipating; if it reminded me of anything it was very early Goo Goo Dolls, but considerably more lo-fi - Dahl's 'production' duties seemingly having consisted of little more than pressing 'record' and then 'stop' again approximately two minutes later.

A little bit of research has shed very little light on the Killer Dolls, other than they're Argentinian, and this would appear to be their only album. It's not easily available either, so I'm surprised a copy turned up in a branch of Oxfam in Cambridge (left behind by a South American student perhaps?).

Opener Runaway did direct me though to an interesting looking compilation called 3 Minute Heroes, a collection that features a few bands I know (eg The Super Bees) and plenty that I don't but that have names which, if sometimes a little predictable, suggest they could be worth a listen (eg Streetwalkin' Cheetas, The Riffs, and the East Side Suicides). So £1.99 spent on a CD by a band I've never heard of points me in the direction of 30 others.

That, like the hokey cokey, is what it's all about.

Gunfire Dance

In some ways I don't think Gunfire Dance did themselves any favours. I first saw them in the Shrapnel pages of Kerrang!, with tousled black hair and polka dot shirts; shortly after a live review in the same magazine referred to one of their early songs, 'Give Me Back My Heart' as 'sounding like Tyla had sold them it for a packet of fags'.

In truth Gunfire Dance didn't wholly belong on that scene. They were coming from the Iggy/Lords angle (and yes, soooooo many Shrapnel ads used to say that but most of these bands, to steal Paul Blitz's quote about bands claiming to be 'punk', tended to just be bad metal), with a touch of the US 60's psychedelic scene thrown in for good measure.

Gunfire Dance had talent in abundance. Every member of the band could genuinely play (or in Ant's case, sing). They didn't need a pointy pink guitar to get themselves noticed, but things just didn't go their way. They had a publishing deal with Island in the early 90s. Brian James and Rat Scabies took production duties on a cracking 5-track demo in 1992. Jeff Dahl then released a single from that demo on his Ultra label. But a full deal never materialised, they lost their guitarist and continued for a while as Steppin' Razors but eventually knocked it on the head.

Archway Of Thorns is a collection of their studio recordings and its release was in the pipeline when, after a couple of storming reunion shows in 2005, Ant took his own life.

If I could have been in any band in the 90s it would have been Gunfire Dance. That said, they would have laughed me out of the room (I'm not the most talented of guitarists ....).

NB: multiple copies on eBay at the moment for just £3.99: click - Archway Of Thorns.