My buddy Kevin Mazzarelli mixed this live set and recorded various tracks to Pro Tools; Acidjack mixed and mastered them and posted this recording on nyctaper of Steve Gunn’s performance at Brooklyn Club Baby’s All Right on April 1st (here). Who is Steve Gunn? I didn’t know either, though I should have because I’ve certainly heard him before. Gunn played in Kurt Vile’s backing band in 2012, so, yeah, of course I’ve seen him.
Steve Gunn is a modern day Charlie Sexton, with the chops but with more eclecticism. You could imagine Steve as a Gunn for fire, or you can imagine, as appears to be happening, Steve as a solo force. Listening to this live set, Gunn is culling his recent solo history, two tracks off 2013’s Time Off, five off the last solo 2014’s Way Out Weather. The final night of a three week tour, imagine Television covering Neil Young and you’ll have a sense of the intense beauty but not the immense self confidence at work here. It’s like a bequietuded loud psychedelia.It is the sound of a bloke in charge of his easel, or at least his paintbrushes, the songs are unrushed and uncluttered, it is the sinking sound of past imperfect.
I know what you’re thinking, cult band. But Gunn is less a hidden treasure and more a painting you keep turning back to though you don’t realize you’ve seen it the first time. If you’ve never heard “Way Out Weather” it builds from an enormously lovely slide guitar riff and it tails after it.The twelve minute opener “Old Strange” sounds like what the blues would sound like if it wasn’t the blues, like an alternative reality Cream. Backed by the “Way Out Band”, Nathan Bowles on drums, Jason Meagher on bass, and Paul Sukeena on guitar, it is a nice sunk rhythm section battling for position with industrial strength melodies, prog-rock which stands in place, a jam band who band much more than they ever jam . In Gunn’s bio the operative words are “lush” and “impressionistic” and Gunn has the sort of impassive vocals that make you think elsewhere pop, other realities.
But who can be sure?
A quick read of his bio finds Gunn’s band GHQ releasing nine full length albums between 2009 and 2011, that makes being a fan feel like an extra studies curriculum, and my bet is listen to the two solos (and maybe this years excellent collaboration with the Black Twig Pickers, who live up to their name, Seasonal Hire, just for the buzz) while you await his first album on Merge Records and opening slot on the Wilco Tour in May.
To start with, at least download the Baby’s All Right gig off nyctaper (here again).
