A dude picking on an acoustic guitar can be a truly terrifying thing. If you’ve even been to a college, you probably already know why. A strolling hippie with a six-string hanging off his or her patchouli and entitlement-scented backside can send whole innocent families into paroxysms of terror without even playing a note. Such is the fear of the threat. With his second solo long player, Boerum Palace, GHQ’s Steve Gunn calmly and discreetly joins the class of modern day John “Not Lawnmower Man” Fahey acolytes who say “No” to the hippie who just wants to get laid and “Yes” to the hippie who wants to backpack across Eurasfrica.
Now, some Fahey-loving sons-a-bitches can be kinda boring with their slavish dedication to the gut basics of American Primitivism, but not this here son of a Gunn. He’s thankfully got enough Sandy Bull in him to shake up the genre with some wandering Eastern wooliness. The track we present here is the lovely little album-opener “Mr. Franklin,” which exemplifies just that kind of exploratory derring-do. Gunn’s winding, discursive ambling weaves in and around your mind-hole like one of Ricardo-Montalban-as-Khan’s infernal ear-eels; indistinct and woozy vocals wheeze around and color in the sides.
After the guitar part builds in momentum for a few minutes, a little distorto pedal steel courtesy Marc Orleans politely sends the whole thing off into a very orange sunset at the end. Honestly, this track is not even that far off from the blissed-out acoustic beachy balearic-ishness practiced by the seriously chill bros in Meanderthals and Smith & Mudd. If you gave a scruffy Scandinavian disco editor a dime bag and a laptop, he or she could have this track revamped for an Ibizan sunrise before you can say, “Um, shit, I forgot.”
Anyway, the whole kitten canoodle drops on vinyl and digital download on November 17th from Three Lobed Recordings. There are several complicated pre-order options to choose from, so please, allow plenty of time to peruse the options and choose what works best for you.
Steve Gunn, “Mr. Franklin” (Boerum Place, Three Lobed)
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Words: Matt Kruglinski
Tags: Boerum Place, GHQ, Mr. Franklin, Steve Gunn, Three Lobed