Jo Jo Gunne - Bite Down Hard

Oh what's this? I had no idea what to expect here, but it was on Asylum records, a label that had a great track record of releasing solid artists. It was produced by Bill Szymczyk who also produced the Eagles and Joe Walsh. Some of the names were familiar as well, so I figured it was worth a shot. Worst case I'm out a buck.

The inner sleeve was missing (who knows what treasures were missing, more likely it was a plain plastic insert), but the jacket was okay and the vinyl was in better shape than I thought it would be. This was released in 1973 and is very much of its time, which isn't a bad thing. I love 70s rock and roll. It's enjoyable, and there were no clunkers that made me want to turn it down, but honestly not particularly memorable after my first listen. But it did warrant more time on the turntable.

I'm on my third pass now and it has a solid groove and songs are starting to stand out (according to the ever reliable Wikipedia it cracked the top 100 peaking at #75) but nothing I remember hearing on the radio as kid.

"Ready Freddy" kicks off the album with a guitar riff that brings to mind Alice Cooper's "School's Out" from a year earlier. But that's where any similarity ends, and the song drives along at a clip with some great piano and side 2 closes with the "Rhoda" that even has wicked drum break down and some very tasty guitar work. One thing that stands out is a lot of the early synth sounds throughout the album. It's just par for the course now, but some of these sounds were pretty new back then. Today's musical cliches had to start somewhere.

Bite Down Hard was the band's second album, and they'd drop two more records before the end of 1974 all of them breaking through the top 200, but that would be it.

With the benefit of hindsight we know what happened to Jo Jo Gunne, but hearing this with fresh ears you can get a sense of why they were the second act to be signed to the label. Considering who their future stablemates were going to be this was kind of a big deal. If things had fallen into place who knows what might have been.

Overall this was a great new to me surprise. If I stumble upon more of their stuff I'll snap it up.

Comments

6 Cylinder

As a kid we had one radio station, not counting CBC, and generally there was very little that was worth listening to, although there were times something would come on that would make you pay attention. It was 1979 and on a couple of occasions I heard "There Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" and it cracked me up, and I always wanted to get a copy for myself. A few years ago when my niece was dancing, they did a performance to this song, and now I can't separate my niece from a bunch of dancing chicks in chicken suits. Such is life. When I found this in the dollar bin I actually let out a little chirp, my goodness could it be? It was, and it was in great shape - including the inner sleeve. Score. I had no idea what to expect, for all I knew there was only one song worth listening to, and if that was the case it was still a dollar well spent. If I could buy an album by Showdown and enjoy it, odds are I'll find something to enjoy here to. Before I put this on I...

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTOs Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) who knows maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust - it seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight ahead pop, or rock. It was leaning to the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough the vocals reminded me of Mi...

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!

The first time I got this album it was a gift from my old roommate Otto. For a goofy little nebbish he would occasionally surprise me with some left of field musical treasures. Although, I still think he was reaching a little when he brought home the new "Led Zeppelin" album by Kingdom Come and forced me to listen to "Get it On" over and over again. I'd not listened to Mars Needs Guitars in a long, long, long time. The first thing that I jumped out at me was how David Faulkner's vocals reminded me of his fellow countryman Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil. I think the reason this never occurred to me was at the time I didn't have any Midnight Oil until Diesel and Dust in 1987. I'm not saying it was all the time, but there were a couple of songs where it stood out. Not a bad thing, just a thing. Even at the time this felt slightly out of step with what was going on in 1985. It seemed like everyone was using drum machines and synthesizers and having t...

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