Tom Carter: "Heeeyy! You got metal in my psychedelia."
John Cramer: "You got psych in my heavy metal!"
The Mike Gunn's Almaron (1993) was the Houston band's final release while together, their best and a double-album. The cover begged the question: "What's going on here?" Many such questions, actually. Most obviously, what's a pastel pink-yellow-blue cover doing on this monolith of heavy-psych? Is that craft landing, ditching, escaping those black waves? Is that an ancient aeroplane, or some futuristic/alien vessel? Can it be real?
Almaron was going to be the 2nd album cover in this series, but I would have considered other alternatives. Until I realized how rare the image is on the internet, especially at anything bigger than 200x200. Same with general info on such a great band. Plus, it's just plain cool-looking. So here we are.
The Mike Gunn tribute to Houston's Dry Nod:
The "sleeve" is credited to Reign of Toads, which I'm going assume includes the actual cover. A little research revealed that to be a contemporary zine, run by one Kyle Silfer. His credit for "percussion" and old Pik n Pak gig posters sealed the deal. Plus, there's his open admission to doing it, in RoT's Mike Gunn reviews.
One final thing to include in this collection of Gunn-ania. Gunn-algia? A mostly positive 1994 review from the Houston Press. I'm pretty sure the "Bullinga" quote is incorrect. I've always heard, "They ain't no kind of virtuosos" - which to my mind makes more sense than "virtuous souls."
Well, that and early (young!) The Mike Gunn, playing "Liska"
(with YouTube comments guest appearance by John Cramer) ~
Foreshadowing! The Mike Gunn reunited in 2007 at Rudyard's, and I attended, getting to meet Tom Carter - the subject of an upcoming post!
1 comment:
Virtuosos is correct. Thanks for the post.
Post a Comment