Son Of A Gun

Garrett Luczak of Chicago band Son of a Gun seems to have figured out how to get around that eternal conundrum “Ars longa, vita brevis.” It’s the same solution arrived at by your Reatards, Dwyers, and Segalls: get your songs recorded on that four-track now, don’t worry whether they’re “finished” just yet, and then find the band to play them. Using this approach, Luczak has been admirably prolific—in just 18 months he’s amassed a Bandcamp treasure trove that includes five EPs, a couple cassette splits, worthwhile covers of the Count Five and Wire, and some other odds and sods. Overall the music provides what people tend to want from garage rock when they’re in the mood for garage rock—something raw and immediate that you can drink shitty beer to—but dig into the inspired maelstrom of frenzied four-chord stomping and well-timed cathartic howling, and you’ll find an upward trajectory to the quality of the songwriting over time. On a self-titled EP from this fall, “Oh Well” is hooky as fuck, and on this month’s Take EP, “Wrong Things” careens and caroms like a beautifully sloppy take on the Saints circa “(I’m) Stranded.” It’s a lovely antidote to the winter blahs, and these guys ought to rule the summertime house-show circuit. —Brian Costello Todays Hits headline; Thunders, Son of a Gun, the Rubs, and the Hanging Gardens open. - Chicago Reader

The music of Son of a Gun may come off as your typical modern, loud fast rules, young man rock and roll. But, a few listens reveal what it really is; classic rock. I’m not talking Genesis, ZZ Top, or Aerosmith. I’m talking Stooges, MC5, New York Dolls, Heartbreakers, with a touch of mid-late ’70′s Detroit, Cleveland, CBGB’s and a dash of Seeds and Electric Prunes. If these guys don’t do a version of “Pushin’ Too Hard” in their set, they need to get on it right away. Their forthcoming long player No Bread (Tall Pat) has 12 songs clocking in at 27 minutes with none of them longer than 2:30 and a few in the 1:50 range. Hit it and quit. You know I’m a big fan of that and it’s exactly why I’ve invited Son of a Gun on Local Anesthetic this week. I just flat out like the songs these guys write and the way they play them and it’s been awhile since I’ve had a band come by just because I like a bunch of their songs. I think you will, too. Plus, we can play “spot the influence” together when the fellas in Son of a Gun drop by Local Anesthetic this Sunday night at 7:30. I hope you can tune in. - XWRT

Tall Pat sure put out a pretty outstanding LP for his second 12 inches. We've seen Son of a Gun play out over the past year or so, and they killed it at the inaugural VoT party at Door #3 a couple of months back, when their set ended with a cover of Dan Sartain's "Fuck Friday" after humbly declaring "We don't know anymore songs." Live, Son of a Gun is on fire, packing their sets with unrelenting energy as they blast through songs and keep the crowd banter to a modest, and charming, minimal.

Son of A Gun's debut LP (their first 12 inches, too), No Bread, carries much of the same energy these guys pull off live, albeit a cleaner and more polished sound than they crank out at a bar with a bunch of drunk dudes scudding about and spilling their tall boys. Son of A Gun's knack for jamming elements of glam and mid 70s pop into a garage rock context is not too far of a throw from the Makers output nearly two decades earlier, but stripped of the boas and leather.

STREAM THE FULL ALBUM HERE, and don't miss them Saturday at Cole's Bar with Apache Dropout and The Sueves, and get your pre-order in right HERE - Victim Of Time