The Gories
“Nitroglycerine” b/w “Makin Love”
Waaghals Records
limited edition 500, 250 on pink vinyl, 250 on black
One of my favorite bands ever. Reissued one of their hardest to find records to time with a European tour earlier this summer. My only complaint is that I wasn’t involved in the reissue! Credit to Waaghals for straight up asking the band if they could press this…their main inspiration coming from the fact that it was out of print and expensive! I found out about this at the merch table at the Sjock Festival in Belgium back in July, where the Gories had JUST sold out of their copies. I bought one of each color online direct from Waaghals. But I’m not sure if I’m into or against the idea that the label doesn’t have a website or webstore and just sells their shit directly on Discogs. There’s got to be a better way, right? Or am I just the old man yelling to get off my lawn?
“Nitroglycerine” is inarguably the most-praised song by the Gories. It goes just a bit farther than the rest of their oeuvre, reaching out of the underground to some quasi nether-limbo where this song could be a hit in the same way that “Surfin Bird” and “Blitzkrieg Bop” both feel like lifetime entries in the Great American Songbook.
I’m not sure if I say this too much or not enough about songs, but “Nitroglycerine” is absolutely perfect. There is nothing…no change or rethink or outside idea that could make this song any better. It is as if presented by a higher being and the existence of songs of this nature makes me MORE likely to accept the existence of a higher being. Certainly more so than any sort of dogma or preaching.
Must give credit to the band updating the HORRID pink/purple artwork from the original New Rose reissue and instead committing to a much more fitting (and punk) black and white presentation.
The b-side here “Makin Love” is originally by the Sloths from Los Angeles. A permutation of that band is still performing today and I saw them slay at SXSW last year. Complete with magic tricks, costume changes, killer knee slides with high-impact knee pads…for guys in their sixties (seventies?) I was legitimately impressed and entertained the entire time. Check ‘em out if you can.
The original issue by the Sloths on Impression is ungodly rare. Handful of known copies out there. At one point I actually owned TWO copies of this single, including one of only TWO known picture sleeves….all for the sole reason that it was covered by the Gories. Early internet confusion in the late Nineties had this song understandingly misattributed to Bo Diddley. But no, these young LA punks came up with this one all on their own. The Gories’ version is faithful to the original and exclusive to this single and the original French CD pressing of the “I Know You Fine But How You Doin” LP from 1990.
In the summer of 2000 I was ceremoniously gifted a copy of the New Rose pressing of this Gories single by Mick Collins, coupled with a 1990’s printed White Panther Party t-shirt, as a present for my high school graduation. Or maybe it was my 18th birthday? I can’t explicitly remember, but it is still one of the most thoughtful things my bandmate has ever done for me. I was later able to obtain a copy of the printed press release for the single and it now lives happily in the sleeve of this single.
Attached below is a photo of me wearing said White Panther t-shirt. Spaceland in Los Angeles, August 2001, I am 19 years-old and proud of fucking up my drums.
