Haphazard noise rock from Houston's Mike Gunn

Worshipguitars.org

The 1990s were a weird transitional era for music. Punk had graffitied the 70s with anti-corporate angst but the 80s still produced hair-driven glam rock that left its mark as well. With the onset of grunge, the DYI punk rock aesthetic had spread fully to the suburbs where MTV had left its indelible mark on many of those too young to venture to the debauchery of downtown clubs.

But in Texas, things were a bit different. Central Texas bands such as the Butthole Surfers and Scratch Acid left their imprint throughout the early and mid-80s. Austin had the Pocket FishRmen and Ed Hall. Houston had bands such as Sugar Shack, the Pain Teens and the late, lamented Mike Gunn.

Where the decades crossed over, and labels like SubPop, Touch and Go and Amphetamine Reptile dominated the noisier side of what would be called Indie rock, the Mike Gunn came to be “the cornerstone band of the Houston psych scene in the '90s,” according to All Music Guide’s Chris True.  Consisting of Scott Grimm on bass, Tom Carter (later of Charalimbides) on guitar and some vocals, Curtis Almeron Mackey on drums and some Hammond Organ and John Cramer on guitar, most vocals and some Hammond Organ, the Mike Gunn burst through an ugly, noisy uterine wall, the ill-spawned product of punk, metal and a mix suburban and collegiate ennui.

John Cramer explains the beginnings of the band as well as the origin of the name: “Well, we probably thought all other music sucked, but honestly I think the Mike Gunn came from Scott Grimm (bass) and Tom Carter (guitar/vocals), who met at U of H through Ramon Medina (currently in the Linus Pauling Quartet, or LP4). I knew Ramon from high school. So while I was hanging out in Nassau Bay (home of NASA), smoking dope with Mike Gunn all day, Ramon was actually doing something with his life.”

“Mike was a guy from school with a connection and a badass pair of bongs. He had the mini green bong, and then he had the standard regulation clear Lucite bong. This bong of great legend became the source of many lyrics, and the inspiration for the entire LP4 universe (still is, in theory). Mike had no musical ability, no creative ability at all, we thought, until we realized that by providing his mother's house for our enjoyment he was the impetus for an entire micro-subculture based around drug abuse, musical experimentation, and general angst-filled teenaged debauchery. You know, America, in a nutshell.”
 

1993's Almaron

Described as “a mesh of Black Sabbath stupidity, Butthole Surfers [sic] madness, and shameless guitar wank of the highest caliber,” by the author of the Worship Guitars webpage devoted to MG, the members “all took part, in varying degrees, in the ultimate expression of this idiocy - the noise horror cult lunacy of Schlong Weasel. After that, I was in Bongtooth with Ramon, and Tom and Scott started the Mike Gunn. They had no drummer, a diarrhea-of-the-riff metal lead guitarist, and crappy aesthetics. After Bongtooth imploded, the MG stole our drummer, and eventually me, we kicked out the metal guy, and it was on. Sort of.”

The band was very much a product of the times, with influences ranging from, according to Cramer, “Black Sabbath, Spaceman 3, the Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, Codeine (me mostly), all scary furry-boot metal (Curt), Dry Nod, Sonic Youth, just whatever we were into. We didn't try to do what we did specifically; it just sort of organically came out of us. Like [crap]!”

Though the band was often seen as utterly chaotic – sometimes the shows were less rock and roll and more sonic explosion.  “The music certainly could be chaotic, that's for sure, but I really I wouldn't use the term chaos to describe our existence. Haphazard, maybe. Underachieving by our own standards, definitely,” Cramer clarifies.

“We played whatever was natural for us given our abilities, and most importantly, our limitations. Sure, the drummer had his craziness, but we're all suburban white guys, we're pretty close to the hilt. I think we just didn't give a [crap] about anyone else. Maybe that came off as chaotic, I don't know.”

While not necessarily touting any strong political convictions as part of the band’s aura, they often became, unsurprisingly, intertwined with the marijuana legalization movement. “I actually had already quit smoking weed by the time I was in the band, but the others made up for it. The only nod to political aspirations was our performing at the West Fest over on West Alabama in front of some head shop for the NORML sponsored Hemp Stage or some such [crap]. It was retarded. There's a video of one of our songs from that show on YouTube, Google it if you dare,” taunts Cramer.
 

1997's A Dream About Jim (posthumous)

“Caveat - I'm not wearing my shirt. Jack Herer from his pro-weed screed, The Emperor Wears no Clothes, was there to speak before us. He was really, really [f-ing] wasted. Better still, he was a total idiot. We stood there waiting for him to finish his endless diatribe. We were his captives, essentially. He spoke about how Henry Ford had made a car out of hemp, as if this was somehow important. I distinctly remember the one [crap]-faced moron up front held in rapture. Manson was less creepy than Herer. After that, we stuck to riffs and drones.”

The band’s discography can be found on the Worship Guitars website and Cramer says,  “That's pretty much complete. We have unreleased remixes, and a few odds and ends, plus our last unreleased album, the Book of Zogg, but as far as what came out, yeah that's [a] pretty good [list]. Tony Dale over at Camera Lucida in Australia was going to release a box set of the kitchen sink, the whole deal, but he bailed after a fit of sanity.

"No fool would ever put out our crap without permission. There would be no point. They'd make nothing from it."

Perhaps one of the reasons the Mike Gunn never really grew beyond Texas was lack of touring. Cramer says succinctly,  “No tours, I suffered from panic disorder, which is a tad limiting; and more importantly, we were total losers, so touring was kind of out. Scott hated playing live just in general, and hitting the road was a major undertaking for us. We played in Dallas, Austin, etc ... but nothing too exciting.”

This doesn’t mean that they were not privileged to play with some of the best bands of the time, from both in and out of Texas. Dry Nod, Bleach Bath, Smile 69 (who recorded a split single with the Mike Gunn), Pain Teens, Sugar Shack, guys like that. All the bands that were around back then, good and mostly bad. Tar was always awesome, very nice, the Jesus Lizard (former members of Scratch Acid), always a fantastic show, and also very nice, Helios Creed, again, very nice (loved Nirvana's Nevermind), Of Cabbages and Kings (ex Swans and Codeine)."

There were also bills that to this day remain a mystery. For example, the Mike Gunn played with Blind Melon at Emo's (the Houston Emo's closed in 2001). “That was goofy. They were total prima donnas. The only guy in the band who would even speak to us was Shannon, the guy that od'ed. He was actually okay. The rest of them were total assholes. They refused to take down their gear after soundcheck. With five instrumentalists in the band, the Emo's stage was very crowded with stuff. It was like playing on a cocktail napkin. We seriously debated stealing their effects rack and leaving. After pussying out, we stole their set list."

Though the band officially broke up in 1994, minus some posthumous releases, their mission statement was, simply put,  “We never try anything new, because everything we do will suck."

"We were really hilarious."
 

For more info: The Houston noise rock scence (article)