Thursday 11 September 2014

Pornography For Cowards Goes Gay For Johnny Depp

As a quick precursor to this piece. This was not written by me (Kane), and features a band that I am not all that familiar with. The idea came up to have a guest entry or two from good guy Richard Heaven and I couldn't be more happy to have you reading this today. Also, I'm on good authority that this is a part one of two kinda deal. I'm looking forward to it, this is a damn cool read. Thanks Richie baby! 

I have no shame in admitting that I was a Gay For Johnny Depp fanboy. Hell, I still am! Formed in 2004 and boasting members of Garrison and Instruction within their ranks, Gay For Johnny Depp (to be shortened to GFJD from here on) lasted until 2011 when they split up without warning. Known for their semi-erotic live shows and sexually explicit lyrics, they gained a small but loyal cult following. I think that I may be missing one release - the Gay For Johnny Depp Inhale Blacksmoke single - but honestly, I've never seen a physical copy so I'm sceptical as to whether it actually exists. Right, that's enough wikipedia rewriting, let's talk about releases! Erotically Charged Dance Songs For The Desperate was released in 2004 by Firefly Records. This was GFJD at their most primal (although they continued to get sleazier as the years went on). There's not much to say about this - the plain black CD is a little dull and Sid Jagger (guitar) graces the back cover in what will go on to be a trend for the next few releases. They quickly followed this with Blood: The Natural Lubricant (An Apocalyptic Adventure Beyond Sodom And Gomorrah) in 2005 on Captains Of Industry. This saw them tour the uk for the first time as part of Million Dead's farewell tour. They really ramped up the camp sleaziness for this one - Hey Sailor! is all kinds of brilliant, as is Sex In Your Mouth's repeated screams of 'SUFFER! OR THE PIGS WILL INHERIT THE EARTH'. I could talk about the design a little more this is a vinyl blog so… 2012 saw Moshtache Records re-release Blood… as a 10" record. Two variants exist - Blood Red /100 and Cumsplatter White /200. The artwork borrows heavily from the original CD release, even down to the hi res scans of the of the handwritten titles. There's not much to say about the outer sleeves so let's look at the insides. The records come in fully printed inner sleeves, upon which are printed a short studio diary and a track by track run through by Sid Jagger. I must admit, I love this kind of thing when it comes to reissues - I know you could be a purist and claim that a true reissue wouldn't alter any more than the bare minimum but fuck it, that's a bit boring in my eyes. Alright, story time. As soon as I heard that Ed (the handsome owner of Moshtache Records) was working on a GFJD re-release I knew that I had to get in on the action. A few days and a little pestering later and he agreed to let me do the centre labels for the Blood 10". It's hardly the most exciting piece - in all honesty, it's just the scans from the CD reworked to fit the centre label - but it was my first piece of work to make it's way onto vinyl. Needless to say, I was stoked. I remember finishing them off after seeing Defeater play the fighting cocks the night before graduation - I was pretty tired but it was totally worth it to work with one of my favourite bands. The test press is limited to 5 but as far as I know only three people own copies of it - myself, Sid and Ed. There's not much to say about this apart from that it was released for their 2005 UK tour with Million Dead and is limited to 100. It features Godspeed You Black Mogwai and Happy Go Loopy. This was by far the hardest release to pick up - in the three years that I've kept an eye on ebay for GFJD rarities I've only seen it pop up once, and that was this copy. It wasn't actually listed as the 2005 tour CD - It was put up as a free extra with this guys copy of Blood. I think I paid £18 for them in the end - it's hardly money well spent but hey, I needed it. ---------

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