Pornography For Cowards Goes Gay(er) For Johnny Depp

Another short preamble from me (Kane). Apparently I messed up the images for part 1, I'm sorry Richard! I'll try and do things a little better here... It's been a pleasure!

Welcome to part two of our little jaunt into the world of Gay For Johnny Depp! If this was an episode of Friends it'd be called 'The One Where It Gets Really Good And Then Kind Of Goes Downhill'. Without further ado, let's take a look at their debut album…

November 2007 saw the band release their debut album, The Politics Of Cruelty, on Captains Of Industry. As far as I'm concerned this is when they peaked - every track on the album just oozes that aggressive yet sleazy GFJD charm. During their last couple of UK tours they'd open their sets with the first three songs from this as it just works so damn well. As you can see, Cruelty keeps up the tradition of harsh black and white graphics and handwritten track titles. It's strong, it's identifiable, and it works, so why change it?

A year or so later and Banquet Records released this, the Manthology. It featured everything released up to that point plus The Ski Mask Orgy EP, exclusive to this.

Sadly this marked the end of the whole 'grainy black and white aesthetic' GFJD had going on. The booklet itself featured a spread dedicated to each release, showcasing the artwork and the relevant credits. Over all it's a nice little release which gives you everything you really need for under a tenner. It was around this time that their american label, Shinebox, decided to put out the Sex Vid Singles Club EP. GFJD always enjoyed a relative success within the UK but their releases didn't circulate quite as well within the US so this was made up, collecting all six of their singles onto one disk. I think I paid about £10 for this, including postage. Worth it? Nah, not really. I mean, it's a white cardboard sleeve with a sticker on it. It's a glorified promo single. But to be a collector is my curse, and collect I must.

So here it is, the awkward second album. What Doesn't Kill You, Eventually Kills You was written and recorded in about a month, if I remember correctly. It isn't a bad album by any stretch of the imagination but it feels a little 'by numbers' for me - they knew their niche and it feels like they were writing to fulfil it, as opposed to just letting it flow naturally. It also features a cover of Slade in the form of 'Cum On Feel The Boize' which is pretty fun live but feels kind of throwaway tacked onto the end of the album. I'll be honest, I don't like the artwork to this. It's just so throwaway. The black and white style that they'd indulged in before felt cheap and seedy, just the way I like it. This just feels rushed. Luckily they started to work with the talented Sam Dunn after this but more of that later. In many ways the B side is more interesting than the A side because it's just a slab of beautiful noise. For the B side of …Eventually Kills You they simply reversed the A side and pressed it. That's it. It's the same album but backwards, and it's flipping' marvellous. The lyric sheet, a joint contender with the Sex Vid Singles Club packaging for 'least effort invested'. Alright, we're almost there - congratulations on making it this far. If you're getting tired of reading about GFJD then that's cool - so am I. The last three releases are a bit of a mixed bag. First up is this, the Fuck…Til The Death split EP released for their three week long UK tour with The Computers. Each band covers a song from their touring partners latest release, with The Computers turning Pink Flag into a high energy punk n roll song whilst GFJD take Hot Damocles into the sleazy stoner territory. 500 were made in various colours and you had to be part of the first 20 odd at each show to get one… so I ended up with four by the end of that run. I sort of regret giving the rest away but honestly, I can live with it. The skull and chains motif was taken from Sam Dunn's tour poster. I dig it. Leading on from that is…

Rhythms, Resolutions & Hustlers. I really dig this release. The artwork was, once again, done by Sam Dunn. I believe that this is limited to fifty and was only available to people who attended their final uk run as main support to Pulled Apart By Horses. What makes this interesting is that it's actually a remix album, with friends of the band reworking the entire Kills You album and taking it in some real strange directions. The cases itself is a two colour screen print whilst the insert is printed onto a really nice stock. I actually didn't make any of the shows that this was available but Sam managed to hook me up with a copy via their bassist Chelsea Piers.

Last but not lease, here's the Cum On Feel The Boize 7". One side features the original cover from the album whilst the other features Pulled Apart By Horses remix of it. The typography was done by Sam Dunn and also made its way onto a tee shirt. The packaging is pretty cool - there's a few variants when it comes to ink and cloth colour but the total is /250. I'm a sucker for fabric packaging and that's what really endears this release to me because in every other way it's pretty fucking pointless. So that's it, I hope you enjoyed this brief walk through Gay For Johnny Depp's physical output. Peace!