Search - Organ :: Grab That Gun

Very good album by this British Columbia group

bsg2004 | 02/01/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"While they have their own unique style and sound,

* The Debbie Harry/Blondie influences are hard to ignore

* Joy Division undercurrents

* some Cranberries/O'Riardon similarities



If they sound or look a bit familiar, you have seen them perform in an earlier episode of Showtime's The L Word.



Grab this CD! :)"

Really impressive

Walking With The Night | Hill Country, Texas | 07/30/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Too bad this band called it quits after one EP and one full-length. Their unique and well crafted sound really stood out in a sea of corporate crap that passes for indie/alternative these days. When I first heard 'Memorize the City' it made the hair on my neck stand up,which for a jaded soul like mine, doesnt happen too often. The rest of the CD is mighty fine too. I think that out of all of the 80's bands, Moev seems like the most accurate comparison. Thats just my NSHO. Its too bad that I didn't find out about this band earlier. When you think about the sad,sorry state of even 'indie' music these days,'Grab That Gun' is an absolute must have for your collection."

Grab This Album

Paul Ess. | Holywell, N.Wales,UK. | 10/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The late, lamented The Organ (And HOW am I gonna get through a whole review without any you-know-what jokes?) have bequeathed us a simple but stunning album which subtly and poignantly tells a disturbing story in an emphatic and emotionally charged way.

But is modern music in all its forms THAT GOOD that an album THIS GOOD can be sidelined, eased to the margins, conveniently surpassed?

I can imagine the subject matter might bother some people, but where are the student accolades? Where are the superlatives from the Great-Goth-Masses?

Is it misogyny? (The Organ are an all-girl group, though the Shangri-La's they most definitely are not!). You feel it would be a different story if some-one like R.E.M had done it (No chance!).

Rock as exasperating enigma: pt.73.



It's an album you buy on the off-chance. You might have read a half-decent review or heard a snippet, and because you can't find anything sure to startle that day its: "OK. I'll try this."

That's how I came across it anyway, and I'm really glad I did because it's a great gushing surprise of a record, more so because the opener 'Brother' isn't that strong. Not a disaster by any means, just not on a par with a lot of the stuff that's to follow. This immediately gives you an insight into The Organ, they're opening their album with the weakest song. Hmmm...



They're either hopelessly naïve, (which I doubt) or are massively over-confident (again...). They've every right to be the latter, because the next song 'Steven Smith' is an absolute cracker, and gives the now VERY interested listener an exquisite glimpse into the warm- fluid heart of 'Grab That Gun'

"Steven Smith, we all lose. One look at you,

And they're suddenly covered in shrapnel too.."



I don't know who Steven Smith is, he sounds like a nasty murderer that The Organ are immortalizing with a beautiful song, but we'll forgo judgment and give him credit for kick-starting their album in such intriguing fashion(My patently futile resolve not to read other reviews, keeps me from important facts, merely providing literary freedom).



"And then there will be silence" singer Katie Sketch intones on the fade-out; pre-fixing not only the fate of S.S. but of the group themselves.



The plot thickens. A analogous autobiographical work? A (whisper it..!) concept album? As a debut? Do people do things like that these days? Did they have a premonition this would be their only work? Was that their intention all along?

Answers please to Steven Smith's prison cell....



'There Is Nothing I Could Do' is the stand-out on 'Grab That Gun'. Deliciously (and deceptively) simple with a killer guitar riff, and it's not just brilliant, it kicks hard as well:

"My neck hurts, cos I've been cutting moons"

Do they still have the death penalty in Canada? Was it raining? Was this Steven Smiths 'Pace Ultima'? Is there enough Amazon cyber-pages to properly explore this?



Musically it's perfect. Early Felt, Repetition maybe, with lashings of that neo-psychedelia that so many of those excellent early 80's groups had. Sketch's vocals are good and intense, her lyrics bite hard, and the Organ-music itself is a crystal clear thrum.

A throb of perfectly merging guitars and keyboards, which sweep the words along to the albums haunting (haunted?) conclusion.



The album ends with a sing-along anthem 'Memorize the City', followed by a few seconds of funereal church (organ!) music, slightly distorted by a synthed wind effect. It's as if some-one is recollecting better times before a final journey, and the church music, compromised by modern technology, seems to imply a successful arrival, if not necessarily a happy one.



Is Steven Smith calling from some kind of after-life? And who is Dale Henry Spooner, to whom the album is dedicated? A roadie? A Canadian rock writer who championed the band early on? Or is he indeed, the forlorn Steven Smith, whose sleepless spirit coldly touches you insidiously as you listen to the album, and obviously tormented The Organ as they recorded it.



It makes a funny kind of sense I suppose, that they should tell this story so eloquently and poetically, and then disband. Their life's work completed. Job done.



"And in the back seat of your car,

You showed me every single star,

And how the zenith and the sounds,

Changed in every single town"



The Organ moved me with this work more than I've been moved in a long time. And the tragic tale of Steven Smith, whoever he may be, couldn't have been related better; throwing up as it does, as many questions as it does answers.

I hope it's not the romanticism that certain killers can elicit in their myths that's engaged me, but the off-chance discovery of a scandalously passed over modern classic -

Because that's what this is."