Frances Gumm
Frances Gumm is doing its best to stay out of jail! In the band we have Paul D. Dickinson on guitars and vocals along with David "Stainless Steel" Theil on bass and Leo Kuelbs pounding the skins. They're good people. Sure, there are naysayers out there, but they're full of it! Trust me on that one.
Purchase Info
Scorch The Earth
"Scorch The Earth" the long awaited new CD from eccentric rock outcasts Frances Gumm is finally available to fgrocks visitors. This CD includes the underground hit "I hate Normal People," as well as many other twisted rock treats.To Order.....coming soon.
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South Minneapolis
This noise/metal/indie paranoid dysfunction is the truly the only thing that can explain this part of town. Has your car been towed to the impound lot while you are reading this? Have you been to an after party that was so out of control that you called the cops, grabbed the the bottle of Jameson Whiskey off the kitchen counter and ran back to St. Paul, stopping only to take a few slugs down by the river? A bittersweet serenade to the Rock n Roll Ghetto of Minneapolis and its wayward girls and boys. Call in the air strike.To Order.....coming soon.
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1989
Dear God, life was indeed beautiful. "The Man" couldn't touch us. We were subterranean. I almost forgot my own name, you were so fine..To Order.....coming soon.
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Victory Now
This full length sonic assault really laid out the FG battle pain. With a kamikaze certitude, sugar laced propaganda hit the streets. The last punk band in America stares into the abyss. Naked guitar aggression riding pop grooves caused degenerates everywhere to get this piece of plastic jammed into their Boom Boxes. Does the world need to be destroyed in order to save it? The answer is yes.To Order.....coming soon.
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Cindy Sherman/ No Mercy "7" EP
Cindy Sherman actually heard the song on WFMU and wrote the label in Virginia requesting the limited cherry red copy. Paul D. melted. The only lyrics: "If this is one nation, under God, a democracy, I will meet Cindy Sherman, meet her on the street. and I will go to her apartment, and I will never leave." Also contains "No Mercy," "Tsunami" and "Deuteronomy" Reviewed in NME, this is where the sickness all began. Use with extreme caution.To Order.....coming soon.
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Press
...Published DEC 13th @ the Pulse | Tom Hallet
Frances Gumm | Scorch The Earth | 2006 Independent Release
There’s probably been a kid just like the one I’m about to describe in just about every school in every modern era of American history- you know the kind. He was the first one to figure out that girls love geeks who rock ’n’ roll, slugs would buy Pepsi out of the machine just as well as quarters would and those plastic toys in cereal boxes (my favorite was the Count Chocula / Boo-Berry / Franken-Berry pencil eraser line) were worth a lot in trade during school hours.
Of course, these guys later figured out how to play musical instruments, find places to practice and party under the radar and establish what some people now laughably call a "scene." There was once, in fact, a genuine "scene" in the Twin Cities (a few at a time, sometimes), and nobody was more responsible for (and gleefully guilty of promoting) said music/art collectives than the guy I’m talking about.
As far back as the ‘80s, local rock n’ roll/punk whiz-kid Paul Dickinson (and his famed Speedboat Galleries) has been championing deserved individuals, movements and yes, even "scenes" here in the Twin Cities. You think Green Day’s "real punk?" Paul Dickinson gave a teen-aged Billy Joe Armstrong and his buddies their first live gig here in the ‘Cities at one of his Speedboat gigs. THAT’S punk, pal.
At the heart of Paul’s massive local creative empire (from on-and-offline bookstores to art shows to rock fests to poetry readings- I once personally saw him absolutely shred Jim Carroll reading-wise at a First Ave. spoken word gig- to exhaustive support for up-and-comers) is the band Frances Gumm. Like the late Judy Garland (from whose given name his outfit draws its own), the ‘Gummers have lived hard, burned brightly and inspired countless imitators.
Whether raging against injustice and political fascism (check out "I Will Not Be Destroyed," from their album My Sweet Demise), spewing forth surprisingly tender, punk-inflected ballads ("My Beautiful Friend" from the same album) or questioning the motives and tenacity of his contemporaries ("Do We Ride Tonight?" from the CD Victory Now), Dickinson has always displayed not only an amazing gift for lyrical wizardry, but absolutely leveled any and all competition musically.
Sure, you can call ‘em punk icons- but creating indie, original and refreshingly honest guitar rock is what FG does best, and their latest, Scorch The Earth, is another testament to the band’s (and its leader’s) ongoing commitment to flying the right kind of "free bird" at the right people. Kicking off with the thought-provoking, amp-frying blast of "Disaster And Enlightenment," the record immediately establishes itself as an exciting leap forward and a killer addition to the FG catalog.
"Taking Over" is a whirling, buzzing warning set to music that scruffily recalls Guided By Voices engaged in a head-spinning, heated argument with Sonic Youth, while the title track marches in still half-bombed, Dickinson snarling, "Now I’m lashing out ... I’m gonna scorch the earth!" FG stalwarts Leo Kuelbs, Jr. (drums) and bass-meister Dave Thiel are as up-front, essential, and swirled into the mix as ever- Dickinson’s no stage-hog, though he batters his axe as if every broken string will fix some fucked up part of (his/our/your) the world.
There are a few re-workings of FG faves here as well- "Stare Into The Headlights" has been floating around like an ember waiting for the right fire for a few years now, but methinks Paul’s finally got the urgent, high-end guitar blast he’d always dreamed of, pushing and pulling this one along like a meth-fueled coal-feeder on an old freight train. It also shouldn’t go without mentioning that all of these tracks benefit from keen production crafted by Paul himself with able assistance from ol’ Ben “Magic Fingers”Durrant.
The punk anthem "1989," which has seen several incarnations over the years, is infused here with even more genuine melancholy and deep-seated regret for days gone by than any that might’ve come before- but PD still stands behind his conviction that we (as the human race, a country, a city, a rock n’ roll community) had, for a brief moment, one small window to avoid the absolute diarrhea of governmental idiocy we’re now wallowing in. "Two Tickets To The Apocalypse" is a word-perfect answer to AC/DC’s "It’s A Long Way To The Top," full of hilarious name-dropping, chunky hooks and the band’s tight, frantic crunch.
"Gunner" remains one of my FG faves, and is delivered here with more rampaging, speaker-blowing ferocity than ever before- "Bah bah bang-ah, I’ll shoot myself- shoot it down!" Take it for what you will, but this is the kind of shit that inspired Dee Dee Ramone to pick the bass back up a few years before he passed; balls-to-the-wall, scene-fucking outsider rock that will scare the hell out of poseur punk critics and mystify muddle-headed fans of what today’s (choke, hack) radio calls "punk."
“We Are Both From The City" should be hitting a jukebox in your local trendy hang-out soon- if there’s anyone with decent taste and a modicum of sense still stocking them, that is- and you should put "Drunk On Wine" on a freaky holiday mix for your mom.
The crowning achievement here, though, has to be current fan fave "I Hate Normal People." I remember Paul running his bookstore in the Midway a few years back and coming in to work excited about recently cooking up this tune- and it was definitely worth the wait to hear the finished product.
Plowing out in a bloody puddle of what-the-fuck, FG pool their combined talents and put to music Paul’s (and guess what- my) personal philosophy. The cut perfectly encapsulates this outfit, what they’ve done for the local and national indie biz, and rock n’ roll in general: "It’s you normal people," Paul howls, "I hate you more than anybody else ..." Well done, boys- file under Essential Local Listening, and check it out at fgrocks.com.
There’s the rub this time out, kiddies. Check back again, same day, same page, for more, more, more. Until we meet again- make yer own damn news.
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