Biography
The Gories signaled the start of Detroit's renewed rock era in the closing years of the 1980s, launching a gritty, enduring wave of raw local sounds that persists into the present. Three lifelong Detroit residents—Mick Collins, Peg O'Neill, and Dan Kroha—assembled the group in 1986 despite having no prior instrumental experience; they borrowed the name from a fictional outfit featured in the late-'50s and early-'60s Gidget films. With only two guitars and drums and no bass player, the trio forged a visceral, garage-punk style steeped in the influence of Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, and John Lee Hooker while also nodding to earlier Detroit ensembles the Keggs and Nick & the Jaguars.
Their first recordings appeared in 1987 as two cuts on the Wanghead anthology It Came from the Garage II, a collection that also introduced Nine Pound Hammer, the band that later became Nashville Pussy. Wanghead proprietor Len Punch captured and issued the debut album Houserockin' two years afterward, with lore holding that those initial sessions took place inside a corrugated-metal shed. Alex Chilton of Big Star produced the follow-up, I Know You Fine, But How You Doin', issued on the French imprint New Rose. During the same span the band issued assorted 7-inch singles, among them a version of Spinal Tap's "Give Me Some Money" for the Sub Pop Singles Club. Crypt Records delivered the third and, for a long while, final studio album, Outta Here, in 1992.
An especially fractious European tour preceded the group's abrupt dissolution. Mick Collins subsequently appeared with Blacktop, King Sound Quartet, the Screws, and the Dirtbombs while also contributing to Andre Williams' Silky and The Black Godfather as well as Speedball Baby's Uptight. Dan Kroha joined Rocket 455, the gender-bending bassless trio the Demolition Doll Rods, and Danny and the Darleens, alongside solo work and numerous guest spots. Peg O'Neill cut a handful of tracks with '68 Comeback and spent time in the New Orleans outfit the Darkest Hours.
The Gories reconvened in 2009 for several performances alongside their onetime sister band the Oblivians, itself regrouping after a long absence; dates in Detroit, Memphis, and across Europe soon gave way to occasional further appearances that shifted the trio from complete inactivity into intermittent operation. Late 2013 brought the live set The Shaw Tapes on Third Man Records, Jack White's label; the White Stripes frontman, a vocal admirer whose own music drew heavily from the Gories, released the raw document of a sparsely attended 1988 show staged in a rented storefront just outside Detroit.
Their first recordings appeared in 1987 as two cuts on the Wanghead anthology It Came from the Garage II, a collection that also introduced Nine Pound Hammer, the band that later became Nashville Pussy. Wanghead proprietor Len Punch captured and issued the debut album Houserockin' two years afterward, with lore holding that those initial sessions took place inside a corrugated-metal shed. Alex Chilton of Big Star produced the follow-up, I Know You Fine, But How You Doin', issued on the French imprint New Rose. During the same span the band issued assorted 7-inch singles, among them a version of Spinal Tap's "Give Me Some Money" for the Sub Pop Singles Club. Crypt Records delivered the third and, for a long while, final studio album, Outta Here, in 1992.
An especially fractious European tour preceded the group's abrupt dissolution. Mick Collins subsequently appeared with Blacktop, King Sound Quartet, the Screws, and the Dirtbombs while also contributing to Andre Williams' Silky and The Black Godfather as well as Speedball Baby's Uptight. Dan Kroha joined Rocket 455, the gender-bending bassless trio the Demolition Doll Rods, and Danny and the Darleens, alongside solo work and numerous guest spots. Peg O'Neill cut a handful of tracks with '68 Comeback and spent time in the New Orleans outfit the Darkest Hours.
The Gories reconvened in 2009 for several performances alongside their onetime sister band the Oblivians, itself regrouping after a long absence; dates in Detroit, Memphis, and across Europe soon gave way to occasional further appearances that shifted the trio from complete inactivity into intermittent operation. Late 2013 brought the live set The Shaw Tapes on Third Man Records, Jack White's label; the White Stripes frontman, a vocal admirer whose own music drew heavily from the Gories, released the raw document of a sparsely attended 1988 show staged in a rented storefront just outside Detroit.
Albums
