Kielbasage posted another great mix a couple of days ago, one which contained a song by the mysterious Campfire Killers, a band I first
blogged about in 2007 and then
again in 2008, but Kielbasage's post made me revisit their selftitled demo from 2001 and slap my ass and call me Judy if it still isn't as kickass as I remembered it.
Information on Campfire Killers is scarce, and apart from a dead and abandoned
Angelfire website there's not much to go on.
I first heard about them in 2001, in issue #43 of Close-Up Magazine, where said demo was awarded a rating of 10 out of 10. The issue included a compilation CD of a sample tracks from a bunch of new albums reviewed in the issue, such as Dropkick Murphys, Sick Of It All, Immolation, Dying Fetus etc. Right at the end was a bonus track:
Evil Amigo by Campfire Killers.
I was sold on it immediately - the raging country punk with banjos and sampled horses was irresistable - and I wrote the band a letter with some cash enclosed and ask for a copy of the demo. Yes, children, once upon a time you had a write letters with stamps and lick envelopes with glue and put in a mailbox. The glue didn't even get you high or nothing.
A week or so later a burnt CDR arrived in the mail which, unlike the review in Close-Up told me, consisted of a whopping six tracks as opposed to only four. Very nice indeed. Although the review mentions a song called
Hang 'Em High, which was nowhere to be found on my copy. Very shitty indeed. Especially since the review pointed out that this particular song was quite the corker.
Here's that review by the way:
It's in Swedish, so good luck reading that shit. From the review we learn that the band was formed in Gothenburg in 1999 by members of punk bands such as Atomvinter and Raw Mania, that the initial idea was to play psychobilly but that their love for country music soon took over, that guitarist Mattias Jacobsson was a huge fan of Kinky Friedman and Bloodshot Records, and they were going to participate on a Johnny Cash tribute album. With their version of
Don't Take Your Guns To Town, I imagine.
What ever happened to that tribute album I have no idea. Don't know what happened to Campfire Killers either. At some point they released a split single with Speed Devils which included two tracks from this demo. No sign of them after that as far as I know.
The "news" section of that Angelfire website tells us look out for a compilation called
Hour of the Gun on One Million Dollar Records. I found
this compilation, but Campfire Killers aren't on it. Were they meant to be on it but were taken off of it for some reason? Your guess is as good as mine. The website also gives us an email address to the band, but I tried it and the account has been discontinued.
If you have any info, do share it with the rest of the class. And if you have an mp3 of
Hang 'Em High you better send it my way or I'll cut you. Seriously.
I'm a nasty little hombre
I'll shoot you in the back
I was born in the name of blood
Born with a soul so black
I'm an evil amigo and fear is my name
Death is my company and killing is my game
Fuck yeah.
(zip) Campfire Killers - Demo (16 mb)
1. High plains drifter
2. Tribute to a bad man
3. Only hell has country songs
4. Don't take your guns to town (Johnny Cash cover)
5. Can't keep an evil man down
6. Evil amigo
