RIFLE SPORT

Image courtesy TCpunk.com

Rifle Sport White Made in France Ruthless Records (1987) Let's play Punk Jeopardy! Answer: This is what happens if you cross mid 80's "no rules" Husker Du/ 'Mats/Soul Asylum Minneapolis with bottom heavy Naked Raygun / Effigies / Big Black-style mid-80's Chicago rock. Question: What is Rifle Sport's White Made in France? Alternative answer: It's as if Mission of Burma never heard of Iggy (tip to Byron Coley). Sporting (finally) a stable line-up and working with Iain Burgess, this is among their best recorded output. Known for excellent live shows and one of the most competent rhythm section (Flour and Todd Trainer) of the '80s, Rifle Sport is the band that never really broke up - they just stopped playing one day.

And unlike Burma, there's apparently little hope of them getting back together. Guitarist Gerard Boissey who posts as Zom-Zom at TC Punk says that their singer J. Christopher has no interest in getting back together. That hasn't stopped him from forming his own band (and website wherein he reminisces about his professional wrestling mom and dad). Todd Trainer plays with Albini's band Shellac and his own project,Brick Layer Cake, while Flour plays bass for Cake and has released some of his own records as Flour on Touch and Go.

"Certain Situations" and "Bloodline" best showcase their song-writing (and Boissey's awesome guitar sound) and their thumping tight drums and bass undertow, respectively. Don't try understanding the lyrics -- as someone wrote elsewhere, they might as well be singing in Japanese. About the only song I understand (and I'm admittedly bad in understanding lyrics) is "Liquid" which appears to be about some guy at a redneck bar turning down a barfly slut in favor of drinking and shooting pool with the guys... so I suspect allot of the songs like "Experience the Pain" and "King of Trash" are along the same lines of the Pigfuck (Chuck Eddy's phrase) style in vogue at the time (see Killdozer, et. al.). Still, they don't seem to be doctrinaire pigfuckers as there are just as many songs that go the other way ("Blackbird", "Ocean Wind") just as they aren't doctrinaire hardcore babies. Iain "Bulldozer/All Rise" Burgess produces and adds his dynamic sound.

Check out Gerard's small Rifle Sport page (featuring the picture from the back of White) and a bonus MP3 from 1990. Here's an interview with Gerard from 2002.

This is a lovely snow white vinyl pressing but characterized by some clicks on some tracks and one track that has a skip. I've heard that usually colored vinyl isn't the best vinyl for recordings but it sure looks cool.

Certain Situations
Bloodline