Live by Drunks With Guns

Drunks With Guns began in 1984 in St. Louis, Missouri—a Midwestern city at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The band coalesced around three Crestwood derelicts and one North County ne’er-do-well, first meeting over cold beer and broken gear in a filthy Maplewood basement. Western civilization had reached the area in 1764 with French fur traders. European immigrants soon found the random network of limestone caves beneath the riverfront perfect for lagering beer. Aided by ice harvested from the Mississippi River, those caves helped make St. Louis beer famous—just in time for a bloody civil war centered solely around slavery, segregation, and a bloody & murderous version of “religion” that later fed the city’s reputation for danger. The “murder capital” label still lingers—largely a myth fueled by city-limit stats that ignore the suburbs—but the tension under the surface is real. It birthed Drunks With Guns.

Devoid of both the will and ability to play in the faster hardcore tempos so popular with their peers, the band carved its own lane: slower, plodding, angry dance tunes—dripping in dystopia, drowned in distortion. In the process, they became early progenitors of sludge punk, years before bands like the Melvins, Killdozer, and the Jesus Lizard would codify the sound. In their first three years, they self-financed three long-out-of-print 7-inch EPs—a self-titled debut, Thirst for Knowledge, and Alter Human Industrial Fetishisms—and played four live shows between releases: a basement-party debut, then opening for 45 Grave, Samhain, and Battalion of Saints.

In 1986, a now-infamous ‘black album’ appeared in local record stores without warning. Consisting of their first two EPs whilst shamelessly swiping Spinal Tap’s ‘none more black’ album cover joke, the band members were not consulted—nor compensated—for this shitty bootleg. When it was discovered that a soon-to-be ex-band member was behind the subterfuge & betrayal, the band disintegrated—leaving Michael Doskocil as the last Drunk standing and the sole proprietor of his songs and trademarked band name.

Upon putting the band back together, and with collectors now paying ridiculous prices online, Job One just HAD to be the remastering & re-release of the long out-of-print early recordings (including the unreleased tracks), making them available for the first time in one place: 2023’s self-financed Fucked Up on Beer & Drugs LP/CD. In true Drunks form, Job Two unfolded as an unplanned accident and was released on Halloween of 2025 as a new CD of a previously unknown killer recording of a shit-hot Austin 2024 show. All involved feel this release perfectly contrasts the ‘what was’ with the ‘what is’—and it just begged to be called Drunks with Guns Live. Self-financed again but released in collaboration with St. Louis-based Trouble in River City (TIRC) Records, the final track says it best at show’s end: “This IS the band (Michael Doskocil, Rick Eye, Weasel Walter, and John Zeps), these ARE the songs! We also have shirts, records, and stickers to sell; we’re the Drunks With Guns. Let’s settle up, and you can buy us a drink.”

Credits

released November 13, 2025