The Gunshy victorious with There's No Love In This War
By Jen Kessler, Entertainment Staff Writer
October 30, 2007 | 4 p.m.
The Gunshy, an indie band started by Pennsylvania native Matt Arbogast, has broken out the big guns and dropped an unassailable work of storytelling genius on the unsuspecting American public with its latest album, There’s No Love In This War.
Matt Arbogast has been actualizing beauty for some time now under the name The Gunshy, currently on Latest Flame Records. Snaking back and forth through the country on constant tours while also making records and friends, The Gunshy continues to dole out profound lyrics over enticing lo-fi music. Often armed with an instrumental entourage (Andrew Bryant, Kara Eubanks, Jeff Grabowski, Ben Grigg, Dan Hanke, Andrew Lanthrum, Adam Penly, Hawley Shoffner and Corey Wills play on There’s No Love In This War), Arbogast is constantly creating and performing music that simmers with quiet aptitude.
With the latest album, he has maneuvered his talents into the realm of storytelling. There’s No Love In This War, The Gunshy’s fourth album, is a compelling interpretation by Arbogast of the 17 letters that his grandfather, Paul Arbogast, penned to a girl named Julia during WWII. Paul survived the war and returned home in 1945, proceeding to marry Julia and start a family with her, but shrapnel that remained lodged in his chest from wounds received at Anzio in 1944 led to his early death at 39.
Although Matt Arbogast never knew his grandfather, he transforms into a brilliant oracle for his grandfather’s deeply human story, singing of a young soldier’s desperate fears, desolate loneliness, unnerving confusion and passionate love and longing for his girl.
“[The album] wasn’t made to sell records,” Arbogast tells American Public Media’s Dick Gordon during Gordon’s talk show. “I wanted to take this on and try to write these songs so that I could try to understand who this man was and try to become closer to him and try to see this whole rounded person as clearly as I could based on these seventeen writings of his I was given. When it’s all said and done when I make this record if I can go back and listen to it and say ‘Okay, I think maybe I did this incredibly important person to me some kind of justice in what I’ve done’.”
Justice, it seems, has indeed been done. Arbogast’s ardent desire to encapsulate this window of his grandfather’s life is evident in the emotion that he pours into his work. His voice, a tender, Tom Waits-esque grumble, cigarette scorched and drenched in cheap whiskey, is positively arresting. He rolls and rambles in a gruff, heartfelt fashion over melodic instrumentals that are consistently beautiful yet fairly unobtrusive so as not to overshadow the brilliant lyrics, the poignant story that is the bursting heart of the album.
The dynamic lyrics behind There’s No Love In This War truly catapult the album from good to extraordinary. From darkly haunting lyrics such as, “The mess sergeant found Eddie with a bullet in his mouth / said, 'I thought we’d have seen more of these by now' / Camp, it has been quiet, though the whispers in our head say / 'Get used to it, soon your closest company, it will be death'," to lyrics that glimmer with strains of happiness such as, "Pick out a pretty dress / pick out a suit for me / for if it’d be my way as soon as the US grass is underneath my feet / I’ll put your hand in mine / take you to your parent’s church / say, 'I do, I do, I do, I do' until my throat is sore,” the emotive quality of the words that Arbogast sings are breathtaking.
Although they are based on letters written over 60 years ago, the sentiments expressed remain incredibly affecting. Arbogast has taken a series of letters and used them to transform a life passed into a flesh-and-blood man, into a moving story that will take shelter in the hearts of listeners everywhere.
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Click here to listen to There’s No Love In This War, now streaming on The Gunshy’s Web site.
Check out The Gunshy's MySpace for more information.