Today we bring you the fourth and final chapter of my Bakersfield series. Part 1 was a 2025 Scene Report, which featured the up and comers of the scene. Part 2 highlighted one of those up and comers, GOLD. Part 3 called attention to Going Underground Records, as staple in the town providing a cultural hub in two parts–their retail locations and their record label.
While not a Bakersfield band, the ever elusive Orange County band G*U*N*N are releasing their debut LP, on the aforementioned Going Underground Records. No Echo is proud to bring you an exclusive first listen of the album’s lead single, "No Hope," along with some words from the band.
G*U*N*N hasn’t been featured on No Echo Before and y’all have been kicking it since 2019. It seems like being mysterious is part of your vibe. How was that determined?
James (bass): It’s definitely not intentional at all, but at a time when so many bands, even in the DIY scene, are falling over themselves to sell-out and overexpose themselves I guess us being more low-key comes off that way.
This is G*U*N*N's first LP. What made you feel like it was time to put one out after a series of short releases?
James: feels like the logical next step after one 7” and four tapes. We wanna do an official re release of all the older stuff soon
This will be your second release with Going Underground, following 2020’s Peace, Love, and Heavy Weaponry. How did you get in touch with Ron from the label/store?
James: A bunch of our friends who are a bit older have a long history of going up to Bakersfield to play and see awesome shows at Munoz, like the first fury show which is pretty legendary and sorta marked the start of a new era.
Ron must have heard our first tape through that group of people and then decided to reach out abt a record. I remember seeing awesome vids of different bands online playing in a boxing ring in Bakersfield and thinking that was cool so it’s awesome to be tapped into all that now.
We're premiering "No Hope" here today, but what else can we look forward to hearing on this record?
Tony (guitar): This record is made with the traditional G*U*N*N formula but turned up to 11. It’s FU’s meets Sublime. The samples, skits, and wildstyle essence of Robbin’ the Hood with the straight-forward, war hungry, meat-and-potatoes hardcore sound of My America and Do We Really Want To Hurt You?
There’s some callbacks to the old tapes we’ve made and there may or may not be an impromptu dub instrumental hidden somewhere in the tracklisting. (We won’t say where though…).
What can we expect from the band as far as support shows go for the record?
Tony: We’re currently setting up some record release shows. If you really are dying to see us, you’re more than likely going to have to come to SoCal for the time being. Orange County, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Oxnard, San Diego… We hope to play those places soon, so stay posted.
Other than that, we plan on making our first international appearance in Japan this December with our Going Underground labelmates, Seudo Youth. More information on that soon.
Since we can’t follow you on social media (which is rad) and your web presence is very minimal, what’s the best way to keep up with the band’s happenings?
Shane (vocals): We do have an instagram now: @Gunn.714. We didn’t have one for the longest time because none of us really wanted to deal with it. In the past we just promoted our shows and music through our own personal accounts. A lot of our homies and a handful of sick YouTube pages did a good job at getting the word out for us those days.
Tony: Real old skool punkers know how to keep up with us.
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The G*U*N*N LP pre-order kicks off on 4/20 at Going Underground Records.
Tagged: g*u*n*n
