Gone drummer gone

Female-fronted garage-rockers Gone Baby Gone are once again minus a drummer. “Truth be told, our drummers seem to have commitment, health, or mental issues that keep them from playing shows, rehearsing, or touring,” says singer Veronica Collins, aka Dizzy. “So we’re currently in the process of finding a new permanent member.”

The North Park group just dropped a self-titled CD. “The album is DIY, baby,” says Dizzy. “Self-released...we don’t have label support yet. It’s a formal 2013 release of our first full-length CD, with artwork, track listing, pics, and thank yous. Some would say it’s a re-release, because most of the songs are basically the same garage recordings we recorded as a band, but they’ve been professionally mastered and mixed down. I guess you can say they’re more radio-friendly versions of our current songs than you can hear when you come to see us live...a complete ten-song album with newly added number ten, a new song titled ‘Stuff (Forget Him).’”

Available as an online download and on disc, the CD version also comes with a “secret” bonus. “There’s a hidden live track of an Eric Burdon and the Animals cover, ‘House of the Rising Sun,’” says Dizzy. “It was literally our first time performing it, recording it at a band rehearsal in a garage. It’s somewhat gritty, and you can feel the emotion and inflections throughout the song. Later, we actually recorded a pro-mastered and -mixed version of it, but decided against releasing it.” The “pro” version of “Rising Sun” has been broadcast on Tim Pyles’s local-music radio show on FM94/9.

The album, like their name, pays homage to the band’s favorite movie and “guiding inspiration,” the 2007 thriller Gone Baby Gone, with cover art depicting the players as Archies-like cartoon characters, kicking up their mod heels on a concert stage. “Basically, it’s all about my long-unrequited crush on the Affleck Brothers — mainly Casey — and our love of chocolate peppermint with the colors black, red, and white. The cartoons are just cooler versions of us....

“I always wanted to be a cartoon. And a Barbie. Dreams do come true.”