Know a comedy group called "Heavy Guns"?

July 9, 2009 1:26 AM

Do you know anything about a (somewhat) Firesign Theatre-style comedy group called (possibly) Heavy Guns, who made a recording called (possibly) The Dope on Dope and Dope Dupes?

Something like ten to fifteen years ago, I found a box of audio cassettes. Among them, unlabeled, was a fascinating spoken-word satire (I assume) of anti-drug enforcement and propaganda, with a bit of organized religion thrown in, and probably a lot of other things I'm just too young to recognize. I lost the tape a few years after I found it, so this is all to the best of my recollection. Unfortunately, any amount of this might be stuff I'm misremembering that's actually from something else entirely.

It was presented primarily as a series of faux-informative radio spots on the dangers of recreational drugs. I remember three direct anti-drug ads from the government (always, even in conversation, referred to as "Your Government"), which presented transparently faulty reasoning. In order (as I recall), you shouldn't do drugs because: 1) we told you not to, 2) it's an intense, amazing, life-changing experience, and life is Serious Business, and 3) overzealous drug law enforcement destroys families. The radio station also sends a reporter to find out what he can about drug user culture.

Two governmental organizations are presented: The Bureau of Investigational Investigations ("where they have a dossier on everybody"), and the Department of Psychadelic Euphoria (who conducts official research on the effects of mind-altering drugs — apparently by taking them and seeing what happens).

There's a religion called Xtianism (pronounced "ecks tea anism", really I've no way to know how they would have spelled it). It's referred to frequently, implied to be culturally ubiquitous, and I don't recall anything else about it.

There's also a radio show about a private investigator (or something) who gets sent to investigate drug users. He's firmly established as a fictional character, but nonetheless winds up gatecrashing the same party as the reporter mentioned above, and the two of them interview each other. Their attempts to fit in to the crowd, according to their own expectations, serves only to reinforce the other's misconceptions.

I also vaguely remember a horrifying abortion scene.

The rest of the audio cassettes were just popular music of the 60s and early 70s, so no strong hints there. I haven't managed to find out anything about the group or this recording online. If Google knows about them, I'm using it wrong.

What I'd like to know: Who were these guys? Was this a commercial release, an underground samizdat kind of deal, or did I somehow manage to find and lose the only copy of this thing? Was it even a finished product? Did they make anything else?

(Also: yeah, it's about drugs and religion, and involves some blatant value judgments. Please avoid the obvious derails...)

posted by Kalthare to media & arts (2 comments total)

I used to have a copy of this on vinyl. Google "Hevy Gunz" and you'll find it.
posted by omnidrew at 7:30 AM on July 9

Egad, thank you. I tried several spellings, but not that one.
posted by Kalthare at 2:04 PM on July 9