Album: Miami [Remaster]

Song Title

Time

Carry Home

Like Calling Up Thunder

Brother and Sister

Run Through the Jungle

Devil in the Woods, A

Texas Serenade

Watermelon Man

Bad Indian

John Hardy

10)

Fire of Love, The

11)

Sleeping in Blood City

12)

Mother of Earth

Album: Miami [Remaster]

Song Title

Time

Carry Home

Like Calling Up Thunder

Brother and Sister

Run Through the Jungle

Devil in the Woods, A

Texas Serenade

Watermelon Man

Bad Indian

John Hardy

10)

Fire of Love, The

11)

Sleeping in Blood City

12)

Mother of Earth

Performer Notes

The Gun Club: Ward Dotson (vocals, slide guitar); Rob Ritter (bass guitar); Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Terry Graham.
Personnel: Jeffrey Lee Pierce (vocals, guitar, piano, background vocals); Ward Dotson (guitar, background vocals); Easy Mark Tomeo (steel guitar); Walter Steding (fiddle); Terry Graham (drums); Chris Stein (bongos); D.H. Laurence, Jr. (background vocals).
Additional personnel: Debbie Harry (background vocals).
Audio Mixer: Butch Jones.
Audio Remasterer: John Vestman.
Recording information: Blank Tape Studios (1981).
Arranger: Jeffrey Lee Pierce.
While the Gun Club's debut, FIRE OF LOVE, was a masterpiece of untamed punk blues, follow-up album MIAMI, produced by Blondie's Chris Stein, achieves a fuller sound and a more varied stylistic palette without sacrificing any of its predecessor's intensity. The revved-up blues of yore are still here ("Devil in the Woods," "Fire of Love"), but wild-child singer Jeffrey Lee Pierce and company also tackle everything from Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Run Through the Jungle" (in a surprisingly faithful version) to the atmospheric, somewhat Doors-y "Watermelon Man" (not the Herbie Hancock tune), mixing rock, blues, country, and folk with post-punk energy and Pierce's trademark sense of near-manic urgency. MIAMI doesn't top FIRE OF LOVE, but it runs a close second.

Professional Reviews

Uncut (p.149) - 4 stars out of 5 - "Jeffrey Lee Pierce never sounded more possessed..."

Q (Magazine) (p.131) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[The album] was perhaps their most coherent, 'Bad Indian' and 'Like Calling Up Thunder' coming on like a prototypical White Stripes."

Mojo (Publisher) (p.114) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[P]arts of MIAMI are ferocious."

Record Collector (magazine) (p.83) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Produced by Blondie's Chris Stein, it streamlined the sound of Gun Club's debut FIRE OF LOVE..."