Miami (The Gun Club album)
Miami is the second studio album by punk blues group The Gun Club, released in 1982.[10] It was released on Blondie guitarist Chris Stein's label, Animal Records.[11] Stein also produced the album.
Miami | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 20, 1982 | |||
Recorded | June 1982 | |||
Studio | Blank Tape Studios, New York | |||
Genre | Punk blues, Cowpunk, post-punk, Alternative Rock | |||
Length | 39:33 | |||
Label | Animal Records | |||
Producer | Chris Stein | |||
The Gun Club chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
American Songwriter | [2] |
Classic Rock | 7/10[3] |
Mojo | [4] |
Q | [5] |
Record Collector | [6] |
Sounds | [7] |
Spin Alternative Record Guide | 7/10[8] |
Uncut | [9] |
Debbie Harry appears as a backing singer on various tracks on the album under the pseudonym "D.H. Laurence Jr." The album front cover photograph doesn't include Rob Ritter who had already left the band. Before leaving, Ritter first taught all the bass-lines to his ex-Bags bandmate Patricia Morrison.[12]
Billy Idol had met up with Pierce in an L.A. bar around the time of Miami and later revealed his commercial hit "White Wedding" had been an attempt to emulate the Gun Club's "Mother of Earth" from the Miami album. The song was covered by alt-country band The Sadies on their 2001 album Tremendous Efforts and also by Swedish band bob hund, but with lyrics in Swedish, as “Mamma din jord” on their 2019 album 0-100.
Track listing
All songs written by Jeffrey Lee Pierce; except as indicated.
- Side one
- "Carry Home" - 3:14
- "Like Calling Up Thunder" - 2:29
- "Brother and Sister" - 2:57
- "Run Through the Jungle" (John Fogerty) - 4:07
- "A Devil in the Woods" - 3:05
- "Texas Serenade" - 4:40
- Side two
- "Watermelon Man" (Ward Dotson, Jeffrey Lee Pierce) - 4:11
- "Bad Indian" - 2:37
- "John Hardy" (Traditional; arranged by Jeffrey Lee Pierce) - 3:21
- "Fire of Love" (Jody Reynolds, Stordivant Sonya) - 2:14
- "Sleeping in Blood City" - 3:29
- "Mother of Earth" - 3:21
Personnel
The Gun Club
- Jeffrey Lee Pierce - vocals, guitar, piano, background vocals on "Watermelon Man", lead guitar on "Run Through the Jungle", "John Hardy" and "Mother of Earth"
- Ward Dotson - lead guitar, background vocals on "Watermelon Man"
- Rob Ritter - bass
- Terry Graham - drums
Additional musicians
- D.H. Laurence, Jr. - backing vocals
- Walter Steding - fiddle on "Watermelon Man"
- Chris Stein - producer, bongos on "Watermelon Man"
- Mark Tomeo - steel guitar on "Texas Serenade" and "Mother of Earth"
Production
- Joe Arlotta - session engineer
- Butch Jones - mixing engineer
- Chris D. - cover photographs, original design
"Special thanks to: Bob Singerman, Linda Cuckovich, Chris D., Robyn Weiss, Lois Graham, Lux Interior, Ivy Rorschach, Kid Congo, Linda Jones, Chris Stein and D.H. Laurence, Jr."
References
- Jurek, Thom. "Miami – The Gun Club". AllMusic. Retrieved May 4, 2013.
- Horowitz, Hal (December 2, 2020). "Warm Up With An Expanded Reissue Of The Gun Club's Scorching Idiosyncratic Punk-Blues Classic 'Miami'". American Songwriter. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
- Martin, Gavin (February 2010). "The Gun Club: Miami / The Las Vegas Story". Classic Rock. No. 141. p. 89.
- "The Gun Club: Miami". Mojo. p. 114.
[P]arts of Miami are ferocious.
- "The Gun Club: Miami". Q. p. 131.
[The album] was perhaps their most coherent, 'Bad Indian' and 'Like Calling Up Thunder' coming on like a prototypical White Stripes.
- "The Gun Club: Miami". Record Collector. p. 83.
Produced by Blondie's Chris Stein, it streamlined the sound of Gun Club's debut Fire of Love...
- Pouncey, Edwin (September 18, 1982). "Gun Club: Miami (Animal)". Sounds. Retrieved December 8, 2020 – via Rock's Backpages.
- Anderson, Steve (1995). "Gun Club". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. pp. 172–73. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
- "The Gun Club: Miami". Uncut. p. 149.
Jeffrey Lee Pierce never sounded more possessed...
- Green, Jim; Sprague, David (2007). "Gun Club". Trouser Press. Retrieved May 4, 2013.
- "Animal Records". Discogs.
- "The Gun Club story in detail". www.furious.com.
- "Albums and Tracks of the Year". NME. 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2016.