The Gun Club’s Miami Gets Its Due

The best rock ‘n’ roll album ever made, The Gun Club’s second album Miami, is finally being properly re-released in expanded form on Dec. 4 via Blixa Sounds. The remastered 1982 album, produced by Chris Stein of Blondie (a favorite band of the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce), will be augmented with a second vinyl LP of demo versions of every song. The CD edition takes things further, adding those plus six previously unreleased demos of songs that would eventually show up on the band’s third album, The Las Vegas Story.

The Gun Club’s visceral mix of punk and raw blues is perfectly captured and stretched on Miami with a typically in-flux lineup – at that point consisting of Pierce, drummer Terry Graham (who provides liner notes for the reissue), guitarist Ward Dotson and bassist Rob Ritter (who left after recording the basic tracks, hence the cover photo of the band as a trio). Guest musicians include Stein (bongos!), Debbie Harry (backing vocals), Mark Tomeo (of the band Rubber Rodeo, on steel guitar) and fiddle player Walter Steding. It’s the best rock ‘n’ roll album ever made. Not even Fire of Love beats it. You need it. I has spoken.