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Tribal psychobilly blues is the best way to describe the Gun Club's energetic death rock, but the band's career seemed doomed from the get-go due to leader Jeffrey Lee Pierce's reputation as an unreliable wildman, and well-publicized bouts of drunkenness dogged him throughout his career. Formed in Los Angeles in the early '80s, the band was vaguely aligned with similarly roots-inspired groups like X and the Blasters, but later picked up and relocated to the Lower East Side, resting more comfortably around the New York downtown set and Pierce's mentors, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. Their 1981 debut, Fire of Love, was a punk-blues hybrid -- intense energy fueled Pierce's exorcism-in-progress delivery and the band's (Ward Dotson, guitar; Rob Ritter, bass; and Terry Graham, drums) frenetic style. Released in 1982, Miami had the band allied with Blondie's Stein at the boards. Pierce had once been the president of Blondie's U.S. fan club, which sparked the liaison. The 1985 EP Death Party i...