Gun Club

Tribal, psychobilly blues is the best way to describe 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 were vaguely aligned with similarly roots-inspired groups like X and The Blasters, but later picked up and relocated to the Lower Eastside, resting more comfortably around the New York downtown set and Pierce's mentors, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein.