The Clash - Friday Night/Saturday Morning

This is a live recording from the Clash's "Busking" tour. Basically, after Mick and Topper had been dumped, Joe said he wanted to get back in touch with his rock and roll roots. So the Clash mark II went on a tour across the UK with acoustic guitars and played in parks.
I found this bootleg CD in a record store in New York a while back. It includes two of these busking performances with a nice mix of Clash songs. The sound quality varies from song to song because it was clearly recorded by an audience member with a tape recorder.
As always, for more info on this stuff consult the Black Market Clash website.

The Clash - Friday Night/Saturday Morning

More Slackjaw

Here's some more Slackjaw. This post includes the three songs they did on a six-way split CD put out by Asbestos. Two of these songs are my favorite Slackjaw songs ever (I'll let you guess which ones). If I remember correctly, this split was supposed to happen years before it actually did, but things got held up and it ended up coming out as a double CD. The first disc was a compilation called "Better Late Than Never" and the second was this split. The other bands were Saveface, Endless Mike, Sometimes She Burns, Tastes Like Burning and Morgan Storm. Slackjaw are the real highlight for me.
The last track I threw on is from what I think was their first release--a live CD-R called "Live on Three Legs." This song was also featured on one of the first Asbestos comps. It's a great version with some funny banter and a few lyrics altered from the CD version.
Also, I happened to stumble on a myspace made by the band after their demise which is right here. It has an official band bio. And the band they formed after breaking up (Kennesaw) are right here.

Slackjaw - More Stuff

Dillinger - Cokane in My Brain

I've been grooving on this for the past few days. Classic Jamaican toaster deejay reggae. This is the 7" single with two songs on the b-side.
Like a lot of people, I first heard of this guy when the Clash name dropped him in "(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais." So that's one point in his favor already. Also, I guess this song is in one of the Grand Theft Auto games?
Be warned: You will be hooked on the first listen.

"A knife, a fork, a bottle and a cork -- That's the way we spell New York."

Dillinger - Cokane in My Brain
Dillinger Wikipedia Page

Chumbawamba - First 2

Here is the CD collection of Chumbawamba's first 2 LPs.

Tracks 1-10 are from their first LP, "Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records." Here's what the band says about the record on their website:
"Despite having a big backlog of songs ready to record for this first album, all the lyrics were quickly re-written and re-worked in the light of the "Live Aid" spectacle which took place a few weeks before recording began. A concept album!"

The last 8 tracks are from the second LP, "Never Mind the Ballots." Again, from the Chumba website:
"Released against a background of the British General Elections; stretching the "concept" theme by making one song last an entire side. Not quite side 2 of Abbey Rd."

This CD was put out by Agit-Prop in 1992. It's been out of print for a while now, but I found a copy at a thrift store a couple years back where I bought it for a dollar. You can imagine how excited I was. These records are timeless and "Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records" is (rightly) considered a classic by most Chumba fans.

Chumbawamba - First 2

Chumbawamba - Revolution EP

Okay, it's about time I upped some Chumbawamba (after all, I lifted the name of this blog from one of their songs). This is their first official release which came out on the band's self-run Agit-Prop Records in 1985. I didn't rip this myself and I can't remember where I first acquired the mp3s to give proper credit, but it's been on my hard drive forever and it fucking slays. Chumbawamba came out of the anarcho-punk/Crass scene in England (they actually appeared on Crass Records' classic Bullshit Detector comps) and went on to experiment with dance and folk music while still retaining their anarchist spirit in the songs. This EP is about the most straight-forward "punk rock" they've ever sounded. I highly recommend this band's entire catalogue (especially the first 2 LPs).
Chumbawamba - Revolution EP
Official Website