The Clash: Black Market Clash EP (Epic/1980)

The Clash have been dubbed "The Only Band That Matters". Coming from the original UK punk scene, The Clash were an important band, both genuinely and superficially. I often wonder what a modern audience would make of the Clash now. They were as impassioned as they were insufferable and they cared as much about "the message" as they did their well-groomed image. They have always been one of my favorite bands, but I've always been able see both sides of them. Their documentary Westway To The World was as riveting as it was revisionist (the band curiously failed to even mention the last three years of its' history). The band released twenty singles and six albums in only eight years time.

Black Market Clash was a 10" EP released as part of Epic's Nu Disk series. Nu Disk was a brief series of 10" EP's released in 1980 (other notable acts to be part of the series are Cheap Trick and Gary Glitter). It's a collections of singles, B-sides, dubs and outtakes. "Capital Radio" and "Bankrobber" were both single A-Sides (the latter in an extended dub-form), "Cheat" is from the UK version of their self-titled debut album, "Time is Tight" is a cover of a Booker T & The MGs song and the remaining tracks were UK-only B-Sides.

 Black Market Clash was released right before the triple-album Sandinista!. All of these tracks were assembled on CD as Super Black Market Clash in the mid 90's.I personally like 10" vinyl records so I'll go out on a limb and say, sure, why not, buy it. It's a nice little fill-the-gaps release.

Here's The Video Review:

Adam And The Ants: Dirk Wears White Sox (Do It Records/1979) (Epic Records/1983)

New Wave icon Adam Ant had numerous UK hit singles in the early 1980's with his band the Ants. Among them “Ant Music”, “Stand & Deliver” and “Prince Charming”. However the band initially had a significantly different sound. Based in all things S&M, the original punk/post-punk Ants were somewhat less colorful-sounding than the hit-laden Ants were.

The lone album this era of Adam And The Ants was Dirk Wears White Sox. Released in October of 1979 the album contained plenty of early Ant favorites such as “Car Trouble” (which would later be re-recorded and released as a single peaking at #33), “Cleopatra” and “Never Trust A Man (With Egg On His Face)”. The music is a fairly unique blend of post-punk. The album is comparable to XTC's Go 2, Gang Of Four's Entertainment, Magazine's Real Life and Siouxie & The Banshees' The Scream. Plenty of angular, atonal guitars and interesting rhythms ornamented with stark lyrical themes.

The album was finally issued in the US in 1983, after the success of “Goody Two Shoes”. The album contained different cover art (a still taken from the “Zerox” music video, a still was also used for the single-sleeve of “Cartrouble”). “Day I Met God” & Catholic Day” were dropped in favor of the singles of “Zerox” and Car Trouble” (and their B-Sides “Whip In My Valise” & “Kick”, respectively) .

It is this line-up of Adam Ant on vocals, Andre Warren on bass, Dave Barbarossa on drums and percussion, Matthew Ashman on guitar that band manager Malcolm Mclaren poached from Adam to subsequently form Bow Bow Wow.

Both versions of the album are worth hearing and dare I say the American Version is more crowd-pleasing of the two. But there is an integrity to original UK version that is possibly unmatched by the US version, as it was Adam's original version of the album in the first place.

Very Most Highly Recommended for fans of post-punk, punk and new wave.

Here's the video review:

Photography: Janet Beckman