Clash Clones

One of my top ten all-time bands is The Clash. They won't be making any more music because Joe Strummer died in late 2002. But there's a great new band that sounds a lot like them.

They are called The Libertines and their most recent album, Up The Bracket, was produced by The Clash's Mick Jones. Just listen to the second song, called Death On The Stairs, and you'll think you are back in 1979 listening to London Calling.

I found out about this band from a discussion between Jason Chervokas and Tom Watson about Tom's post on Johnny Thunder.

Comments

[hugh macleod]

Oy, "Spanish Bombs" and "Stand by Me" still bring tears to my eyes.

Joe Strummer was an interesting musician, especially by Punk standards. More interested in "life on the street" more than "punk as ideology expressed as musical theater", which explains his heavy South-London reggae influence.

Think about it: Punk-Reggae fusion. An unlikely combo on paper, unheard of before Strumer, yet glaringly obvious and simple once he'd done it.

[chervokas]

One of these days I'll have to blog the time I stood on stage w/ Joe Strummer, at a mid afternoon Clash gig at the end of the Bonds run in 1981 when me and a bunch of audience members rushed the stage to sing "London's Burning"....

[JayR]

I've been impressed with The Libertines too. They sound like the old punkish bands without ripping them off.

Jason, I'd love to read about that Clash show. London Calling was the first album I downloaded onto my iPod. The second was the almost equally good Sound Affects by the Jam. Those two albums ran through my head the entire semester I spent in London in 1982. The live "Here to Eternity" CD, which was released a couple of years ago, is not bad either. Unfortunately for me, I never got to see them live.

I did actually go to the Peppermint Lounge in 1982 to see Johnny Thunders. His set was supposed to start at 10pm and I waited until 2:30 in the morning to see him, but he never showed up.