This August (2022) would have marked the 70th birthday of one of the greatest names punk rock has come up with, Joe Strummer, late singer/guitarist of The Clash. To mark the date, Dark Horse Records has announced a new box set of albums by Joe Strummer and his post-Clash band The Mescaleros.
The set, titled Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years, will be released on September 16, 2022, and will feature remastered editions of all three of the band’s studio albums, plus 15 rare and unreleased tracks spanning the first demos Strummer wrote for the group.
As Pitcfork and other outlets pointed out, Joe Strummer 002 marks the first-ever comprehensive collection of The Mescaleros’ work. The set features the band’s three studio LPs: Rock Art and the X-Ray Style (1999), Global a Go-Go (2001), and the posthumous Streetcore (2003). All of the albums are remastered by engineer Paul Hicks and are packaged with new liner notes, unreleased photos, and four reproduction lyric sheets and chord charts.
The set also includes outtakes and the single “Ocean Of Dreams,” which features Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones. The box set was executive produced by Strummer’s widow Lucinda Tait and produced by David Zonshine. It features new interviews with Strummer’s friends, collaborators, and Mescaleros band mates, as well as handwritten notes, lyrics, and drawings by Strummer taken from the Joe Strummer Archive.
