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Black Market Baby - Potential Suicide (Limp)

Black Market Baby were a classic example of a band that just never was right with their timing when they were around.  They had a couple of aborted singles before Potential Suicide b/w Youth Crimes finally became their official debut. It’s a great slab of up tempo British influenced punk, but it came out the year hardcore happened in DC, and while there were plenty of people who took notice of the band, they never really got that much recognition, although if they’d released the Crimes Of Passion b/w America’s Youth single in 1980, they might have had a better shot. (BONUS POINTS for 2 songs about Youth). Eventually they released an lp on Fountain Of Youth in 1983 that’s a bit long, and has bad cover art, but still pretty well liked. I once passed on a test press for like $50 — WHY? There was a second lp recorded in 1986, but the band had gone through several sets of members by then, and their little bit of popularity had waned. Without a label they broke up, and eventually released the lp posthumous on Bitzcore from Germany.

Side A is Potential Suicide. The guitar slinging in th the opening riff is really nice, kind of like something the Huskers might have done midway through their career, but with a rougher kind of incidental Oi vibe. Maybe that comes from the tough marching floor tom that drives the song along and contrasts with the shimmering chords on the guitar.

Side B is Youth Crimes which has a good rockin pogo beat. It sounds like they were really taking a lot from British stuff of the time, but there’s something looser and distinctly American about it. The vocal delivery is energetic and snotty via Boyd Farrell and it has that kinda throaty, post-Lemmy delivery you’d hear on some Riot City record. There’s some good off-key harmonizing with a back-up singer in the chorus too that really holds the whole thing together.

I think this, along with the Unreleased 1980 single, and their tracks on the Connected compilation are the backbone of any argument in favor of Black Market Baby’s greatness. If you’ve never enjoyed their tunes, the blog world ought to be able to help you out.

There’s a repressing of this single on White Vinyl on Yesterday and Today records that also has a different cover. The original version is on Limp and has a yellow sleeve.