Black Market Baby

One of the few D.C.-area hardcore bands with no ties to the Dischord label, Black Market Baby nonetheless came to be looked upon as an influence on many of the local bands who followed. Enamored of the populist shout-along anthems of Sham 69 (unlike most of their peers, save for Iron Cross), the group also drew from British (the Damned, the Ruts) and American punk (Stooges, Dead Boys, Ramones) alike, with a bit of AC/DC-esque heavy metal thrown in for good measure. Black Market Baby grew out of a previous band called the Snitch, which featured lead vocalist Boyd Farrell and bassist Paul Cleary. Adding guitarist Keith Campbell and drummer Tommy Carr, Black Market Baby played its first live show in the summer of 1980, and issued a split 7" with Bad Brains the following year. Their proper debut single, the classic "Potential Suicide" b/w "Youth Crimes," arrived on Limp Records in 1982, the same year that founding member Cleary departed in favor of Mike Dolfi. 1983 brought the group's debut album Senseless Offerings, released on the Fountain of Youth label, as well as another lineup shift when guitarist Campbell was replaced by Scott Logan, once Carr's bandmate in the Penetrators. Work on a second LP began, with Ian MacKaye in the producer's chair, but it was never completed, owing in part to Farrell's new family obligations. Farrell reconvened the band in 1986, with Campbell back in the fold alongside Carr and new bassist Mike Donegan; however, all this lineup managed to release was a single, "Drunk and Disorderly" b/w "Nothing Lasts Forever." In 1990, the German label Bitzcore issued a best-of compilation called Baby Takes, which featured singles and material from the first album; it was followed in 1991 by Baby on Board, which included material from the unreleased second album as well as more from the first. Those were combined for release on a single CD in 1996. Meanwhile, the entirety of the existing second-album material was bootlegged and released as a 10" EP titled Nothing Lasts Forever in 1991. ~ Steve Huey