Joe Strummer And The Mascarelos

Joe Strummer formed The Mescaleros in 1999 after The Clash had ended. The group included musicians like Martin Slattery on guitar and Tymon Dogg on keyboards, and they released their first album 'Rock Art and the X-Ray Style' that same year. Their sound pulled from punk and rock but also folded in folk and world music elements, which gave songs like 'Bhindi Bhagee' and 'Ramshackle Day Parade' a looser, more global feel than Strummer's earlier work.

They followed up with 'Global a Go-Go' in 2001 and 'Streetcore' in 2003. The records mixed reggae and Latin rhythms with Strummer's familiar vocal delivery and socially conscious lyrics. 'Coma Girl,' from that final album, became one of their best-known tracks, a slower, reflective ballad that stood out from their more upbeat material.

Strummer died in 2002, before 'Streetcore' was released. The Mescaleros' recordings from those sessions came out posthumously, and a later collection titled 'Cobra' was issued in 2010. Though their time together was brief, the three studio albums captured Strummer exploring sounds and themes outside the strict punk framework he was known for, with a band that matched his restless energy.