Brit genre benders The Clash will release a retrospective in September that Mick Jones recently hailed as the “best box set ever.” Well, there’s nothing like modesty.

The set is being called Sound System, and is being released in an army fatigue-colored case shaped like a 1980s boombox. I guess Jones is on to something, because the set does look pretty badass. It was designed by bassist Paul Simonon and will be available in the U.K. on September 9 and in the U.S. on September 10.

Here’s what’s inside:

-The Clash’s first five LPs: 1977’s The Clash, 1978’s Give ‘Em Enough Rope, 1979’s London Calling, 1980’s Sandinista!, and 1982’s Combat Rock. (The band’s final full-length, 1985’s Cut the Crap, is not featured).

-Three discs of singles, rarities, demos, and B-sides.

-A DVD containing all of the band’s videos and “unseen footage by Julien Temple and Don Letts.”

-Several reprints; a new issue of The Clash’s Armagideon Time fanzine; plus an exclusive poster, dog tags, stickers, badges, and more.

All of the music is remastered from the original tapes with Jones overseeing the process. “Remastering’s a really amazing thing,” Jones told the Guardian. “That was the musical point of it all, because there’s so much there that you wouldn’t have heard before. It was like discovering stuff, because the advances in mastering are so immense since the last time [the Clash catalog] was remastered in the ’90s.”

You can pre-order Sound System here and see trailers for the band’s upcoming releases, which also include a two-disc Best-Of called The Clash Hits Back. 

It’s a great…and expensive…time to be a Clash fan.

(Spin)