Carbon/Silicon at the Troubadour on December 3, 2007
Carbon/Silicon is a project created by Mick Jones and Tony James. It marks the third distinct phase in both of their careers. As many people know Jones took a change of pace from The Clash sound with Big Audio Dynamite. James took even a bigger leap from Generation X with the outrageous Sigue Sigue Sputnik (Little known trivia: both Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Big Audio Dynamite were on the soundtrack to 80’s flick Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.) Recently, Jones also produced both of The Libertines albums, as well as the Babyshambles debut. Ex-Big Audio Dynamite bassist Leo Williams and drummer Dominic Greensmith join Jones and James on this tour for Carbon/Silicon’s second album The Last Post. It is hard not to recognize Jones’ distinct voice on the recordings, and live, his infectious smile is even harder to miss. Mick and Tony both played guitars and shared vocal duties.
For fans of The Clash I highly recommend the recent documentary Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten. The movie has great early footage of the band as well as the burgeoning London punk scene in the seventies. I missed out on Big Audio Dynamite but I did get to see Strummer with his band The Mescaleros in 1999. Here is a sketchy recording of The Clash from their performance on Saturday Night Live. The first song, “Straight to Hell” (recently sampled by M.I.A. on “Paper Planes”) is sung by Strummer and the second song “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” is sung of course by Jones. Oh yeah, anyone who caught The Good, The Bad & the Queen on their short tour know that Paul Simonon still plays a mean bass.
[...] PREVIOUSLY » Carbon/Silicon at the Troubadour on December 3, 2007 [...]
[...] Butler Trio • Duffy • I’m From Barcelona • Vampire Weekend • VHS or Beta • Deadmau5 • Carbon/Silicon • Manchester Orchestra • Dan Deacon • Erol Alkan • Architecture in Helsinki • Man Man • [...]
[...] array of songs both new and old. Long gone are the days of listening late at night to John Peel to hear a Cocteau Twins session as nobody else played them. Back to the Mick Jones feature, the short interview is also supported by both an inspired blog entry and a brilliant and huge selection of images. So much to look at there, a few things struck me – the collection of early fanzines looks impressive (I used fanzines as my inspiration for the Clash Blog). His repeated interest in American culture/history and immigration – a nod to his Mum most likely and his own immigrant lineage. Memorabilia as recent as an unused ticket stub from Carbon Silicon at the Troubador in Los Angeles. [...]