Even if you don’t know their story, there’s something both comforting and unsettling about hearing Carbon/Silicon for the first time. The songs are sublimely catchy, with a clear light at the end of a very bleak tunnel.
If the voice didn’t already give it away, one half of Carbon/Silicon’s brain trust is former Clash and Big Audio Dynamite legend Mick Jones, who recently earned Pete Doherty-related hazard pay producing both albums by The Libertines and the debut by Babyshambles.
When Jones was unceremoniously ejected from The Clash in 1983 for being a pain in the ass, he responded with the sample-laden Big Audio Dynamite, attacking the pop charts with a found sound ethos that extended into the early Carbon/Silicon recordings. BAD’s “Contact” bridged the gap between the proper song and its squiggly house outro with a sample of the riff from “Can’t Explain” by The Who. Carbon/Silicon carried on this grand tradition with their first release, with the joys of file-sharing laid out in “MPFree” to a static-laden sample of “My Generation.”
Jones’ co-conspirator in Carbon/Silicon is his old friend Tony James, who was in the pre-Clash London SS before playing bass guitar in Generation X, the punk band that, for better or worse, launched Billy Idol’s career. James, too, was no stranger to advancing DIY punk into the modern age, being the primary instigator in the ridiculously over-the-top Sigue Sigue Sputnik.
If they manage to grow old at all, punks rarely do so gracefully. For every world music-obsessed David Byrne, there are a hundred other punks trading on two years of fury for one last bite at an apple still rotting on the vine.
Bucking the odds and embracing technology without sounding like opportunists, Carbon/Silicon walks a very fine line without ever really seeming in danger of falling over it. It helps that Jones and James wear the status of elder statesmen so effectively, dressed in natty suits and looking like they just stepped out of a Raymond Chandler novel.
If punk was indeed about tearing down the walls between the performer and the audience, the ideal is still very much alive in Carbon/Silicon. Their new album, The Last Post, is their first released on CD and iTunes. Two previous albums and countless other tracks were made available for free as downloads on the band’s website. Fans are encouraged to record and trade live shows, as well.
Carbon/Silicon has officially grown into a four-piece, one that hits the Highline Ballroom on Wednesday, Dec. 5. In addition to Jones and James on guitars, the band is rounded out by Leo “Eezykill” Williams (who also played with Jones in BAD) and former Reef drummer Dominic Greensmith.
Fans of former bands featuring Jones and James would do well to come to terms with the idea that there’s almost no chance of hearing “Should I Stay or Should I Go” or “Love Missile F1-11.” Instead, they’ll be treated to a set of songs that manage to be both modern and classic as performed by a band fronted by two legends who are thrilled to be back on stage again.
Dec. 5, Highline Ballroom, 431 W. 16th St. (betw. 9th & 10th Aves.), 212-414-5994; 9, $15.
If the voice didn’t already give it away, one half of Carbon/Silicon’s brain trust is former Clash and Big Audio Dynamite legend Mick Jones, who recently earned Pete Doherty-related hazard pay producing both albums by The Libertines and the debut by Babyshambles.
When Jones was unceremoniously ejected from The Clash in 1983 for being a pain in the ass, he responded with the sample-laden Big Audio Dynamite, attacking the pop charts with a found sound ethos that extended into the early Carbon/Silicon recordings. BAD’s “Contact” bridged the gap between the proper song and its squiggly house outro with a sample of the riff from “Can’t Explain” by The Who. Carbon/Silicon carried on this grand tradition with their first release, with the joys of file-sharing laid out in “MPFree” to a static-laden sample of “My Generation.”
Jones’ co-conspirator in Carbon/Silicon is his old friend Tony James, who was in the pre-Clash London SS before playing bass guitar in Generation X, the punk band that, for better or worse, launched Billy Idol’s career. James, too, was no stranger to advancing DIY punk into the modern age, being the primary instigator in the ridiculously over-the-top Sigue Sigue Sputnik.
If they manage to grow old at all, punks rarely do so gracefully. For every world music-obsessed David Byrne, there are a hundred other punks trading on two years of fury for one last bite at an apple still rotting on the vine.
Bucking the odds and embracing technology without sounding like opportunists, Carbon/Silicon walks a very fine line without ever really seeming in danger of falling over it. It helps that Jones and James wear the status of elder statesmen so effectively, dressed in natty suits and looking like they just stepped out of a Raymond Chandler novel.
If punk was indeed about tearing down the walls between the performer and the audience, the ideal is still very much alive in Carbon/Silicon. Their new album, The Last Post, is their first released on CD and iTunes. Two previous albums and countless other tracks were made available for free as downloads on the band’s website. Fans are encouraged to record and trade live shows, as well.
Carbon/Silicon has officially grown into a four-piece, one that hits the Highline Ballroom on Wednesday, Dec. 5. In addition to Jones and James on guitars, the band is rounded out by Leo “Eezykill” Williams (who also played with Jones in BAD) and former Reef drummer Dominic Greensmith.
Fans of former bands featuring Jones and James would do well to come to terms with the idea that there’s almost no chance of hearing “Should I Stay or Should I Go” or “Love Missile F1-11.” Instead, they’ll be treated to a set of songs that manage to be both modern and classic as performed by a band fronted by two legends who are thrilled to be back on stage again.
Dec. 5, Highline Ballroom, 431 W. 16th St. (betw. 9th & 10th Aves.), 212-414-5994; 9, $15.
