Old friends Mick Jones, former lead guitarist of The Clash, and Tony James, once of the Billy Idol-fronted Generation X, have teamed up in a band called Carbon/Silicon.

Carbon/Silicon isn’t yet as well known as the bands the two co-founders came from, or even the bands the other band members once played in. Leo Williams played bass with Jones in Big Audio Dynamite, and Dominic Greensmith was the drummer for British rock group Reef. But the group’s approach to the internet has gained them widespread popularity.

James and Jones began making their songs available on their web site as free downloads in the summer of 2004, and encouraged their fans to record them when they played live and pass those around as well. They’ve just put out their first full length CD, called The Last Post, but they pledge to keep giving songs away on the internet as well.

At one point Terry asks James about his experiences as an early computer programmer and the reply (I think it’s Jones interrupting) is “it was like big cards, and they punched them.”

The interview is funny and charming, and if you like these bands, you’ll want to give it a listen. It’s not often you hear from our music heroes of this time, alive AND articulate. I can’t wait to download their music.

I haven’t yet heard this other NPR piece related to Carbon/Silicon, but it’s probably worth mentioning just for the brilliant title: Mick Jones Finds Self, Not in Supermarket

Wikipedia on The Final Countdown.

Thanks Steve!

The video quality sucks, I know. But to hear this, outside, at night. Lovely, in the most painful way.

Chimney falls and lovers blaze
Thought that I was young
Now I’ve freezing hands and bloodless veins
As numb as I’ve become

I’m so tired
I wish I was the moon tonight

Last night I dreamt I’d forgotten my name
‘Cause I had sold my soul but awoke just the same
I’m so lonely
I wish I was the moon tonight

God blessed me, I’m a free man
With no place free to go
I’m paralyzed and collared-tight
No pills for what I fear

This is crazy
I wish I was the moon tonight

Chimney falls and lovers blaze
Thought that I was young
Now I’ve freezing hands & bloodless veins
As numb as I’ve become

I’m so tired,
I wish I was the moon tonight

How will you know if you found me at last
‘Cause I’ll be the one, be the one, be the one
With my heart in my lap
I’m so tired, I’m so tired
I wish I was the moon tonight

Every Mother’s Son [Demo], from “Pirate Radio“, the Pretenders box set.

I was born with my hand in a fist
and my eyes shut tight.
Any wonder that I cannot resist
punching blindly in a fight?
The first time I saw swans flying to the sun
I wanted to be one.

Like every mother’s son
when I saw my life had begun
I wanted to be someone,
like my brother and my one and only father
and like every mother’s son.

I was raised within a cause
with a purpose to fulfill.
I was taught to defend what was mine
and instructed not to kill.
My small mortal eyes can see eternity
in the clouds that dissolve and then regroup endlessly.

Like every mothers son
when a man showed me how to use a gun
I wished I’d never need one
like my brother and my one and only father
and like every mother’s son.

Everything in domesticity
assumes its role better than me.
I’m a displaced person whose culture let me down.
I raise my own daughters in a pornographic town.

Like every mothers son
I’ve lost some and some I’ve won.
Now I’m waiting for a new dawn,
like my brother and my one and only father
and like every mother’s son.