A Clash of Old and New

In yesterday's Sun-Times, Jim DeRogatis talked with the Clash's Mick Jones about the new Clash exhibit at the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame. Here's Jones's best quote on what it means to him to be revered in that kind of manner.

I haven't been out there to the museum yet, but my mother has. She liked it very much. I'm going to be going, and it seems like a great building. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the other exhibits.

I'm not sure how old this interview is, because he was featured at the opening of the Clash exhibit on October 22.

I'm glad, though, that I didn't post about this interview when I first read it. This evening when I was going back to find the link, I went to Google News and came across this interview from a few days ago at Minneapolis's City Pages that's more informative. Interestingly, given that DeRogatis rails against nostalgia and praises Jones for continually moving forward, but he only barely mentions Jones's latest project, Carbon/Silicon. The City Pages piece not only talks about Carbon/Silicon, but links to their Web page. I'd heard about Carbon/Silicon as far back as a couple of years ago, but I hadn't heard any updates. Jones is reunited with Tony James, his bandmate from the pre-Clash London SS. James went on to team with Billy Idol in Generation X, and in the mid-80s he was with Sigue Sigue Sputnik, doing whatever it was they did, exactly.

It turns out that Jones and James have been busy for the last little while. They've got two albums and several EPs, all downloadable for free at their site. They've even got downloadable artwork to go with it all. Both the albums dropped in the last few months, so they're about as up-to-minute as you can get. I haven't downloaded any of the music to hear it yet, but I'm very curious to see what it will be like. I've got a little bit of worry that maybe I haven't heard about it because nobody's talking about it because it's not really very good, but I suspect that whatever it is, I'll at least find it interesting. Although Mick didn't have universal adulation for following up the Clash with Big Audio Dynamite, I always liked the fact that he was moving on to new horizons and new technologies. To argue that it didn't rise to the level of the Clash is the same as complaining that none of the Beatles was quite as good on their own. Duh. But the big appeal of Big Audio Dynamite to me was the fact that the Clash was clearly in the past, and in the absence of his old bandmates, Jones was going in a different direction altogether. Carbon/Silicon has those same possibilities.