Carbon/Silicon: Mick Jones Rides Again

London SS - Mick Jones and Tony James (right)

The Clash, Generation X, The Damned, Chelsea, Sigue Sigue Sputnik and the Rich Kids. If you play six degrees of separation with all of these bands they all have one common denominator: London SS. Founded by Mick Jones (The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite) and Tony James (Generation X, Sigue Sigue Sputnik), London SS never really was a band but more a Punk version of American Idol. With Jones and James playing the part of Simon and Randy, they conducted audition after audition looking for more musicians to round out their vision of what London SS would be; some would make the cut and move on, others would not and drop into obscurity. After 10 months and having already rejected the likes of Paul Simonon (Clash bassist), Tony Chimes (Clash drummer), Topper Headon (Clash drummer after Chimes), Steve New (Rich Kids guitarist) and Rat Scabies (Damned drummer), Jones and James decided to call it quits. James first moved on to play bass with Chelsea which splintered into Generation X. When Billy Idol left Generation X, James started up Sigue Sigue Sputnik (right). Jones, famously, would join up with Chimes, Simonon, Keith Levene and Joe Strummer to form the Clash.

The Clash

Throughout the years, bands and projects the two would participate in, Jones and James remained close friends. Sometime in 2002 the two started making regular trips to a recording studio together in West London. By Spring of 2003 the pair, under the name Carbon/Silicon (http://www.carbonsiliconinc.com/default.aspx ), began to release the results of their collaboration free of charge as downloads on their website. By 2007 the pair (at right) had released a total of 7 downloadable EP and full length albums for free. In November they released “The Last Post”, their first “official” CD and began to play gigs in the U.S. this month to promote it. They will tour Britain next year. The sampled, electronic sound Jones broke ground with in B.A.D. is still present, but Carbon/Silicon is much more a garage-based band than B.A.D . One area that still remains from The Clash days is the overtly political theme to much of the lyrics and themes. Song titles like “Why Do Men Fight”, “The Whole Truth” and “National Anthem” would fit nicely on the back of any Clash album.

For more, check out these links:

London SS - http://www.punk77.co.uk/groups/london_ss.htm

Sigue Sigue Sputnik - http://www.sputnikworld.com/

Generation X - http://www.billyidol.com/v1/genx.html

The Clash - http://www.theclashonline.com/

Big Audio Dynamite - http://www.esmark.net/bad/bad.htm

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Radio, Radio

In telecom-speak, the capture effect describes how a radio determines, when given two different signals on the same frequency, which signal it will broadcast. When presented with multiple signals, FM receivers will only broadcast the strongest signal. The capture effect can also be used to describe the current state of “terrestrial” radio. When given the option of turning on your radio today, most people choose to talk on their cell phone, play a cd or listen to the ranting of some right-(or left) wing talk show host on AM radio while making their daily commute or driving to the store. The options for diverse radio programming have not been this bleak since Marconi sent himself the first radio transmission in 1895. The state of today’s terrestrial radio is in sad shape. Why else are millions of people signing up and paying for the subscription services offered by such companies as XM or SIRIUS? I, for one, will never pay for radio. I already pay for bottled water, toll roads and 100 channels of cable TV (of which I may watch 6 channels during any given month). Radio, like this shit, is supposed to be free. Scan the dial the next time you get in your car. Wait, I’ll save you the agony, because all you will find are 4 hip-hop stations, 3 Spanish language stations, 2 oldies top 40 channels and a partridge in a pear tree. Eventually, internet radio will get its act together and then your radio options will be limitless, and hopefully still free.

When scanning the airwaves for 70’s and 80’s punk or new wave, the real estate effect is invoked: location, location, location. If you are lucky enough to live in an area with either a college station or a community supported station you have a chance to hear much more diverse programming and have a shot at someone still rolling out the punk and new wave music from an era when it, to, was largely ignored by ad-based radio. Let’s look at a few of the better radio programs that are still exposing the masses to some real variety, most 30 years after it was recorded:

Lest We Forget – Sundays from 9pm to midnite EST
90.9 FM WVVS-FM (www.valdosta.edu/wvvs)
Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA

One of the longer running programs dedicated to punk and new wave, Lest We Forget (http://www.myspace.com/skipv91) will still occasionally throw in some newer music that is also ignored on ad based radio. Show founder and host Skip will enlighten the Fishbone, Iggy and XTC crowd with the occasional song from Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers (right) and She Wants Revenge. Skip hosted shows on the station while attending VS in the 80’s, then left and now is back working for the university. Lest We Forget also updates it’s listeners on newer releases from some of the 70’s and 80’s stalwarts such as New York Dolls and Patti Smith. Unfortunately the broadcast area is small (approximately 25 miles) and the station does not stream over the internet or maintain pod casts. The next time you’re rolling through Valdosta, GA check it out.

Patti Smith

80’s Underground – Wednesday from 9am to 11am PST
103.3 FM KSCU ( http://www.kscu.org/ )
University of Santa Clara, Santa Clara, CA

A college station dj’ed by mostly non-students, KSCU has been around as a radio station in one form or another for over 50 years. Jeff Shelton brings an eclectic mix of 70’s and 80’s new wave and punk to the South Bay airwaves every Wednesday from 9 am till 11. 80’s Underground ( http://www.myspace.com/80sunderground ) specializes in reviving the lost gems and forgotten acts from the era (Screaming Meemee’s, The Neats, The Nils - left) while still maintaining a link to the bands that ruled college radio back in the day (X, Guadalcanal Diary, The Replacements). KSCU has a broadcast area of 30 miles and is available on the internet. Jeff maintains a pod cast of all his shows at ( http://www.midwestusergroup.org/KSCU_Podcasts.htm ).
And if you want to hear some great new music with one foot planted firmly in the new wave era check out Jeff’s side project, The Well Wishers ( http://www.myspace.com/thewellwishers ).

Guadalcanal Diary

The Modern World – Friday from 6am to 8am CST
89.9 FM WEVL ( http://wevl.org/ )
Listener Supported, Memphis, TN

Running continuously since 2000, The Modern World is straight ahead Punk and New Wave and rarely strays beyond 1990. For every song you hear that you recognize, you’ll hear two you don’t…and you’ll be better for it. The former host maintained an excellent site that documented every song played from every show (http://www.dtradio.com/) and is still a great place to go if you’re trying to remember the name of that Vitamin Z song that you liked (it was Burning Flame, by the way). The current host Scott maintains playlists of all his shows (http://www.myspace.com/letthedaybeginonwevl ) as well. The station is listener supported and has a broadcast range of 60 miles around the Memphis area. The station streams on the internet but does not maintain pod casts. Get up early on Friday-it’s worth it.

Urgh! A Music War

When you think of certain musical eras, most can be summed up in a movie or documentary made at the time: All that was right with the 60’s can be summed up in Woodstock, all that was wrong in Gimme Shelter. The 70’s have Saturday Night Fever and The Last Waltz. But when you look to the New Wave and Punk scenes of the late 70’s and early 80’s, most films about the time were made or released much later, only after the impact the era had on future artists and music was fully realized. One movie that can be looked at now as ahead of it’s time in documenting “real time” the punk and new wave era was Urgh! A Music War.

Filmed in 1980 and released in 1981, Urgh! defined the emerging punk and new wave music scenes like no movie had or will (Don Letts superb 1977 home movie ‘The Punk Rock Movie” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0207685/) a lone exception). A concert movies movie, there was no dialog, no interviews and definitely no script. A series of performances by some 30 different groups, the film was shot over the period of several months at ten different venues throughout the world. From a festival at the Frejus Amphitheatre in Paris (http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/Maecenas/France/Frejus/ac741520.html) to the California Theatre in San Diego, the performances, while all unrelated, move seamlessly in the film from one to the next. Regardless of the locale, the feeling and look of each performance and setting was much the same: sweaty, cramped and urgent. While the Police (http://www.thepolice.com/) were, in retrospect, the star attraction, they in no way carried the film. Gary Numan (http://www.numan.co.uk/), motoring around a stage in at the Hammersmith Odeon in London during a performance of “Down in the Park” to the weird broadway-esque performance of “Total Eclipse” by Klaus Nomi (www.psychotica.net/evb/nomi) at The Ritz in New York, the movie captured concert performances unlike anything seen on film to that point (or since).

Many of the performers, while relatively unknown at the time, would come be known to a wider audience later in the decade:

A perky Belinda Carlisle, leading the Go Go’s (http://www.gogos.com/) through an early version of “We Got the Beat” at The Whiskey (http://www.whiskyagogo.com/) in LA, a full year before Beauty and the Beat was released. Devo (http://www.clubdevo.com/), showing they were at their best not on MTV but rather live in concert, with a smoking performance of “Uncontrollable Urge” at the California Theatre in San Diego. Joan Jett (http://www.joanjett.com/), just a year removed from the split of The Runaways, with the Blackhearts captured at The Ritz in New York performing “Bad Reputation”. Danny Elfman (http://elfman.filmmusic.com/), the go-to movie sound man of the 90’s, leading Oingo Boingo (http://www.oingoboingo.com/) through “Ain’t This The Life” at The Whiskey.

X (l-r Billy Zoom, Exene, DJ Bonebrake, John Doe)

Some of my favorite performances:

X (http://www.xtheband.com/), the best live band of their generation, at the Santa Monica Civic Center tearing through “Beyond and Back”. Ian McCullough and his Echo & the Bunneymen (http://www.bunnymen.com/) mates gave a solid performance of “The Puppet” at The Lyceum Ballroom in London. A pre-stage fright Andy Partridge and his XTC (http://www.xtcidearecords.co.uk/) band mates performing the as yet released song “Respectable Street” at the Frejus Festival in Paris. Within 2 years Partridge would withdraw from all live performing. The Au Pairs post-punk gem “Come Again” at The Lyceum Ballroom. 999(at left)(http://www.nineninenine.cjb.net/), a band that should only be heard live, looking a little worse for wear but not disappointing with “Homicide”. The Alley Cats with “Nothing Means Nothing Anymore” at the Whiskey. The Fleshtones (http://www.myspace.com/fleshtones), who’s performance had the most controlled “video” look of all, give an incredible version of “Shadowline” at CBGB’s. Probably the highlight for me was Gang of Four’s (http://www.gangoffour.us/) version of “He’d Send the Army” at The Rainbow Theatre in London. The song, not yet released at the time, features Jon King providing percussion by wacking on something with a stick of wood throughout the song. Andy Gill (at right) and company provide the most cohesive performance of the film. And one that has taken me some 20 odd years to appreciate, Pere Ubu’s (http://www.ubuprojex.net/) “Birdies”. Having initially purchased the Urgh! double album when it was released, I couldn’t stand the song. The film only confirmed my disdain, as the geeky singer Dave Thomas looks like he needs his meds. But now, I get it and have come to love all of Pere Ubu’s stuff.

Dave Thomas of Pere Ubu

The film also included reggae acts, drawing the connections that reggae shared with punk, or as Don Letts was once quoted as saying, “it's the same fuckin' thing. Just the black version and the white version. The kids are singing about the change, they wanna do away with the establishment”. The stage during the Steel Pulse (www.steel-pulse.com) performance of "Ku Klux Klan" looks like a cross between a P-Funk concert and a Klan rally. The white reggae of The Members “Off Shore Banking Business” is only tolerable.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there is some strange, forgettable shit here as well. But as forgettable as some of the songs might be, the performances draw you in like the car wreck you can’t take your eyes off of:

The Cramps (www.thecramps.com) are rolling along fine through a version of “Tear It Up” until singer Lux Interior sticks the mike halfway down his throat and starts grunting and groaning for the remainder of the song. The piano lounge shtick of Jools Holland wears out quickly in “Foolish I Know”. After watching Skafish (http://www.skafish.com/) perform “Sign of the Cross” you’ll feel the need to take a shower. A band I don’t think anyone had ever heard of before (and certainly not after), Invisible Sex performs in haz mat suits and throws pills out into the audience after finishing the song “Valium”.

The Cramps

The double album did not include all the songs shown in the movie. Some years after purchasing the album I found the double cassette at a used record store. Some 20 years later, I still have those tapes and listen to them frequently (yes, I still have a car with a tape deck).

The story behind the movie and cd re-issue rights is another story altogether. Owned by Miles Copeland (of IRS Record (http://www.onamrecords.com/IRS_Records.html) fame and brother of the Police drummer) the rights were sold and the paperwork documenting the details of the transaction subsequently lost. No one has taken up the cause due to the possibility that the documents could resurface (and the resulting legal implications). Not to mention the astronomical legal costs involved in dealing with the number of bands and personalities involved if someone tried to re-release either the film or the music on cd (or both). Gary Numan, for example, has the rights to his performances in the movie and has forbid it from being shown (come-on Numo, you need the publicity!). Rumor has it that at least 3 songs from each group was taped during the making of the film for editing purposes. Supposedly somewhere underneath Miles Copeland's mattress sits a possible 100-song, multi-dvd reissue just waiting to happen. Periodically a VHS copy of the movie pops up on ebay or Amazon and is usually priced well over $100. VH1 played the movie last year as part of a special "Movies That Rock" or some such shit. I was amazingly flipping channels one night and tuned in just in time to see the Police closing the movie with "So Lonely". Needless to say, I was pissed.

A web site claiming to have DVD's and CD's of the movie available (gotta be either illegal or bullshit) for $50 and $30, respectively. I have included the link (http://www.urgh-dvd.com/) but be warned, no telling what you'll get if you send them your money. But Christmas is coming, so I may have to amend my letter to Santa, because after all, it's worth 80 bucks just to find out.

Who, What, When, Where and Why: Au Pairs

Political unrest, sexual politics, emotional instability and women’s rights: rarely has one band been influenced by a wider variety of personal and societal factors than the Au Pairs (http://www.myspace.com/aupairs). Formed in Birmingham in 1979, the Au Pairs (http://www.comnet.ca/~rina/aupairs.html) burned bright for a mere four years, from 1979 to 1982, but left a lasting impression on a number of music scenes over the years. Influencing the style of the alternative era Pixies (http://www.pixiesmusic.com/), heard in riot grrl groups like Sleater-Kinney (http://www.sleater-kinney.com/) and singled out by current day punk revivalists Chicks on Speed (http://www.chicksonspeed.com/) and The Rapture (http://www.therapturemusic.com/), the Au Pairs had an impact.

Lesley Woods (vocals and guitars), Jane Munro (bass), Paul Foad (guitar and vocals) and Pete Hammond (drums) formed the nucleus of the band. But it was Woods who gave the group their distinct voice. A well read feminist and unabashed lesbian (at a time when few women in the punk scene were officially “out”) Woods singing had range that clearly conveyed the emotional roller coaster found in each song. While Woods may have been the driving force behind the Au Pairs, both musically and emotionally, it was the songwriting (a chore shared by all members) that set them apart. Songs like “Come Again” (http://www.houseoflyrics.com/lyrics/au_pairs/come_again.html), “Diet” (a women’s place in the world) and “It’s Obvious” (gender relations) placed sex and the battle between the sexes clearly in the forefront. But the message didn’t just stop with sex. Songs such as “Armagh” dealing with the fire brand topic of the political and religious tensions in Northern Ireland and “America” which attacked the Reagan government’s use of military power, set the band apart from many of their contemporaries in the second wave of punk rock. This was songwriting using both the big and little head.

And then, it was over. After touring continuously behind their second full length release “Sense and Sensuality”, the band disintegrated. First Munro left, citing Woods increasing emotional instability. Preparing to head into the studio to record their third album the group, now including Graham Hamilton (trumpet), Nick O’Connor (bass) and Carla Tivey (keyboards/vocals), officially broke up when Woods failed to appear for a show in France. The third album, slated to be produced by U2 (http://www.u2.com/) collaborator Steve Lillywhite (http://www.answers.com/topic/steve-lillywhite), never saw the light of day.

Discography:
Playing With a Different Sex, Human Records, released May 1981
Sense and Sexuality, Kamera Records, released August 1982
THE VERY BEST OF THE AU PAIRS, Cherry Red Records (http://www.cherryred.co.uk/), released 1999

The band also was one of the featured artists in the seminal concert movie of the time "URGH! A Music War" (http://www.urgh-dvd.com/index.html).



The Ten:
My periodic list of songs you can't live without. Call it my "deserted island" list, but remember, when we're all stuck on that island, don't blame me if you don't have them (and no, I won't let you borrow my ipod).

1. Come Again - Au Pairs
2. Take This Town - XTC
3. Silver Rocket - Sonic Youth
4. Leaders of Men - Joy Division
5. Rev It Up - Jerry Harrison
6. Love To Hate Love - Eleventh Dream Day (right)
7. Borstal Breakout - Sham 69
8. Waterfront - Simple Minds
9. Pulse - Psychedelic Furs
10. Cameras In Paris - The Fixx