Customer Reviews

The Last Post

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mick Jones and Tony James still rock. The lyrics ask all the questions, and provide a few answers. Really, though, this is about garage rock and it is great. EZKill's bass is mixed down low but at times becomes sonic, especially if it's played loud, as intended. The drummer pounds like he's channeling a Ramones album. The presentation is take it or leave it, this what they want to offer, it comes from their moral center. The wisdom of men who've seen a lot, and have come back to the big time power chords. They had fun making it, and it shows. Check out Youtube to see them in action. Great disc.

The Clash is my favorite band of all time yet I have never really gelled with Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros. Now I know why - only after listening this release do I fully appreciate the contributions Mick Jones made to the Clash vs. those of Joe Strummer. If you like straight up rock and roll songs like "Rudie Can't Fail", "The Prisoner", or "Spanish Bombs" more than deliberate, introspective ones like "Straight to Hell", "London Calling", or "This is Radio Clash" then you are with me in the Mick Jones camp. It goes without saying that all Clash songs are good (even those on Cut the Crap).

Carbon Silicon is not the Clash but you can hear Mick Jones's Clash loud and clear on several tracks such as "The Whole Truth" and "The News". The best track on the album, "Why Do Men Fight" shows how Mick's sound has grown since the Clash and with those of Tony James. Truly a fantastic track.

I missed seeing the Clash live by a couple of years but at least I now have seen Carbon Silicon (El Rey, Los Angeles, March 2008). Highly recommended.

Mick Jones and Tony James have been writing excellent songs together for a number of years now, and this first official "album" length release is pure pleasure to listen to. Every song has its qualities and hooks that will make anyone just stand-up and dance for no other reason that the music is great. When the cd is over, a compulsive feeling of wanting to play the cd over and over, makes it a rare find these days. Mick has really gotten his creativity back, and proves you don't have be "young" to have the rock inside one. Hats off to Mick and Tony!!!

Mick Jones resurfaces from the Wilderness Years of the 1980's in a spectacular new group. Listening to this album, I remember why I love the Clash and Big Audio Dynamite: the prowess and talent of Mick Jones. Added into the mix this time around are Tony James (formerly of Generation X and Sigue Sigue Sputnik), Leo Williams on bass, and Dominic Greensmith as the drummer. Interestingly, Carbon/Silicon experiments with their home studio-recorded music online, first, before releasing it in any other form. This, their first true studio album, brings together the best of those tracks they have slowly been accumulating. "The News" starts off the album, catchy and optimistic, and other gems like "War on Culture," and "Caesar's Palace" follow in the first half. The second half (neatly divided on the sleeve) begins explosively with "What the F***." Note to Parents: exercise personal judgement, but the song is awesome, whatever one says about the profanity. Not to mention the band mentions everyone from Einstein to Dostoevsky. And you thought Dostoevsky couldn't be incorporated into a rock song. "National Anthem" and "Really the Blues" continue the album on a more serious, bluesy note. This classic rock album ends with "Why Do Men Fight?" expressing their open, inclusive world-view and mindset. Overall, this album brings together the friendly, complimentary combination of Mick Jones and Tony James, as well as the former's talent for melody and lyrics. Yes, Mick seems a little weathered since his days with the Clash, but the power of his messages lacks none of the potency of those early punk days. I found this album worthwhile and exciting; for once, I have a favorite band currently around, instead of my usual favorites which broke up decades before I was born. These guys instill a freshness and a worldliness to their music, and give me a sense of hope.

Billy Bragg, under the pseudonym "Johnny Clash," paid homage with the "Old Clash Fan Fight Song." Former Clash & Big Audio Dynamite member Mick Jones has given the Old Clash Fans cause to stand and rejoice. Carbon/Silicon, a two guitars-bass-drums affair like his vanguard punk band, reunites Jones with former Generation X guitarist Tony James (the pair were in the seminal mid-'70s band the London SS). CSi began issuing downloadable music as early as 2004, but "The Last Post" is the first physical CD release.

Like any great songwriting team - Lennon/McCartney, Jagger/Richards - Jones/Strummer had a unique sound, which doesn't sound anything like the James/Jones partnership, and Jones himself has an individual style, where one could easily hear Big Audio Dynamite performing some of the tunes on "Last Post." But CSi approach this as a straight-up rock 'n' roll record, abetted by mix engineer Bill Price (whom Clash fans will know as one of the band's principal engineers from London Calling onward, and the producer of the Cost Of Living EP).

The album's opener, "The News," may be a touch too "shiny happy" punk with its eagerly optimistic lyrics and production that sounds like something out of the BAD oeuvre, yet it is nonetheless infectious (and, in truth, is no more gleeful than Joe Strummer's cover of "Silver & Gold").

At track 3, CSi get raw: never one to be bashful of revisiting earlier works (witness liberal use of "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" in BAD's "The Globe"), Jones retools the riff from The Clash b-side "1977" for "The Whole Truth," while "Caesars Palace" harkens to some of the better rock moments on Sandinista!

Not an album for everyone, but for Anglophiles of a certain age who know there's more truth than humor in the phrase "Old Guys Rule" (see also The Solarflares), this album will not disappoint.

Key tracks are "The News," "The Whole Truth," "Caesars Palace," "Really The Blues" (the kind of song The Stones wish they could write of late) and "Why Do Men Fight?"

I have never written a review on Amazon before however this album has made me pen my first one. If you are a Clash fan, or any kind of rock n roll fan for that matter, then you will find this album to be the best of the year. Its that simple - BUY IT - you won't be sorry!

Yeah, I know that 5 stars may be a bit kind since both Mick and Tony really have done some better work in the past, but this CD really has grown on me.

When the first track, The News was over I wasn't too sure how this was going to go. The Magic Suitcase gave me even more pause. These were the most stripped down, relaxed and straight forward songs I've ever heard from Mick. Not in a bad way, but in a "is this all there is?" kind of mode. This feeling did not last long. By the time the fourth track, Caesars Palace, was finished, I had to skip back and listen to it again. Now. This happened again after National Anthem and Why Do Men Fight? And then, I needed to listen to the whole of it again.

Needless to say, this disc has not left my player in days. There is an immediacy in these songs that, when mixed with an earnestness and optimism in the face the world's problems that has really has floored me.

A deceptively simple work of great beauty. Sure, these 'old geezers' may have rocked harder at some point way back when, but unlike so many others these days, they still have something to say. Oh yeah, and catchy as hell hooks too.

Simply put, this is the best album of the last several years. Every song is good and a few (The Magic Suitcase, Tell It Like It Is, War on Culture, National Anthem and Why Do Men Fight?) are absolutely brilliant. Mick Jones' political and satirical lyrics and beats have never been better, at least not since his days with the Clash. Carbon/Silicon puts on a great live show also, if you have the chance to see them. Cannot recommend this album and band and enough.

So glad Mick and Tony came to their senses and ditched those rubbish bands they wasted so much time with. I mean, The Clash and Generation X? Then BAD and Sigue Sigue Sputnik? How could any of those compare?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whew! Good thing sarcasm isn't water, else I'd've drowned. And I'd've taken you all with me!

I love all those bands and I love this album as well. This is the sound of elder statemen punks getting back to the business they do best. Not producing trainwreck tabloid fodder Pete Doherty. Not sitting in with the Sisters of Mercy on bass (another great band, mind). No, producing a well-crafted album, hammering instrumentation, thoughtful and thought-provoking lyrics.

It does make one wonder what might've been if the London SS had become more solidified as a unit rather than corralling pub rocker John Mellor.

People say Mick was the Paul to Joe's John. I don't think that's fair, though. Paul sucked when his big band broke up. Mick does not. One listen to this proves that.

Signed,
epsteinsmutha

This is a warm, exciting record. Earnest in the best sense, snappy guitar lines more Clash than BAD, and great uplifting sound and lyrics, with good humor. So good to have Mick Jones back on the scene and in top form, with three fine players.