Needless to say, my trip to the annual music conference last month was everything I expected. Perhaps I’ve come to expect a lot because hopes were high and it was ultimately tremendous. There’s more to it than seeing 80+ bands over a week. There’s more to it than getting into the Texas sun in throes of a dreary Buffalo March. There’s more to it than the over the legal limit of bbq and mexican food.

In my five years of attending I can only put it as something kin to a lost week at a music lover’s Disneyworld. It’s overwhelming, overloading, kinda surreal and often like a dream come true.

Yeah, dreams come true. Like those Disneyworld vacation ads. Is this a hokey take on what’s supposed to be a music industry powwow? Maybe, but I do mean it with sincerity.

Where else can you see the bands that everyone will be talking about in the coming months, bask in the sheer ego of Lou Reed celebrating himself in conversation about what a genius he is or stand by side with one of the guitarist/singers of the only band that mattered?

The good news for Clash and Big Audio Dynamite fans: Jonesy has lost nuthin’, erm… ‘cept maybe some hair. His latest project Carbon/Silicon (with Generation X/Sigue Sigue Sputnik guitarist Tony James) is sharp, worldly punk-infused rock and roll heavy on thoughts and hooks. Carbon/Silicon’s full length The Last Post (Caroline) is a refreshing record loaded with rock that you can believe in and raise a flag for.It’s the perfect antecedent to The Clash and B.A.D. Punk ain’t dead, it just keeps getting funkier.

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Carbon/Silicon-magic-suitcase