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Paul Collins - founder of 70s bands The Nerves and The Beat is releasing a new studio album produced by Chips Kiesby, known for his work with The Hellacopters. The new CD is entitled “Ribbon Of Gold” and features a new version of The Beat.With encouragement from his friend bassist Dee Dee Ramone of The Ramones, Paul Collins re-formed The Beat as Paul Collins’ Beat during the 1990s. “Ribbon Of Gold” is a high energy rock album and follow up to 2007’s “Flying High,” released by the Pennsylviana-based punk/garage label Get Hip Recordings. Paul Collins’ Beat are also allowing fans to download professionally produced DVD videos and full mp3 albums directly from their official website record label www.paulcollinsbeat.com.

It’s a terrible name for a bar, and actually a pretty subpar bar all around. But the place called Friends proved to be a fitting venue for Carbon/Silicon’s main showcase two weeks ago at the South by Southwest Music Conference.

The two highly credentialed British punk-rock vets behind the band - former Clash guitarist Mick Jones and Generation X co-founder Tony James - were themselves old friends from back in the day (and actually a little before the day).

What really made Friends a great place for Carbon/Silicon’s first mid-America gig, though, were the windows behind the stage, which opened out onto the masses along Sixth Street. With the inside of the club as packed as Jones’ wallet after he cashes one of his TV/movie-placement checks, a crowd gathered outside to watch them perform.

From the street, the gig seemed very punk-rock. Or at least it looked like the guys were in it for the right reason: to have fun. You could see Jones and James swap appreciative smiles every time they turned around.

At a public interview session early the next afternoon, Jones and James tried to emphasize the sincerity of their new project.

“If I didn’t have a penny, I’d still be doing this - exactly the same thing,” Jones declared.

The two music vets arrived in buttoned-up sport coats and nearly shaved heads (hiding their bald spots). Jones also carried a Corona beer.

“To be here today, we know how lucky we are to be able to still do this at 50-plus,” James said in a rare serious moment. “We really appreciate every moment. Because when you’re young it all just goes by so quick, you never stop to look around, as Ferris Bueller once said.”

Jones spoiled the weighty mood, though: “We both had a record on the `Ferris Bueller’ soundtrack, you know.”

He wasn’t lying. Both were featured in “Ferris” with their questionable `80s-’90s projects: Jones in the hip-hop-copping electro-rock band Big Audio Dynamite, which scored the pop radio hits “Bad” and “Rush,” and James in Sigue Sigue Sputnik, the New Wave band known more for its giant mohawks and outlandish outfits than its music. (James also went on to join the goth band Sisters of Mercy in the early `90s.)

They didn’t outright say that Carbon/Silicon - a decidedly straight-ahead, classic-sounding two-guitar rock quartet - is an attempt to reclaim their credibility. But Jones and James did admit wrestling with the question because of their ages (Jones is 52, and James is 50).

“We talked about this for about 10 years: Could you form a new group as older guys?” James recounted. “Because generally, older people reform the brand name, get back together, do all the old hits and do a big stadium tour.

“We used to have this thing we said: `What if Jack Nicholson was in a rock `n’ roll band?’ We were kind of thinking that could be cool. If you had (Jack’s) kind of attitude, maybe you can get away with it.”

Jones once again interjected, “People can relate to us because of (our age). When they hear our record, they go, `Oh, there’s still hope.”‘

Jones and James were friends even before they joined their famous bands. They recalled meeting at a gig by English glam band the Heavy Metal Kids in 1975.

“You had just been sacked, isn’t that right, for not being talented?” James jabbed.

Jones feigned a mock “ha-ha” and then added, “There’s a dispute about what kind of hair he had back then. He definitely had a bomber jacket.”

James: “Never had a bomber jacket!”

Before England’s great punk explosion of 1977, the pair formed a thankfully short-lived group with a name that makes them cringe now: The London SS, featuring future Clash bassist Paul Simonon. “We were really young and stupid and trying to be like New York Dolls,” Jones said.