One of last year’s most infamous Internet sensations, the “Don’t tase me, bro!” arrest of an excitable college student, is getting a new lease of life from former Clash rocker Mick Jones.
He told Reuters on Wednesday that he has written a song by that name for his second album with Carbon/Silicon, the band he formed with fellow punk veteran Tony James.
“It’s gonna go like this, dun-dun-dun ... Aaaargh!” Jones said backstage at the inaugural NME Awards in Los Angeles, after he received a special honor for his inspirational work and then played two songs with Carbon/Silicon.
Jones, along with millions of people around the world, was entranced by footage showing the subjugation of University of Florida student Andrew Meyer during an appearance by U.S. Sen. John Kerry last September.
Campus police swarmed Meyer when he attempted to ask Kerry a question and dragged him to the back of the venue. Despite his pleas to “Don’t tase me, bro,” an officer did just that with a stun gun.
The phrase spread like wildfire, appearing on T-shirts and in commercials.
“It was disgusting,” Jones said of the police reaction.
The long arm of the law and civil disobedience inspired such Clash tunes as “Police & Thieves” and “White Riot.” But in Meyer’s case, the band’s cover of “I Fought the Law” might be more appropriate.
Jones said the Carbon/Silicon album would be called “Yeah, Whatever.com.” Other tunes will include “The Dirge,” “A Fresh Start” and “What’s Up, Doc?”
He and James have also been tackling a few songs by British rock band Oasis.
“I liked ’em when they first started out, quite a bit. I liked their eyebrows,” he said, referring to brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher.
There is no scheduled release date for the new album, which will be the follow-up to 2007’s “The Last Post.”
Carbon/Silicon will wrap their North American tour at the Coachella music festival in southern California on Saturday. Jones said he hoped to expected to return to the United States as soon as possible.