Last week I told you that my iPods are always set to random. The big iPod has nearly 9500 songs on it these days, I am worrying about it breaking as it now 4 years old. Weirdly the Top 25 most recently played songs on my iPod are not all bad. At Number 5 is ‘Seven Nation Army’ by The White Stripes, at Number 4 is ‘Sun Hits the Sky’ by Supergrass, at Number 3 is ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’ by the National, at Number 2 is ‘Leave Them All Behind’ by Ride, these are chosen randomly by the iPod remember. At Number 1, the most frequently picked song on my iPod is ‘Someone Great’ by LCD Soundsystem. What. A. Song.
I love LCD Soundsystem and right now they are the only band I regret never catching live. To be honest apart from Primal Scream and perhaps PJ Harvey, there hasn’t ever been anyone better than LCD Soundsystem. The way that James Murphy blends disco, dance, rock and punk together to produce tune after tune of effortlessly cool anthems is nothing short of genius. ‘Someone Great’ is taken from their second and probably most well received album ‘Sound of Silver’. It contains this wonderful lyric:
“The worst is all the lovely weather, I’m stunned, it’s not raining. The coffee isn’t even bitter, because, what’s the difference?”
“Someone Great” is Murphy’s lament to a lost friend, lover, associate or child. The way that Murphy has I think, deliberately never revealed who or what the song is about I think adds to its brilliance. It is obviously about loss but in these eyes loss sounds beautiful, almost heavenly. There is a synth sequence running through this song that is kind of angelic and that corresponds with the lyrics which suggest someone who could do nothing bad, it is a lovely lovely record. One that should be sitting somewhere in your most frequently played songs on the iPod. The irritating thing is that this, this wonderful piece of music, is probably only their third or (possibly) fourth best song.
mp3 : LCD Soundsystem – Someone Great
I have a claim to fame.
In 1992 I saw Leatherface in the Melody Maker tent at the Reading Festival it was Friday afternoon, two days before the whole tent sunk under a biblical deluge of water. They were amazing, incredible, a performance that fitted a band at the peak of their musical powers. They were just becoming something, their (fourth?) album ‘Mush’ was gaining cult status and with the stand out song ‘Not Superstitious’ they had a song that was sort of crossing over. Singer Frankie Norman Warsaw Stubbs (his actual bonafide real name) possessed a voice that was as soft as sandpaper – he more growled down the speakers at you – but there was/is something beautiful in the way he did it. Musically it was kind of punk rock but there was a bleak humour about it. I urge you all now, if you haven’t got or heard ‘Mush’ to download it today. I promise you won’t regret it.
The claim to fame?? Oh, standing behind me at that festival performance was John Peel. I knew he was there, I was 17, he was like a hero (he smelt very nice by the way), and at the end he tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘What did you think of that then?’ I laughed and said ‘Mr Peel, that was shit hot and anyone who missed them should be ashamed’. He nodded and smiled and wandered off saying that he had to introduce some bunch of idiots on the main stage in five minutes but thanked us for our brief review.
We wandered over to the main stage the idiots were Public Image Limited. John Peel came on over the tannoy just before they wandered on stage. His opening words, ‘I’ve just seen Leatherface, they were, shit hot, if you missed them, then shame on you. Right then, here’s Johnny Rotten and his mates…’
mp3 : Leatherface – Not Superstitious
Finally for the letter L I struggled to find something that could compete with LCD Soundsystem and Leatherface so I did the random thing, the iPod chose ‘Breakers’ by Local Natives, this is taken from their much under rated album from last year ‘Hummingbird. They originate from Silver Lake in California. ‘Breakers’ was the lead single from ‘Hummingbird’ and it sounds a lot like Arcade Fire and the National.
Well perhaps a younger less grizzled National and less stadium friendly Arcade Fire.
mp3 : Local Natives – Breakers
Next week the BOX IS BACK.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 