Sunday, May 22, 2005
what more can i say?
A couple months back, Jonathan Lethem wrote a great piece on his own history as a listener. A lonely bookish kid, Lethem began devouring literature, art, film and music- eventually becoming a big fan of the Talking Heads. Lethem writes about his blind devotion to his sonic love, telling how they met and fun things they did together, how he poured over liner notes and fell asleep with his headphones on. They were inseperable- either they were making soundtracks to his life or he was living a lifetrack to their sound. Breakups are inevitable in relationships this intense; a candle burning at both ends cannot remain in light. Lethem animates this love brilliantly, more moving than any scene of John Cusack crying and screaming in the rain.
"Losing My Edge/Beat Connection" had me at hello, and since that incredibly powerful double A side, lcd soundsystem has been one of my favorite bands. I only say "one of" because picking a favorite band puts a lot of pressure on the band-fan relationship. I still don't quite understand or enjoy "Tired," and lcd are making music for themselves, not ghosts or robots. No matter the dangers of falling in love, I'm a huge fan of everything on DFA records. After hearing that first song, I became precisely the kind of music geek parodied in "Losing My Edge;" buying vinyl, downloading everything the internet could offer, searching for James and Tim's earlier work, researching their influences, and listening to it all over and over and over again.
Suffice to say, I had really high expectations for the show last Friday. I like M.I.A. quite a bit too, and I'm actually wrote an academic paper on Piracy Funds Terrorism, but lcd was definetly the main attraction. Hollywood industry types and Courtney Love bought up most of the tickets beforehand, so I waited around the El Rey for around two hours. I chatted with some of the other have-nots outside, and met the guy from the cobra snake. Tickets were going for 70-80 bucks, but some kind hearted soul with a handful of extras gave me one for ten dollars. Bless that guy. I got in, standed around hipsters of all ages and levels of self-consciousness. I went over to the merch booth and got a copy of Diplo's Flavela Strikes Back (tracks coming soon). I cheered when Dip came on stage, and tried my best to dance when M.I.A. came out. During the encore, Diplo dropped "Still Tippin'" on the second verse of "Bingo" and flipped back to "Big Pimpin" for the chorus. Although she's got less tracks than a Bradley, Maya's definetly got the bombs, beats, and stage presence covered.
lcd came out and... i don't even know. Every song was better than the recorded versions. Nancy. Tyler. Phil. James. The crowd went nuts and screamed along, and Mr. Murphy was pretty funny up onstage. Improvised song titles, and huge jam on the end of "Yeah." I danced, I moshed, and fell into a trance during "slowdive." They never do an encore, they make a big deal about going through rock show rituations, and then they did muthafucking "Jump into Fire" as an encore. The show was simply transcendent. I can't do it justice, so I'll just scream like a middle school kid with a huge backpack and white sneakers. "Best show ever!"
what the fader said.
music for robots was there.
i'm jealous of cobra snake's backstage action.
mp3s coming soon to the ghost robot.
¶ 10:07 PM
A couple months back, Jonathan Lethem wrote a great piece on his own history as a listener. A lonely bookish kid, Lethem began devouring literature, art, film and music- eventually becoming a big fan of the Talking Heads. Lethem writes about his blind devotion to his sonic love, telling how they met and fun things they did together, how he poured over liner notes and fell asleep with his headphones on. They were inseperable- either they were making soundtracks to his life or he was living a lifetrack to their sound. Breakups are inevitable in relationships this intense; a candle burning at both ends cannot remain in light. Lethem animates this love brilliantly, more moving than any scene of John Cusack crying and screaming in the rain.
"Losing My Edge/Beat Connection" had me at hello, and since that incredibly powerful double A side, lcd soundsystem has been one of my favorite bands. I only say "one of" because picking a favorite band puts a lot of pressure on the band-fan relationship. I still don't quite understand or enjoy "Tired," and lcd are making music for themselves, not ghosts or robots. No matter the dangers of falling in love, I'm a huge fan of everything on DFA records. After hearing that first song, I became precisely the kind of music geek parodied in "Losing My Edge;" buying vinyl, downloading everything the internet could offer, searching for James and Tim's earlier work, researching their influences, and listening to it all over and over and over again.
Suffice to say, I had really high expectations for the show last Friday. I like M.I.A. quite a bit too, and I'm actually wrote an academic paper on Piracy Funds Terrorism, but lcd was definetly the main attraction. Hollywood industry types and Courtney Love bought up most of the tickets beforehand, so I waited around the El Rey for around two hours. I chatted with some of the other have-nots outside, and met the guy from the cobra snake. Tickets were going for 70-80 bucks, but some kind hearted soul with a handful of extras gave me one for ten dollars. Bless that guy. I got in, standed around hipsters of all ages and levels of self-consciousness. I went over to the merch booth and got a copy of Diplo's Flavela Strikes Back (tracks coming soon). I cheered when Dip came on stage, and tried my best to dance when M.I.A. came out. During the encore, Diplo dropped "Still Tippin'" on the second verse of "Bingo" and flipped back to "Big Pimpin" for the chorus. Although she's got less tracks than a Bradley, Maya's definetly got the bombs, beats, and stage presence covered.
lcd came out and... i don't even know. Every song was better than the recorded versions. Nancy. Tyler. Phil. James. The crowd went nuts and screamed along, and Mr. Murphy was pretty funny up onstage. Improvised song titles, and huge jam on the end of "Yeah." I danced, I moshed, and fell into a trance during "slowdive." They never do an encore, they make a big deal about going through rock show rituations, and then they did muthafucking "Jump into Fire" as an encore. The show was simply transcendent. I can't do it justice, so I'll just scream like a middle school kid with a huge backpack and white sneakers. "Best show ever!"
what the fader said.
music for robots was there.
i'm jealous of cobra snake's backstage action.
mp3s coming soon to the ghost robot.
¶ 10:07 PM
