LCD Soundsystem Show Questions...

LCD was weak. The music is certainly excellent but the singer needs to get tossed from the band. Fatty, bad haircut, bad dressed. I'm not into dudes but lead singers of bands need to have sex appeal; it is a performance art. He just kind of yells and talks. Nothing doing. But again, the music they make is great. I'd like my money back on them because they didn't really make me all that excited about hearing them.

MIA was solid. One thing I found interesting was the fact that she thought the stage in DC was hot. Um…aren't you always talking about how you're from Sri Lanka? Isn't Sri Lanka, like, considerably hotter than DC? Yes, so unless you are really from England then you don't make any sense.

wow…i'm really surprised to see all the negative comments about m.i.a. i thought she totally rocked. i do agree that lcd is way better live than on cd, but i still think maya blew them out of the water, i would have loved to see her close the show. and as far as the white chick comment goes…give me a f-ing break. that's a really ignorant thing to say.

Originally posted by snailhook:
i gotta say, i was really looking forward to seeing m.i.a., but i found her set highly disappointing. i have to disagree with whoever said the DJ did an admirable job of replacing diplo. i thought the beats were boring and generic. as for m.i.a. herself, i was expecting something a lot more wide-ranging and different, but it was really no better than most electro-clash. i've read all this fascinating stuff about her life and ideas, but it didn't translate into anything substantial to me. the hype machine is in full effect. i hate to say it – and it will probably make me sound like an asshole – but if m.i.a. was a white chick from chicago, there'd be no hype at all (this is purely on the aesthetic tip).

granted, knowing diplo's skills, if he were DJing, it likely would've brought out the best in her. despite that, i still found her vocals weak. the best part of the set was the animation (which she makes herself). i suppose i was just expecting something more pancultural and more reflective of her sri lankan background.

I mostly saw public enemy once a few years ago. I say "mostly" because Terminator X wasn't DJing for them, and the replacement was awful. All he did was literally play background tracks and didn't try to mix it up at all. After seeing that "replacement" and seeing this one, I can say at least he tried. Hell they could've just gotten one of the sound guys to go up there and play an instrumental version of the album for them to sing to.

If M.I.A. were a "white chick from Chicago," she'd probably be selling out stadiums, not the 9:30, and every indie kid in the universe would dismiss her as too popular to be interesting.

I thought m.i.a. was a lot of fun and was not aware that diplo wasn't manning the beats. From where I was standing I couldn't see if he was operating a cd player, being sloppy behind some turntables or what. So why the hell wasn't he up there on stage if he was in the building. That's lame-ass shit. I do agree that her set started off pretty boring, but got livelier once the crowd warmed up to her more and I would have liked to have seen more of that sri lankan devil dancing :eek: . Ahmad did tear it up tho - some of the best moves this side of Terry Crews. So i enjoyed her set enough but thought she's a much more animated and colorful personality on record.

LCD could be a pretty powerful instrumental band but their singer Mr. Murphy is just obnoxious and made it impossible for me to respect anything they were doing most of the time. As far as I'm concerned, he didn't succeed as being any more than another posturing school-of-Can goofball. If they were honestly students of Can, don't you think they would care to embrace some of their less obvious qualities other than their rhythmic sense the occasional blast of controlled guitar feedback? I'll put it this way - Can's biggest influences (popular music, not classical) probably lied in the music of the Beatles, the Velvet Underground and James Brown & the Jb's, but did they sound anything like those bands? Hardly. But if you think about it, the influences make complete sense. I'm sorry, but LCD just don't add up to much for me and James Murphy is nothing more than a charlatan in my book. Although I will say that the last 2 or 3 songs, including the cover, was pretty damn crucial actually. I'll maybe grab those tracks off p2p or some shit.

oh yea, the song where he actually name checks Can, Suicide, Lee Perry, Beefheart and some others was in VERY poor taste. Gross.

I mostly saw public enemy once a few years ago. I say "mostly" because Terminator X wasn't DJing for them, and the replacement was awful. All he did was literally play background tracks and didn't try to mix it up at all. After seeing that "replacement" and seeing this one, I can say at least he tried. Hell they could've just gotten one of the sound guys to go up there and play an instrumental version of the album for them to sing to.

duuude, dj lord slays - he ain't no replacement dj! fuck terminator x. all that man had to his name was a bankroll. you must not know your p.e. history cuz its well set in stone that johnny juice, hank shocklee and even CHUCK did those cuts on all those p.e. records. I saw them with Lord at the Nation gig a few years ago and he seems to come from a D&B background or something because he was just annihilating the pitch control while needle dropping when he did his solo.

Originally posted by shoot ur shot:
oh yea, the song where he actually name checks Can, Suicide, Lee Perry, Beefheart and some others was in VERY poor taste. Gross.

i'm not a huge LCD fan, but i think you're talking about "losing my edge", which is intended to be 100% completely sarcastic

Originally posted by nayr497:
LCD was weak. The music is certainly excellent but the singer needs to get tossed from the band. Fatty, bad haircut, bad dressed. I'm not into dudes but lead singers of bands need to have sex appeal; it is a performance art. He just kind of yells and talks. Nothing doing. But again, the music they make is great. I'd like my money back on them because they didn't really make me all that excited about hearing them.

MIA was solid. One thing I found interesting was the fact that she thought the stage in DC was hot. Um…aren't you always talking about how you're from Sri Lanka? Isn't Sri Lanka, like, considerably hotter than DC? Yes, so unless you are really from England then you don't make any sense.

are you the type of person who asks for their money back when they see a movie you don't like? who bitches at a waiter because your steak is medium instead of medium rare?

so let me get this straight, you liked LCD's music, but you thought murphy was fat and sloppy and didn't "get too excited", so you want your money back?

riiiiight.

and what is that blabbering about MIA saying it was hot? read that back and see if it makes any sense to you. if a black guy tells you its hot, do you respond with "hey, you're originally from africa!! i bet it's a lot hotter there!!"

Originally posted by HoyaParanoia:

Originally posted by shoot ur shot:
oh yea, the song where he actually name checks Can, Suicide, Lee Perry, Beefheart and some others was in VERY poor taste. Gross.

i'm not a huge LCD fan, but i think you're talking about "losing my edge", which is intended to be 100% completely sarcastic

Lyrics:

Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from France and from London.
But I was there.

I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the Internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.

To all the kids in Tokyo and Berlin.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered eighties.

But I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge, but I was there.
I was there.
But I was there.

I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1974 at the first Suicide practices in a loft in New York City.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.

I used to work in the record store.
I had everything before anyone.
I was there in the Paradise Garage DJ booth with Larry Levan.
I was there in Jamaica during the great sound clashes.
I woke up naked on the beach in Ibiza in 1988.

But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.

I'm losing my edge.

I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody. Every great song by the Beach Boys. All the underground hits. All the Modern Lovers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Niagra record on German import. I heard that you have a white label of every seminal Detroit techno hit - 1985, '86, '87. I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.

I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your computer out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yaz record.

I hear that you and your band have sold your guitars and bought turntables.
I hear that you and your band have sold your turntables and bought guitars.

I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.

But have you seen my records? This Heat, Pere Ubu, Outsiders, Nation of Ulysses, Mars, The Trojans, The Black Dice, Todd Terry, the Germs, Section 25, Althea and Donna, Sexual Harrassment, a-ha, Pere Ubu, Dorothy Ashby, PIL, the Fania All-Stars, the Bar-Kays, the Human League, the Normal, Lou Reed, Scott Walker, Monks, Niagra,

Joy Division, Lower 48, the Association, Sun Ra,
Scientists, Royal Trux, 10cc,

Eric B. and Rakim, Index, Basic Channel, Soulsonic Force ("just hit me"!), Juan Atkins, David Axelrod, Electric Prunes, Gil! Scott! Heron!, the Slits, Faust, Mantronix, Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines, the Swans, the Soft Cell, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics.

You don't know what you really want. (x15)

Originally posted by HoyaParanoia:

Originally posted by shoot ur shot:
oh yea, the song where he actually name checks Can, Suicide, Lee Perry, Beefheart and some others was in VERY poor taste. Gross.

i'm not a huge LCD fan, but i think you're talking about "losing my edge", which is intended to be 100% completely sarcastic

hmmmm.. i didn't actually think the dude was running down a list of bands he thought were cool, but in a way he was - regardless of what the song is actually about. I sensed the sarcasm but c'mon dude ain't pullin the wool over my eyes. i know what he's really doin.

Originally posted by shoot ur shot:
duuude, dj lord slays - he ain't no replacement dj! fuck terminator x. all that man had to his name was a bankroll. you must not know your p.e. history cuz its well set in stone that johnny juice, hank shocklee and even CHUCK did those cuts on all those p.e. records. I saw them with Lord at the Nation gig a few years ago and he seems to come from a D&B background or something because he was just annihilating the pitch control while needle dropping when he did his solo.

Duuude…it wasn't DJ Lord when I saw them. It was someone completely different, who was subbing because X had been in a motorcycle accident the week before. This was around the time of the release of Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age.

Originally posted by nayr497:
The music is certainly excellent but the singer needs to get tossed from the band. Fatty, bad haircut, bad dressed. I'm not into dudes but lead singers of bands need to have sex appeal; it is a performance art. He just kind of yells and talks. Nothing doing. But again, the music they make is great. I'd like my money back on them because they didn't really make me all that excited about hearing them.

So what you're saying is that you think that the music LCD makes would be much better if you eliminate…the guy who writes LCD's music?

Originally posted by nayr497:
MIA was solid. One thing I found interesting was the fact that she thought the stage in DC was hot. Um…aren't you always talking about how you're from Sri Lanka? Isn't Sri Lanka, like, considerably hotter than DC? Yes, so unless you are really from England then you don't make any sense.

Funny that you would say that, since she is from England. Not being English doesn't mean she doesn't live there. I have a friend who's Egyptian. Is she not allowed to bitch about the heat either, despite the fact that she spent most of her life in Buffalo, NY?

LCD could be a pretty powerful instrumental band but their singer Mr. Murphy is just obnoxious and made it impossible for me to respect anything they were doing most of the time. As far as I'm concerned, he didn't succeed as being any more than another posturing school-of-Can goofball.

good point there; i wasn't really too keen on his vocals for the most part. i was digging on the metronomic drumming and little synth and percussive details more than anything. i agree that LCD would be more enjoyable without the cliched "yeah"ing, though i must give him props for an impassioned performance.

If they were honestly students of Can, don't you think they would care to embrace some of their less obvious qualities other than their rhythmic sense the occasional blast of controlled guitar feedback?

in a perfect world, yes. but as it is, i never expect some hipster band to pull out all the stops and really do the can thing the right way. i'll leave that to journeyman psych bands like cul de sac and ghost. i would never expect LCD to get into some intense ethno polyrhythms while ripping off a ridiculous fuzzed-out guitar solo, and malcolm mooney or damo suzuki james murphy is most certainly not. my point is, sadly, in this era, you've got to lower your standards/expectations to enjoy a lot of music that blatantly pays homage – or attempts to pay homage – to the pioneers of postmodern music. i simply felt that LCD did an admirable job, instrumentally, of taking the minimal approach to rhythm that can did, moreso than the majority of their peers who also claim can as an influence. and as good as pat is, he cannot begin to approach the monstrous jaki liebezeit.

I'll put it this way - Can's biggest influences (popular music, not classical) probably lied in the music of the Beatles, the Velvet Underground and James Brown & the Jb's, but did they sound anything like those bands? Hardly. But if you think about it, the influences make complete sense. I'm sorry, but LCD just don't add up to much for me and James Murphy is nothing more than a charlatan in my book.

hmmm…interesting that you name the beatles as an influence on can…i think the stones were more of an influence. the velvets influence is obvious. anyhow, i'd say that murphy is certainly no genius or pioneer, but is good at what he does, and is no more a charlatan than hundreds of other pretenders (most of whom do a much more terrible job at ripping off gang of four and the cure).

Although I will say that the last 2 or 3 songs, including the cover, was pretty damn crucial actually. I'll maybe grab those tracks off p2p or some shit.

perhaps this is why i enjoyed the set as much as i did…i only caught the last 45 minutes or so.

i never knew about that "losing my edge" song, but those lyrics are kinda funny, as he's obviously poking fun of know-it-all hipsters. is he not pullin' the wool over your eyes because he is precisely one of those hipsters he is mocking?

Originally posted by SalParadise:
http://rocknerd.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/02/0010252&mode=thread&tid=20

where's that ancient sign when we need it?

hotmail offers free email.

www.hotmail.com

M.I.A. and LCD Soundsystem at 9:30

——————————————-

One used samples and scratching while the other featured live musicians, but the two acts that "co-headlined" Sunday night at the 9:30 club were well matched. Both Sri Lankan-bred, London-based chanter M.I.A. and New York's dance-punk LCD Soundsystem emphasized rhythm over melody, and energetic delivery over vocal range.

M.I.A. limited her political commentary to one remark about the failure of aid to reach the Tamil regions of her tsunami-devastated homeland. Behind her, however, video animations intimated much more: The images included tanks, bombs, fighter planes, stone-throwing youths and a loping tiger. (M.I.A.'s father was a member of the Tamil Tigers, a separatist guerrilla group.) The messages of the songs, among them "Pull Up the People," were less graphic, although clearly insurrectionary in tone if not content.

M.I.A. was backed by DJ Contra and vocalist Cherry, who doubled certain phrases and sang melodic passages, including the refrain to "Sunshowers." (M.I.A. has never claimed to be much of a singer.) Contra's additions were sometimes too busy, overcomplicating the elemental, heavily distorted music. Nothing, however, could overwhelm the joyous swagger of "Galang," M.I.A.'s signature anthem.

James Murphy is the only full-time member of LCD Soundsystem, which combines dance beats with punk demeanor. Onstage, the studio mastermind was joined by four other musicians, who animated his stark, beat-oriented material. Murphy doesn't have much stage presence, and his rough, artless singing merely bludgeoned numbers like the minimalist "Yeah" and the ironic "Losing My Edge." But metronomic drummer Pat Mahoney and modal guitarist Phil Mossman filled the breach, making the Soundsystem sound like a discofied (if Iggy-less) update of the Stooges.


– Mark Jenkins

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/13/AR2005061301705.html

Originally posted by shoot ur shot:
Although I will say that the last 2 or 3 songs, including the cover, was pretty damn crucial actually. I'll maybe grab those tracks off p2p or some shit.

word up man. you're a loser. so you talk about the band and respect, and then you're gonna go steal their music? nice.

Originally posted by nayr497:
LCD was weak. The music is certainly excellent but the singer needs to get tossed from the band. Fatty, bad haircut, bad dressed. I'm not into dudes but lead singers of bands need to have sex appeal; it is a performance art. He just kind of yells and talks. Nothing doing. But again, the music they make is great. I'd like my money back on them because they didn't really make me all that excited about hearing them.

MIA was solid. One thing I found interesting was the fact that she thought the stage in DC was hot. Um…aren't you always talking about how you're from Sri Lanka? Isn't Sri Lanka, like, considerably hotter than DC? Yes, so unless you are really from England then you don't make any sense.

One of the lines in one of his songs is "…and who is the fat guy in the t-shirt singing all the songs?" Who CARES what he looks like. I can't wait for Hairspray The Musical to crossover to high schools so the fat girl and the effiminate drag queen will have the lead roles, giving you (and god forbid, if you decide to breed) and your kids an education in prejudice. I'm glad he was an eyesore for you. I'm not even big, but WHO GIVES A FUCK? You're a twat.

i don't quite understand this either… louis xiv gets bagged on because the lead singer is "fat"… now either the video screen at merriweather made him appear thinner or he's lost poundage. what i saw a slightly overweight person, kind like a normal american like myself. if you've gonna bag on louis xiv then do it because they are a medicore band of glam wannabies.

Originally posted by shoot ur shot:
oh yea, the song where he actually name checks Can, Suicide, Lee Perry, Beefheart and some others was in VERY poor taste. Gross.

are you kidding me? reading this message board infuriates me – it's like people never listened to lcd or M.I.A. before. honestly, before i dropped $20+ (depending where or when you got the tix) for a show, i'd read up. the "name-checking" is the point of the song. murphy's making fun of people like you, hon.