Random Music Talk CXXIV: Axver's All Out of Ideas

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V important stuff here, guys, but I did listen to Shatner Claus. It was everything I dreamed it would be AND MORE. If I don't listen to this at least 4 more times before Christmas, I'd consider this entire holiday season a failure.
 
the tourist said:
Having two kids means less disposable income, so the days of buying 50+ CDs a year has finally come to an end for me. I jumped into the decade and got Spotify premium.

Really, really digging the Surf Rock Sunshine playlist right now.
Click to expand...



Since giving up on CDs and subscribing to Spotify, I’m pretty shocked at how my tastes in music have expanded, especially re: electronic and ambient. They have some weird and wild playlists, and I’ve found so much terrific stuff on there. The Lost in Space playlist is perfect for creepy, technological-vibe late-night meditation, and I just discovered an excellent song called Lost in a Sea of Pillows and Blankets on the Quiet Hours playlist. Housewerk is perfect for actual housework, and there are some fantastic study-themed playlists I can play at work for my students during study hall. All of that is to say, welcome to Spotify.
 
Saw LC! tonight, luckily I have a friend who works at the venue so I didn't have to pay. I have to say, for all the shit we've given Gareth over the years, he looked healthier this time around, less bloated. His voice was strained at times but he still leaves it all out there and is authentic in his banter. I shamefully missed the last tour which was loaded with No Blues and Sick Scenes material, but I did get to hear a decent amount of that recent stuff: For Flotsam, What Death Leaves Behind, Avocado Baby and then I Broke Up In Amarante, A Slow Slow Death, Here's To The Fourth Time, The Fall of Home. Not all my top choices but a good sampling.

Of course we got some stuff from Hold On Now Youngster, and from WABWAD we got the title track, Ways to Make it Through the Wall, Heart Swells/Pacific Daylight Time, You'll Need Those Fingers For Crossing, and my favorite, Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #1.

Surprisingly, 3 tracks from Hello Sadness, but it was basically the best ones: the title track, By Your Hand, and Baby I've Got The Death Rattle.

Romance Is Boring got a lot of attention, the title track, Straight In At 101, I Just Sighed, A Heat Rash In The Shape..., and the very welcome The Sea Is A Great Place... And then as a nice bonus, we got Coda (the final track), which Gareth said they'd never played in North America before.

It's something that perhaps is a little tired, but it's hard to beat the one-two finale of You! Me! Dancing! and Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks. The former is a legit anthem and the latter is one of my faves, just a great crowd sing-a-long that the band also gets really into.

I wonder if I'm more likely to see them or U2 ever again. It can't be easy for them to come to the states with their modest following, however devoted. But it sure was a great 10 years; they've given me more pleasure during that span than any other musical act.
 
I would think they'll still putter around in the states on tour as long as they're still a band. I saw the show you didn't last time, and it was really, really great. I didn't even realize they were here, not that I could've gone. They're can't-miss live in my book.
 
I’m seeing them next week and Laz, your write-up made me really excited. That sounds like a fucking fantastic setlist.
 
Is it common knowledge that the main sample from No Diggity comes from this song?





I only realized this when I heard the above track on Atlanta a few days ago.
 
Barbra Streisand covered that on her 1970s album Butterfly, which also has covers of Bob Marley’s Guava Jelly and Bowie’s Life on Mars. It’s pretty bizarre.
 
lazarus said:
Saw LC! tonight, luckily I have a friend who works at the venue so I didn't have to pay. I have to say, for all the shit we've given Gareth over the years, he looked healthier this time around, less bloated. His voice was strained at times but he still leaves it all out there and is authentic in his banter. I shamefully missed the last tour which was loaded with No Blues and Sick Scenes material, but I did get to hear a decent amount of that recent stuff: For Flotsam, What Death Leaves Behind, Avocado Baby and then I Broke Up In Amarante, A Slow Slow Death, Here's To The Fourth Time, The Fall of Home. Not all my top choices but a good sampling.

Of course we got some stuff from Hold On Now Youngster, and from WABWAD we got the title track, Ways to Make it Through the Wall, Heart Swells/Pacific Daylight Time, You'll Need Those Fingers For Crossing, and my favorite, Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #1.

Surprisingly, 3 tracks from Hello Sadness, but it was basically the best ones: the title track, By Your Hand, and Baby I've Got The Death Rattle.

Romance Is Boring got a lot of attention, the title track, Straight In At 101, I Just Sighed, A Heat Rash In The Shape..., and the very welcome The Sea Is A Great Place... And then as a nice bonus, we got Coda (the final track), which Gareth said they'd never played in North America before.

It's something that perhaps is a little tired, but it's hard to beat the one-two finale of You! Me! Dancing! and Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks. The former is a legit anthem and the latter is one of my faves, just a great crowd sing-a-long that the band also gets really into.

I wonder if I'm more likely to see them or U2 ever again. It can't be easy for them to come to the states with their modest following, however devoted. But it sure was a great 10 years; they've given me more pleasure during that span than any other musical act.
Click to expand...

What do you mean lucky you didn't have to pay. How much was a ticket? Can't imagine it would have cost much at all.

I'm so lucky to have seen them once but it's very unlikely I'll seem them ever again. I also don't know how long they can keep it up, which breaks my fucking heart, I love them so goddamn much. But agree, it's been a hell of a run.
 
lazarus said:
Saw LC! tonight, luckily I have a friend who works at the venue so I didn't have to pay. I have to say, for all the shit we've given Gareth over the years, he looked healthier this time around, less bloated. His voice was strained at times but he still leaves it all out there and is authentic in his banter. I shamefully missed the last tour which was loaded with No Blues and Sick Scenes material, but I did get to hear a decent amount of that recent stuff: For Flotsam, What Death Leaves Behind, Avocado Baby and then I Broke Up In Amarante, A Slow Slow Death, Here's To The Fourth Time, The Fall of Home. Not all my top choices but a good sampling.

Of course we got some stuff from Hold On Now Youngster, and from WABWAD we got the title track, Ways to Make it Through the Wall, Heart Swells/Pacific Daylight Time, You'll Need Those Fingers For Crossing, and my favorite, Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #1.

Surprisingly, 3 tracks from Hello Sadness, but it was basically the best ones: the title track, By Your Hand, and Baby I've Got The Death Rattle.

Romance Is Boring got a lot of attention, the title track, Straight In At 101, I Just Sighed, A Heat Rash In The Shape..., and the very welcome The Sea Is A Great Place... And then as a nice bonus, we got Coda (the final track), which Gareth said they'd never played in North America before.

It's something that perhaps is a little tired, but it's hard to beat the one-two finale of You! Me! Dancing! and Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks. The former is a legit anthem and the latter is one of my faves, just a great crowd sing-a-long that the band also gets really into.

I wonder if I'm more likely to see them or U2 ever again. It can't be easy for them to come to the states with their modest following, however devoted. But it sure was a great 10 years; they've given me more pleasure during that span than any other musical act.
Click to expand...

That's awesome. I took a peek at some of the setlists and they look fantastic. I guess the notable absence lately is In Media Res, but they are doing a great job of representing all albums. Can't wait to hear some of the older stuff.

Couldn't agree more on You! Me! Dancing! It needs to be played on every show, no matter how long they have been doing it.

I really wish I could have seen that 35-song 10th anniversary gig in London.

I'm with Ashley - I think they'll keep playing a little longer, but with more time between albums. Gareth seemed positive in a recent interview: https://www.stereogum.com/2013987/los-campesinos-2018-interview/franchises/interview/


Joey788 said:
I’m seeing them next week and Laz, your write-up made me really excited. That sounds like a fucking fantastic setlist.
Click to expand...

Same here. Are you going on Tuesday or Wednesday?
 
Holy FUCK that long one :sad:

Really the only other song I'd want to hear would be 2007, The Year Punk Rock Broke My Heart. Oh, and Cemetery Gaits.

That's on par with LCD's goodbye setlists in that you're getting pretty much everything.

I'd be a bit devo to not here In Medias Res, that song means so much to me and is comfortably my favourite.
 
Yeah. To me, it has the quintessential LC! lyric:

If you were given the option of dying painlessly in peace at 45
But with a lover at your side, after a full and happy life
Is this something that would interest you?
Would this interest you at all?
 
cobl04 said:
I'd be a bit devo to not here In Medias Res, that song means so much to me and is comfortably my favourite.
Click to expand...
VERY glad I've seen them twice. If the show I saw last year was the only one I'd seen and I never saw In Medias Res, I'd be pretty crushed as well.

FWIW my two setlists: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/los-campesinos/2014/metro-chicago-il-5bc5e388.html < 2014 (this must have been one of the very last shows I saw in Chicago :sad: )
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/los-campesinos/2017/teragram-ballroom-los-angeles-ca-bf9a1ce.html <2017
 
gump said:
Yeah. To me, it has the quintessential LC! lyric:

If you were given the option of dying painlessly in peace at 45
But with a lover at your side, after a full and happy life
Is this something that would interest you?
Would this interest you at all?
Click to expand...

Dude, I nearly fucking cried just reading this. And I didn't even have to scroll down to know which lyric you were talking about.

I feel like the first time I heard that it unlocked, like, a philosophical part of my brain that I didn't even know was there. Like it's not only a great lyric that is done so well - at the end of a massive crescendo of horns and drums and bass and guitars, with the vocals slow and clear and sung so beautifully - but it's genuinely an astonishing piece of writing. Maybe more than any other lyric I've ever come across, it's led me to think and reflect and wonder. It is the beauty of art.
 
Win Butler is in a horrible cowboy outfit sitting courtside at the Bulls vs Pelicans game right now.
 
cobl04 said:
What do you mean lucky you didn't have to pay. How much was a ticket? Can't imagine it would have cost much at all.
Click to expand...

Yeah I don't get fretting about the band not returning, and then not paying. Buying a ticket is the surest way to actually show the sort of support that gets bands returning.

This is the set I got when I caught LC in Chicago last year: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/los-campesinos/2017/metro-chicago-il-43f9872f.html

A fun evening. I was there just as much for support act Crying: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/crying/2017/metro-chicago-il-4bf9872e.html
 
I'm pretty broke right now. Not going to shows, dining out, etc. I've bought merch from their website before where they get a bigger cut of the profits and will do so again when I'm doing better financially.
 
Also, it's a bummer for them that they played in Los Angeles and then the next show 2 days later is all the way in Chicago. You'd think they'd be able to hit a couple cities in-between.
 
cobl04 said:
Dude, I nearly fucking cried just reading this. And I didn't even have to scroll down to know which lyric you were talking about.

I feel like the first time I heard that it unlocked, like, a philosophical part of my brain that I didn't even know was there. Like it's not only a great lyric that is done so well - at the end of a massive crescendo of horns and drums and bass and guitars, with the vocals slow and clear and sung so beautifully - but it's genuinely an astonishing piece of writing. Maybe more than any other lyric I've ever come across, it's led me to think and reflect and wonder. It is the beauty of art.
Click to expand...

:hug:

That line really resonates, even more so as I get closer to 45 than 25. For all their wordplay and cool football references, this kind of unapologetic sentimentalism can really hit home in their music.
 
gump said:
:hug:

That line really resonates, even more so as I get closer to 45 than 25. For all their wordplay and cool football references, this kind of unapologetic sentimentalism can really hit home in their music.
Click to expand...

Yeah spot on. And that's what I've loved them for.

I consider "I Just Sighed" to be maybe the best song I've come across written about unrequited love, certainly the one that's felt the most true to me and resonated with me.

These lines in particular:

Sometimes it's just enough to know I keep him on his toes
Is he as sympathetic as me to untimely decline of your synthetic clothes
I've displayed marriage proposals on jumbotrons of ball games you've not been at
I've written eulogies in guest books in the hope that you might pass

I promise after this I will pick up the phone book
And choose the name that my eyes fall upon on their first look
Aim all of my poorly composed declarations their in the future
I'm so sorry to have put you through
A lifetime of dedications
That you never desired

But this one sentence bludgeons me over the head
I'm a little bit drunk and I mean just a little bit
No lush in denial, only rather coquettish
…
Prettier now that you've grown you hair long
I'm a slip of a man since I cut mine all off
Please just let me be the one to keep track
Of the freckles and the moles on your back


I was a virgin until I was 23. I didn't kiss a girl until I was 17. I dealt with the crushing lack of self-worth for so long. And I think even after finally losing my virginity I started to enjoy the rejection from girls that I had crushes on because it was like I had the best of both worlds - no longer did I have a monkey on my back, but I was still able to wallow in the poetic feels of unrequited love and lust. I'm in a loving relationship now and past it all, but I do miss it sometimes. Particularly when I'm listening to old favs like LC! or LCD. Los Camp! just captured so well in this song what it's like to have this stupid obsession with a girl (or boy) who will never feel the same way. Sometimes, with the girl I had a crush on for like two or three years, it WAS just enough to know that I'd had a flirty night out with her and her and her boyfriend at the time were having a tiny fight. But it's also self-aware; these girls only ever wanted friendships, not ongoing dedications of love from someone they weren't interested in.

Music, man.
 
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