Really interesting (and six-month-old!) interview with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. (Probably best known for the single “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House.”)

LCD’s disco-electro-clash-angle-funk sound doesn’t end up on my headphones every day. (Although “Yeah (Crass Version)” is truly one of the great songs to workout to.) But Murphy is a smart and interesting guy who has ideas I think apply to writers and any other brand of artist. Some key quotes:

It’s more interesting to me in 2007 to have a band that pursues an idea like that of any kind that specifically and that doggedly and that relentlessly. I feel like bands’ ideas get become really mushy. They get too democratic; they get watered down.

And this bit of brilliance. (For context: Murphy is a chubby 37-year-old doofy looking guy who plays these incredibly high-energy shows filled with disco, punk, and dance music.)

[Q: Who do you think is your competition?]

Nobody. Straight-up hands-down nobody. Other people are better at the things that they do, but what we do, nobody can touch us. Nobody can play live like us. Nobody tries. And there are more talented people that should be better; that’s what I take exception to. I think it’s insulting. It’s like coming into the ring out of shape. Don’t fucking come into the ring out of shape; that’s disrespectful. Don’t play a show with us and then bring your fucking B-game and phone it in and pose and pull a bunch of rock bullshit moves and emote and shit like that, because I’ll punch you in the fucking face. That’s bullshit.

[Dude, that’s awesome.]

Well, it’s true! I’m killing myself up there! I’m not charismatic or particularly talented. I know what I’m good at. I have good rhythm. I have a good note sense to a certain degree. But I’m not Bowie. I’m not Eno. I’m not Lou Reed reinventing rock. I’m just a fucking dude with a band, but I fucking take it seriously. I’ll go play terrified with anybody. I’ll go onstage with anybody. And when I see bands, they just roll over and think it’s OK, like, “You go, man! You guys are crazy!” And then they go and they play, and I’m just like, “Holy shit, dude, seriously look at yourself! You’re a fucking burlap sack full of somebody else’s gestures!”

Which leads into this challenge to Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin and, by extension, lazy talents everywhere:

I’ll make a bold statement that I think Chris Martin is as talented as Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney’s a hack. The difference is that Paul McCartney was a pop star in an era when the single would come out and then the Rolling Stones would put one out and you had to step it up. The Who would put one out, and you’d step it up. The Beach Boys would put an album out, and you’d be like, “Oh my God, we gotta take this all seriously.” They wanted to be everything to everybody, and there’s something really beautiful about that. It’s impossible, but there’s something magical about that. Whereas now, Chris Martin by his own admission will be like, “Oh, my lyrics are kind of dumb.” And it’s like no, come on, don’t say that! Fucking go try! Fail! Go face-down! Listen to the Paul McCartney records; he went face-down a lot, but you don’t get “Temporary Secretary” if you’re not willing to go face-down. You don’t get these songs that are above and beyond what that guy is. There’s such low expectations of artists. I’m not trying to say anything bad about Chris Martin; he seems like a totally nice guy, and he has an incredibly good voice, a great melodic sense. But come on!

27 September 2007

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