#*currently playing: Losing my Edge by LCD Soundsystem*

[invisibleanonymousmonsters]

i’m thinking more of songs that describe them but ones that they listened to is fine too

I’m not really into matching music to people like that. It’s not really my jam. 

But I can share what music I think they listen to. 

Dick Grayson:

He listens to a lot of pop. But it doesn’t really matter what decade it comes from. He likes it all. He also loves 80s music in general. He likes a bit of punk – like The Clash. He’s basically aware of whatever is current and hip at the moment. He’s not afraid to openly listen to music that others may label as “gri

Songs Dick is currently listening to:

Everybody Wants To Rule The World by Tears For Fears

This Must Be the Place - Talking Heads

Blitzkrieg  Bop - The Ramones

Lay All Your Love On Me – ABBA 

White Flag – Dido 

––––––––

Jason Todd:

To no surprise, Jason is into grunge and darker music. He’s a punk and metalhead at heart. He loved metal, hard rock – but he also fucks with some hiphop. He loves the 90s.  His taste is stereotypically masculine music. But he also loves female singers. Dick claims he’s caught him listening to Harry Styles before, but Jason denies it always. 

Songs Jason is currently listening to:

Zombie – The Cranberries

Rat Patrol – Naked Raygun

The Four Horseman – Metallica 

Royal Jelly – Deap Vally

Time’s Up – O.C.

––––––––

Tim Drake:

Tim’s music taste is so all over the place that he is not allowed to DJ or press shuffle on his library ever. It’s a family rule. One moment he’s listening to 90s R&B and the next he’s listening to the Hamilton musical. There is no consistency. If he likes something, he likes it. There’s no explanation. Jason almost beat Tim up because he got stuck listening to his music on a long car drive once. 

Songs Tim is currently listening to:

Losing My Edge – LCD Soundsystem

Cool for the Summer – Demi Lovato 

Jolene by Dolly Parton

Drunk Walk Home – Mitski

Dynamite – BTS

––––––––

Damian Wayne:

Classical. Damian almost exclusively listens to classical. No matter how much his older brothers try to expose him to different types of music – especially Tim – he doesn’t budge. The only thing he listens to besides classical is movie scores. Sometimes he hasn’t even seen the movies. 

Songs Damian is currently listening to:

Saint-Saens : The Swan

Spiegel im Spiegel – Arvo Pär

The Carnival of the Animals - VII. Aquarium – Saint-Saëns

The Battle – Hans Zimmer

Prologue – Alexandre Desplat

––––––––

Bruce Wayne:

Bruce has a very high-brow taste in music. It’s the most similar to Damian’s. He listens to a lot of classical and opera. However, he’ll surprise the boys by commenting on the bands they might be listening to. He doesn’t really mind when they play other stuff. But if he’s in control or alone, it’s always classical. 

Songs Bruce is currently listening to:

Allegri : Miserere -Tallis Scholars

Introit & Kyrie - Requiem - Faure

Claire de Lune – Debussy

Schumann: Arabeske in C, Op.18

Prelude in E-Minor (op.28 no. 4) – Frédéric Chopin

[punk-chicken-radio]

Megastar Monday - LCD Soundsystem

good monday, chickens, and guess what....

lcd soundsystem is playing at my house, my house....i’ll show you the ropes, kid, show you the ropes.

as you might have guessed, i am pretty excited for today’s megastar. i have loved this band since i heard their first song, and after a recent rewatch of ‘shut up and play the hits’ i thought we should cover them.

LCD Soundsystem is an American rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002 by musician James Murphy, co-founder of DFA Records. The band's current lineup consists of Murphy (vocals, multi-instrumentalist), Nancy Whang (synthesizer, keyboards, vocals), Pat Mahoney (drums), Gavin Rayna Russom (synthesizer), Tyler Pope (bass, guitar, synthesizer), Al Doyle(guitar, synthesizer, percussion), Matt Thornley (guitar, synthesizer, percussion), and Korey Richey (synthesizer, piano, percussion). They are currently signed to both DFA and Columbia Records. The band began by recording and releasing multiple singles from 2002 to 2004, the first being "Losing My Edge", one of their signature songs. This led up to the release of their self-titled debut studio album, which was released in 2005. It garnered critical acclaim as well as a Grammy Award nomination for Best Electronic/Dance Album. Their single "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House", which has become the band's most commercially successful single, received a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording. They eventually won a Grammy for “Tonite” in 2018.

On February 8, 2011, LCD Soundsystem announced on its website that it would be playing its last show on April 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. When tickets went on pre-sale and sale, there were widespread problems with availability and online ordering. Following the immediate sale of all available tickets, LCD Soundsystem announced that they would be playing four warm-up shows at New York's Terminal 5. The setlists at those shows were nearly identical to the setlist of the final show at Madison Square Garden. The final song performed by LCD Soundsystem at the farewell show was "New York, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down". The show lasted almost four hours with appearances by Arcade Fire, Reggie Watts and others. Fortunately, this disbandment didn’t last and by 2016, they were back and recording new material and playing live.

also, check out all the random stuff james murphy has done in the last 30 years or so. it’s pretty cool.

anyway, there are gonna be some super beats playing today, and we both hope you enjoy the sounds of lcd soundsystem!!

i believe in waking up together kisses,

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

loveaxiomatic and thepunkmummy

*90% of band info stolen from wikipedia

[zanrai-kid]

I have no legitimate sleep schedule, so take my list of my Top 20 favorite Gorillaz tracks

20: Momentz - In the same league as Feel Good Inc., don't at me.

19: Stylo - Mos Def and Bobby Womack absolutely devastating on the bridges. Hearing Jeremih perform this live was gorgeous.

18: Humility - Gorillaz made a summer jam, and it sure sounds like it. Damon's getting old, man. Just wants to retire, wants to have a few beers by the beach. 

17: Sleeping Powder - iwasgone I M B A C K ASDKJHAJSDHGSKDJHFGKJHASGLDKJAGSD

16: Feel Good Inc. - A legendary song in my formative years, and a soundtrack to the Bush administration as important as “American Idiot”. Only so low on the list because of oversaturation.

15: Rhinestone Eyes - This song is the embellished production of Plastic Beach in a moment. I once made a mashup with this song and "Kangaroo Court" by Capital Cities.

14: Re-Hash - First song on the first album, and it slaps.

13: Ascension - Vince Staples is such a brilliant voice in the latter half of the decade, and I'm pleased to see Damon Albarn recognize this.

12: DARE - Hot damn, this song is a jam.

11: M1 A1 - Hearing this song kick off a Gorillaz concert feels like getting shot by a cannon. It's the "most like the sound the pilliows exuded on the FLCL soundtrack" song in the Gorillaz discography, and for that, I like it.

10: Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head - When Gorillaz want to tell a horror story, they double down and get Dennis Hopper to tell a story of apocalypse. Demon Days is such an immortal album, and this song will live on as a ubiquitous reminder of one's mortality at the hands of greed. Good one for the pessimistic crowds of both 2005 and 2019.

9: Rock the House - BETTER THAN CLINT EASTWOOD. FIGHT ME. When Gorillaz sample audio, they make sure to make the most of it. The ten second sample of John Dankworth's "Modesty Blaise" carries Del the Funky Homosapien's bragging boogie rap through to another level with the tight bass riffs the self-titled album is known for. Echo effects, horn stabs, a fucking recorder. This tracks fucks me up.

8: Souk Eye - I think a track off of The Now Now is one of the best works in the Gorillaz discography. Primarily because following Humanz and The Now Now, Albarn and Hewlett are in a strange time of their lives. Both are now 50 years old, and Gorillaz has lasted 20 years. The concept has run its course for now. To hear this song close this chapter of the Gorillaz story feels fitting. A love song to the many miles taken, only to realize one must leave their current circumstances in order to survive.

7: Last Living Souls - It's a cliche to say a song builds, but when the track starts with little more than a drum machine, and leads to an acoustic breakdown and string section breakdown back-to-back, you can agree this song builds. A lush atmosphere of tiny bleeps and bloops coming together to become greater than the sum of all parts. The song sounds so down and muted on the album, but hearing it live, it feels like a war cry. Both interpretations fit the themes of Demon Days, and it's a good one to start off the album following the Dawn of the Dead sampled "Intro".

6: El Mañana - Hearing this song follow "Busted and Blue" accompanied by visuals of Noodle during the Humanz Tour is the closest I've come to a religious experience at a concert. The sudden immediacy of the situation following "Feel Good Inc" is made aware from sirens and Damon delivering a ragged vocal delivery. The track ebbs and flows in and out of deep bass and washed out highs. It feels like a sigh. It feels like crying. And if you're a Gorillaz lore sucker like I am, this track accompanies the death of Noodle, the single most important event in the canon. Also, the acoustic version reminds one how good Damon is at evoking very quiet emotion.

5: Tomorrow Comes Today - When those drums come in, man, you get teleported to the turn of the millennium. Dirty trip-hop was coming out of the UK en masse, Fatboy Slim released one of my favorites albums of all time "Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars", and Daft Punk's "Discovery" was still a year off. In between some of the most important music of my life being dropped, Gorillaz dropped their first single "Tomorrow Comes Today" at the end of the year and solidified their place for years to come. Slinking and sly, velvety and smoky. This is Gorillaz sending up a culture of basement shows and turntablism. If Think Tank is the first "Gorillaz album", this is when the transition was made manifest.

4: On Melancholy Hill - Ugh, this song. This song is pretty. Full stop. It's one of Gorillaz' very few love songs, and it still manages to capture the plasticine sadness of Plastic Beach. Plastic Beach was my first real and honest introduction to Gorillaz in college, as I only remember hearing about Demon Days from advertising in 2005, when I was 12. This track was just a treat to hear in spring/summer, and a reason I made so many (see: too many) of my finals about Gorillaz. Around the time Humanz was teased, I went back and realized this song had held up so well. It's just a universal sentiment about how the world we know is falling apart, but let's have this moment together. The acoustic version is an honest to God lullaby. Something I can play my future children. Not bad for only 16 lines of lyric.

3: Empire Ants - If "On Melancholy Hill" is about finding the beauty in ruin, "Empire Ants" holds a magnifying glass up to ruin, wondering how it came to be. Listening to the album, "Superfast Jellyfish" came just before. A satirical take on consumeristic meals leading into a song about how we are personified as ants, marching in tandem to complete our tasks and build ever outward, never truly satisfied until death. It is a reminder to look upon the greater picture that is our world and see the moments of tranquility for what they are. Sadly, these moments do not last, and Little Dragon's part reminds us we are part of a machine, ever moving, ever crumbling. It is beauty interrupted by obligation, and for a kid who was in college when this album dropped, and who is now 26 and facing a lifetime of having to make my own decisions, it's an anthem.

2: Hong Kong - I remember loading the entirety of Plastic Beach onto my iPod Nano, and having an iTunes gift card left to spend from Christmas/birthday/etc. Having seen the Demon Days Live concert, I knew this track had to be on my beautiful iPod Nano. That, and for some reason, "Dirty Harry (Schtung Chinese New Year Remix). I remember long car rides staring out the window, listening to this track as the scenery blew by. I remember reading up on this track's history, how it was released in-between Demon Days and Plastic Beach and it shows, how it's a tale of neo-industrial China and Hong Kong's place in both Chinese and British history. This is both a love letter and warning to the nation of the apocryphal train ride that inspired Demon Days. In a world where China seems to be ever rising, "Hong Kong" is a song that asks questions of how this will affect the world as a whole, using Hong Kong as a metaphor. That's nothing to say of the wondrous instrumentation, the piano part in particular on my wishlist of "Songs I Should Learn on Piano Before I Die". Many call it Gorillaz' most underrated track, and I agree full stop.

1: DoYaThing - I'M THE SHIT. I SAID I'M THE SHIT. Above all else, Gorillaz is a collaborative effort of hundreds of musicians from all walks of life. When you throw James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, a band that rose in the same timeframe as Gorillaz, and Andre 3000, my personal pick for the G.O.A.T., magic happens. Uncut, unedited, 13 minute magic happens. Is it a bit of a meme? Sure. It is a shitpost disguised as a legitimate song? Why not. But sometimes, the goofy aspect of Gorillaz can craft audio gold. And aren't we all about memes on this blog? Albarn's at his most snotty white boy. Murphy's production and vocals are a reminder he was every music nerd's wet dream in the 2000s. Andre 3000 is just laying into every line with a confidence not heard since Stankonia. Everything about this song is designed and manufactured to sound like it it running off the rails in a fit of confidence. It is both wildly powerful and mournfully unaware. In short, to quote the great music critic Todd in the Shadows on the subject of LCD Soundsystem’s song “Losing My Edge”, "(It is) a critical darling... This was tailor made for critics. It is perfect music nerd bait, total pandering." DoYaThing, my favorite Gorillaz song of all time.

[splitshortsyeah]

LCD Soundsystem 'This Is Happening'

- Tim Shea

Imagine being there. Imagine being there for the first single. ‘I'm losing my edge……’

Imagine having that song speak to how you felt about the current landscape of nightlife and music and parties. That was in 2002. Imagine being that fucking old. James Murphy is that old. He's older than that actually. He's seen everything. And he's seen it before you and I. So much so that he has made a career out of what he has seen. His first single came after kicking around the scene for over a decade, and it simply spoke to how jaded and experienced he was. Eight years and three albums later, in 2010, he still was the IT BOI. Much was made of how it was his and his band’s (LCD Soundsystem) last album. The act had been around for less than a decade, and at its climax, warranted a live studio session and a farewell tour chronicled in both album and movie fashion. 

We now know there was a lot left in the tank.

In the fall of 2010, I was driving from Rochester,NY to Boston,MA to visit my girlfriend, with a brief layover in Hadley,MA to sort out my pickup truck’s bed cover. My good friend was riding along to see her better friend, but we both were lamenting over the fact we never found ourselves at a house party where only LCD Soundsystem was played. But maybe I had, and I didn’t realize…. (Granted, I drunkenly danced around to “Daft Punk At my House” for some silly project for a roommate years before, but the genius and glory of Murphy was lost on me until ‘This Is Happening’).

 I probably didn’t even really like the album that much on the first listen. Unrelenting kick drum, cowbell that was ironic and unurinic all at once, synths stretched to the MAX and the rambling musings; how could you not understand my lack of immediate infatuation. I might have even preferred Kid Cuid’s Remix/Cover/Taker of the opener with Chip Tha Ripper at some point that summer. But, eventually, I wisened up, realized Cudi was the only one who thought he was more talented than his fans did, I figured out ‘You wanted a hit’ wasn't about LSD, and began to  appreciate the greatness of the ‘..Happening’. And thank god there was a glittering back catalogue to fall into once I was hooked. 

“Dance yrself clean”, “Drunk girls”, and  “Home” are all still better than most noise today. Everything else from the LP is acceptable croony filler, but once one gets it, one knows they are all necessary. It’s not his (their) best album (I’m not really sure what is tbh, the cantankerous may say ‘45:33’ or ‘Fabriclive.36’), but it sticks just as much as the two albums before it and the one to follow. 

As I was saying, ‘...Happening’ was to be the end of LCD Soundsystem. And Jimmy made an effort to move on. Special Disco Version (a collab between Murphy and Pat Mahoney) toured the circuit and even created its own immersive sonic experience for select shows. I was there in Asheville, and at the Roots Picnic and on Govn’rs Island, and was quite upset about the show in Cambridge being sold out (how are there some many people who are cool as me???????). Murph Dog wasn't satisfied with sharing old and some new obscurities with the masses. He even lent his services to the other great indie group at the time for their ‘Reflektor’ album. 

Fuck - to call LCD’s rise meteoric gives too much credit to meteors.

Shit - I’m burnt.

‘This is Happening’ was and still is a great record. It didn’t really need to happen. I mean, that’s a guess on my end, I didn’t listen to ‘Sound of Silver’ until after 2010, but that was a great album as well. Anyone who paid attention to the eponymous must have been over the moon with the “Nike Mix”, “Fabric Mix” and the 2nd studio offering. I can’t imagine they were sitting there like “well, yeah but where do we go from here?...” - unless they were fucks.

I’m starting to categorize albums as ‘great’ if they don’t leave me wanting more. If the album met and exceeded expectations, whether in real time or in retrospect, it’s selfish and close minded to just want to know ‘how are you gonna blow my mind next’. Like, ‘Darkside of the Moon’ is great, but the fact that it came after ‘Meddle’ and before ‘Wish You Were Here’ and ‘Animals’ is fucking jarring. Expectatiosn become so high some times and artists have to really be other worldly to put out something that satisfies and mystifies at the same time. 

That's LCD for me.

2010 could have been it. The DJ gigs gave me a sense of the energy of the shows I never thought or knew about. I was all set. But. He. Ran. It. Fucking. Back. Some internets were very hurt in their softy feels ‘cause “they just couldn’t…..” But when an artist has reached the level of “new output is better than no output” that's the win win all around. I saw LCD Soundsystem during the American Dream Tour and it was great. It wasn't teenage-illegal-warehouse-in-Brooklyn great but as a 30 year old, it was a proper ‘CHECK’. The fat guy in the t-shirt did not let me down.

2010 was the end that wasn’t and It got many a folk into the idea of dance punk, which had actually been around since CBGB, but it also left that scene really nowhere else to go. DFA Records soon flailed. The Juan MacClean and YATCH never broke through like they could have, Holy Ghost were lost in the fray, Factory Floor just missed the mark and the rebrand epitomized by Guerilla Toss was ignored by most. ‘American Dream’ was another album the fans didn’t need or deserve but it worked. It may have been geared to saving the label but I’d be surprised if it won them new fans like back in 2010. But for those who wanted without know, it was a sweet reminder of how their taste in music remained fringe but blindly excellent.