THE RECORD THAT MADE ME WANT TO BE A MISFIT
Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes (1983)This was like a gateway drug to weird punk rock, and it immunised me against the more macho variety. I was 11 or 12 when I first heard it. My friend Arthur had a boombox and this was one of the tapes he played. For me punk rock was a bit like the B-52s – it was pretty gay and weird and broken and really misfitty. It wasn't like 300 guys with their heads shaved agreeing – that never felt punk to me, that felt like a football game. I wanted to be in a room with the weirdos, not the football thugs.
The beyond great James Murphy - the most consistently stunningly brilliant and original musician of the last decade - talks about the records that made him to The Observer.
Obligatory PR blurb - Shut Up and Play the Hits is out on DVD and Blu-ray on 8 October. To hear a Spotify playlist go to tinyurl.com/MurphySoundtrack
PS Shut up and listen to this! (FTPA DFA YAY!!!)
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'drunk girls" !!! i play it over and over again. never tire of it. a rare incursion into my electric guitar zero-tolerance zone.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what James is doing now.
DeleteBe tragic if he's stopped making music.
Do you know?
x
Think he's just sitting on his money.
ReplyDeleteA room with '300 guys with their heads shaved' sounds a bit gay.
ReplyDelete