I'm back. Two weeks off. Did I get any rest? Nope. Relaxation? None. I did get to go to Coachella though. Funny enough, last year's Coachella was the first theme I ever did on the radio, so I guess this is the one year anniversary.
Today's theme is in honor of the above performance (pay special attention to the rant about DJs carrying vinyl: "Is being overpaid to play someone elses music so F*%#ing hard you can't carry your own records"). All songs tonight will be from artists who are name-checked in LCD Soundsystem's "Losing My Edge". This song is largely responsible for me wanting to become a DJ.
Here are the lyrics so you can play along (blue songs are bands I played - playlist is below):
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 Niagara 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, Niagara,
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)
LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge
Public Image Limited - Poptones
Niagra - Bones
Faust - Jennifer
Can - Spoon (Further keeping with the Coachella theme as the band, Spoon, who played this year, named themselves after this song)
10cc - Life is a Minestrone
The Beach Boys - Never Learn Not To Love (Charles Manson cover)
The Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night
Captain Beefheart - Kandy Korn
Scott Walker - Mathilde
Dorothy Ashby - The Windmills of your Mind
Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here
This Heat - Sleep
The Slits - Instant Hit
The Modern Lovers - I'm Straight
Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance
The Monks - I Hate You
Mars - Helen Fordsdale
Joy Division - Transmission
Section 25 - Girls Don't Count
The Sonics - Psycho
The Normals - Warm Leatherette
Afrika Bambaataa Soul Sonic Force - Zulu Nation Throwdown
David Axelrod - London
The Bar-Kays - I Can't Turn You Loose
Suicide - Keep Your Dreams
Swans - Mother/Father
Oh, by the way, the new Spike Jonze directed video for Drunk Girls is one of the best videos EVER!
