LCD Soundsystem - "Losing My Edge"

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Obviously bongos are not jungle - i thought Brock might have a) been misinterpreting jungle or b) using the term descriptively rather than as a genre label.

― Tim, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

juan mclean is the fellow from six finger satellite. the dfa website is www.plantain.net/recording. dfa will be releasing a double lp from black dice shortly, and it's a stunner

― lauren, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

a few answers: the dfa website is www.plantain.net/recording, and the juan mclean in question is the fellow from six finger satellite. dfa will be releasing a double lp from black dice shortly, and it's a stunne

― lauren, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

Hurrah! Thanks for that link, I shall bookmark it and check back reguarly. :-)

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

I downloaded 2 songs called 'Rapture - House of Jealous Lovers'. One of them is a dub of 'Money (That's What I Want)' & the other is a house track. Which is the real one?

― Keith McD, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

One problem w/ this song though is how limited the appeal is. I know that's part of the theme, but I have friends that I'd love to play it for but the references will mean nothing to them. Forced Exposure says something about it being a floor-filler, but can you really see a roomful of people dancing to it?

― Mark, Wednesday, 31 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

i couldn't stick with this song long enough to get to the music switch.

― Ron, Wednesday, 31 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

i will try harder.

― Ron, Wednesday, 31 July 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

Losing My Edge is the best thing I've heard this year without doubt. House of the Jealous Lovers may yet grow on me.

I had a real moment with Losing My Edge, my friend had gone to park his car on Saturday and I was in the bar waiting for him to come back and it came on. I hadn't heard it before and I knew it had to be it, it was long enough that my friend got back and was able to be impressed aswell. Fantastic. And I have no frame of reference with the Fall or Talking Heads or anyone but nonetheless, fantastic. (I did think it was a bit like Alex Gopher)

― Ronan, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

Not heard it. but 6FS were great!

― jel --, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

"(I did think it was a bit like Alex Gopher)"

!!! Ronan what on earth are you talking about? Certainly none of the Alex Gopher I've heard.

― Tim, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

I'd had a few drinks, and I have only heard it once........erm now I'm scared it mightnt have been it. bah it must have been.

― Ronan, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

Mind you Ronan I've only heard Alex Gopher's french house singles so if he does anything significantly different to that you might well be right.

― Tim, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

Finally picked up the four DFA singles after having a couple tracks on MP3 and still think the Geist version of "House of Jealous Lovers" is the best of all. (I would say that, wouldn't I?) After that it's probably "Beat Connection" and then one or two of the Juan Maclean productions.

Boy, the last few Six Finger Satellite records still sound great/annoying.

― Andy K, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

i have listened to the whole song now. it's ok. i was expecting more of a music switch near the end from what was said above. feels similar to 'instant club hit' Best lyric is "borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered 80's". i think i would like it more if i had met somebody like whom they are describing. 8 mins is a bit long to listen to casio beat, but i agree it probably wouldn't work much shorter.

― Ron, Saturday, 3 August 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

"Tim, since when bongos are jungle/drum and bass?!"

Most of the D&B breaks used after the genre ditched the "Jungle" term/techniques were from "The Incredible Bongo Band's" version of "Apache" (not that this question was literal...)

― Joe aka PappaWheelie (Joe aka PappaWheelie), Saturday, 14 September 2002 06:58 (10 years ago) Permalink

According to Epitonic:

"To get a good idea of the LCD's sound one must imagine Daft Punk, Chic and the Talking Heads in the back room of a seedy NYC dive engaged in an anything-goes sexathon circa 1978."

― Mr Swygart (mrswygart), Saturday, 14 September 2002 08:42 (10 years ago) Permalink

Only (with all respect) about a hundredth as good.

"Beat Connection" is excellent.

― Tom (Groke), Saturday, 14 September 2002 08:44 (10 years ago) Permalink

In all seriousness, I don't think anything could be that good.

I'm being serious.

― A.V. Alexandre (Keiko), Saturday, 14 September 2002 13:46 (10 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

he pronounces rakim wrong

― ron (ron), Monday, 4 November 2002 06:24 (10 years ago) Permalink

Anyone heard the new single yet?

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 4 November 2002 14:43 (10 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

the juan maclean single is really good i think

― gareth (gareth), Thursday, 23 January 2003 11:54 (10 years ago) Permalink

11 months pass...

This is the greatest goddamn 12-inch I've heard in a LONG LONG time. I can't stop playing it. Yes I know I'm about a year and a half too late. I don't care. All together now: "AND NOBODY'S GETTING ANY PLAY!!! IT'S THE SADDEST NIGHT OUT IN THE U.S.A.!!!"

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Saturday, 10 January 2004 08:02 (9 years ago) Permalink

Did anyone pick up the Shame 69/Negativland 7", 'No Business'? It's madshit hilarious; the Negativland side cuts up 'No Business Like Show Business', dropping new lyrics about artistic thievery. The Shame 69 is a cover of 'Losing My Edge', apparently by my man, Richard X, and includes lyrics about paedophilia and Gary Glitter, which ain't a necessarily cool subject, but I bust a gut anyway.

― Barima (Barima), Saturday, 10 January 2004 14:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Saturday, 10 January 2004 15:42 (9 years ago) Permalink

"I heard you have a vinyl of every _____ record, on German import"

If I told you what the blanks are, the song becomes personal self-fulfilling prophecy, doncha know!! "It took me YEARS to find out what he's saying, you think I'ma tell you, twerpy internet seeker?"

― Dr. Annabel Lies (Michael Kelly), Saturday, 10 January 2004 20:54 (9 years ago) Permalink

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.

voice one: To all the kids in Tokyo and Berlin.
voice two: 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 CBGBs.
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 Niagra 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, M|A|R|R|S, 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, Niagra,

voice one: Joy Division, Lower 48, the Association, Sun Ra, [unintelligible]
voice two: Scientists, Royal Trux, 10cc,

Eric B. and Rakim, Index, Basic Channel, Soulsonic Force ("just hit me"!), Juan Atkins, [unintelligible], 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.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Sunday, 11 January 2004 01:37 (9 years ago) Permalink

Oh, and the guy mutters "What just happened?" after the last "You don't know what you really want."

Now, if somebody could just fill in the [unintelligible]s...

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Sunday, 11 January 2004 01:39 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'm sure it's probably mars rather than M/A/R/R/S. Otherwise Well done (if you worked this out) and a HUGE THANKS.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 11 January 2004 04:26 (9 years ago) Permalink

...also no need to capitalise Daft Punk, i dont think.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 11 January 2004 04:34 (9 years ago) Permalink

YOu know, it never occurred to me that he didn't actually mean the band Daft Punk!! But it makes sense, (chrono)logically. I assumed it was a meta-reference the disco punk thing, ie playing disco to punk kids

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Sunday, 11 January 2004 04:42 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'm not gonna kiss you, Mr. Snrub, but y'all done good.

"I'm losing myself"

― Barima (Barima), Sunday, 11 January 2004 13:02 (9 years ago) Permalink

I think you're right. Daft Punk sure as hell never got big in America by being played at CBGB's. Do they even play that kind of music at CBGB's?? I wouldn't know, I've never been there.

Same with the M|A|R|R|S/Mars deal. It's definitely the latter, because a lot of the other bands he mentions (Pere Ubu, PIL, Lou Reed) are post-punky, not house.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Sunday, 11 January 2004 17:04 (9 years ago) Permalink

Plus theres an LCD track called (or known as) "Daft Punk Are Playing at My House" and he sure aint talkin about the frenchband.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 11 January 2004 17:14 (9 years ago) Permalink

sorry
"Daft Punk IS Playing IN My House"

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 11 January 2004 17:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

I don't get it. why would he use the name Daft Punk if he wasn't referring to the band?

― Elliot (Elliot), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:07 (9 years ago) Permalink

it's gotta be the band!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:08 (9 years ago) Permalink

I mean "playing daft punk to the rock kids"--why would that be unusual unless it was the band daft punk?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:08 (9 years ago) Permalink

I know!

― Elliot (Elliot), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:09 (9 years ago) Permalink

totally!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:10 (9 years ago) Permalink

Is it a slow day up north there?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:14 (9 years ago) Permalink

you have no idea, brah

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:15 (9 years ago) Permalink

Well, take off, eh?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:15 (9 years ago) Permalink

Plus theres an LCD track called (or known as) "Daft Punk Are Playing at My House"

And WHY have I never heard of it before now!?!?!??!

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:39 (9 years ago) Permalink

it's never been released but you can find it online - if you can't just let me know.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 11 January 2004 19:23 (9 years ago) Permalink

it might be called Bitchfight.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 11 January 2004 19:32 (9 years ago) Permalink

He's talking about the band Daft Punk.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Sunday, 11 January 2004 19:38 (9 years ago) Permalink

Of course he's fucking talking about Daft Punk the band! Even if he wasn't he'd have to have never heard of them to include it as a lyric.

Isn't Laurent Garnier in the lyric to Losing My Edge somewhere?

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 11 January 2004 19:43 (9 years ago) Permalink

Maybe he was talking about the Melody Maker review of the band Darlin' which called them 'daft punk' which led to the ex-members calling their new band that which etc.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 11 January 2004 19:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

hahahhah

― Elliot (Elliot), Sunday, 11 January 2004 20:14 (9 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 99 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I was there when Bat For Lashes got an 8 and then drowned shortly thereafter. We all know.

― fatedoomer (The Reverend), Saturday, 25 July 2009 00:45 (3 years ago) Permalink

I used to write for Idolator.
I posted everything before anyone.
I was there at the River Room in Harlem for the Merriweather Post Pavillion listening session.
I was there at Brooklyn's Masonic Temple when Dan Deacon debuted his 15-piece live band.
I woke up naked in a warehouse in Brooklyn in 2008.

― highway to sarahel (J0rdan S.), Saturday, 25 July 2009 00:58 (3 years ago) Permalink

this was v iconic but house of jealous lovers was really amazing mixed in with all the shit that people might have called electro or whatever before the name became tainted, it was so physical. no rock record will ever have that impact again.

― I for one welcome this new Nazi ILX (Local Garda), Saturday, 25 July 2009 00:58 (3 years ago) Permalink

the good stuff they've been putting out: Shocking Pinks, Syclops, et al

ugh, worst things they've put out

― like totally gr80 to the max (jaxon), Saturday, 25 July 2009 01:10 (3 years ago) Permalink

otm like a buffalo nickel

― fatedoomer (The Reverend), Saturday, 25 July 2009 01:15 (3 years ago) Permalink

But I was there! I was transcribing the lyrics to this song before anybody else did!

― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, 25 July 2009 03:14 (3 years ago) Permalink

before house of jealous lovers and before electroclash most people used the term electro to describe actual electro-funk i.e. Cybotron and Bam as well as the post techno electro revivalists like DMX Krew, Jedi Knights, Le Car, Drexcyia etc.

― dan selzer, Saturday, 25 July 2009 04:22 (3 years ago) Permalink

yeah no of course dan, but you know what I mean by using it to mean that stuff too, I dunno, like in that interzone where people were playing hojl and lots of other dfa stuff and then stuff like black strobe etc mixed together...there wasn't really a name for it I guess. I really loved that period of time.

now it's like a sort of maxed out version of that sound is the biggest thing on the planet.

― I for one welcome this new Nazi ILX (Local Garda), Saturday, 25 July 2009 07:23 (3 years ago) Permalink

haha snrub

― fatedoomer (The Reverend), Saturday, 25 July 2009 08:43 (3 years ago) Permalink

i think the real argument should be that since DFA isn't "hot omg meme" label anymore, people have been ignoring the good stuff they've been putting out: Shocking Pinks, Syclops, et al
― hipster brünoff (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, July 24, 2009 9:30 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the real argument should be: kill youre damn saelf

― the shitbirdification of america's youth (cankles), Saturday, 25 July 2009 09:07 (3 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

This is ten years old. 10 years old. A decade. I feel a bit like Jeremy Piven. 10 WHOLE YEARS.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 23 March 2012 11:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

quite shocked re whineys declaration of love for the shocking pinks album up there.
never made it to the end of that album before i hit the eject button.

― mark e, Friday, 23 March 2012 11:16 (1 year ago) Permalink

Song about feeling old succeeds in making you feel old.

― And I have been called "The Appetite" (DL), Friday, 23 March 2012 11:18 (1 year ago) Permalink

I was young when it came out! I was one of them-there 'internet seekers'! With a playlist of every good song, by every good band, ever! I'm probably the same age now as Murphy was when it was recorded.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 23 March 2012 11:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

Wikipedia tells me that Murphy is 9 years older than me, so that was a pretty good guess.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 23 March 2012 11:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

personal crisis starts hear. i remember dancing to this at my first Glastonbury (I was there!)

― Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Friday, 23 March 2012 11:53 (1 year ago) Permalink

starts hear?

― Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Friday, 23 March 2012 11:57 (1 year ago) Permalink

ha yeah i can never get that Piven "TEN (horn honk!) YEARS!" thing out of my head when a decade's gone by.

― piscesx, Friday, 23 March 2012 12:26 (1 year ago) Permalink

always preferred the B side but then that's a classic indie tossbag thing that 'the kids' on the actual song might say.

― piscesx, Friday, 23 March 2012 12:28 (1 year ago) Permalink

Was just talking about this with a friend last night, but I misremembered this as having come out 2003. Now I feel older than I already did.

― like a musical album. made by a band. (fucking in the streets), Friday, 23 March 2012 16:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

"Memmmmmmmmmories..."

http://stereogum.com/1087342/losing-my-edge-turns-10/top-stories/

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 10 July 2012 18:20 (10 months ago) Permalink

Almost a tween.

― Jeff, Wednesday, 11 July 2012 12:56 (10 months ago) Permalink

Nice article, although everyone I know pronounces it I-beetha or Ib-eetha - is it different in the States?

― Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Wednesday, 11 July 2012 13:46 (10 months ago) Permalink

most ppl I know say Ih-bee-zah unless they've actually been there

― I see you, Pineapple Teef (DJP), Wednesday, 11 July 2012 14:00 (10 months ago) Permalink

"I once wrote an entire paragraph about how people pronounce 'Ibiza' without researching it"

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 11 July 2012 15:14 (10 months ago) Permalink

that is a very good article. i especially like the quotes from james murphy discussing how the song was born of his own fears about the declining social value of music knowledge in an era of "internet seekers" who can track down obscure information relatively easily. the song is definitely a landmark.

― Pat Finn, Wednesday, 11 July 2012 15:54 (10 months ago) Permalink

The Ibeza/Ibetha paragraph had me shaking my head, I haven't heard eye-bee-za since my teenaged brother proclaimed he was 'into trance' and bought a FSoL CD

― is capybara gay? (Ówen P.), Wednesday, 11 July 2012 16:26 (10 months ago) Permalink

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