In the days before blog'n'roll I used to spend quite a few hours watching music videos on MTV2. Most of the time it was the same old, same old, hour after hour, but every now and again something would come on by a band or singer I was completely unfamiliar with. Sometimes I would be able to hit the record button on the VHS machine and go back and listen to the song/watch the video again just to see if, on second or third listen it was worth pursuing. Sometimes there was no tape in the machine and I had to go with instinct.The latter is what happened when I heard this for the first time, all based on the title I've given this posting:-
mp3 : Interpol - PDA
I bought the album the next day. I should have in fact bought the EP as its reasonably rare and changes hands for not bad money while the album can be found relatively cheaply in some record shops (remember them?) every now and again.
Interpol seem to be one of those bands, like countrymen The Strokes, who got a lot of great things written and said about them initially, but when eventually they become commercially successful they are dismissed by the critics as glory-hunters interested only in fame and fortune whose new songs aren't as good as the old stuff.
Total bollocks....although the third LP, Our Love To Admire, was a slight let down in comparison to the brilliance of Turn On The Bright Lights and Obstacle. It seems they are back in the studio with new material due soon.....count me among those looking forward to it:-
mp3 : Interpol - Evil
mp3 : Interpol - The Heinrich Maneuver
mp3 : Interpol - Leif Erikson
Can't be many bands who dedicate a song to the first European to set foot on what we now call the continent of North America.
Don't ever say you never get educated round these parts.
7 comments:
I quite like 'No Exit' also.
Good one, JC. I like what you say about the backlash as it relates to the Strokes. People found out they went to NYU, an expensive college here in NYC, and out the window went their so-called punk bona fides. That's unfair.
I like Interpol even though they should probably sent the remaining members of Joy Division royalty checks! Incidentally, I found the Heinrich Manuever 45 for a buck, brand new, when it first came out. Today I found Ian Dury's first lp for a buck, along with a Steve Forbert album, Streets of This Town, an American folk-rocker who you may not familiar with.
Anyway, I've rambled on enough. Over and out...
Their music is OK, but live they can be quite boring... At least they were so, when I saw them last Summer, in Barcelona...
NYC is a phenomenal song, saw them in 2003 and loved them, was left cold by them at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange in 2007, around the time of Our Love To Admire.
Hmm. Loved Interpol for a while but for me the second LP had some great songs but was just too streamlined and I honestly can't imagine listening to the third again.
As for the JD rip-off suggestions, I'm sure the guitarist in the Chameleons might take issue with that!
you might like to check out 'White Lies' too...they're sort of joy div crossed with the editors..playing Brixton in November :)
our record replace, rewire is basically a portray of our love of Interpol and the late Ian Curtis. Check out the track "Cannonball."
www.cdbaby.com/wellness/cd
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