A Short Eulogy for a Band of Substitute Teachers

“There’s this amazing photo of us taken backstage on this tour, and it looks like a teachers’ lounge; a bunch of middle-age misfits. And for this band of substitute teachers to go out like this, kicking the asses of bands that actually look like bands… that makes me very excited.”

— James Murphy, Spin Magazine (January / February 2011)

I know a thing or two about being a late bloomer. I had my first kiss in the eighth grade. I lost my virginity at 18. I received my first guitar at 20. At around nine months or so (and even shorter if you only count “being official”), I’m currently in the longest tenured romantic partnership I’ve ever had by a margin of five months. Though I’ve had a great deal of shitty life experience that has opened my eyes to the world, I’ve only recently felt as though I’m as accomplished as a 27-year-old with my sense of ambition should be.

James Murphy was 32 when he released “Losing My Edge”. Though he had been in bands throughout his twenties, that brilliant single was the world’s introduction to him. There’s a fitting irony that LCD Soundsystem’s debut single was written from the point of view of an aging hipster desperately trying to grasp onto some sort of cred, some semblance of shallow “coolness,” because the song turned this schlubby white dude quickly approaching middle-age into a musician ahead of the curve, a bona fide trendsetter, one of the coolest people in the genre of music just as obsessed with “cool” as any other. James Murphy was the regular guy who snuck into the back door of the party and ended up being the life of it.

There’s this notion that music writers overestimated Murphy’s talents because he was essentially “one of them” even though he wasn’t. Of course, I’m exempted from this theory, because I’m skinny and black, I’m reasonably good-looking and I dress well. But for others (probably even more than you would think), James Murphy could pass for one of them. In addition to his looks (and this is the part that he and I do have in common), Murphy is a voracious music fan, insanely knowledgeable and enthusiastic about a wide array of groups and artists, spanning myriad genres and eras. James Murphy is a music nerd, through and through, like, to the point where that’s almost more apparent than the fact that he makes music. But the thing is that, if you listen to his music, his songwriting, the way he distills his influences, it becomes very clear that Murphy is a guy who knows his shit, and is every bit as good as writers claim he is.

And let’s not forget Nancy Whang, Pat Mahoney, and all of the other members that carry Murphy’s vision to soaring heights in the studio and in a live setting. When you’ve hit a certain level of music nerd when making music, you seek out the sort of people that are capable of bolstering the sound you’re trying to create, and that’s exactly what the other players of LCD Soundsystem do. And sure, that speaks as much to Murphy’s curating talents just as much as their own ability, but kudos to them for not buckling under pressure.

I, very obviously, tuned into the live webcast of the final LCD Soundsystem show. I smiled, I sang along, I cried right along with James Murphy when he stopped set closer “New York, I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down” (which makes me think of my own relationship with New York, as the hometown of my father and most of his side of my family). But most of all, I was inspired. More than anything, LCD Soundsystem (Murphy was 35 when it was released), Sound of Silver (37), and This is Happening— all the way up to James Murphy’s 40th birthday and this victory lap— prove that there’s no age maximum to achieve your dreams. It makes me feel good about recording an album by myself at 23, about releasing my debut as a hip-hop beatmaker at 25. It makes me feel good about producing records and maybe even building a little home studio when I’m well into my forties. I just watched an iconic performance from an incredible group of musicians, nary a single one born in the 1980’s among them. Who gives a fuck if you bloom late, as long as you bloom brightly?

Notes

  1. macerrari reblogged this from douglasmartini
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  3. nhersey reblogged this from desnoise
  4. slim reblogged this from desnoise and added:
    don’t think I’ll...reading well-written pieces about
  5. tomewing reblogged this from desnoise and added:
    Well worth reading....same way about Bill Drummond,...be...
  6. praiasedesfiladeiros reblogged this from douglasmartini
  7. desnoise reblogged this from douglasmartini and added:
    haven’t read this yet…
  8. thecomfortinbeingsad reblogged this from douglasmartini and added:
    Read More Douglas does it again. (Makes me tear up a bit,...was just thinking
  9. keepinittight reblogged this from douglasmartini
  10. sunshadowpoet said: I love you, Martin.
  11. douglasmartini posted this