#Razorlight

[aeolianblues]

‘Indie sleaze’ is not 2014, ‘Indie sleaze’ is not 2014, ‘Indie sleaze’ is not 2014, ‘Indie sleaze’ is not 2014!

It’s not tumblr-core and it’s not Lana Del Ray or 2013 AM, it’s not #girl interrupted, it’s not Ethel Cain (she literally is an artist of our time, what are you on about.)

It was 2001 with the Strokes on the cover of the NME every 2 weeks, it was cabaret night and English poetry with the Libertines in 2002, it’s those red and blue military jackets, it was the fucking grease in Julian Casablancas’ hair, it’s ’cocaine was the banker’s drug’ quoth Alex Kapranos, it was Don't Go Back To Dalston and the heroin, it was red and black horizontal striped tops and tight black shirts as evening wear, it was Russell Lissak’s mop top and a full page interview with London hairdressers in the NME in 2005, it was Jack and Meg’s saturated red and white dresses, it was cut-and-paste glitter on the cover of Santigold’s first album, it was the sleaze and the sex of CSS’s music, it was the anti-Bush and anti-war stances of the bands at the time, it was America by Razorlight, it was Popworld on telly and Simon Amstel being a little shit to musicians, it was Karen O defying death on stage nightly, it was throwing up in shitty nightclubs on god knows what drugs, it was the fucking danger knowing this could all collapse any second—and rightly, it should. It was the godawful egos at DFA, it was knowing that while you were lucky to be seeing these bands live, you’d fucking hate them if you had to spend even a minute in their individual company. It was Amy Winehouse telling the world to get the fuck out of her business, it was Leslie Feist and Peaches sharing a dilapidated flat above a sex shop in Toronto.

It was horrible camera flash and red-eye editing softwares and putting your feet by the warm, spinning fans of your computer while it whirred away and downloaded your albums in *checks* 46 more minutes. It was horrible, it was dirty, it was gritty, we all hated it and thought the 90s were the last time music was good and that nothing good had happened since 1997. It was garishly bright clothes we were all embarrassed of by 2011, it was multiple layers and leggings and asking your mum to cut the itchy tag on the back of your low rise jeans only for her to snip your back. It was bell bottoms at the start of the decade. It being thankful that by 2017, no one would dream of wearing low rises anymore, please please, please let them never come back.

It was faux nostalgic of the past itself. It was ‘please make sure baby you’ve got some colours in there’ in your clothes. It was moral panic over emos. It was wanting to escape into a better past that you could see was visibly impoverished in the present. It was watching your favourite programmes become less and less relevant on air. It was watching MTV decisively die a horrible death. It was watching important venues and nightclubs get bulldozed. It was watching the last regular broadcast of Top Of The Pops in 2006. It was seeing how the 2009 financial crisis most definitely put a stop to independent music in the western world for a decade, it was watching the rise of bedroom DIY and electronic music. It was seeing the phrase ‘SoundCloud rapper’ being coined. It was the rise of Disney pop. It was counter-culture Justin Bieber hatred. It was the MS paint meme of those tumblr girls thoroughly unimpressed by the guy.

It was not using the words ‘indie sleaze’ at all, in fact. That’s a retconned word. It was garage rock revival. It was ‘post-grunge’. We didn’t care what it was called, we hated it all the same. It was a lead into a decade of despair and nihilism, it was the last hurrah for the music industry before it splintered into a thousand little online ecosystems, it was the last time we had physical community and any shared pop cultural moments. It was Live8 2005. It was the same as it is now, and it was a time that’ll never happen again, for better and for worse.

But one thing is for sure: it was decisively dead by 2014. Santi and Karen O’s 2012 collab was its last hurrah and it was dead by Comedown Machine by the Strokes (2013). It has nothing to do with 2014.

[culture-sluts]

Advert for NME merchandise, featuring The Libertines, The Smiths, and The Stone Roses.

NME, 8th January 2005. Scanned by me.

[caringspast]

cry in the car lyrics

[punk-jules]

ALL MY LIFEEE WATCHING AMERICAAAAA

TELL ME HOW DOES IT FEEEEEEELLLLL

[littlesomnus]

I'm getting to the age now where having no friends is getting tiresome. If anyone wants friends/likes any of these things, please interact with me!

Nothing But Thieves

Jeff Buckley

The Smiths

The Strokes

Depeche Mode

The Cranberries

80s/90s music in general

[my-chaos-radio]

Release: October 2, 2006

Lyrics:

What a drag it is

The shape I'm in

Well, I go out somewhere

Then I come home again

I light a cigarette

'Cause I can't get no sleep

There's nothing on the TV, nothing on the radio

That means that much to me

All my life

Watching America

All my life

There's panic in America

Oh oh oh, oh

There's trouble in America

Oh oh oh, oh

Yesterday was easy

Happiness came and went

I got the movie script

But I don't know what it meant

I light a cigarette

'Cause I can't get no sleep

There's nothing on the TV, nothing on the radio

That means that much to me

There's nothing on the TV, nothing on the radio

That I can believe in

All my life

Watching America

All my life

There's panic in America

Oh oh oh, oh

There's trouble in America

Oh oh oh, oh

There's panic in America

Oh oh oh, oh

Yesterday was easy

Yes, I got the news

Oh, when you get it straight

You stand up, you just can't lose

Give you my confidence, all my faith in life

Don't stand me up

Don't let me down

No, I need you tonight

To hold me, say you'll be here

Hold me, say you'll be here

Hold me, say you'll be here

Hold

All my life

Watching America

All my life

There's panic in America

Oh oh oh, oh

She's just in America

Oh oh oh, oh

Songwriter:

Tell me how does it feel?

Tell me how does it feel?

Tell me how does it feel?

Tell me how does it feel?

Johnny Borrell / Andy Burrows

SongFacts:

👉📖

[lolli-says-stuff]

I would like to formally thank @suzie-shooter for introducing me to this marvellous song by writing a marvellous fan fiction about it. I could kiss your brain. Thank you.

[littlequeenies]

Ringo Starr's daughter Lee Starkey arrives to see Razorlight play at a special VIP invitation Concert at Richmond House on November 30, 2005 in London, England.

[aeolianblues]

I took 4 hours to make a stew today. I also listened to five different Johnny Borrell interviews in the intervening time. I think the two might be connected. I should be packing my suitcases instead.

I have been toying with the idea of reaching out to Razorlight management. They just put out an album, Planet Nothing on Friday. I have been thinking about this for a whole MONTH. In defence of my delusions who else is clamouring to interview them in Canada? This continent knows two songs (America and In The Morning, maybe Golden Touch at a stretch). Besides their management has liked my posts about them twice. So feed my delusions. I’ll try and reach out even though the album is now out. Worst case I won’t hear back, which is normal.

If they did say yes though, imagine that. It would make them one of the highest profile guests I’ve had, but that’s also good reason to be nervous. What the fuck do I know about touring the world, being in showbiz, doing telly, festivals, you know what I mean? You have to know about something yourself to ask questions about it.

And there’s say that Johnny is apparently a notoriously hard interviewee, though I’ve only ever heard him be delightful and insightful in interviews. Man doesn’t have a phone though, he’s like old-school old-school. He doesn’t trust social media which is valid and based. But I also find it’s easier for such people to fall out of touch. Like. What do I do if this guy shows up completely uncomfortable with the concept and practice of using Zoom? They aren’t touring Canada, any interviews will most likely be remote. This has literally happened before, where an interviewer in 2020 was like ?? Buddy you’re taken aback seeing yourself on the screen on Zoom, again, valid but like. Have you never used FaceTime or any such thing before? You’re in your forties. And he’s just like nope, never had an iPhone, don’t have one now, it’s borrowed for the interview, don’t trust it.

Man I want to talk about music? Let’s not get stuck here. He is completely right about how social media is killing creativity though, it doesn’t give you a chance to be bored and think, dream. Still, it does mean that we’d start things off on quite different pages, and then I’d also be working to pull him onto the same page, or meet him somewhere halfway. Whatever.

He was even asked about his supposedly difficult and standoffish persona, and he said he’s never had a tough time talking to music interviewers, you know music journalists from radio, music magazines, whatever; anyone who actually wanted to talk about the music itself, but because Razorlight got big quite fast and found themselves miserably thrown onto like art, culture lifestyle and celebrity programmes and magazines, and the interviewers would ask them inane questions, and Johnny just doesn’t seem like the kind of person that had the patience for that rubbish. He apparently groaned and moaned about having to go to the BRIT Awards because he had no interest in the façade of importance the music industry builds around itself, but the management had said yes before he ever had a chance to decline the invites and didn’t want to look like a dickhead pulling out at the last minute. That’s pure artist, and always a tricky interview— but one that could go really really well!

Here’s one interview Johnny gets criticised for, from I think 2007? Johnny gets asked questions regarding press about him, and he gets quite uncomfortable and says he’d rather not do it at all. All I see here is someone setting down firm boundaries over something he isn’t comfortable with, which should’ve been applauded! Instead almost universally the mood in the studio (and in the 16 year old comment section) is sour, there are people calling him a diva for politely saying he’s uncomfortable with and doesn’t want to dignify lies about himself written in the press— some of which the interviewers say they’ve made up for a laugh. Johnny says he’d rather they moved on, and they’re like 😐 we don’t have any more questions, we have a minute to fill.

Like that’s not Johnny Borrell’s job? Good on him for standing up for himself, the interviewers should’ve had backup questions. It’s so awkward, not because a musician set down boundaries but because the interviewers then made it awkward! Goodness, if that happened to me I think a TV Interviewer would never see me again. This is the kind of shit that made Godspeed stop doing interviews entirely.

In contrast, here’s an interview Johnny did with Face Culture in 2018 where he’s perfectly forthcoming and extremely pleasant (it’s more recent as well, which could be a confounding factor). He even said at the end when he’s called away for soundcheck, that’s a shame, I could’ve talked longer, I really enjoyed that, thanks for the intelligent questions.

I think he gets unfairly maligned in the press, and it’s a bad cycle that keeps spinning faster— one bad interview and suddenly journalists (especially non-music ones) are approaching you with that predator-out-on-the-prowl attitude and you’re cooked then because they can write what they please. They can make things awkward where there was no right to be awkwardness. Things like that.

So i think Johnny is okay, and particularly as campus radio, as someone with literally 0 agenda other than I want to talk about music to you, and as someone who is digging deep now and doing my homework, I think I should be fine. So I want to reach out (scared), if we do get the interview I hope he’s feeling great! He’s an interesting fella and if it works out, this could be the biggest interview of my (nonexistent) career so far.

[monophonics]

Razorlight - Golden Touch 

[boxcarwild]

"As a millennial, it is a bit sad not to have some sort of cultural Golden Age to remember. But perhaps it shouldn’t be. The ageing person who is morbidly convinced that civilisation just so happened to reach its zenith when they turned 18 wallows in nostalgia. To have come of age when Razorlight released “America” should at least have freed us from our adolescence" - Ben Sixsmith, Landfill indie remembered

[vinilett]

[renatofilomena]

Razorlight - I Can't Stop This Feeling I've Got