Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.
Song: “All My Friends (London Session)” by LCD Soundsystem
You might have heard “All My Friends” by this point. It’s the seven-plus-minute centerpiece of the most highly regarded album of one of the past decade’s most respected bands. But you haven’t really heard the song until you’ve listened to the version taken from LCD Soundsystem’s London Sessions, a 2010 collection of pristine-sounding live recordings that stands as a tidy wrap-up of the band’s catalog.
The live version adds an element of depth to a song that stands out for its propulsive rhythm, unending crescendo and nostalgic lyrics. From almost the beginning, the tune is wrapped in warm feedback that stands still, even as the bass line jumps and dances and tangles in the pitter-patter drums. The second verse adds an electric guitar, hanging just on the edge of overdrive, to add texture and another syncopated cog in the machine. By the time the drums start to swell and cascade toward the brink, the band has built a lush bed of sound that swirls below James Murphy’s vocals.
About those vocals. The live take of “All My Friends” carries an urgency that doesn’t translate as well on the original album version. And as anyone who finds themselves too often opting for the couch, early bedtimes and two fewer beers can attest, the fight to hold onto youth is worth getting urgent about. All the tiny moments Murphy illustrates — noticing your “face like a dad,” coming to grips with the fact that “I’m finally dead,” and that final repeated refrain, “if I could see all my friends tonight…” — sound alive, relatable, tragic and true, for better or worse. — Asher Fusco
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The world of faux/humor twitter accounts can be a mucky muck of suck-suck-suck — and a little humor. Sure, there’s the funny (@ohwonka)… the inane (@lord_voldemort7) … and the pretty effing ridiculous (@god_damn_batman). But there’s also a lot of terrible, terrible people who are just trying too hard. And that’s what makes @coffee_dad my favorite humor account. (Maybe my favorite account, period.) It’s so simple. The twitter bio: “just a dad who loves his coffee.” And that’s basically what it is. Here’s a sampling of tweets from the last few days:
@coffee_dad: tall cup of coffee
@coffee_dad: having another cup of coffee
@coffee_dad: picked up some coffee
And it goes on like that. Well, it did until this weekend, when @coffee_dad suddenly went serious.
@coffee_dad: driving down the road where my son lost his life and i lost everything
My first thought: Oh, no, @coffee_dad!!! I’m so sorry!!! To be honest, I have no idea what any of this means. This is Twitter, after all. But I will continue to follow @coffee_dad. And I know that once or twice a day, he’ll let me know that he’s “cleaning coffee cups” or “making coffee” or “sipping a tall cup of coffee.” And at that moment, I’ll smile and laugh. Oh, @coffee_dad, there you go again. — Rustin Dodd
The Brew House 