RIP James Chance

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The backstory for this one's great, but who knows whether it's true or just mythmaking.

"The most significant thing I remember about those sessions is that he said, 'Why don't you go in and warm up?' We warmed up with 'Can't Stand Myself,' which we'd never played before. And Eno recorded the warm-up and that's what came out. That was the first time we'd played it, and he got it, and that was it."

 

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There’s a few genres and sounds are sort of unfulfilled promises- conceptually interesting but never had many artists actually turning it into something good and listenable- and I think James chance was one the very few that captured no wave as the extension and disintegration of post punk and new wave into real tunes
 

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Well-known member
The backstory for this one's great, but who knows whether it's true or just mythmaking.




You can believe it when listening. The bass line is just playing the root note the whole time and chance isn’t using any of the actual lyrics besides ‘can’t stand myself.’ The energy that builds in the back half of the recording is great
 

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There’s a few genres and sounds are sort of unfulfilled promises- conceptually interesting but never had many artists actually turning it into something good and listenable- and I think James chance was one the very few that captured no wave as the extension and disintegration of post punk and new wave into real tunes

What do you think of the sax?
 

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What do you think of it as part of their sound in general.
I think it’s great, generally more textural than the guitars which I think more often come forward from the noise to have a more traditional musical moment.

I like the guitar solo in this one around the half way point. Really expressive and intentional, sounds like trying to sus the life out of some spastic animal with your bare hands

I get similar imagery from this songs where the dual horns suggests two jungle animals running each other down at 15 seconds
 

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Well-known member
There’s a few genres and sounds are sort of unfulfilled promises- conceptually interesting but never had many artists actually turning it into something good and listenable- and I think James chance was one the very few that captured no wave as the extension and disintegration of post punk and new wave into real tunes

You heard The Pop Group? They had some similar sounding stuff.

 

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To be honest, that James Brown cover I posted off No New York is the only tune I've ever really liked by James Chance. The rest sounds like a cartoonish ska band gone mad.
 

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To be honest, that James Brown cover I posted off No New York is the only tune I've ever really liked by James Chance. The rest sounds like a cartoonish ska band gone mad.
Listen to that third link I posted. It’s similar
 

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Listen to that third link I posted. It’s similar

Yeah, I've heard it. It's almost good, but it doesn't have the groove that makes 'I Can't Stand Myself' so good. It's more like fairground music, I can picture Beetlejuice doing a jerky, robotic dance to it.
 
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