The Pogues – Rum, Sodomy And The Lash
I've loved them for a long time. Everyone in Iceage is a huge Pogues fan. I don't think there's a particularly big following in Denmark as a whole but certainly in my circle of friends. I think at some point when I was a teenager I came across that video clip of them playing 'Waxie's Dargle' at some pub with Spider Stacey smashing the tambourine on his face and that was sort of appealing to us. Also, the video for 'Streets of Whiskey' with them rolling around. This album really spoke to us as drunk teenagers who were incredibly stupid with immature senses of humour and into being destructive yet with a somewhat romantic nature. After 'Waxie's Dargle' we discovered this whole other world of songs and songwriting of another kind of gravity with The Pogues. Shane McGowan is one of the songwriters that I have consistently adored since. He can take such things as love or even a tramp lying in his own sick but elevate them both with equal measure into this romantic and monumental thing and it seems effortless. His brain must be wired in this beautiful way, he barely has to try in order to out-write his contemporaries or those who came before him - he's just brilliant to me. 'A Pair Of Brown Eyes' is just one of those songs that will pick me up if I'm down or take me further up if I'm well, there's no doubt that Rum, Sodomy And The Lash is one of those records that I've listened to with friends and fellow comrades in addled and inebriated states under the table. With my close friends I've listened to this record so much through thick and thin that it seems to be an inherent part of my nature now. He's such a fucking treasure.