14. A USA Nails album orHoliday Inns
I don’t know what USA Nails’ latest album is called, they release about nine a year anyway, but they’re a fantastic band. I’ve read Baker’s Dozens on The Quietus a couple of times and obviously you’re talking about people’s favourite or formative records so it’s nearly always older records. There are lots of good bands around these days and it’s a shame that they never make their way into lists like this so I thought I’d be really tokenistic about it. I could’ve picked something from St. Pierre Snake Invasion but USA Nails are fantastic as well.
Like I say, god knows what the album’s called. They’re a band I experience live more than anything. Steve Hodson, who is the "singer" in heavy inverted commas, played bass for Future Of The Left for a while after Kelson [Mathias] left. As much as I don’t like to talk about people as "talented musicians" – because what the fuck else are you if you’re up on stage playing a fucking guitar? – he really is about as talented and intuitive a musician as you get. In essence, I’m not really playing fair with you there because for me they’re all about the live show.
The last recorded song by a British rock band which really blew my mind is The Arndales song ‘Holiday Inns’. It’s one of those songs which has got a lovely kinetic shift to it. It just excites me. It’s very difficult. I’m much better at talking about stories which surround music as opposed to describing why I like the music. Why do you like this song? It is a good song. Listen to it. Listen to the song.
Do you have any Arndales anecdotes you can throw in?
I was about to say they’re just normal people but they’re not. I don’t really have an Arndales anecdote. I mean, I’ll never dance, the world isn’t ready for me to fucking dance, mate, but I always love a song that threatens to make me dance.
I thought you had "sealed the deal" with your wife by dancing? You’ve already said you’re a dancer.
Ah, that’s private. I dance to T’Pau for my wife. And I always dance up escalators. That’s it. That’s the only time I dance.
But if you were to dance, you would dance to The Arndales.
The song ‘Holiday Inns’, specifically. And when I watch USA Nails live, I think that if I was younger I would go and hurtle against people while listening to it like I used to when I was a kid but I won’t anymore. I’ll stand slightly to the right of the stage drinking a Peroni which I have insisted is on the rider because I’m not drinking Tuborg for any cunt and I’ll be nodding and going, "Oh yeah, they’ve really developed as a band." Like an absolute wanker.
