Lazycame (William Reid) 'K To Be Lost'

William Reid split up The Jesus And Mary Chain live on stage in America in 1998. Given the nature of the brother's relationship and their ongoing love affair with feedback and booze, it's remarkable they lasted that long really. I couldn't do 15 years in a band, drunk and whatever else, with earsplitting volume night after night with any of my brothers without blood being spilt. William retreated into a solo project called Lazycame, releasing an album called Finbegin and a couple of singles. The album was passed on by Alan McGee, partly because William wanted the cover to feature a picture of himself with a hard-on. McGee must have said no partly because of the music though. It's the most unfocussed, patchy, lo-fi, scatty, scratchy, irritating, and almost unlistenable records I've got or ever heard. At times you want to shout at the stereo 'Fer fuck's sake man, tune the guitar and play a song'. It goes on for ages, stopping and starting, out-of-tune, drifting in and out. One man with a tape recorder, stoned, pressing record, then forgetting what he's supposed to be doing. I quite like it. Someone at Amazon says 'It's not for everyone'- it's probably really not for anyone.

However William could still get it together when he wanted to. This song K To Be Lost (as in, it's OK to be lost, kind of a mission statement) is a cracker, so good it turned up in slightly more polished form on the Sister Vanilla album. It's still gorgeously lo-fi, with typical guitars, cheap drum machine and loopy keyboards, but he pulls it all together. I've just read that last sentence back- I mean it all in a good way.

When they reformed a couple of years back, some wag suggested they had to do it due to Jim's battle with his hairline and William's battle with his waistline. They carried it off though- shades and black clothes can do wonders for the middle aged indie rockstar.

k to be lost.mp3