It’s astonishing that LeBron James by Do Nothing is not already on SteveForTheDeaf. Truly one of my favourite records of recent years. It must have been a victim of restructuring (or a lucky escape). Maybe it popped into view during the months I was no longer blogging. I am posting it now because lately I’ve been listening quite a lot to The Fall and when this came on yesterday I thought for a moment it was them. What a startlingly accurate impersonation it is of The Fall in some ways. In others that band is impossible to get close to.
“There is no help coming once you’re outside of the circle, All that’s left after that is “Hey there genius, how you doing?”
With contemporaries like Sports Team, Idles, Baxter Dury and Fontaines D.C. Do Nothing have a very of the moment vibe. LeBron James has a killer kitchen dancing groove and that ‘I got all dressed up for nothing’ refrain seems ideal for a year where we’ve spent birthdays, anniversaries, Halloween and festival season trapped on the screens of our laptops and our phones like we’re the bad guys from Superman II.
“The results are in and it looks like, everybody gets a big old slice of nothing, everything was cool, I have no idea how it happened”
The video was shot in a grotty pub with a pool table and even that looks delightfully exotic and exciting from my cell in Lockdown II. I can smell the carpet while I watch. The lyrics and desperate persona of Chris Bailey strop about using brilliantly familiar cliches in slightly ominous ways. The song is wrought of desperation from too long on the losing end.
“It wasn’t my idea, not sure who said it first, go ahead, I dare ya! You’re not fit to wear the shirt, I got all dressed up for nothing!“
LeBron James is a brilliant single from just before reality started to crumble but all the signs are there that things needed to change. I’m sure when the civilizations that come after us are sifting through our artifacts they’ll conflate our art with our lack of ability to heed a warning and wonder what sick perverts we really were.
This single was ever so slightly ahead of it’s time. An anthem for 2020
Steve For The Deaf 
I like the first song and the lyrics do feel like the now. The video is funny in a sick kind of way. On the third one he’s singing a little like Bryan Ferry.
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Like you say, could be Mark E Smith singing. Great track, rivetting vid.
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If only it were
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Wow, that bass on LeBron James is groovy!
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