LIFE SOUNDTRACK: Placebo – Pure Morning

Filed Under: Life Soundtrack — By: Oliver Bouchard

On our second visit in New York City in 1998, for the occasion of our honeymoon, we visited the Virgin Megastore on Times Square, which of course doesn’t exist anymore. I bought two records there: Hole’s Celebrity Skin and Placebo’s Without You I’m Nothing. Both bands I had no idea about, so I judged the CDs by their covers: they featured women, which made me assume that they were made by female artists. Celebrity Skin for sure is, but Placebo is a all-male three-piece. It still became my favorite album for quite a long time.

Pure Morning is the opener and the album never lets you down from there. In 1999, we saw them live at the fabulous Southside Festival in Munich and their raw energy blew me away (curiously Hole played there as well). We saw Placebo a few times more after that and it was even one of our first shows after we moved to New York.

The video I have seen much later when it was recommended by another artist (was it Grimes?). It has some nice drama to it, but aren’t we all happy that Brian Molko… well, I don’t want to spoil it.