LCD Soundsystem

a classic rock band

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/146644-lcd-soundsystem-folks-help-form-classic-rock-band

Ok then

LCD Springfield

LC/DC
(well, not quite, but couldn't resist)

Does this mean we'll be hearing James Murphy aping Stephen Stills getting "sexy" on "Bluebird" type tracks?

oh. oh. oh. oh.

oh.

I'm a big LCD Soundsystem fan, but man this sounds like a bad idea even to annouce. Didn't LCD prove they could be a kick ass classic rock band with their "Jump Into The Fire" cover? Why don't they just release the next album like this and not say a word?

/waaay bummed bro

"Why don't they just release the next album like this and not say a word?"

i think this would've been more on point

Artists whose first album was pretty good, but then the second one was awesome, and then the third was just OK but really more of the same, and by the fourth one you weren't even paying attention

the end begins!

Yeah, I agree with Mackro, this is quite puzzling. I felt LCD Soundsystem were offering something rather unique, whereas...how much more "classic rock" do we need in the world?

woah that's what sprangers and wells are doing...crazy. have been wondering what they were gonna do after HN broke up.

the hockey night breakup was some real fucking bullshit, like old school 60s rock n' roll type shit.

How much more "classic rock" do we need in the world?

Do you really think this is going to sound like every other wanna be classic rock band?

yeah I wasn't clear in my original post, but it's not the classic rock thing itself that bothers me about the article, nor do I think this album will be bad, but that James and Pat felt they had to make a special statement about it.

hockey night basically was pavement with allman bros. guitar jams, i bet it sounds like hockey night

yeah I wasn't clear in my original post, but it's not the classic rock thing itself that bothers me about the article, nor do I think this album will be bad, but that James and Pat felt they had to make a special statement about it.

― Woman Who Force Madonna At House Party To Make Bold Statement (Mackro Mackro), Monday, October 20, 2008 9:47 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you're mad that a musican/label owner announced a new project in an interview?

ah jeez that charlatan is broadening his taint

fortunately if he's doing something pointlessly and self-statedly reactionary as "classic rock" i can probably avoid

aint nothin pointless about mansun

haha you just shifted the focus expertly

ah jeez that charlatan is broadening his taint

kegel abuse

you're mad that a musican/label owner announced a new project in an interview?

― s1ocki, Monday, October 20, 2008 2:56 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

MAAAAAAAAD

lol, no it's just silly that of all people, james murphy had to announce a "classic rock" album. Just DO IT, dude.

LESS TALK MORE ROCK

classic rock: eno, bowie, talking heads

john cale

OH SHIT

You wouldn't be caught off guard by the new LCD album sounding like The Band?

LAST WALTZUH

they'll need a better rhythm section before they can sound like the band. and better guitar players. and better songs. and better singers. but other than that i wouldn't be too surprised.

Map of Africa did it, why can't they?

yeah i wouldn't be suprised if james murphy decided to go the band/fleetwood mac route. that's why i think it's dumb they even have to "announce" it. i mean look at the new hippy balearic thread, jaxon's west coast thread, etc, this stuff has been on people's radar now for a while now, it's not surprising james would grab the ball and decide to run with it.

surprised it hasn't happened more

yup

warning unwarranted and perhaps meaninglessly broad generalization ahead:

cali beach hippie balearic as the carefree flipside of disco?

Why don't they just release the next album like this and not say a word?

Murphy, who will both produce and play bass on the disc...

...which is a bit different to the LCD records where he does practically everything.

"..which is a bit different to the LCD records where he does practically everything."

Don't think so.

Tracklisting:
Get Innocuous! (7:11)
Drums, Vocals, Programmed By, Piano, Synthesizer - James Murphy
Guitar - Tyler Pope
Vocals - Nancy Whang

Time To Get Away (4:11)
Drums - Patrick Mahoney
Vocals, Bass, Percussion, Guitar, Clavinet, Organ, Synthesizer [Casio] - James Murphy

North American Scum (5:25)
Bass - Tyler Pope
Drums, Vocals, Organ, Programmed By, Percussion, Handclaps [Claps], Guitar, Bass
James Murphy
Handclaps [Claps] - Eric Broucek , Marcus Lambkin

Someone Great (6:25)
Synthesizer, Programmed By, Vocals, Glockenspiel - James Murphy

All My Friends (7:37)
Drums, Vocals, Bass, Piano, Synthesizer, Guitar, Percussion [Electronic] - James Murphy

Us V Them (8:29)
Bass, Guitar, Performer [Fun Machine], Handclaps [Claps] - Tyler Pope
Drums, Percussion, Handclaps [Claps] - Patrick Mahoney
Vocals - Eric Broucek , Nancy Whang
Vocals, Percussion, Performer [Fun Machine], Handclaps [Claps] - James Murphy

Watch The Tapes (3:55)
Drums, Bass, Guitar, Handclaps [Claps], Percussion, Vocals, Piano, Synthesizer [Casio] - James Murphy
Vocals - Patrick Mahoney

Sound Of Silver (7:07)
Drums, Vocals, Bass, Kalimba, Handclaps [Claps], Percussion, Synthesizer, Programmed By, Piano - James Murphy

New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down (5:35)
Bass, Guitar - Tyler Pope
Cello - Jane Scarpantoni
Drums, Percussion - Patrick Mahoney
Guitar - Justin Chearno*
Piano - Morgan Wiley
Viola - David Gold (2)
Violin - Amy Kimball , Lorenza Ponce
Vocals, Guitar, Synthesizer - James Murphy

not much of a refutation

in looking at his first album artist credits, looks like he had a wide array of players on there as well but with SOS he definitely moved more in the direction of a proper "band".

just saying he is not the lone wolf in a studio with no help that that post made it out to be

Performer [Fun Machine]

thing with knobs

what on earth is a 'fun machine'

What isn't it? It is GLORIOUS. You will bow down before Fun Machine.

http://www.antisleep.com/archives/images/blog/2005-05-09_fun_machine.jpg

anyway i'd say one song out of that lot is anything approaching a 'proper band', but whatever.

To whatever degree Murphy works in the studio, it's safer to say LCD Soundsystem are a band than a solo project. They are definitely James Murphy's band, but a band they are.

We could get into the "what exactly IS a band" argument if you want!

oh we really don't! seriously, this sounds like "LCD soundsystem frontman and drummer act as rhythm section for some other dudes"; it's a bit of a leap to "why didn't LCD just go classic rock already??" when he appears to be just, you know, playing bass rather than writing the songs and playing the majority of the music.

yep

though fwiw murphy doing americana would be unbelievable

I actually just keep getting more into LCD Soundsystem. I enjoyed the first two albums when they were fresh, and I like them even more now.

It definitely helps that I don't have a huge vocabulary with his influences. I don't even WANT to know all the artists he lists in Losing My Edge, etc. Sometimes they're really obvious to me and sometimes they're not. Agree that the one that sounds like Heroes is probably too on the nose and it was a little disappointing when I realized just how hard he was leaning on other artists. However, there are a few where I definitely felt LCD's version was an improvement on the source material; I'm not going to listen to Kraftwerk's Robots, but I love Get Innocuous. Disintegration is one of my favorite Cure songs and Tonite is one of my favorite LCD Soundsystem songs and the similarities don't bother me at all.

The records I listen to most are The Long Goodbye and Electric Lady Sessions. Definitely a band that benefits from the looseness of live performance.

first time I saw them they ended with a 20 minute version of "Yeah", nothing they did the next two times I saw them was anywhere close to that

I made this playlist a few years ago based on a reddit (I think) post that matched up all the This Is Happening songs against the originals. It's pretty interesting hearing them side by side like this

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/58KqaKB2yPO1vJqEzzP83g?si=e29f861113514b6d

It makes its point, since a few of those are absolutely blatant, but imo a couple of those are stretches as direct analogs, ironically because the LCD songs are ripping off several songs at once. For example, "Drunk Girls" reminds me of "Boys Keep Swinging" by Bowie as much as "White Light/White Heat." I don't think "Pow" sounds particularly like "Born Under Punches," and I don't think "Home" sounds like "This Must Be the Place," but both sure as heck sound like the Talking Heads. And so on. I'm surprised he's never been sued, regardless - other acts have for sure been sued for far less - which makes me think he maybe worked something out with various estates and/or friends?

And of course North American Scum =
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HwmO_GZfzI

the reference points of "all my friends" are pretty obviously new order (specifically "temptation") + eno but that synthesis works very well, it isn't blatantly ripping any one thing

otm, with a Pink Floyd reference thrown in.

I think that's why I always appreciated the band. It's a synthesis. Like, when I listen to, say, bands like the P. Furs, I hear a synthesis of Bowie, VU, Roxy Music and the Pistols. When I hear the JAMC, I hear the Ramones, Phil Spector, Beach Boys, Stooges, etc. I'm not suggesting LCD is on par with either of those acts, or as novel in its synthesizing, but like those others there's more than enough personality that I would never confuse it for its source material. (See also: Zeppelin.)

Also, they were a real gateway drug into dance and electronic music for me, in that there was so much live instrumentation and I could understand what was going on more (this was when I was starting to mess around with making music on a computer but really had no idea what I was doing or how things were made).

I feel like the interpolations are similar - they're never going to sample a record, they don't work like that, they're going to do it with their chosen toolbox. I like that even though it sometimes veers into ripoff territory. It's great when it works.

I made this playlist a few years ago based on a reddit (I think) post that matched up all the This Is Happening songs against the originals. It's pretty interesting hearing them side by side like this

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/58KqaKB2yPO1vJqEzzP83g?si=e29f861113514b6d

― nate woolls, Tuesday, January 30, 2024 12:44 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Thanks for this. "The Bus" is a banger.

I don't think "Pow" sounds particularly like "Born Under Punches,"

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, January 30, 2024 2:50 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Is it just the little electric guitar riff every 8 beats?

Nothing much to add except Someone Great is my favourite song of all time. Just rooted itself in me instantly with that hook and all that sadness. Can tell you exactly where I was and what I was doing the first time I heard it. Have so many associations with those first two albums (and yeah I do consider the self titled to be one). Ex of mine actually introduced me to them by putting Never as Tired As When I’m Waking Up on a mix CD for me which, in retrospect? Not that representative of their style!

s/t is totally an album; i thought the singles were collected as a "bonus disk" but the first disc was a "proper" album

"Someone Great" will always remind me of Bumble and I dedicate that song to him.

M4rk Cr4ig (aka Bimble) RIP

*Bimble

Spell check strikes again

I saw James Murphy creeping around The Four Horseman, the restaurant he owns in Brooklyn, when I met a buddy for brunch. He did look as if he'd lost his edge.

I didn't mean to bookmark, so; M4rk Cr4ig (aka Bimble) RIP

Yeah Someone Great is an incredible tune, floored me the first time I heard it. Even if everything else sucked he’s classic for that alone. And it’s more or less an original isn’t it?

He ripped off 45:33 for it

Lol

Poor Nike

Second half of their Glastonbury set has been A+

it was fantastic.
loved the whole, fuck it, lets enjoy this and drink expensive champers ..
had no idea that one of their songs, Dance Yrself Clean, had become so big.
mk2 looked it up, and yeah, over 120M streams.

oooh, and loved the very brief Yazoo drop.

Is this an "on telly" thing?

watched it live via the bbc,
but hopefully it will be on the iplayer.
was weird seeing them have such a similar set up to the 2005 set i saw at Glastonbury in the smaller John Peel tent.
i.e. the whole stage is full of kit (to the point you just fear for someone to trip up over a cable and cut out everything),
with pat on drums being at the centre of everything.

James looks healthier than I remember, Nancy is the coolest. Have quite enjoyed that there are *glasses of wine* on stage.

The 2016 Glastonbury set is the best I’ve ever seen them just.. extraordinary but this was a close second. It seemed such a different vibe for them, a sunny evening in the open air with people in flower crowns and dayglo paint singing along. Great to hear Oh Baby too. How fabulous!

Not sure what human statue Noel Gallagher's doing on the sidelines there while everyone else enjoys it.

That felt a bit weird, didn't it? "I'm motivated enough to go and watch from the side of the stage but I don't want to be seen as liking it."

It’s been pointed out that Murphy was wearing a Beaver t-shirt (the Toronto bar/restaurant/venue co-founded by the late Will Munro), which is inexplicable and wonderful

"x-ray eyes" is really bad

maybe because its the first song he's written that didn't directly crib something from his record collection :)

saw them yesterday. they're still very fun. although to put it nicely you can tell they do everything live :)

a couple new songs it seems, including X-ray eyes. idk, still don't like the song, but it makes more sense live. they're kind of one marathon banger after another so its fine to have something simpler and shorter to bring it down a bit. the other new stuff seemed fine. I dunno if they really need to write any new songs at this point. even at 2 1/2 hours it felt like there were a number of tunes I still wanted to hear. Murphy's obsession with playing New York at every single show is getting kinda weird though.

saw them yesterday. they're still very fun. although to put it nicely you can tell they do everything live :)

Yup. I've seen them three times, and the second one was disastrous due to equipment malfunction - they had to stop the show many times. Murphy felt so bad about it that he told us during one such break that he would be giving us their newly-released album for free (albeit as a download).

there was a 5 minute break at one point this show too, pretty unclear what happened but Murphy was off the stage so I assumed he had to pee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dLaOBMn4EA

^ that (the pool – jamaica running) + this chorus (alceu valença - anunciação) makes dance yrself clean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKyn9wrM_uM
(around 1:17)

The Pool rip feels blatant even for James Murphy. He might as well have sampled it.

yeah its his "Robot Rock", that said the song is all about that massive drop which is still unlike anything I've ever experienced live

They did *all* of the 45 33 album at a recent Brixton Sunday show. They deliberately began early too and finished by 9pm. SO wish i'd seen that one.

Ideal time and length for a show.

5 minutes for a pee, relatable

I guess being old men now these shorter shows suit them otherwise I'd feel more justified in calling them the electroclash Phish

recently listened to pete shelley's homosapien album for the first time and was reminded that these guys are somewhat of a early 80s alt-electro tribute band

For sure

They deliberately began early too and finished by 9pm

Wish this was every concert

They did *all* of the 45 33 album at a recent Brixton Sunday show. They deliberately began early too and finished by 9pm. SO wish i'd seen that one.

Just checked setlist.fm and didn't expect to see that they played eight nights in total at Brixton Academy over ten days in June. Weird.

Just curious if anybody’s at the Toronto show tonight

Anyway if you are and you see a person of undeclared gender in a very cheap black dress and N95 by the right corner of the stage say hey

I never got the hype for them. Bowie and Talking Heads for the 00's?