LCD Soundsystem

All Music Guide:

LCD Soundsystem debuted with "Losing My Edge," a single that became one of the most talked-about indie releases of 2002. A self-effacing spoof of the outrageous pissing contests that often occur whenever music geeks cross paths ("I was there at the first Can show in Cologne," etc.) laid over a puttering electronic beat with the occasional bursts of discoid clatter, the track was also one of the first released on the DFA label. Several magazines and newspapers would eventually declare James Murphy, the man behind both LCD Soundsystem and DFA, to be one of the coolest people on the planet.

Years of obscurity and the occasional poor decision preceded this. Just before Murphy began to cut his teeth throughout the '90s, first as a member of Pony (an average post-hardcore band with heavy debts to its inspirations) and then with Speedking (a much stronger, more unique band), he passed up the opportunity to write for the popular sitcom Seinfeld. All the time spent toiling in indie rock took a toll on Murphy, but he built his own studio and became increasingly adept at engineering and producing other bands. While working on David Holmes' Bow Down to the Exit Sign, he struck up a relationship with programmer/producer Tim Goldsworthy that developed into a partnership. By the end of 2002, there were several releases on Murphy and Goldsworthy's DFA label, most of which involved the duo in some capacity. LCD's "Losing My Edge," backed with an excellent neo-post-punk dance track called "Beat Connection," was one of them.

Murphy eventually scattered three other LCD singles through the end of 2004 and released the full-length LCD Soundsystem in January 2005. At the time of its release, the DFA label was more popular than ever; Murphy and Goldsworthy had remixes for Metro Area, N.E.R.D., Le Tigre, and Junior Senior behind them, as well as failed sessions with Britney Spears that might have benefited from an interpreter. Janet Jackson was another unlikely admirer seeking the duo's assistance, but Murphy didn't bother to follow up on her request.

Murphy did respond to Nike, who commissioned him to record a lengthy piece of music as part of a promotion. 45:33, initially sold as an iTunes exclusive in October 2006, was aimed at joggers, but Murphy later confessed that he didn't jog himself -- mixed martial arts were more his thing, he claimed -- and was driven by the opportunity to make something in the vein of Manuel Göttsching's early-'80s electronic landmark E2-E4. (DFA would later issue 45:33 on CD, breaking the track into six parts and adding three additional cuts.)

The second proper LCD Soundsystem album, Sound of Silver, was released in March 2007. It contained Murphy's most affecting songwriting and peaked within the Top 50 of the Billboard 200. Led by the single "Drunk Girls" and an accompanying Spike Jonze-directed video, LCD Soundsystem's third studio album, This Is Happening, was released three years later. Riding high on the acclaim the album garnered, the band toured the world with fellow dance-pop group Hot Chip for much of 2010. While in London on June 29th of that year, the group recorded a full-band session at Miloco Studio. The freewheeling recording of the show was released by DFA as London Sessions in January of 2011. Right around this time Murphy announced that he was retiring the LCD Soundsystem name. The band played a farewell show at a sold-out Madison Square Garden in New York on April 2, 2011, and released the set the following year as The Long Goodbye: LCD Soundsystem Live at Madison Square Garden.

Wikipedia:

LCD Soundsystem was an American-based alternative dance band from New York City. It was fronted by American singer-songwriter and producer James Murphy, co-founder of record label DFA Records. The group released three critically acclaimed albums, LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver and This Is Happening, with the latter charting in the Billboard Top 10.

On February 5, 2011, a statement was posted on the band's website that announced its disbandment following a farewell concert, which took place on April 2, 2011, at Madison Square Garden. The farewell concert is chronicled in the documentary film Shut Up and Play the Hits. Their last televised performance was on February 14, 2011 on The Colbert Report.

History [edit]

Early singles and self-titled album (2002–2005) [edit]

LCD Soundsystem gained attention with its first single, "Losing My Edge". Described as "an eight-minute, laugh-out-loud funny dissection of cool over a dirty electronic beat"; the single became an underground dance favorite. This was followed by other well received singles "Give It Up" and "Yeah".

LCD Soundsystem released a double disc set simply titled LCD Soundsystem in February 2005 to critical acclaim. The first disc contains the album and the second contains re-releases of previous singles. The opening track "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House" quickly gained popularity and entered the UK Top 40 in March 2005 and was later featured on several video game soundtracks like SSX on Tour, Forza Motorsport 2, Burnout Revenge, and FIFA 06. The band toured with M.I.A.

In June 2005, the band covered a Siouxsie and the Banshees song, "Slowdive" for the B-side of "Disco Infiltrator".

On December 8, 2005 the group received nominations for two Grammy awards in the Electronica category for their self-titled album and in the Dance category for "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House." This album was also chosen as No. 94 of Amazon.com's "Top 100 Editor's Picks" of 2005.

45:33 and Sound of Silver (2006–2008) [edit]

In October 2006, James Murphy released a track entitled "45:33" as part of a promotion with Nike for download from iTunes. Despite its name, the track is 45 minutes and 58 seconds long - the number of seconds a reference to John Cage's 4'33 - and was claimed to "reward and push at good intervals of a run". However, it was later revealed that this was not the case, but that Murphy merely wanted the opportunity to create a long piece of music, akin to E2-E4 by Manuel Göttsching.

LCD Soundsystem's second album, Sound of Silver, was released on March 12, 2007, to near universal critical acclaim. Praise included Mixmag awarding it the title Album of the Month, a 9.2 score from Pitchfork Media and a 5-star review from The Guardian. The album release was preceded by the single "North American Scum".

LCD Soundsystem's subsequent single "All My Friends" included a cover of the song by both Franz Ferdinand and former Velvet Underground member John Cale. The digital download "All My Friends" EP also includes a cover of the early Joy Division song "No Love Lost". In September 2007, the "A Bunch of Stuff" EP was released and the band went on tour with Arcade Fire. Late in 2007, the band released "Someone Great" as the third single from Sound of Silver and re-released 45:33 on CD and vinyl through DFA Records. In December 2007, there was a release of a 12-inch record containing b-sides from European singles for the North American market entitled "Confuse the Marketplace".

Also in December 2007, the band received a nomination for the Grammy for Best Electronic/Dance Album. The album was also named the best album of 2007 by publications such as The Guardian, Uncut and Drowned in Sound.

Time magazine named "All My Friends" one of The 10 Best Songs of 2007, ranking it at No. 4. Writer Josh Tyrangiel praised the "magic" in the song, saying that the song's "straightforward repetition of the same guitar, keyboard and bass lines, combined with lyrics about life without regret, and life with all kinds of regrets pays off with a punch about what we lose as we get older." The track was later named the second best song of the 2000s by Pitchfork Media. The album was also nominated for the 2007 Shortlist Prize, where it lost out to The Reminder by Feist.

After finishing touring for Sound of Silver the band recorded and released a song entitled "Big Ideas" on the soundtrack of the film 21. This song was ranked number 63 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2008.

This Is Happening (2009–2011) [edit]

On November 18, 2008 Al Doyle seemed to suggest in an interview with 6 Music that the band would soon be discontinued. However the following day both Doyle and James Murphy quashed this rumor, with Murphy indicating a new LCD Soundsystem album was on the way. Murphy began recording in the summer of 2009 in Los Angeles. Possible song titles mentioned at that time included "Why Do You Hate Music?" and "Love in LA." For the 2009 Record Store Day the band released a cover of Suicide member Alan Vega's song "Bye Bye Bayou".

On February 23, 2010, the official LCD Soundsystem website announced that the album had been completed. The first single was set to be "Drunk Girls" and on March 25, a stream of the song was put on music site One Thirty BPM. The title of the album and the cover were revealed on the DFA site on March 30. The album, titled This Is Happening, was released in the UK on May 17, 2010 and in the US on May 18, 2010. Prior to the release Murphy promised that it will be "definitely better than the other two." Murphy also stated that it was likely to be the last LCD Soundsystem album.

The band performed two secret gigs in New York on April 9 and April 12, 2010, at the Music Hall of Williamsburg (Brooklyn) and Webster Hall in New York respectively. James Murphy made an impassioned plea with fans and industry attendees at the New York gig not to leak the album to the internet in advance of the May 17 release date. It was reported in the NME that Murphy went down on his knees onstage and stated:

"If you got a copy of the record early and you feel like sharing it with the rest of the world, then please don't ... We spent two years making this record and we want to put it out when we want to put it out. I don't care about money – after it comes out, give it to whoever you want for free but until then, keep it to yourself."

For the 2010 edition of Record Store Day, the band released 1000 copies of a single-sided 12" single of This Is Happening track "Pow Pow." When speaking to The Quietus in August, Murphy insisted that LCD Soundsystem would continue to record music, stating: "We’ll do some 12”s and things like that. I just need to get away from it being a big thing."

The first single released from This Is Happening was "Drunk Girls" featuring a video co-directed by Murphy and acclaimed director Spike Jonze. This was followed later in the year by "I Can Change". On the 8th November 2010 the band released a "live-in-studio" album called The London Sessions, designed to invoke the spirit of Peel Sessions. In addition to this they released a vinyl single of longtime live cover "Throw" by Paperclip People on Carl Craig's Planet E label.

On February 8, 2011, LCD Soundsystem announced on its website that it would be playing its last show ever on April 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. When tickets went on pre-sale and official sale, there were widespread problems with availability and online ordering, and the show became sold-out suddenly. Murphy pointed the finger at scalpers, writing on his Twitter account: "i will try to figure a way out to fuck these fuckers. NO MATTER WHAT WE DO, IT IS NOT WORTH THAT KIND OF MONEY TO SEE US!" and "1500 for a single ticket? Fuck you, scalpers. You are parasites. I HATE you." Following the immediate sale of all available tickets, LCD Soundsystem announced that they would be playing four warm-up shows at New York's Terminal 5. The setlists at those shows were nearly identical to the setlist of the final show at Madison Square Garden. The final song performed by LCD Soundsystem at the farewell show was "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down". The show lasted almost four hours with appearances by Arcade Fire, Reggie Watts and others. This officially marked the end of LCD Soundsystem.

Post break-up (2011–present) [edit]

On April 12, 2011, Murphy confirmed, via LCD Soundsystem's Facebook page, the release of the final show on DVD, with a better quality than the stream offered by Pitchfork, and is expected to be released early on 2012. In addition, a documentary called Shut Up and Play the Hits, chronicling James Murphy during the 48 hours before and after the final show, screened at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and later given limited release in select theaters.

Award nominations [edit]

Grammys 2006 [edit]

Grammys 2008 [edit]