LCD Soundsystem

One Liner: Dance indie electronic that is more popular than I can understand

Poster Position: 1
Slot: Sunday at 8 (against Mumford)

Thoughts:  The flip-flopper.  You may be a huge fan of old James Murphy, but I'm having trouble getting over the fact that homeboy made a HUGE freaking deal out of a retirement in 2011, complete with a long lead-up and massive "farewell" show at Madison Square Garden.  Consequence of Sound noted "The band’s breakup was a multi-year spectacle. Not only did it include the Madison Square Garden farewell, but the following year the band released a documentary chronicling the concert. They followed that up in April 2014 by releasing a live album of the show."  The final show was self-themed as the "best funeral ever." Then the dude "retired."

Then 2016 rolls around, and he is literally playing every single festival on the planet. Coachella, Lowlands, Zippedidoo, Outside Lands, Pukkelpop, WayHome, Panorama, Lovebox, T in the Park, Fartknocker, Open'er, Roskilde, Dirty Sanchez, Glastonbury, Bonnaroo, DicknBalls, We Love Green, Primavera, FYF, PYT, Lollapalooza, Electric Picnic, IIIPoints, Q25, ScoopthePoopinMyLoop, and finally, Austin City Limits.  I only made up a few of those.

I don't know why I'm mad about it.  I didn't spend a crapton of money to get to NYC for the big final show and make sure that I saw the greatest band of all time before they folded.  I don't even particularly like LCD Soundsystem.  Just something about the moneygrab-ishness of the blowout retirement and then the massive un-retirement makes me ticked.  If he wanted to go off and do other things, then just go do it, don't make a big deal out of a LAST SHOW and the BEST FUNERAL EVER and all this crap, just go produce an Arcade Fire album, write your play about disco queens driving eighteen wheelers for the mob, and then play a show if you feel like it.

Anyhoo, I digress.  The music.  These tunes are electronic dance music, but not in the way of the majority of bands on this festival lineup.  There is no massive bass drop, no guest hook from Rihanna, no Caribbean flair, instead this is more of a weird, angular, bubbling, clicking indie electronic stuff.  In fact, the more I listen to this stuff today (I own the debut album, but none of the albums since then), I'm realizing that this music sounds a lot more like 80's pop rock and new wave than I ever knew.  

Some songs are catchy, like "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House," but a lot of this is less pop friendly.  Which, of course, has led to the entire critical world to cream their freaking jeans over everything this guy does.  So perfect, so edgy, so real, so New York, so gritty, so brave.  Vomitorious.  Pitchfork called Sound of Silver "it's as close to a perfect hybrid of dance and rock music's values as you're likely to ever hear."  Consequence of Sound, in reviewing This is Happening, said "he has the mastery of pop music that is held by a precious few and usually used for pure evil."  NME said, about the debut, eponymous album, "If he carries on writing songs as deliciously sour as this, dance music will end up needing to be saved from James Murphy, not by him."  I get it, man, damn.  You're drooling.

Here is that "Daft Punk..." track, which comes from the LCD Soundsystem album, released in 2005, and has 7.7 million streams.

Got that hip beat, that cowbell, all that.  Honestly, every damn time I listen to this song, it gets lodged in my head for days and I feel like I dig the groove again.  Then I go put the album on and listen to the whole thing, and I don't care all over again.  I'm like a yoyo. Maybe I'm the real flip flopper here.

His most popular track is "Dance Yrself Clean" from 2010's This Is Happening, which makes even less sense to me than "Daft Punk..."  It is fine, but I don't get it.  21.9 million streams.

Muppet video?  Muppet video.  Not the real video, just a weird ass fan video.  Love it, this is why the internet should exist.  Baby cookie monster knows how to handle them there keys, yo.  Hell, that video made the drop at 3:10 or so more exciting than in the plain song.  I guess that song is pretty good?  More cowbell, too.

The top track from his other full-length album (2007's Sound of Silver) is called "Someone Great," and totally makes me think of a remix of a song from the Weird Science soundtrack of something.

I've been listening not to the big live album, compiled from the BEST FUNERAL EVER concert at Madison Square Garden, for the last day and a half, and I'm coming around a little bit on the band. It is actually reminding me more and more of old Talking Heads - a heavily groove influenced sound with extra cowbell at all times and a dose of weird infused in there repeatedly.

Maybe if I'd been on them right when the first album came out, and felt the revolution happen at the time.  Instead, this stuff just really doesn't do much for me.

And I've heard from others that their live show is amazing.  A friend went to an aftershow in Chicago post-Lolla and said that it was one of the best shows he has ever been to. However, I feel like if he plays "yeah" (yes, that is a song name) the same way that he did at the BEST FUNERAL EVER, where the pitch rises up to the level that would make dogs rip each others' throats out and then explode in auditory fury, I might have to gouge out my own eardrums.  That sounds cool and all, but I'll be going to Mumford on Sunday night.