LCD Soundsystem - American Dream - 9/1/17

;_;

ok I got it fixed

outlets are reporting that this is the cover art, but i hope that it's a prank

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/LCD_Soundsystem_-_American_Dream_cover_art.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/893261847566012416/GA9ImwxJ_400x400.jpg

Album art clearly designed for digital player screens.

Ugh I hate ironic album covers, keep that shit in your lyrics.

I suppose it's an Infinite Jest copy/parody?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Jest

Either way terrible album cover, which is a shame because if the album is good it'll suck for me because I'm so superficial that I can't justify buying a vinyl with bad artwork.

Seriously, I know it's ridiculous but this infuriates me. Their past albums all have good artwork and they were consistent in the use of black and white. Even the letters on a white background would've been boring but at least it wouldn't be so offensive.

I realized about six months ago that I've enjoyed every LCD Soundsystem release less than the previous, if you go by "album" releases. All the way from the early singles disc packaged with the first album being more enjoyable than the first album, all the way to now :/

if it's the actual album art, then it's the worst album art i've ever seen

i suspect this is going to be v embarassing

I'm sure Murphy feels there's a lot riding on this record, given how it's basically his excuse for digging up a band that he'd not too long ago declared had played its last ever show. I would think he'd obsess over every detail here as he's done in the past. So yeah, it is rather odd.

I realized about six months ago that I've enjoyed every LCD Soundsystem release less than the previous, if you go by "album" releases.

I am the exact opposite of this; I've liked each subsequent LCD release more than the previous one.

you're in a good position

I dunno, This Is Happening was pretty terrible, so I'm not holding out much hope for this.

I love This is Happening, but I'm still sort of filling this away with Sleater-Kinney as a band I used to love and saw live lots and was resigned to never see again coming back and, good new music or no, much to my surprise just not being something I want right now.

This band retires like Brett Favre

i liked the shortened versions of the new singles they played on SNL more than the full-length versions which doesn't make me too optimistic about this

I like them but honestly, their whole career revolves around stealing (not sampling) other artists songs as a backbone and passing it as hommage if caught red handed.

It's a win win situation for them; If you don't catch it they come off as a very talented and creative electroclash band and if you do catch it, it makes it seem like they have excellent taste in music and they know all the references and it's all so motherfucking meta.

I think the whole reunion is a bit lame but fuck it, this band are one of the best bands of recent years and an incredible live act.

everyone has their knives sharpened and ready to slice into their new music itt

Because if you throw yourself a farewell party at Madison Square Garden, film it and release it as a movie, disband for like a minute during which you pursue stupid ass whims like an espresso line, then reunite to fill the coffers through a strict diet of lucrative festival dates, you better come back with something exceptional, because you have a high hurdle of hubris to pass.

Looking to see what else he's been up to beside that dull Arcade Fire album, I saw this:

Subway Symphony

James Murphy has been attempting to change the sound of the New York turnstile beeps since 1999. Murphy has described the current turnstile sound as of 2014 as a “dissonant rubbing-Styrofoam-on-glass squeak” that is “horrible”. Because the Metropolitan Transit Authority plans to update the system by 2019, Murphy has proposed his turnstile plan that would have each turnstile harmonize with others by emitting three-to-five note sequences. Installing new sound chips will be an easier task during the renovations. Murphy feels that the more pleasant sounds will also help people's attitudes toward taking the subway. He believes that people will "feel a nostalgia" for certain destinations when hearing its unique melody. Murphy is completely prepared for the responsibilities if the idea is green-lit by the MTA and would be “broken hearted (if it doesn’t happen)”.

In June 2015, he partnered with Heineken to launch the project, branded as the “Subway Symphony.” However, the MTA has completely denied any possibility of the project happening, as the standard turnstile beep is a necessary ADA-compliant tool for the visually impaired.

Somewhere in there is a neat metaphor, the auteur coming up with a clever riff on Eno's (lucrative) Microsoft start sound without once considering that the existing turnstile sound is there (by law) to assist blind people and not to entertain New Yorkers bummed by urban ennui.

disband for like a minute

six years: lol, u old

Lots of bands take that long in between albums. This whole thing has been such a joke.

without once considering that the existing turnstile sound is there (by law) to assist blind people and not to entertain New Yorkers bummed by urban ennui.

lol otm. when not peddling masterfully marketed ho-hum indie rock this guy does come across as a wannabe Eno w none of the talent

I do think Murphy is talented (and almost exactly five years older than old me). But the band's final show was April 2011. Reunion rumors began and were shortly confirmed after early fall 2015. New music arrived by December. He couldn't even wait 5 years.

I had actually been looking forward to him working as a producer, but after that crap Arcade Fire album my interest faded fast.

His remix of Bowie is great, but again, the greatness is directly related to theft (Reich homage, Bowie samples).

I think the subway idea is great and the ADA compliance thing sounds like a dodge.

TBF I don't think anyone could have polished that dull AF album.

I think two tracks released so far rule and everyone is too cool for school.

Don't really like the album art but hey we're post Napster so...

Hmmm this recording sucks but still, here is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NoWIidAvYo

Lol @ ppl caring about "theft" in this day and age

i don't really care all that much one way or the other but for real i don't get why this isn't a *james murphy* solo album instead of LCD, since he's the one who made such a huge deal about their final show, but then again i'm not a mover and a shaker like *james murphy* is so what do i know

?? LCD Soundsystem has always been a James Murphy solo effort.

not in name. calling this *james murphy* i or whatever would be an easy move to preempt bitching about *LCD Soundsystem" performing its *final* show however many years ago

but i'm guessing he's inviting / baiting backlash?

Maybe he lost his edge.

Probably because his desire to use his well-known brand to market his shit so he can keep making art and make a little money too was worth more to him than getting buy-in on perception on a few message boards.

i first hear LCD from a DFA mix a long time ago. he was producing all those bands and they all sounded really good. what is the best of the stuff he has produced for others since then?

no one would have bought a *james murphy* solo album, for sure

xpost

shouldn't be necessary to do so much second guessing wrt the moniker, murphy's been pretty straightforward abt it:

so i asked pat and nancy to come over to my apartment for coffee and told them: ‘i’m going to record some music. should i make up a band name, or make a ‘james murphy’ record, or should it be ‘lcd?’ we all thought a good amount about it. we have had lives for the past 5 years, which has been nice, and those guys have made amazing music with museum of love, the juan maclean, and all sorts of other things. i’d managed to do a bunch of fun, dumb stuff which mostly annoyed people who were into the band because, well, subway turnstiles and a coffee aren’t lcd, basically.

at any rate, they both said ‘let’s make an lcd record’. you see, if they didn’t want to, which i’d half assumed, then there’s no such thing as lcd. imagine this: me making a record, calling it lcd, and then you go to the show and there’s just some guy playing drums over there, or some other person playing keyboards. horrifying. then imagine this: i make a ‘james murphy’ record, or, i don’t know, an ‘everteen’ record, or whatever made-up name i come up with, and there’s pat playing drums, and nancy. maybe al isn’t too busy with hot chip so he comes to play. what the fuck is that? here were our choices: 1. make music with your friends and call it something else, which seems hilarious (everteen) or egomaniacal to the point of sociopathic (james murphy solo record). 2. make music, but willfully exclude your friends because of the horrors in option 1. 3. make an lcd record with your friends, who want to make said record, and deal with whatever fall-out together. 4. don’t make music, to avoid the horrors of all of the above. 5. make music and, like, hide it somewhere.

makes sense. still a really bad look when you threw yourself a going away party at Madison Square Garden 6 years ago. album better be fucking great (idc either way, never got into LCD), or the vultures will feast.

Does anyone really think anybody cares? The Last Waltz wasn't really the last waltz either.

Does anyone really think anybody cares? The Last Waltz wasn't really the last waltz either.

All well and good. But i doubt the music will be interesting if the first two songs are anything to go by.

God forbid someone change their made and go back to doing something they love

*mind, not *made

btw i really enjoyed 'before and after science class'

http://pitchfork.com/news/watch-lcd-soundsystems-new-tonite-video/

Why listen to Murphy's latest take on Harry Nilsson/Bowie/etc/etc when you can just listen to the original? These new songs are shit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xFzhad-bnY

Anyway, I still really like this album a lot.

I think the pseudo-residency thing isn't about artistic variation or anything but just giving people what they want without demand driving ticket prices through the roof or having to book a huge venue that's not a good concert experience. If a musician can play one show in a much smaller city, I don't know why they wouldn't look at doing a lot more than one near NYC where there are orders of magnitude many more people who might attend.

If you don't feel like actually touring you just cut out the rest of the tour entirely

like i said my opinion is based on a small sample size xxp

xp true true, but 10 shows? that's like, Springsteen or Dylan or McCartney level

they're playing at a 1800 person capacity venue, though

If he can do it, then why not?

I don't think every seat is always filled, but even in podunk midwest cities McCartney & co. are playing in 16k - 20k person venues

idk it just seemed a little extra but i'm not going so whatever

I was in the city back in april and they did something like five days at the same venue. Thought about going but the night I was free was sold out and I didn't feel like dealing w/it

they're playing at a 1800 person capacity venue, though

― mh, Tuesday, December 5, 2017 3:04 PM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are there 18,000 people that want to see LCD in NYC? Barclays capacity is a little over 18,000. MSG is 20,000 and they only sold out that show by pumping it up as their last. or did it sell out? i don't remember. I don't begrudge them, if you can book 10 nights at a 1,800 cap venue more power to you, it's just confusing.

Didn't they do three nights at MSG?

no, but they did like half a dozen warmup shows at Terminal 5 leading up to MSG

I think it's one of those paradoxical things where a band's artistic sense/popularity peaked but the trickle-down effect means there's a large enough casual following to sell out shows for years to come

they did that to stop peopple scalping tickets for $1500 so i think it's safe to say they sold it out, yes.

they sold out two nights at a 2000 capacity venue in glasgow in the autumn. it sold out in less than one hour before i even could connect to the website. they just sold two nights at 5,000 venue in glasgow for next summer within a day. NYC is about 20 times the population of glasgow.

every person who moved into post-2000 gentrified brooklyn was given a LCD album on arrival and the number of people in that category's only swelled

I think in the documentary he's given a mini replica of MSG as a trophy for selling the place out.

There were a lot of seats still available in Toronto a couple of nights before the show, though maybe it sold out by showtime. I saw them at Wayhome, loved it, don't need to see them again.

think some of yall are massively underrating this band's popularity - theirs is still the only show I've ever had difficulty finding tickets for

They played three nights in a row at Vega in Copenhagen as well

xpost They're clearly massively popular, or at least on par with Arcade Fire, the National, a few others. LCD irks me the most (well, Arcade Fire is pretty bad) about doing Big Popular Band things while at the same time complaining about having to do Big Popular Band things. "Oh, sad us, we wish we didn't have to play MSG, or all these festivals, but that's just the way it is, and we're barely breaking even once you take out our expenses of burning massive piles of money." "We had no idea we'd sell out this modest club in our hip hometown, but it's OK, we'll just play 10 shows, because that way everyone will get to see us, because there's no way we'll ever sell out 10 nights at a tiny venue." Etc.

I still like this band a lot but Murphy's T-shirt + sport coat + uncombed hair + face full of gray stubble look is a bit odd considering he's been famous for like 15 years

x-post: Yeah, their lyrics can be pretty bad and unwindy.

But LCD? A band so linked to electronics and sequencing and arrangements, it's unlikely the set will or even can differ

I saw LCD three times and they were playing live as far as I could tell, able to vary on cues from Murphy, or adapt to additional non-touring players coming onstage for odd songs at a festival

It'd be pretty wasteful to have a 7-10 piece of distinct multi-instrumentalists on the road but be playing to tracks

I don't begrudge them, if you can book 10 nights at a 1,800 cap venue more power to you, it's just confusing.

Shows in 18,000 capacity venues suck total ballbag, shows in 1800-cap rooms are a great experience if you actually like live music

I've seen LCD maybe ... 7? 8 times? More? Enough times that I've lost count. In small clubs and in big places. They've always been pretty good to great, but strictly live/real time or no - and I have no reason to believe they're not playing "live" - I've never heard them do any particular song two different ways, or at least not with any significant differences. I'm sure there is sequencing/ triggering and stuff going on - there has to be, at least to keep the tempos consistent or the patches queued up or whatever. But, for point of comparison, I've never seen them as loose as I've seen, say, New Order, which ultimately doesn't say much, save that New Order can be pretty sloppy. And even on that front nu-New Order is pretty much as locked down as LCD is.

It's not a problem with LCD, I should stress. They're pretty good at what they do, and it's not like the aforementioned National or Arcade Fire go off script live much, either. But they do seem to have a tad more latitude/flexibility when it comes to shaking up 10 night stands, imo. Every time I've seen LCD Soundsystem live they've been, like I said, good to great, but always the same, more or less.

both sic and jic otm, LCD is a very "live" band but outside of a funkier version of "Daft Punk" and a hyperextended "Yeah" they really don't sound a whole lot different than they do in the studio - the band is often better live, even if Murphy's vocals are usually worse. I think having a 4th album of material to draw from will serve them well.

there's a notable degree of projection happening itt

9 shows, sure. but ten shows? really? fuck you.

I found the new album underwhelming, but the songs were much more enjoyable live.

Maybe because the new stuff feels like a proper group effort, and not songs written by James Murphy as performed by 10 James Murphys.

9 James Murphys, sure

irl giggle

hang on isn't the reason they're doing 10 shows, simply so they can play to the number of people who want to go without having to do an arena show? i mean i'm not sure quite where the raging and swearing about this is coming from. popular NY band does 10 NY shows shocker. they could probably easily done the same 10 years or more ago or near as dammit.

xpost They're clearly massively popular, or at least on par with Arcade Fire, the National, a few others. LCD irks me the most (well, Arcade Fire is pretty bad) about doing Big Popular Band things while at the same time complaining about having to do Big Popular Band things. "Oh, sad us, we wish we didn't have to play MSG, or all these festivals, but that's just the way it is, and we're barely breaking even once you take out our expenses of burning massive piles of money." "We had no idea we'd sell out this modest club in our hip hometown, but it's OK, we'll just play 10 shows, because that way everyone will get to see us, because there's no way we'll ever sell out 10 nights at a tiny venue." Etc.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 21:22 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this post is really weird esp since they don't seem very complaining as a band, at all. i guess some people can never win, what exactly do you want them to do?

We've talked about it already, but there have been plenty of James Murphy Agonistes articles and interviews. Personally, I'm fine with LCD, but I'm still going to make fun of them and complain, which has come easier to me since the "reunion."

Tur He Can

not that i had much hope, but i gave this a shot tonight. terrible record. couldn't finish.

x-post: Yeah, their lyrics can be pretty bad and unwindy.

― Frederik B, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 21:26 (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

far from being bad or unwindy [sic]/not (sic)

they are actually searing on Tonite. I don't think I've read pop lyrics this clever for a long time

tonite

LCD Soundsystem

Everybody's singing the same song
It goes "tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight"
I never realized these artists thought so much about dying
But truth be told we all have the same end
Could make you cry, cry, cry, cry, cry
But I'm telling you
This is the best news you're getting all week

Oh sure it's ruling the airwaves
What remains of the airwaves
And we're frankly thankful for the market psychology you're hipping us to

And all the hits are saying the same thing
There's only tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight
Then life is finite
But shit, it feels like forever
It feels like forever

Oh is everybody feeling the same stuff?
We're all wild
Except for you
And you know who you are
This is a love song

And you're getting older
I promise you this; you're getting older
And there's improvements unless
You're such a winner
That the future's a nightmare
And there's nothing I can do
Nothing anyone can do about this

And oh, I'm offering you a chance to get even
But oh, you know very well the dialect of negation
Sure enemies haunt you with spit and derision
But friends are the ones who can put you in an exile
But that's not right

And you're too sharp to be used
Or you're too shocked from being used
By these bullying children of the fabulous
Raffling off limited edition shoes

And what's it you do again?
Oh I'm a reminder
The hobbled veteran of the disk shop inquisition
Set to parry the cocksure of men's sick filth
With my own late era middle-aged ramblings

Every lover favors the same things
It's all "touch me, touch me, touch me, touch me tonight"
We maybe realize what it is we need before we die

And luck is always better than skill at things
We're flying blind
Oh good gracious
I sound like my mom

But out of the little rooms and onto the streets
You've lost your internet and we've lost our memory
We had a paper trail that led to our secrets
But embarrassing pictures have now all been deleted
By versions of selves that we thought were the best ones
'Till versions of versions of others repeating
Come laughing at everything we thought was important
While still making mistakes that you thought you had learned from
And reasonable people know better than you
That cost in the long run but they don't know the short game
And terrible people know better than you
They're used and abused of the once so dear listener
So you will be badgered and taunted until death
You're missing a party that you'll never get over
You hate the idea that you're wasting your youth
That you stood in the background oh until you got older
But that's all lies
That's all lies
It's gonna have to be good enough, I can't do this anymore, my brain won't work

But out of the little rooms and onto the streets
You've lost your internet and we've lost our memory
We had a paper trail that led to our secrets
But embarrassing pictures have now all been deleted
By versions of selves that we thought were the best ones
'Till versions of versions of others repeating
Come laughing at everything we thought was important
While still making mistakes that you thought you had learned from

yeah those are shockingly great actually

maybe that’s why the later stuff hasn’t hit for me, I like my depressed introspection buried under a layer of yeahs

the lyrics might be good! the delivery is....not.

i think that

Oh I'm a reminder
The hobbled veteran of the disk shop inquisition
Set to parry the cocksure of men's sick filth
With my own late era middle-aged ramblings"

is a lift from

Just like I told ya
Prefers karaoka
Cheap shit half-dollar man
The sky calendar
Bar, home
Speculates

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBOmAnhh6xk

or maybe another part. whut.

quite drink

The Rian Johnson directed video for "oh baby"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gIhrPGyu6U

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

they sound completely out of ideas

Starts like a bad Le Tigre song

It looks like James Murphy is going to appear for the Q&A at tonight's NYFF premiere of White Noise.

I guess it's possible whatever he made for the film will work well within the context of the film. I always thought Dylan's score for Pat Garrett was actually good but close to useless as standalone listening (with "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" being a lone exception).

starts like a B52s song.