LCD Soundsystem - American Dream - 9/1/17

mean thread

Album of the year for this record is... interesting

it's not surprising at all, it's a big comeback release from a critically acclaimed band with lots of cross over appeal, their first to reach the #1 spot on Billboard too

of course it's going to get a lot of votes in a Mojo eoy poll, and it wouldn't need #1 votes to top the poll

“how do you sleep” is actually great

though i’m guess i’m tired of james “the only record i’ve listened to in the past ten years is the idiot” murphy

and Remain in Light

I don't have strong feelings about LCD, love a handful of songs, but there are some serious RIL rips on this record. beyond 'quotes.' in addition to the sound of the whole thing

yea he's always borrowed pretty liberally but there are two songs on this album that steal the sound of RIL so blatantly that I can't think of anything else when I'm hearing them

still think this is probably his best record overall and a perfectly defensible AOTY choice

I agree. like, why not this one?

It's not that good, calm down

I enjoyed this record a lot. Still do.

xpost it's not that good. but neither is it that bad. It's total nostalgic comfort food, so can go either way, but I think ultimately that saves it from any legit hate, imo. which is why I say sure, put it on the end of the year lists. Something's going to make it to those lists and I know I'm going to hate more of those records than I hate this record, which I don't even listen to.

I needed to test out my theory that I was simply over James Murphy at this point, so I spun This is Happening this morning, but nope, it still sounds terrific.

i’m openly nostalgic for the brief year or so where we thought the rapture would be the ‘band’ on dfa records and lcd would be experimental synth dancefloor experiments of one of the owners with other projects branching out in different directions

I don't eat comfort food though

yea he's always borrowed pretty liberally but there are two songs on this album that steal the sound of RIL so blatantly that I can't think of anything else when I'm hearing them

yeah I like this album but had the same exact issue w/ those two songs. like if you told JM his new assignment was to make a RiL pastiche, I'm not sure he could do better than 'other voices'.

It's probably just me, but I find this album becomes immensely entertaining when I imagine it being sung by Will Ferrell as Mugatu from Zoolander

lmao

lol fuck this guys and his 10 nights of shows in Brooklyn this month. really?

Right?

I often think about how residencies used to be a big thing, not only in jazz but also in folk, and afaik with fx CBGBs also punk/new wave, and how cool would it be to be able to see Bob Dylan or Talking Heads twice a week

but now I guess it's a Vegas thing

Dylan did a residency here a few years ago, playing five nights in various venues big and small. Was pretty fun, but the sets were not terribly different, iirc. Wilco has done a couple of residencies here, once playing every song they'd ever recorded over the course of a few nights. But LCD? A band so linked to electronics and sequencing and arrangements, it's unlikely the set will or even can differ radically from night to night. Just songs played in a different order.

I'd rather see LCD Soundsystem than two knobheads trying to play acoustic guitars badly to a bunch of fucking neckbeards.

i don't post in ILM enough to know but are you just a troll ? i only see you in threads talking stupid shit

No, but you're entitled to your opinion, as wrong as it is.

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.