LCD Soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem is a New York City-based American dance-punk/rock band which was active from 2001 until its dissolution in 2011. During this time, they released three studio albums, LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver and This is Happening. The band resumed activity in the winter of 2015 with the release of "Christmas Will Break Your Heart", and subsequently released "call the police/american dream" and announced its fourth LP, "American Dream", for release on September 1st, 2017. It was founded by James Murphy, and is made up of James Murphy, Pat Mahoney, Phil Mossman, Tyler Pope & Nancy Whang + Matt Thornley, Al Doyle, David Ascot Stone, Gavin Russom, Jerry Fuchs, J.D. Mark, Phil Skarich, Justin Chearno & Korey Richey.[1]
Song lyrics
[edit]LCD Soundsystem (album) (2005)
[edit]- Yeah, I'm losing my edge
I'm losing my edge
The kids
Are coming up from behind- Losing My Edge
- I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids
I played it at CBGB's
Everybody thought I was crazy
We all know
I was there
I was there
I've never been wrong- Losing My Edge
- But have you seen my records? This Heat, Pere Ubu, Outsiders, Nation of Ulysses, Mars, The Trojans, The Black Dice, Todd Terry, The Germs, Section 25, Althea and Donna, Sexual Harrassment, a-ha, Pere Ubu, Dorothy Ashby, PIL, Fania All-Stars, The Bar-Kays, The Human League, The Normal, Lou Reed, Scott Walker, Monks, Niagara
Joy Division, Laurent Garnier, The Creation, Sun Ra, Scientists, Royal Trux, 10cc
Rammellzee, Eric B. and Rakim, Index, Basic Channel, Soulsonic Force (just hit me!), Juan Atkins, Manuel Göttsching, David Axelrod, Electric Prunes, Gil! Scott! Heron!, The Slits, Faust, Mantronix, Pharaoh Sanders and The Fire Engines, The Swans, the Soft Cell, The Sonics, The Sonics, The Sonics, The Sonics- Losing My Edge
- With no memories
To keep you up at night- Too Much Love
- Wasted and complacent
And you about the same
But still I want to get it
On with you tonight- Never As Tired As When I'm Waking Up
- It's like a culture
Without the effort of all the culture
It's like a movement
Without the bother of the meaning
It's like a discipline
Without the discipline of all of the discipline- Movement
- Here comes the report nothing to report see
It's all the same
It seems the punk rock as an experiment well
It pulled up lame
You got the fat guy in the T-Shirt
Doing all the singing
Straight to the drunk tank doing the research 'n
Doing all the blame- Movement
- Everybody keeps on talking about it
Nobody's getting it done
I'm tryin', tired, tired of listening, listening
Knowing that the shit's gotta run- Yeah (Crass Version)
- Your city's a sucker
My city's a creep- Yr City's a Sucker
Sound of Silver (2007)
[edit]- New York's the greatest if you get someone to pay the rent
Wahoo! North America
And it's the furthest you can live from the government uh huh huh
Some fat American Christians might disagree
Here in North America
But New York's the only place we're keepin' them off the street
Now we can't have parties like in Spain where they go all night
Shut down in North America
Or like Berlin where they go another night, alright, uh huh uh huh
You see I love this place that I have grown to know
Alright, North America
And yeah, I know you wouldn't touch us with a ten-foot pole
Cause we're North Americans- North American Scum
- I wish that we could talk about it
But there, that's the problem- Someone Great
- The coffee isn't even bitter
Because, what's the difference?- Someone Great
- To tell the truth I saw it coming
The way you were breathing
But nothing can prepare you for it
The voice on the other end- Someone Great
- There's all the work that needs to be done
It's late for revision
There's all the time and all the planning
And songs to be finished
And it keeps coming
And it keeps coming
And it keeps coming until the day it stops- Someone Great
- There shouldn't be this reign of silence
But what are the options
When someone great is gone?- Someone Great
- It comes apart
The way it does in bad films
Except the part
Where the moral kicks in- All My Friends
- I wouldn't trade one stupid decision
For another five years of life
You drop the first ten years just as fast as you can
And the next ten people who are trying to be polite
When you're blowing eighty-five days in the middle of France
Yeah, I know it gets tired, only where are your friends tonight?- All My Friends
- All the good people wanna rescue
All the small people wanna talk to you
All the clever people wanna tell you
All the little people wanna dance, it's true- Us v. Them
- Us... and them. Over and over again.
- Us v. Them
- Like a rat in a cage
Pulling minimum wage- New York, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down
- New York, you're perfect, oh, please don't change a thing
Your mild billionaire mayor's now convinced he's a king.- New York, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down
- New York, I love you but you're freaking me out
There's a ton of the twist but we're fresh out of shout.- New York, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down
This is Happening (2010)
[edit]- Talking like a jerk
Except you are an actual jerk
And living proof that sometimes friends are mean- Dance Yrself Clean
- Present company excluded in every way
Present company, makes me wanna stay- Dance Yrself Clean
- Killing it with close inspection
Killing it can only make it worse
It sort of makes it breed- Dance Yrself Clean
- I miss the way the night comes
With friends who always make it feel good
This basement has a cold glow
Though it's better than a bunch of others- Dance Yrself Clean
- We should try a little harder
In the tedious march of the few
Every day's a different warning
There's a part of me hoping it's true- Dance Yrself Clean
- Drunk girls know that love is an astronaut
It comes back but it's never the same- Drunk Girls
- You wanted a hit
But maybe we don't do hits
I try, and try
It ends up
Feeling kind of wrong- You Wanted a Hit
- Cause you're afraid of what you need
Yeah, you're afraid of what you need
If you weren't, yeah you weren't
Then I don't know what we'd talk about
Yeah no one ever knows what you're talking about
So i guess you're already there
No one opens up when you scream and shout
But it's time to make a couple things clear
If you're afraid of what you need
If you're afraid of what you need
Look around you, you're surrounded
It won't get any better
And so, goodnight- Home
American Dream (2017)
[edit]- Oh, the revolution was here
That would set you free from those bourgeoisie
In the morning everything's clearer
When the sunlight exposes your age- american dream
- Find the place where you can be boring
Where you won't need to explain
That you're sick in the head and you wish you were dead
Or at least instead of sleeping here you prefer your own bed, come on
You just suck at self-preservation
Versus someone else's pain- american dream
- He was leather and he was screaming
Swinging chains against the stage
And you couldn't have known he was leaving
And now more will come with age- american dream (On Alan Vega's passing)
- The old guys are frightened and frightening to behold
- call the police
- The early years were boring
The quiet, unhappy punk
See mother was a cripple and my father was a drunk but gentle man
So we do the best we can
This is the plan
Wear your makeup like a man- call the police
Quotes about LCD Soundsystem
[edit]- James and Tim were working together in the early, early part of it, but very quickly I think James thought, “I can do this programming. Actually it doesn’t look that difficult. I can figure that out.” He figured it out and then pretty much shut the door on everyone.
- Phil Mossman, in Meet Me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman (2017)[2]
- My career as a front man was accidental. […] At some point it dawned on me that I had to do it. If I thought it was such a good idea for the Rapture to go with us to EMI, then I had to do it myself. I had to show that I meant it. I thought, “If I sit here and complain about how bullshit their leaving is and do nothing, I’m just as guilty. I can play, I can engineer, I can sing and do all the instruments, and if I can’t make something good from all that, then, tough shit for me.” I went to EMI and said, “I have a band now.”
- James Murphy, in Meet Me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman (2017)[2]
- The thing that makes pop music so great is the way it parallel-parks on the bleeding edge of cool: nothing could be better at this moment than this beat, this feeling, this chorus. It takes something ephemeral and impossible, and for three to four exhilarating minutes, it makes it accessible and real. “Losing My Edge” is a song that’s already bled out. It sticks its nose in all the parts you’re supposed to ignore: jealousy, resentment, sarcasm, age. But it’s not obnoxious in the way “funny” music often is. The real trick is that it’s hitting you while it’s heckling you—the song bangs, even if the vocalist is a crank. I still don’t quite know how he did it. Most breakthrough singles are about first love. “Losing My Edge” is about first loss. And the second. And the third. And etc. etc. until everyone is just a jaded music critic in the bar right after the ugly light switches on. And you’re dancing too much to care.
- Andy Greenwald, in Meet Me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman (2017)[2]
- Do I like that track? No, I hate it, to be honest, because I know the things that are being ripped off. “Losing My Edge” is a direct rip-off of a Killing Joke track. Directly. I hate it because it’s devalued those tracks. Tracks which I love I can’t listen to anymore.
- Tim Goldsworthy, in Meet Me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman (2017)[2]
- There’s nothing wishy-washy with James. He has epiphanies on accident. And they’re very clear, obvious things, but quite amazing, really. He said to me, “I woke up in the middle of the night, and I have an idea for the second record. It has to be better than the first one.” Totally simplistic but he actualized it. Sound of Silver was huge.
- Phil Mossman, in Meet Me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman (2017)[2]
- Originally, there was also a plan where Tim would help James make his first record, produced by the DFA. James went to that residential farm in Massachusetts. A studio farm. They had nice gear; it is very residential and chill out there. James went for like three weeks. Tim, in great Tim fashion, protested this LCD project and said, “I’m not going to the farm and I don’t want to help you. Go do it yourself.” […] I didn’t say this to him, but I was thinking, “What are you doing? You’re blowing it, dude. That’s another train that’s leaving. You should be part of that, even if you’re just in the room. What are you going to fucking do here for six weeks? Go sit on a farm! Go twiddle knobs up in Massachusetts.” He didn’t want to do it. Didn’t want to give James the satisfaction of, like, “Okay, this one is for you.” It was very selfish.
- Jonathan Galkin, in Meet Me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman (2017)[2]
- I knew it was the last record. I just felt: three and out. With punk bands, the first three are good and the rest suck. Did I think I’d start to suck? I’m not in charge of that. I was thinking about Little Creatures by Talking Heads. That’s their biggest record and I don’t like that record. And that’s a band I love. What would be the point of continuing? I like to fight. I’m an underdog by nature and I like to be fighting. I don’t make music for myself. I make music to fight.
- James Murphy, in Meet Me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman (2017)[2]
- Some bands say, “I don’t care if people listen.” And I was like, “Well, what’s the fucking point of that?” To me it’s all about communication. I wanted it to be personal, but we were pretty ambitious. I was just getting out of my indie rut.
- James Murphy, in Meet Me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman (2017)[2]
- I just remember, within a certain amount of time after seeing MSG on his routing sheet, he said, “Did I tell you? I think it’s going to be the final show.” That’s pretty much how it happened. “You know what? Let’s just end it there.” It’s almost like he backed himself into the myth. I mean, what’s more rock and roll than Madison Square Garden and a mic drop?
- Jonathan Galkin, in Meet Me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman (2017)[2]
- Shut up and play the hits!
- Win Butler of Arcade Fire in Shut Up and Play the Hits, in reference to James Murphy's stage banter
