Oh right, and my favorite band died the other night

goodbye LCD

I need to say something about the last LCD Soundsystem show and the supposed end of them.  I’m actually surprised I didn’t write this earlier.  I watched the show from home, which in certain ways made up for the fact I wasn’t there.  Not sure what I would’ve done were there no webcast and I just had to watch small bits of YouTube video to try to piece together what other people witnessed.  Thanks to Pitchfork for a great stream so the rest of us could enjoy it with friends in living rooms all across the country.

LCD Soundsystem has been my favorite band for the last 6 years.  I think it was sometime in the fall or winter of 2004 I heard of James Murphy and bought the DFA compilation #2, featuring “Yeah” and “Beat Connection.”  I can’t be sure, but I think that the Pitchfork 9.0 may have been the first time I heard of DFA #2 or even DFA itself.  I can’t be sure, but I’ll fess to be being late.

Regardless, my love of LCD didn’t really strike until I went to SXSW in 2005 for a film I worked on and stuck around for the music conference.  It was there I attended one of those “looking back can you believe it?” shows.  Shows that don’t happen often.  The lineup at Elysium that night was: Ratatat, Hot Chip, M.I.A. and LCD.

James Murphy got us all to move and sweat, but he also was a bit surly.  In typical fashion, I think he wasn’t too pleased with the sound mix.  Also some intoxicated people, including myself, might have been too eager in facetiously taunting him that he’s losing his edge.  I had the distinct impression he wasn’t seeing the humor in his own joke.  And I know he talked back to the audience a little.  That made this schlubby older dude conducting irresistible grooves even cooler.

So yeah, LCD is gone.  It’s sad, but I’m going to take the outlook Murphy implied at the end of the last show.  They played their last song, sure, but he’s not done making music and we’re all still alive and able to enjoy lots of other great and interesting music.  But as for the other implication in his “retiring” of LCD at its peak because he has a hang up about getting too old to make and perform dance music…I’d say first, does that mean he’s going to stop listening and dancing to dance music?…and second, get back to me when I hit 40.