LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

So uh, James Murphy's latest leaked. I managed to listen to it on a stream and now it's all over the internet. I covered my love for dance punk and all of the old stuff here so I figured I had to address this since I'm a pretty big fan of his stuff.

So first off, the newest dance punk "anthem" is available on his myspace and it's pretty good. In my opinion, not nearly the best song of the album. It's loud, repetitive and fun as any of his stuff but I feel it's a little forced. It's full of fun riffs and tones that sound like they came from some kind of 90's kids toy.

Besides this, in listening to the leak I loved the first song Dance Yrself Clean, which is available at the hypemachine. It starts out quiet and playful with a catchy high pitched riff and after a few minutes more electronics come in. Around now, you're grooving, you're into it. But, it builds more and brings in some heavier and really interesting chords that shake you. Afterwards he cools everything down in the typical fashion of going back to the original beat/riff mixture. I can't stop listening to it.

I can't wait for the album to come out now, the rest of the tracks are definitely a progression of his style including old influences and moving on. In my opinion, this is certainly going to be on my best of 2010 list.

The New Wine / Erlend Øye (Whitest Boy Alive)

During another round of exploration, I found a some sparkle in dance music. I discovered two really fun bands thanks to headphonesex . I've been a fan of music like the Juan MacLean , LCD Soundsystem and various other DFA names that are catching on like Yacht . Most of them are probably categorized as dance punk, similar but all with alot of variance from each other.

A friend had told me about Whitest Boy Alive a week or two ago but I didn't take the time to listen until today. What got me hooked in this madness? This:

It's really funky, and give that cheesy dance sound that makes your head wiggle and heart flutter. What got me is the synth part, it's a contagious hook, I'll admit it.

On to learning about Whitest Boy Alive, a little less funky, but more dreamy and I definitely feel that. Give this a spin:

Lastly, The New Wine, completely unknown to me, but so hip. Their music makes me want to eat glitter and bread just so I can get sick from dancing to their tunes. It would give me a funk driven puke frenzy, and everyone would just keep dancing in that sparkly vomit. Enjoy:

LCD Soundsystem

A project of producer James Murphy, LCD Soundsystem aims to merge punk and dance music.  Somehow, James Murphy effectively forged his project to become very listenable and catchy.  Hardly known in the United States, LCD Soundsystem has two albums that have been on the UK top 40.

However, I’d say that it might be an emerging sound in the USA.  I remember when my roommate, Sam, was playing Forza 2 early last spring; a dance beat lured me into asking more about it immediately after hearing it. It turns out it was “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” by LCD Soundsystem. It was funky, had a really dirty electronic feel, and a ridiculously satisfying cowbell solo.

Then in early May, after Grand Theft Auto 4 was released, I found out another LCD Soundsystem song was featured in one of the advertisements.  This time it was “Get Innocuous!” , a song with a groovy cooing synth playing along with an aggressive and maniacal riff. James sings along in a creepy, almost condescending tone as keyboard chords chime in.  I guess it was a good choice for the game, but I was also very excited to find out it was used.

I figured the madness of this coming up was over, but if you’re good at picking up on commentary you can see the irony of where this is going. Step Brothers was released in the end of July.  As much as I was laughing, I almost cheered “Huzzah!” when the title sequence actually began.  A familiar keyboard tone and a wooden block riff were introduced as Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly confront each other. I heard an “Uhhh, yeah yeah,” and knew it was “North American Scum”.  After the movie I must have talked my friends’ ears off about that happening, and all they wanted to do is reminisce about all of the hilarious one-liners.

Besides all of this pop culture exposure in the United States, some companies are seeing profitability in LCD Soundsystem. For example, Nike contracted a deal with James to compose a track for them. What came out of it was,”45:33: Nike Original Run,” an album originally released on iTunes only as a mix created to accompany jogging workouts.  Now referred to simply as “45:33,” the whole album is actually just one gapless track.  Honestly, it’s become my new favorite song to jam to.  It lures you in so subtlety, just a synth roll picking up speed, as it dies down a dance clap and keyboard jingle comes in. It takes almost 2 minutes for it to have any substance, but at that point you can’t help but bob your head.  It get really funky, after this you don’t care what comes next, yet it is all so appropriate and works as one long mix. James has actually taken various parts of this song and mastered them as songs on the album “Sound of Silver.”

I’m pretty sure you’ll be hearing more of LCD Soundsystem in the future, and I’m not going out on a limb at all coming to this conclusion. James is currently doing a lot of DJing, but according to the forums, he’s planning on working on another release soon.  If you haven’t already, give LCD Soundsystem a listen, and I think you’ll be pleased with the decision.