{{#message}}{{{message}}}{{/message}}{{^message}}Your submission failed. The server responded with {{status_text}} (code {{status_code}}). Please contact the developer of this form processor to improve this message. Learn More{{/message}}
{{#message}}{{{message}}}{{/message}}{{^message}}It appears your submission was successful. Even though the server responded OK, it is possible the submission was not processed. Please contact the developer of this form processor to improve this message. Learn More{{/message}}
James Murphy is one of music’s most eclectic stars. His best-known contribution to the rich tapestry of audial art came in the form of his band LCD Soundsystem. LCD are a difficult act to define; their sound is a potpourri of dance, punk, rock, electronica, art-rock, post-punk and indie.
LCD Soundsystem were formed in Brooklyn, New York City, in 2002. Their amusing band name originates from a Christmas party that Murphy and drummer Pat Mahoney once played. They were covering songs by Liquid Liquid and, as such, decided to call their new musical venture Liquid Christmas Display, of course, a play on words of Liquid Crystal Display – the flat panel optical devices that could be found in televisions of yore.
As for Murphy himself, he was born and raised in New Jersey and found an early musical kinship with the Fall, the B-52s, Yes, David Bowie, Can and the Smiths. He played drums in a few underground bands in his youth in the 1990s before starting his own record label, Death From Above Records, and eventually forming LCD Soundsystem the following decade.
Murphy once said that the first music he can remember hearing was ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ by The Tokens. The song was first written and recorded by Solomon Linda for a South African record company, with the lyrics written initially in the isiZulu language. The Tokens’ doo-wop version was a 1961 hit, heading straight to number one in the United States.
Murphy said, “I have an image of hearing this in the hallway when I was three or four. The sound of it was really crazy – like it was from another planet. Those early years in New Jersey were amazing. We lived in a really small town with tons of kids my age. There were fields and woods and a creek – it was a pretty ideal place to be a little kid.”
The first record that Murphy actually bought, however, was David Bowie‘s ‘Fame’, the second single to be taken from 1975’s Young Americans. The track sees Bowie lament the dangerous and alluring nature that fame can play on those who seek it out.
Murphy said, “I was always just blown away by David Bowie and how mannered the guy was willing to be. It was so far from what I imagined someone with my confidence to be capable of. I always wished I had a more flamboyant streak, but it’s just not what I’m made of. Once I stopped feeling bad about that and started feeling, OK, why don’t I just be myself? – that’s when I started to make much better music.”
{{#message}}{{{message}}}{{/message}}{{^message}}Your submission failed. The server responded with {{status_text}} (code {{status_code}}). Please contact the developer of this form processor to improve this message. Learn More{{/message}}
{{#message}}{{{message}}}{{/message}}{{^message}}It appears your submission was successful. Even though the server responded OK, it is possible the submission was not processed. Please contact the developer of this form processor to improve this message. Learn More{{/message}}