LCD Soundsystem got quite a bit of flack for their 2016 reunion despite having a worldwide fan base and being revered as one of the best alternative bands of the 2000’s. This was all due to the band having a marathon 3-hour ‘final show’ at Madison Square Garden in 2011. With so many fans holding them to the promise of finality, James Murphy and company had to get out their to remind everyone why they still can deliver those heaps of musical trips for the collective wiggling-hips. They did just that in grand fashion last year performing at California’s Coachella fest and closing out the final day of Lollapalooza in Grant Park. They roll on with plans for a new album ‘American Dream’ due out September 1st, which is heated by the fresh single “Call the Police”. The band will headline this weekend’s Pitchfork festival in Union Park.
So what exactly prompted this critically-acclaimed band who we thought was gone to come back to the stage and studio? David Bowie.
The late great Bowie influenced Murphy to get the band back together, according to an interview this week with BBC Radio 6. The spark for the LCD 2.0 era were prompted when Murphy was working with Bowie on his final album ‘Blackstar’ which was released in January 2016, just days before his death.
“I spent a good amount of time with David Bowie, and I was talking about coming back and getting the band back together, He said, ‘Does it make you uncomfortable?’ I said ‘Yeah,’ and he said, ‘Good – it should. You should be uncomfortable.’ And the first thing that popped into my mind was, ‘What the? What do you know? You don’t know what it’s like to be uncomfortable.’ Because I’m imagining if I was David Bowie, I’d just walk into the room and flip everybody off, like ‘I’m David Bowie!’ And nobody can say anything – unless maybe Lou Reed’s there … But then of course that’s not who he was ever in his life. He was always making himself uncomfortable. It was such a great feeling of, you just don’t know what you are to anybody else.” said Murphy.
Check out LCD covering Bowie’s classic ‘Heroes’ from Coachella last year.
Listen the latest new alternative on this week’s Queued Up with Walt
