LCD Soundsystem

JAMES MURPHY, WISE-ASS MASTERMIND behind dance-rock punk-funk LCD Soundsystem and DFA Records, makes cowbell-laced disco-infiltrated tracks that are making people move on dance floors around the world. For all his years in the biz, he remains passionate about his old records, is self-deprecating as hell, and wasn't above eating cold leftovers from the buffet line before his sold-out San Francisco show.

How would you describe your music to your grandma?

I'd say, "It's like crazy jazz, Grandma!" I'd say, "It's disco."

What are you listening to these days?

I like a lot of different tracks lately. People have been finding really interesting stuff to give me to listen to; like really old strange disco tracks that make me really happy. I recently started to like the first three songs on the Arcade Fire record. Things take me awhile to absorb. I tend to get one song and play it over and over again and that'll be a lead-in to a band.

If you had to DJ a house party with one song on repeat all night, what would it be?

"I Feel Love" by Donna Summer. It's the classic disco track: robot music with a soul voice. It's just so simple and idiotic and perfect. Or "Loose" by The Stooges. That's probably the greatest rock song ever. It was my favorite dance song for a really long time to play at parties and just tear people's heads off. It's just stone-cold, hair-on-your-arms-stand-up, freak-out stuff.

Do you remember your first record?

My first record ever was a 7-inch, "Fame" by David Bowie. My first album: I got some birthday money, went to the record store and bought Siouxsie and the Banshees Join Hands, The Fall Grotesque, and The Birthday Party Nick the Stripper, all in one day. And all three of those records are three of my favorite things I've ever heard.

What about your first CD?

I didn't buy a CD 'til probably 1990. I'm sure it was just a CD of something I had on vinyl. I never really got too into CDs; I just don't feel like I own an album until I have it on record. And jewel boxes are ugly. They just feel like shit. They feel like cassettes, but cassettes are funny. I love cassettes.

Were you ever into skating?

I can't even fucking stand on my skateboard. I skated in the '70s on a little plastic thing. I was fucking terrible, absolutely abysmal, so I gave up. And then in the '80s, when I was in punk rock bands, all the kids who skated were hippies. They listened to The Dead and shit. So skateboarding when I was a kid was like hackey-sack-Dead-bullshit-hippie-boarding so I wouldn't be caught dead on a big deck. Then when I moved to New York in '88 and started playing in bands, like every friend I had there was a skater.

What's the most punk rock thing you've ever done?

Make disco music. The most punk rock thing I could do is to keep re-evaluating punk rock 'cause it is awesome. It saved my life. But it can also be just as clique-y and childish as anything else. Kids are really mean to each other in it just like they are in high school. Punk rock can be a totally liberating, amazing thing, but it can totally be the cool club. Like, "Oh, we only like bands on this label and we only like bands that sound like this ..."

So what is punk to you?

You know, there are these arbitrary rules that don't make any sense. There's so much music that was punk as fuck that was way bigger than anything we would call punk rock, and that was the beauty of it. Like Suicide. They were like, "Yeah, we're gonna be huge. I play an organ with a beat box and that guy sings like Elvis." It's like, they're not gonna be huge! I love how deluded that was. When people say, "We're not gonna be big, and that's punk," that's the least punk think I've heard in my fuckin' life. David Bowie going out as Ziggy Stardust is punk as fuck. Sun Ra is punk. But sounding like all your friends 'cause you're afraid to do anything else 'cause everyone will make fun of you is not punk. That's bunk. That's just willfully signing up for more high school. Like, "I couldn't get enough fuckin' high school. I was so excellent at being terrified that I wore the wrong shirt, I'm gonna sign up for more of it. Maybe this time I'll win 'cause everybody'll be dysfunctional."

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