Pitchfork

Photo by Kirstie Shanley

In May, James Murphy and his LCD Soundsystem caused heavy palpitations in a capacity crowd at Chicago's Metro venue, only to slink downstairs to the basement Smart Bar an hour later and spin disco records nobody had ever heard of (but everybody dug) until the wee hours.

Murphy remembers passing out on the floor that night. We're hardly surprised.

James Murphy does a lot of things very well: make records, produce records, and play other people's records. Though the first two skills should be familiar to anyone who makes it to the second paragraph of any piece about Murphy on this website, you used to have to be in the right place at the right time to experience him in action on the ones and twos.

Thankfully, FABRICLIVE36, the mix James and his LCD Soundsystem cohort Pat Mahoney crafted for the venerable London club/label Fabric, gives you a little peek into the crates of a dude whose record intake is as impressive as his recorded output.

Over the phone from London earlier this week, Murphy noted the difference between making bodies move from behind the wheels of steel, rather than via his regular gig centerstage with LCD. "There's nothing to look at, it's not like a performance," he said. "You're just trying to make people dance and forget about you, which I like. When you're playing live, people don't have a chance to forget about you. They're pretty different. DJing is much more about trying to make people happy."

One could argue that an LCD Soundsystem show makes people pretty damn happy, but Murphy's point is nevertheless valid. Something like ego, he says, drives him enough on the other side of things. "With the live band, I'm kind of a dictator. When [Pat and I] DJ together, we're literally just having fun. We get together and play records. It's so much less pressure in a way. When we're playing live, if he misses a beat, then I fall apart. It's a different relationship than when we're playing records back and forth and I've got to go the bathroom while he's playing. It's pretty natural, pretty normal. It's just a different animal."

Since we had him on the phone, we had to ask Murphy about LCD Soundsystem's forthcoming tour with the Arcade Fire. How did that awesomely unlikely pairing come about? "We shared a bus driver!" Murphy said.

He added, "I've known them for awhile, since the last album. We met them a couple of times and hung out with them. They're really sweet people. We really started talking more and more when they were getting on to do this record. And then after we starting playing festivals together, they approached us about doing a tour together."

Though the pairing is inspired, it's got more to do with spectacle than any sort of sonic overlap between the two artists. When asked about the overture from the epic-scale emoto-rockers to the thumpy LCD camp, Murphy claims it's really an arrangement of convenience. "I understand where they're coming from. They were gonna step up and play these much bigger venues. It's good to have another band that you can hoist some of the pressure onto, rather than trying to find a local opening band in the city. It's kind of nerve-wracking and almost embarrassing to play big venues. You kind of feel like a jerk. Whereas if you're like, 'oh, it's kind of a festival!' it's easier to do it, I think. We did the same thing: We brought M.I.A. out two years ago. It's a lot easier to justify that: 'Well, it's M.I.A., it's a package!'"

Mutual respect plays a role, too, as Murphy the music fan wasn't about to turn down a chance to share a bill with a band who, in his eyes, offers his group a run for their money. "There are not many bands that I like live, and I like them live," he said of the Arcade Fire. "And they kind of push us to be better. One of the best shows we ever played was in Madrid at this festival that they played at. We'd seen them a bunch of times and they could never see us because of timing. And then they were coming to see us in Madrid and we just fuckin' played our heads off."

Of course, we had to ask about an onstage collaboration. "We haven't been able to talk about that, though I'd love to. As long as it's not cheesy." Would Arcade Fire be welcome to join LCD during their set? "Yeah, I can see that. Obviously I'd need help on it. They don't need help because they've got 32 people. There will be songs that I wouldn't mind having additional hands on. What do they need? A 33rd person? It's like an army."

Though the bands are huge and the venues even bigger, plans for a split single emerging from the tour came out of Murphy's days in the VFW halls of the world. "I remember buying tour split 7"s, he said. "I always loved tour sets. It seemed like the cute thing to do. It kind of cheered me up. It was just like, "hey, let's do a split 7", and everyone was just like, 'oh, yeah!' I love those things, I miss that."

Is that all we can expect as far as this pairing is concerned? Apparently not. "I'm working on a remix of 'Black Mirror' for them right now. And I'd love to [produce them]. That's one of the things I regret about being in the band: there's not enough time to do some of those records anymore. I haven't done it for awhile with another band since... the Rapture. Yeah. 2003? Too long, man." You're telling us.

So what's next for Murphy? "A fuckin' break," he sighs. Gee, man, looking forward to it? "Yes, desperately."

Time off is a tricky notion for Murphy; the avid fighter claims he'll spend his time away learning to surf, biking, and working on the backlog of productions he's got for DFA artists. "It would make me really happy to be in California with a beach house, surf, and bike train for a couple months. That would be probably the best thing I can imagine."

If Murphy gets his way, the time away from LCD won't last long. "I hope that 2008 just will be better. That I can DJ more. Make another record. Producing someone else's record would make me very happy."

Another LCD record? So soon? Pressed for plans for the album, Murphy didn't have much beyond talk of departures. "I just want to make a good record, something different," he said. "The first two records were very similar on purpose and it's time to branch out." (Insert a "less cowbell" joke here.) "I mean, I've made two nine-song records. There's almost companions in songs."

Though he's looking to break the mold on LP3, Murphy recalls "that's what everyone wanted when I was a kid. Buying records and the first two albums of a band, I liked it when they were consistent. I always got bummed when I liked the first record of a band and the second record of a band was totally overproduced and different."

If Murphy's desire to dish out LCD's third album post haste seems ambitious, it is. In fact, it's all part of a larger plan. He said, "I feel like I've kind of accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. In other words, I don't really feel that compelled to be touring...I feel like we've proven that we're a good band. I don't see other bands blowing my mind. I really feel like I've got to prove something else. I want to get to a point where we just tour every couple of records."

Murphy's not exactly likening himself to an indie rock Tom Waits, though he does share the man's fondness for the self-preservation that studio work lends an artist. "It's not healthy. I can't make records if I'm on tour. How am I supposed to do this? I don't want to have four records and that's it and retire. I'd rather make eight, ten records and then quit. Something's gotta give."

Murphy and Mahoney, along with DFA cohort Shit Robot, will spin at the FABRICLIVE36 release party October 25 at Fabric in London.

LCD:

09-14 Austin, TX - Zilker Park (Austin City Limits)
09-17 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre *
09-20 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl *
09-21 Mountain View, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre *
09-24 Seattle, WA - Bank of America Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion (University of Washington) *
09-26 Lehi, UT - Waterfall Amphitheater at Thanksgiving Point *
09-28 Kansas City, MO - Starlight Theatre *
09-30 Saint Paul, MN - Roy Wilkins Auditorium *
10-03 Louisville, KY - Waterfront Park *
10-05 Columbus, OH - LC Pavilion *
10-06 New York, NY - Randall's Island *#
10-20 Dublin, Ireland - Tripod
10-21 Manchester, England - Apollo
10-22 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowlands
10-23 London, England - Brixton Academy
10-25 London, England - Fabric (DJ set) ^

* with Arcade Fire
# with Les Savy Fav, Blonde Redhead, White Light
^ with Pat Mahoney, Shit Robot