LCD Soundsystem

February 4, 1970 – James Murphy is born in Princeton Junction, NJ. He
will spend his formative years commuting to the Princeton Record
Exchange, making strategic import and underground vinyl discoveries
based more on cover art than anything and building a musical acumen
free of any kind of peer pressure or scene politics. He heads to New
York City with the intent of furthering his formal education but winds
up playing in various and sundry indie bands (Pony, Speedking), and
somehow by 1993 he is enlisting the guidance of Steve Albini and Bob
Weston in the design and construction of his studio, Plantain
Recording House. He soon assumes live sound duties for Six Finger
Satellite, his punishing P.A. configuration earning the sobriquet Death
From Above, which also becomes Murphys’ DJ alias and eventually the
name of the label he co‐founds in 2001. The label’s first release is The
Rapture’s “House Of Jealous Lovers” 12”, its second is “By The Time I
Get To Venus” by the Juan MacLean, featuring both John MacLean
(late of Six Finger Satellite) and keyboardist/vocalist Nancy Whang
who will join LCD Soundsystem when Murphy decides to take it to the
stage.

July 2002 – Murphy’s first recording as LCD Soundsystem is the third
release on DFA: “Losing My Edge.” With its protagonist’s near‐eightminute monologue cataloguing the trendsetting bands and rare records he discovered in his younger and cooler prime, “Losing My Edge” is eventually named #13 in Pitchfork’s top 500 songs of the ‘00s and #37 in Rolling Stone’s 50 Best Songs of the Decade. A live version of LCD Soundsystem coalesces at this time around Murphy, Whang and drummer Pat Mahoney—who remain part of of the live LCD experience to this day.

July 2003 ‐ “Give It Up” b/w “Tired” (DFA) is the second LCD Soundsystem single.

January 2004 – LCD Soundsystem releases its third DFA single, “Yeah.”
The single features two versions of the song: “Yeah” (Crass Version) on
the A‐side and “Yeah” (Pretentious Version) on the flip.

November 2004 ‐ “Movement,” the fourth LCD Soundsystem single is
released on DFA. “Yr City’s A Sucker” is on side two.

February 2005 ‐ “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House,” the fifth DFA
single from LCD Soundsystem is released and later receives a Grammy
nomination for Best Dance Recording.

June 21, 2005 ‐ LCD Soundsystem, the eponymous double‐disc debut
album, is released by DFA/Capitol in the U.S. It is preceded by the
single “Disco Infiltrator,” which is backed by a non‐LP cover of Siouxsie
and the Banshees’ “Slowdive.”

LCD Soundsystem is more or less half debut album/half compilation,
disc 1 consisting of new material written by Murphy and recorded at
Longview Farms in Massachusetts and Plantain that year. The new
album’s track listing is: “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House,” “Too Much
Love,” “Tribulations,” “Movement,” “Never As Tired As When I’m
Waking Up,” “On Repeat,” “Thrills,” “Disco Infiltrator,” and “Great
Release.” Disc 2 compiles the vinyl sides “Losing My Edge,” “Beat
Connection,” “Give It Up,” “Tired,” “Yeah” (Crass Version), “Yeah”
(Pretentious Version) and “Yr City’s A Sucker” (Full Version). The
record’s credits have James Murphy on most sounds with Tim
Goldsworthy, Eric Broucek, Tyler Pope, Nancy Whang, Patrick
Mahoney and Mandy Coon contributing other sounds. All songs are
written by Murphy, with the exception of “Yeah” and “Beat
Connection” written by Murphy and Goldsworthy and “Tired” by
Murphy and Mahoney. The record is produced by the DFA and mixed
by the DFA with Andy Wallace.

The album is well received, receiving critical accolades including 4‐star
Rolling Stone and Observer reviews, as well as a Grammy nomination
for Best Electronic/Dance Album. The track “Tribulations” is released
as single.

March 2006 – Introns, a collection of remixes, B‐sides and three live
tracks from a session for London’s XFM radio, is released digitally in
the U.S. on DFA.

October 2006 – 45:33 is released. Commissioned by Nike, it is initially
available only via iTunes as a single track. An extended musical suite
composed by Murphy and actually running slightly longer than the
“45:33” of its title, 45:33 features an instrumental excerpt from the
then‐unreleased “Someone Great” and is later released in physical and
remix versions.

March 20, 2007 – Sound Of Silver, the second LCD Soundsystem
record, is released by DFA/Capitol in the U.S., preceded a month
earlier by the single “North American Scum.” Sound Of Silver is
recorded at Longview Farms and DFA, produced by the DFA and mixed
by James Murphy. The album consists of the tracks “Get Innocuous!,”
“Time To Get Away,” “North American Scum,” “Someone Great,” “All
My Friends,” “Us v Them,” “Watch The Tapes,” “Sound Of Silver” and
“New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down.” All songs are
written by Murphy, with assists from Pope on “Get Innocuous!,” and
from both Pope and Mahoney on “Time To Get Away,” “All My
Friends,” “Us v Them” and “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing
Me Down.” Murphy is joined throughout the album by Nancy Whang,
Tyler Pope, Patrick Mahoney, Eric Broucek and Marcus Lambkin, and
on the closing track by Morgan Whiley, Justin Chearno, and a string
section of Jane Scarpantoni, Lorenza Ponce, Amy Kimball and David
Gold.

Sound Of Silver is nominated for the Best Dance/Electronic Album
Grammy and becomes the single most critically acclaimed record of
2007, voted #1 in the Pazz & Jop critics’ poll published annually in the
Village Voice. It receives across the board raves upon release including
a 9.2 from Pitchfork and 5 stars from the Guardian, is named the #1
album of 2007 by Mojo, the Guardian and Uncut, also landing in the
year‐end top 10s of Time, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone,
Spin, Amazon and many more.

May 2007 ‐ “All My Friends” is released as a single. It is later hailed by
Time as one of the 10 Best Songs of 2007, #1 song of the year by
Pitchfork and track of the year by Mojo. It also places #3 in the Village
Voice’s Pazz & Jop Critics Poll and #20 in Rolling Stone’s Best Songs of
2007. “All My Friends” is a favorite of other artists as well, including
John Cale and Franz Ferdinand, both of whom record versions of the
song.

September 2007 – LCD Soundsystem’s U.S. tour with the Arcade Fire
is commemorated by a split 7” single featuring LCD Soundsystem’s
cover of Joy Division’s “No Love Lost” and Arcade Fire’s cover of Serge
Gainsbourg’s "Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son.” An EP with the self
explanatory title A Bunch Of Stuff is also released at this time on DFA.
October 2007 ‐ “Someone Great” is released as the third single from
Sound Of Silver. It is named #8 song of 2007 by Entertainment Weekly
and #7 by Pitchfork.

November 2007 – 45:33 receives a physical release via DFA and is
made available in expanded CD and vinyl formats.

December 2007 – DFA releases the U.S.‐only Confuse the Marketplace
12” compilation of B‐sides from LCD Soundsystem’s European singles.
February 2008 ‐ “Time To Get Away” is released as the fourth single
from Sound Of Silver.

August 2008 – A new LCD Soundsystem song entitled “Big Ideas”
appears on the soundtrack to the film 21. Rolling Stone ranks “Big
Ideas” as one of the 100 Best Songs of 2008.

September 2009 – 45:33 Remixes is released by DFA. It is comprised
of the following reinterpretations of “45:33”: Runaway Remix, Prince
Language Remix, Prins Thomas Diskomiks Remix, Theo Parrish’s Space
Cadet Remix, Trus’ Me Remix, Padded Cell Remix, Pilooski Remix, Riley
Reinhold Remix.

November 2009 – LCD Soundsystem celebrates Record Store Day's
Vinyl Saturday with the November 7 exclusive release to independent
record stores of a DFA/Virgin 12” cover of Alan Vega’s "Bye Bye
Bayou.” A commercial digital release follows on November 24. "Bye
Bye Bayou" becomes LCD Soundsystem’s fifth NME Single of the Week
and does not appear on the third LCD Soundsystem album.

December 2009/January 2010 – LCD Soundsystem ends the ‘00s with
a slew of best of the decade nods, including Sound Of Silver named as
NPR’s #1 album of the decade and landing in the best of decade lists of
Entertainment Weekly, NME, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and more, while
“All My Friends” and “Losing My Edge” land in the decade’s best songs
lists Pitchfork and Rolling Stone as well.

March 23, 2010 – The soundtrack to the Noah Baumbach‐directed
Greenberg is released, featuring both compositions from James
Murphy’s original score for the film and the new LCD Soundsystem
song “Oh You (Christmas Blues).”

March 25, 2010 ‐ “Drunk Girls” is accidentally leaked, providing the
first preview of a full song from the third LCD Soundsystem record.
Previously snippets of songs in progress have been featured in clips
documenting the album’s sessions at The Manshun in L.A. at
http://www.lcdsoundsystem.com/

May 18, 2010 – This Is Happening will be released in the U.S. by
DFA/Virgin. Written and produced by James Murphy, This Is
Happening consists of the songs “Dance Yrself Clean,” “Drunk Girls,”
“One Touch,” “All I Want,” “I Can Change,” “You Wanted A Hit,” “Pow
Pow,” “Somebody’s Calling Me” and “Home.” The album is recorded
over the course of 2009 and 2010 at The Manshun in Los Angeles and
the DFA studios in New York and mixed at DFA from April 2009
through February 2010. Dave Sardy provides additional mixing duties
on “Drunk Girls,” “I Can Change,” “You Wanted A Hit,” and
“Somebody’s Calling Me.”

The record will be supported by an extensive world tour commencing
with an April 16 penultimate main stage slot at the Coachella festival
in Indio CA immediately followed by an almost completely sold out
tour of the UK and Europe. Dates are presently booked through
September 2010 with more being announced at
http://www.lcdsoundsystem.com/ as they are confirmed.

This Is Happening will be the final LCD Soundsystem album.