Shut Up and Play the Hits

We're rolling. Rolling, Richie.

Rolling, Danny.

Did we not just pull off a high school play at Madison Square Garden?

It was awesome.

Dude.

That was the last show.

You have 15 messages.

James, it's Keith. Well, you knew that, didn't you?

Um... So, uh, I guess you're sleeping.

Well, I hope to fuck you're sleeping after last night, man, that...

Do I have to get up?

Do you wanna go out?

My guest tonight...

is the leader of the band LCD Soundsystem.

Please welcome James Murphy!

Whoo!

Whoo! Boom!

Hey, Mr. Murphy. Thanks so much for coming on.

Seriously?

I got a beef to pick with you here. Can I get up front at the top? You ready for this?

- Yes. - Okay, you are a pretty successful rocker.

Moderately successful. Moderately successful rocker. Still.

You're walking away from fame.

This is your last appearance on television, correct? Yes.

As LCD Soundsystem. Yes.

Okay.

No, that's all right. I'll have another show tomorrow. It's all right.

And your last show is coming up at Madison Square Garden.

Yes. Why walk away from the rock world?

You didn't start until you were in your 30s, right?

But you've never been, like, "youth rocker."

You've always been kind of doing your own thing.

I mean, you're popular, man!

Because it started later, I had a life beforehand...

and there's a lot of things I want to do.

Like what What do you want to do afterwards?

I really like... I like making coffee.

There are only three ways to end your career as a rocker...

overdose,

overstay your welcome...

or write Spider-Man: The Musical.

I didn't think rockers get to walk away like that.

Jesus-fuckin'-Christ.

We're just doing this for sound check, so...

Sounds really good.

Maybe we play without?

How you doing, Nancy? I'm okay. How are you?

Good. Good.

- When's doors? - I don't know. 7:00.

It's not gonna be possible.

We want some of this time back.

Yeah, I know. And I feel like we were told something,

and we were not allowed to make it go faster,

so they gotta take responsibility.

I think we can push it till, I think, like, 6:30 or something.

It's kind of a bit close to doors. It's just, like, gettin' it goin'.

You know, I... All right.

Christina?

Nancy, did you get a bracelet? No.

Do you want one? Of course.

Do you want one now? Do I?

Yeah. Are you wearing one now?

Yeah. This is all right, you know.

This is our time.

... a couple of things clear

If you're afraid of what you need

If you're afraid of what you need

I'm afraid my children are gonna think... because this is the first time they've seen me doing anything musical,

'cause they're so young... that they're gonna think that now when I go away,

what I do is I come to a place like this.

I get painted white and I go up in a fucking, like...

talking to a guy in a spaceship.

There's gonna be a lot of people here.

I think there's going to be, like, 18,000 people here.

Hello. Hey.

Hi.

I'm not late, am I? No.

I got lost coming here. Welcome to weird.

Ah. You've got a tie on today, I see.

I'm wearing... I didn't anticipate that.

I'm making an attempt to, uh...

Is that okay? Yes. Making an attempt to dress better in my retirement.

In your...

Uh, is it okay if I tape-record this?

Yes. Okay.

Huh. Well...

Uh... Is it okay if I take notes?

You're taking notes as well? I'm kidding. No, I'm kidding.

Well, you can if you want. Working on my... on my stuff.

Well, tell me this then... This might be a good way to start.

This is the end of LCD Soundsystem. Yes.

And it's ending in a strangely controlled manner.

It's, like, there was a record. There was an announcement.

There's a last show. Everyone's aware that it's ending.

When you start a band, do you imagine how it will end?

I didn't start a band.

I made a record, and then we had...

People were asking us to play, and it seemed like a cool opportunity...

to go to London and play this cool gig.

I mean, we'd always call ourselves the LCD Soundsystem cover band.

We were the best LCD Soundsystem cover band in the world.

Because we were doing essentially what a cover band does.

There was a record made and then we would listen to it.

In fact, I was very adamant about, I will never tour,

will never do the bullshit, like, you know, go away for a really long time...

and tour and all the stuff that everybody else does.

'Cause I didn't want to. It seemed stupid.

So there was no conception of, like, "We're starting a band. Will it end?"

And at that time, you're playing to how many people in most shows

I mean, our first show was a couple thousand people.

Like, who... I mean... Was it here?

That was in London.

We started by playing parties. We didn't want to play shows.

We'd all been in... Pat and I and Tyler, we'd been in punk bands...

and didn't want to go fuckin' play shows.

We wanted to play at dance clubs. We wanted to play to people who were having fun.

We didn't want to do anything to do with, like, the whole, like,

you know, standing-around bit.

- Hey! - We gotta rehearse. Quick hug.

How's it going? You gonna rehearse?

Yeah, we got to rehearse. We're doing a show in between when we go on and now.

Hi. Did you guys just get here?

We just got here, yeah. Awesome.

We just ate dinner down the street while everyone in their white suits was walking by.

It was pretty awesome. Yeah, this is what I'm talking about.

Jeremy showed me his.

You look so dashing, Keith Wood.

But no tie though, Keith?

No, because I haven't had time to go and fucking buy one, have I?

I wanted a black and white tie or even a bow tie, right?

But I haven't had a fucking minute.

And then, check it out.

Rattlesnake, rattlesnake, rattlesnake, rattlesnake, rattlesnake

I'll see you guys later. How much time do we have?

Not very much. About five minutes. Five minutes.

Ow. Let's try and enjoy this.

Are you guys good?

- Do we have everybody? - Yeah.

We were just saying that, right?

Has anyone looked round? We have everybody? All right, let's go.

Don't you want me to wake up

So give me just a bit of your time

Arguments are made from make-outs

Then give me just a bit of your time

You've got to bring the results in

You're gonna play it till the time comes

Forget your string of divorces

?Just go and throw your little hands up

It's like

No

Honey, it's me

No

I miss the way the night goes

With friends who always make it feel good

This basement has a cold glow

Though it's better than a bunch of others

So go and dance yourself clean

Hey, go and dance yourself clean, yeah

You're throwing marks into pieces

You're winning arguments to pieces

Oh

It's your show

It's your show

It's your show

It's your show

Put your little feet down

Hey, oh-ho

We should try a little harder

In this tedious march of the few

Every fucker's getting younger

And there's a part of me hoping it's true

Thanks very much.

So, this is... this is a very weird experience for us.

Uh, in keeping with the history of our band,

we're hoping it will be a relatively weird experience for everybody.

Uh...

We do... We...

It feels weird 'cause we were gonna play this one...

We played four shows last week, and they were really good for us and fun and important,

so...

And it's sort of like we just have this one big last party,

and it's just gonna keep going.

This is kind of a pretentious question, but I think I'd be interested in your response.

When does art begin?

Okay, this is a constructed interview. All interviews are construction. Right.

You can say that all conversation is a construction. Yeah, that's okay.

So at what point does something start becoming art?

When do you feel like you are making art and not just making something?

Um... That is a pretentious question.

No, but it's like...

I know you're a fan of pretension, so I thought I could ask pretentious questions...

No, totally. Because you like pretentious ideas, right?

Pretension is, like, a way to not just play football.

Like if I think about myself as a kid, I was kind of a pretentious kid.

I read so much shit just because I wanted to seem cool.

So I would read all these books, and as I got older, I'd be like...

"These books were great," and they actually informed my world view...

and, you know, like, became part of my personality in a totally different way...

once I got older and was not so, like,

panicking about image maintenance and all that sort of stuff.