James Murphy founded LCD Soundsystem in 2002 in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, with the "LCD" part of the band's name stands for "Liquid Christmas Display", a play on "liquid-crystal display", and originated from the earliest iteration of the band during a live performance at a Brooklyn Christmas party where bassist Murphy and drummer Pat Mahoney were covering songs by Liquid Liquid. They began by releasing a string of singles under DFA Records, which was co-founded by Murphy, and they gained attention with their first single, 'Losing My Edge', which peaked at number 115 in the UK chart. Subsequent singles improved on that, with 'Yeah' reaching number 77 and 'Movement' peaking at number 52. The band released their eponymous debut studio album in January 2005 to critical acclaim, with the the CD version including a second disc of non-album singles. The following month, they released the single 'Daft Punk Is Playing At My House', which became their first UK top 40 hit, peaking at number 29, and their most commercially successful single. In October 2006 they released a composition titled '45:33', as part of Nike's Original Run series, which was made available for download from iTunes. Despite its name, the track is actually 45 minutes and 58 seconds long, with the title being an apparent reference to vinyl speeds of 45rpm and 33rpm, although this was later denied by Murphy, who merely wanted the opportunity to create a long piece of music, akin to E2-E4 by Manuel Göttsching.
The group's second studio album, 'Sound Of Silver', was released in March 2007 to critical acclaim, with Mixmag awarding it the title Album of the Month. The group subsequently released an EP titled 'A Bunch Of Stuff', which consisted entirely of covers, alternative versions, and remixes of tracks from the album, and which was only available as an iTunes download. The best track on there is a cover of 'All My Friends' performed by Franz Ferdinand, and recast in a full-on dance-rock arrangement that keeps racheting into higher and higher gears. The 'Sound Of Silver' version hews closely to its sources (especially New Order's 'Ceremony'), while Franz Ferdinand's radically different arrangement gets around the question of quotation and paraphrase, leaving only a grand evocation of the post-punk chill. The other highlight is at the close of the EP: a galloping live-on-the-radio reprise of 'Us v Them', played by LCD's spectacularly tight and forceful onstage incarnation. Between them, there's a quartet of remixes, none of which are quite as good as their sources, but a couple of which are noteworthy anyway, with Soulwax's 10-minute remix of 'Get Innocuous' being a jittery, slow-building jam that spotlights the analogue sequencers and drum machines of Murphy's favourite era. As it was a download only release it might have been missed by fans of the band, and so here it is to fill that gap in their discography.
Track listing
01 All My Friends (Franz Ferdinand Version)
02 Get Innocuous! (Soulwax Remix)
03 Sound Of Silver (C2 Rmx Rev.3)
04 Us V Them (Any Color U Like Remix By Windsurf)
05 Time To Get Away (Gucci Soundsystem Remix)
06 Us V Them (Live On KRCW's 'Morning Becomes Eclectic')
