STRAIGHT SHOOTER
Mar 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Justin Kleinfeld
DEATH OF THE LIVE SHOW
In the dance genre, it's possible to count on one hand the amount of live shows that are truly worth the price of admission. While advancements in technology are often a really good thing, it has actually hurt the development of the live dance show. One of the biggest culprits is the use of laptops for live performances. All too often there is a disconnect between fans and the performing artist who gets lost behind the keystrokes and mouse clicks of a laptop. When Murphy and his LCD Soundsystem band members Nancy Whang, Pat Mahoney, Al Doyle (on loan from Hot Chip) and Phillip Skarich hit the road this March, you can expect a show that's performed completely live with wondrous analog gear and void of laptops and soft synths. It's all about delivering a raw sound and creating a moment for the audience. Through the duration of Remix's hour-long interview with Murphy, nothing seemed to get him going more than the opportunity to speak frankly about the topic of live music.
“I don't think that many people understand the experience of live music,” he says. “The momentousness of live music is so incredible and powerful. When you see a band with a laptop, you realize that it's such a low-quality experience. The stage is interchangeable, the lights are interchangeable, the audience is interchangeable and the music is interchangeable. If you bought a record, you don't go and see the band live to re-experience the record. You might as well cut out the middleman and have a record-listening party instead of defrauding people out of the experience and numbing them to the low-quality live-music experience they are getting used to.
“When people see us live, they were coming up to me saying that this was the best show they had seen in, like, five years. I was like, “What the fuck is going on?” I'm not trying to be self-deprecating, because we work well as a band and try hard. We have good nights and bad nights. I think [music fans] are so used to atrocious live bands: supercareful, horrible bands with in-ear monitors who tune guitars between songs and sound like the record but never sound loud or powerful or wrong. There are just no moments, and if we get off stage, and there are no moments, I'm depressed, even if it's a good show. It's not what I want to give people. I want to reach people with a sense of momentousness. I don't have the kind of charisma that someone like Nina Simone had or David Bowie has. It's a massively uphill battle for me. I'm a worker bee and a Luddite, and I'm working as hard as I can to achieve that momentousness. It's sad to me that momentousness doesn't seem to be a requirement for bands or audiences anymore. It's bad.”
Murphy also takes no prisoners when it comes to the DJ lifestyle and why he believes so many electronic acts refuse to put money into upgrading their live shows or even travel to the U.S. anymore. “Electronica artists bitch about the costs of live shows because of how spoiled they are from being DJs,” he says. “I'm a DJ, and it's a fucking ridiculous life. You go out, and someone pays for your flight, picks you up at the airport, pays for your four-star hotel, pays for your dinner, and you go and play fucking records for a few hours. They take you back to the hotel, you stay there for a few days and go to the beach and enjoy the city, and then they take you back to the airport and fly home with fucking thousands of dollars in your pocket. I'm sorry, I played in rock bands my entire life, and I never made any money. I lost money. If you are willing to waste my fucking two hours and take my $20, and you aren't willing to lose money to do it — if you aren't going to try — then fuck off. I think that's an abominable excuse, and they all fucking suck. Time will prove these acts to be pieces of shit. If your show sucks, then don't play a show. Go DJ. To go out on a regular basis and know that your show is garbage is disgusting. It's a betrayal of making art. The right to voice this on people is deplorable. I'm not saying to burn money and rent a light truck. We did it really cheap and cheerful for a long time. We would put down a piece of plywood with Casios taped to it. Now it's more expensive because now I'm old, and it hurts and I can't carry anything anymore. I don't see touring as an income, especially when I can stay home and mix people's records. I can make a lot more money if I'm not on tour.”
There's more to Murphy than being the co-owner of a cool record label and an in-demand producer/remixer. Murphy is also heavily involved in the design of his album artwork and the direction of his music videos. He also likes to question authority, challenge people and disprove popular beliefs. If his earlier challenge to dance DJs and producers to shape up isn't proof enough, look no further than his quest to be a top-40 charting artist. (Murphy is asking all his fans to purchase the new record — out on March 20 — in the first week of release in the hopes of selling 38,000 copies and charting top 40.) Then there's the controversy that is sure to come over the title of his track, “North American Scum.” “People love to be retarded,” Murphy asserts. “It's like the same morons that asked me crap about ‘Losing My Edge’ are going to ask questions about ‘North American Scum.’ I'm not looking forward to the American jackasses and the European jackasses who will have very different questions, but I'm sure it's going to be a world of jackassery.”
MURPHY'S SOUNDSYSTEM
Computer, DAW, recording hardware
Apple Mac G5 running Logic Pro 7
Apogee AD-8000 A/D converter
Console
Purple Audio console with custom-designed moving-fader automation
Samplers, drum machines
Roland MC-909 Sampling
Groovebox, SP-606 Sampling Workstation, TR-33 and TR-808 drum machines
Simmons SD8, SDSV drum machines
Various organ beat boxes
Synths, software, instruments, amps
Ampeg Portaflex B-15N bass amp
Baldwin Fun Machine organ
Bradley Jazz Guitar
Congas and percussion
Custom modular synth
EML Electrocomp 100 synth
EMS Synthi A synth
Epiphone P-Bass copy bass guitar
Farfisa Professional Duo organ
Fender 1961 Jazzmaster guitar
Hohner Clavinet D6 piano
Korg SQ-10 analog sequencer
Moog CDX organ, Rogue synth, Taurus II pedal synth
Propellerhead Reason soft synth
Roland Juno-60, SH-101 synths
Sequential Circuits Prophet-600 synth
Silvertone guitar, practice amp
Squier Telecaster guitar
Vox AC30 guitar amp
Wurlitzer 200A electric piano, Spinet piano
Yamaha CP-60 electric grand piano, CS-50 synth
AKG BX 10 Reverberation Unit
Akai MFC42 analog filter
Altec Salt Shaker mics, Tube Mixer rackmount mixer
Beyer M160, M201 ribbon mics
Coles 4033 ribbon mic
dbx 161, 162SL, 165A compressor/limiters
Electro-Voice RE2000 condenser mic
Lexicon Prime Time, Prime Time II and Super Prime Time delay processors
Manley Reference Cardioid mic
Neumann TLM 193 condenser mic
Pendulum Tube Limiter
RCA BK5 ribbon mic
Universal Audio Teletronix LA-2A leveling amplifier
Ursa Major Space Station effects unit
Various Tape Delays
Monitors
Radio Shack Minimus 7s
SA M44s
Yamaha NS10s
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