TO CELEBRATE THE RECENT RELEASE OF OUR 33 1/3 ON LCD SOUNDSYSTEM’S SOUND OF SILVER, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE FOURTH INSTALLMENT OF LCD SOUNDSYSTEM WEEK BY AUTHOR RYAN LEAS!
Last year, I wound up driving a band on tour. It was my first time on tour, and there were some revelations: much of tour is being pressed for time and seeing the country by way of desolate, endless highways in the middle of nowhere. You don’t happen to pass by many of the sights. And it isn’t uncommon to find yourself in a situation where you leave a gig around midnight, have to drive until four in the morning, sleep a few hours, then get back on the road. Since all the driving was my responsibility, I quickly developed my list of albums and playlists to help me stay alert either in those late-night drives or the bleary-eyed drives the next morning. Yeezus and my new wave playlist were crucial for the former, Exile On Main St. and Born In The U.S.A. for the latter. One playlist that worked for either was the LCD Soundsystem one I made, influenced by the fact that it was one of the artists the band and I loved equally.
The playlist leans heavily in the direction of LCD’s danciest stuff, including remixes of their music by other artists that turn a song like “Drunk Girls” into a towering, emotional epic. Their cover of Franz Ferdinand’s “Live Alone” is the little breather encore break before it all ends with “All My Friends,” which is the song that, these days, I feel like kinda has to end anything LCD-related. Anyway, I found it ideal for drifting through New York traffic, and for aimlessly driving around Austin when unable to find a parking space during South By Southwest, and for whatever yawning highway drive was ahead of me on any given day. If you have some long drives coming up, check it out. Maybe it’ll help you out, too.
spotify:user:33andathird:playlist:6zul6ceBT7a0ovVxKfUKzu