This is Happening - UPDATED

UPDATE: 'I Can Change' is now available as a high quality mp3.

First, there were the 'Drunk Girls' (read: summer 2010 party anthem), now we get a little more laid back with 'I Can Change' from LCD Soundsystem's forthcoming album, This is Happening.

LCD Soundsystem - I Can Change

Also, floating around this morning was this radio rip of 'Dance Yourself Clean'. Sounds like another winner, despite the lower quality.

LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yourself Clean

Get excited, this album is shaping up well. You're going to want to actually buy it when it drops May 17 in Europe, May 18 in North America. You also don't want to miss them live, starting at Coachella next weekend.

Friday Five: 1st 1/4 2010 Highlights!

You guys, it's already April! That means that a quarter of the year has passed us by. Fortunately for the keen music fan, there has been lots of great new stuff to soak in through our ears. We've already had great new releases by Hot Chip, Owen Pallett (formerly Final Fantasy), Vampire Weekend, Spoon and MGMT (oh what? it's not out till next week...LEAK ALERT). Plus I've stumbled upon new interests, like Das Racist whose reference-laden rap makes me smile. Their mixtape/album is well worth the free download.

And there is so much more too look forward to in the coming months: LCD Soundsystem are releasing LP3, 'This is Happening', on May 18 in North America and Wolf Parade are dropping their next one, 'Expo '86', in June or July (fingers crossed for June). Broken Social Scene have new record, 'Forgiveness Rock Record', coming out May 4 which I'm sure will be another epic based on these tracks. Not to mention every morning I check the interwebs hoping for some piece of information about highly anticipated LP3 by Arcade Fire - tipped to appear later in the summer.

Enough talking, these songs are all objectively great.

LISTEN / TELL YOUR FRIENDS:

LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls

MGMT - Flash Delerium

Hot Chip - I Feel Better

Owen Pallett - Lewis Takes Off His Shirt (Dan Deacon Remix)

Das Racist - You Oughta Know

Spoon - I Saw the Light

LCD Soundsystem to be featured in upcoming Vegas flick.

I think it's safe to say that at this moment of my life LCD Soundsystem can do little-to-no wrong. Last year they topped my best album list and best song list along along with coming in the top 5 (at least) of every major indie blog, paper, or whatever. Sound of Silver was a massive hit and was an instant classic. After the album was spun millions of times by everyone people started to look towards the future of James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem. I myself even toyed with the idea that James should quit. Sound of Silver is a record that only comes once every few years, surely nothing they put out now can reach the same level of awesome.

Well, I'm kinda wrong. LCD Soundsystem has released a track for the upcoming Vegas flick, 21. It's good; real good. It sounds like a Sound of Silver b-side with the bass line snaking around a very static and simple drum beat. Now, while it does sound like it could have come directly off the same master track that say Us v. Them or Time to Get Away were recorded on, it shows progress. It sounds different than the record and I, for one, couldn't have been more excited.

LCD Soundsystem - Big Ideas

Cheers,
MF Blaz

Loud Pipes + Sound of Silver = Win

As some of our faithful readers know I sometimes ramble on about dumb shit. Sometimes it's really dumb shit. But usually it gets capped off with a nice little song or two.

Today I'm gonna do something different.

We got emailed this remix. I have nothing to say 'cept:

Listen to it.

LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (Loud Pipes Remix)
Myspace: Loud Pipes

Cheers,
MF Blaz

Mixed Tapes: Best of 07

You can download the individual tracks or download the zip file provided below.

The Snob Machine Presents: The Best of '07
Hello! - Junior Senior
Hip Hop A Lula - Junior Senior
The Year Before the Year 2000 - Les Savy Fav
Someone Great - LCD Soundsystem
Labyrinthian Pomp - Of Montreal
Ddiamondd - Battles
$20 - M.I.A
Driving Me Wild - Common feat. Lily Allen
D.A.N.C.E (Mstrkrft Remix) - Justice
Kiss Kiss - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
McFearless - Kings of Leon
Mistaken For Strangers - The National
Don't Make Me A Target - Spoon
Wet and Rusting - Menomena
All I Need - Radiohead
Northern Whale - The Good, the Bad, and the Queen
We've Got Everything - Modest Mouse
Hunting for Witches - Bloc Party
Box - Tokyo Police Club
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa - Vampire Weekend
My Body is a Cage - The Arcade Fire

DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE COMPILATION HERE.

Cheers,
MF Blaz

The Fire Is Out

Until recently Arcade Fire's modus operandi was to play multiple nights at medium-sized venues rather than arena shows, but 2007 was the year the band really blew up and putting in festival appearances was pretty much obligatory. The mind-boggling Neon Bible tour made it possible for massive crowds to see Montreal's best-known band do their thing at High Line, Reading, Leeds, Glastonbury, Oxegen, Roskilde, T in the Park and Austin City Limits (among other festivals). And touring on a twin bill with LCD Soundsystem proved such a boon that the two groups released a split 7" featuring two covers: LCD Soundsystem playing Joy Division’s 'No Love Lost', and Arcade Fire playing Serge Gainsbourg’s 'Poupee de Cire, Poupee de Son'.

However, rumour has it that the close of this year's festival season marks the end of the band's "big" shows. In fact, it may be some time before any of us gets to see Arcade Fire anywhere after fans down under catch the band at Big Day Out in early '08. As Brooklyn Vegan reported, Win Butler announced to the crowd at last week's Randall Island show the band wouldn't be back to play NYC for a couple of years, and the band had expressed a desire to avoid stadium shows. After nearly a year of non-stop touring, who can blame them?

Although I have immensely enjoyed seeing the Fire in intimate venues in both Canada and the UK, their Reading show was insane and it would be a shame if they were permanently done with the festival circuit. Maybe an invite from Coachella might change their mind?

Almost forgot, this is just about the coolest thing ever. Click on everything.

- a.m.p.m.

Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies) (Live At Reading Festival 2007)

Arcade Fire - Poupee de Cire, Poupee de Son (Serge Gainsbourg cover)
LCD Soundsystem - No Love Lost (Joy Division cover)

Reading Videos Available Online

For those of you interested in seeing just what went on at Reading this year, the BBC is offering video coverage from the majority of the big-name acts online here. Entire sets from Klaxons, Albert Hammond Jr, Interpol, CSS, Arcade Fire, Gossip, Bloc Party, LCD Soundsystem, Patrick Wolf and many others are available, as are individual acoustic tracks including the Hold Steady's rollicking 'Chips Ahoy' and Peter Bjorn and John's iconic 'Young Folks'.

You can also check out photos of the festival site and crowds, 360 degree pictures and crowd reaction video interviews here.

Hurry, though; they're only available for viewing online until September 3rd.

- a.m.p.m.

The Hold Steady - Chip Ahoy!

June Tunes

Summer's almost here, again. It feels like I was just saying that at the end of April, but now I'm saying it again about the summer course on Bollywood cinema I'm taking for two and a half more weeks. That combined with a bi-weekly commute to the camp I work at make for a lot of traveling and iPod charging.

Here are some tracks that have been in high rotation recently:

Kanye West - Stronger (feat. Daft Punk)

Justice - Phantom Pt. 2

The New Pornographers - My Rights Versus Yours
Handsome Furs - Dead+Rural
LCD Soundsystem - No Love Lost (Joy Division cover)
- LCD was solid-sounding live and played most of Sound of Silver along with a couple older tracks, like Movement, Yeah and Daft Punk (obviously).
Feist - Sea Lion Woman
Arcade Fire - Antichrist Television Blues
- I agree with Bowie that these guys are the best band in the world. I had a brutal seat but it was so worth it.

-Andrew W.

Remix Sunday

Gosh. One of the best songs of 2007 and now one of the best covers of 2007 . . .
Franz Ferdinand has contributed a bang-up version of LCD Soundsystem's 'All My Friends', complete with a circa-1980s synth and Erol Alkan production.
This cover will be featured on LCD Soundsystem's upcoming All My Friends 7" single, out May 21st on DFA/EMI. Pick up a copy if you get a chance; it'll be a doozie.

LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends (Franz Ferdinand cover)

-Andrew M

North American Scum

LCD Soundsystem, for those unfamiliar, are North American scum. But man, can they get the kids dancing. DFA Records co-founder James Murphy fronts the group which seamlessly blends dance-punk with elements of electronic and disco. Murphy and company create something that owes a lot to its influences while managing to bring something that is fresh and not too derivative.

Sound of Silver, the group's sophomore album, is set for release March 20 with a worldwide tour currently underway in Europe. The album leaked in December, but it's going to be in high rotation for a while - mind you, I'm a huge fan of pretty much anything that has the Murphy/DFA tag attached. LCD Soundsystem will make us North American scum shake our hips after a pair of NYC shows and a Coachella appearance at the end of April. I'm going to become a disco infiltrator at their Toronto show May 8.

For your listening pleasure:

LCD Soundsystem - North American Scum
LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends

From LCD Soundsystem (2005):
LCD Soundsystem - On Repeat

UPDATE: As of yesterday, Sound of Silver can be streamed in its entirety on LCD Soundsystem's MySpace page. One of my favourite tracks thus far is the uncharacteristically down-tempo ballad 'New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down' that sounds like a lost track from the Magnetic Fields album 69 Love Songs. - Andrew M.

LCD Soundsystem - New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down

Buy music from LCD Soundsystem and others found on bridgingtheatlantic at Insound or your cool, local store.

- Keep it real. Andrew W.