Oh My Rockness

James Murphy deserves credit for pretty much starting (or should it be reintroducing) the whole disco-dance-punk thing. The Rapture would not be The Rapture without the production work of Murphy and his DFA recording team. And you can blame them for why Death from Above had to put that silly 1979 at the end of their name.

Under the LCD Soundsystem moniker, Murphy makes hi-hats and cowbells sound completely punk rock. Punk rock you can dance to, of course. Think The Fall meets ESG meets Can meets (obviously) The Rapture. LCD is one of those bands every Friday night Rififi kid hopes will come out from the decks. It sounds good sober, but sounds even better when you're wound-up and wasted.

There's a lot of backlash regarding this genre monster that Murphy propelled. Usually disco-dance-punk is pegged as way too cool for school and so 2003. The blacklash is probably, for the most part, warranted. But this stuff is still fun to listen to and energizing when you're out and about town. And who really cares anyway, it's not like we're talking The White Album here. It's dance music.

Published 02/23/05