If you haven’t heard, LCD Soundsystem made their surprise return a while back. They also revealed that they’ll be releasing a new album called American Dream in September. Back in 2011, the band declared a devastating breakup along with a feature film regarding the topic.
In a New York Times interview with lead band member James Murphy, he revealed there were 2 main elements in the decision to end the band.
The first one was understandable. He expressed concern regarding the relevancy of himself to the band. He claims “I didn’t want to be that band. I liked being the band that was relevant to me. I felt like we were about to be the band that was not relevant to me.” It sounds like there could’ve been outside influences that were steering him away from his own goals for the band.
The second reason is something the world is definitely raising their eyebrows to. Murphy was determined to sell out their “final” show at Madison Square Garden. He explains it best when he says “my theory was, if I make it our last show, we’ll sell it out in two weeks. It wasn’t a total lark, but it was a bit larky. But I like making decisions. I find it easy.” The show sold out just a couple minutes after broadcasting the beloved band’s tragic breakup.
As this appeared to be a bit of a conniving move, LCD Soundsystem is now under more pressure than ever to deliver on American Dream.
In light of the recent pressure and criticisms on this comment, the band’s guitarist Al Doyle took to Twitter to defend his group and insist that the breakup was not to “grub ticket money.”
Few things first… music journalism is mostly about whatever gets you excited & involved. Whatever makes you fired up enough to give a shit.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
But it’s an angle. It doesn’t really matter. It’s a tool to sell you something: the story. In this case, a story based on a story.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
But thirdly, some of this shit REALLY matters. Because we’re humans who are invested in heroes we admire & we care why they do what they do.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
Full disclosure: I didn’t know the MSG promoter story, but I was very much around when these decisions were being made.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
But once the decision is made, it’s a bit of a leap to say the *motivation* behind ending the band is to sell more tickets.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
Even for me, it’s not been fully answered, & I don’t necessarily need it to be. But I do need y’all to know it wasn’t to grub ticket money.
— al doyle (@aldoyletweets) August 21, 2017
We’re relieved to hear a reassuring explanation from the group and, despite the scandal, are very excited for the new album to drop next month.
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