See LCD Soundsystem’s Rousing Performance of ‘Tonite’ on ‘Kimmel’
LCD Soundystem brought a propulsive, cowbell-heavy version of “Tonite” to Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday. The song appeared earlier this year on the band’s first ever Number One album, American Dream.
“Tonite” is typical LCD Soundsystem. Lead singer James Murphy is simultaneously neurotic (“I never realized these artists thought so much about dying”) and self-aware (“Sure it’s ruling the airwaves/ What remains of the airwaves/ And we’re frankly thankful for the market psychology you’re hipping us to.”) The music is grounded in the pulsing synths and hooks of the early Eighties.
Onstage in Brooklyn, where Kimmel is broadcasting from the East Coast, the band was mostly stationary, and the cowbell was high in the mix. Murphy alternated between conversational observations and impressive wordless falsettos and incredulous yelps. “Oh good gracious,” Murphy sang. “I sound like my mom.”
LCD Soundsystem announced their reunion in 2016; American Dream, their first album since 2010, came out in September. “It’s a completely new phase for the band,” Murphy said in an interview with New York. “It used to be that the only reason I could allow myself to make LCD Soundsystem records was that I’d be DJing and frustrated that there wasn’t more music that fit the needs of dancing but wasn’t ‘dance’ music – so I made that music. But as I get older I’m more and more at home writing proper songs. There’s something more classic about that, which could be worse or better. For the moment, I like this record more than I like other records I’ve made.”