The Muppets Take Brighton for LCD Soundsystem's "Dance Yourself Clean"
Not trying to brag, but, yeah, I got a ticket for one of LCD Soundsystem's final string of shows in NYC next month. I'm sad, but I'm stoked. Good things end (like the Field song says). And what better way to celebrate the impending breakup than with a video that riffs on the Beatles' famous impromptu final performance on the roof of the Apple building (the other Apple, although, if James Murphy were really thinking synergistically, this one could have been shot on the roof of an Apple Store)--with Muppets!
This is Happening was one of my favorite albums of last year, and album opener "Dance Yourself Clean" is one of its finer tracks as well as a nice little trick. You put on the record, and it has you cranking up the volume to hear James Murphy sighing about social obligation over a beat (and two notes) nicked from the Pool's "Jamaica Running", but then the song really kicks with a blast of drums and synthesizers and all of a sudden it gets you lunging back to your stereo to turn it back down to a reasonable level--or, if you're a crowd of gawkers in Brighton, it gets you to stow your camera phones for a second and attempt a little hip shake. Even casual high-street shoppers enjoy hearing an artist play around with dynamics in these over-compressed times!
And of course it should be noted that this isn't the first time Kermit the Frog has had a hand in LCD Soundsystem (or, you know, vice versa) . . .
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