Too Old To Be New Too New To Be Classic / Directed by Max Joseph

the year is 2001 the place is New York City George Bush is president and a subculture of young adults living off their overly supportive parents have just earned the moniker hipsters our story begins here in Manhattan's East Village at a small club called clamp bar inside you'll find James Murphy a 32 year old musician DJ and sound engineer who believes its chance of success has already faded from view little does he know he will go on to form LCD soundsystem one of the most popular and loved bands of the decades we'll get back to that he is currently working with British music programmer Tim Goldsworthy on the song you are hearing right now House of jealous lovers by the rapture and this Wallflower right here is Jonathon Galkin whom you might recognize from the Nickelodeon show hey dude together all three will go on to form the somewhat renowned independent music label DFA records here are some of the artists on DFA the rapture sinking yeah I'm one McLain Peter Gordon robot dance though I'm Nancy and I played in LCD soundsystem LCD soundsystem LCD Soundsystem Gavin Rustom has been in for DFA bands and has built instruments for many of them this is the system that I designed for James and for LCD Soundsystem is creative and musical partners Viva Ruiz together they are their crystal this is Emma Jean and Charles they met while interning at DFA this is vishawn from black dice I created the glasses John gall converse and I like them the FA is is is a family functional is a good word to use I would say a dysfunctional family maybe John Calvin is the mom yeah the Jewish mother actually maybe I'm just like a like a cow and I have others and on each teat is a is a different band it's not a terrible analogy where do we place James in all of this James is the father that I've never met James is definitely like the Traveling Salesman sort of dad nobody ever knows where James is exactly Paris Paris London I think he's on a cruise ship to Jamaica test these are this dust to make the sink problem later I know you mean Casey the microphone hell I know well DFA is a bunch of things to me dear fake a San Francisco for don't around dumb Department of funny America's dumb acronym D if it was a name like that I had it was definitely dog that was my nickname for mixing live audio because I was really really loud and then I met Tim Goldsworthy and we made a production duo together and called it death from above and we started throwing parties and so DFA for me was like this production duo and it was like the group of friends that were throwing parties I could collect him people that did stuff and then we made a label like out of like from now since 2001 DFA is released 141 12-inch singles 34 albums six compilation and the entire global operations of DFA is currently run by two people John and Chris I'm Chris Peterson I think I'm the assistant label manager here at DFA my responsibilities here sort of a choose-your-own-adventure sort of thing we've kept the label small for fine further I mean there's financial reasons it took about two years to get paid here although I did sleep in the office for the last six months of that so I guess it was sort of a balance this is Jonathan Gowans ear it is the filter through which all new DFA artists are found John's taste the music is literally the most important thing to this label Oh peanut butter is the greatest American flavor the only flavor that the rest of world they don't get it peanut butter zinc peanuts a typical day in John Calkins life I imagine he wakes up feeds like the eight or nine children that he has he like pulls off all of their like thousands of children that he has I believe he has three kids goes to work at the DFA offices gets on the phone about stuff and then and then after that then I don't know would put a scam can do I don't know I didn't know what knows I am the head of business affairs I'm the head of the legal department here product management artist development marketing head of the radio it must be an insurmountable event of work probably and yet I feel like Johnny hey little grace I do that probably at ten times a day I kind of want to do that that's something I would do would you do that this is the DFA studio I mean my friend you'll able to have its own studio this complex in the same the holiness counter air I think at the FA the music is made downstairs while the offices are upstairs people definitely think DFA has a sound then they get lumped in as disco punk for a while the FA sound live John the synthesizers dry drums in a small room we have a little trick I'm gonna divulge to your head so we use mouse pads and tape it to the drones all the cakes are kind of the fundamental element of the day face sound is certainly the way Zee kick drum works which tends to be a steady four one two three four one two three four the audience I just from the audience European vinyl nerds a lot of really dorky white people yeah I think I'm our biggest fan if somebody walks into this office I'm just listening to DFA music over and over and over again the best we have some really loyal fans my friend that I actually made you scrub cast I maybe I have six or seven of them what do people look like when they dance DFA lot of this I've said maybe some like pretty some waving their arms about pogoing and flailing and sweating throughout the 90s dance music was not something that was accepted in any way in the indie rock world I was making music all those times not anyone's ever like is this fun you know it was Nev important kind of is just really revolutionary like let's have this music that has to do with having a good time I have seen like little blips and blobs and hey dude have you seen the art that the person did of John had sent him you haven't seen the cartoon the crayon drawings that his super fan mail super fan did of him shirtless playing a timpani drum it is incredible if you had to choose one LCD song which LCD Soundsystem sorry I mean that's a that's a tough question man that's right real like dance yourself clean to answer something great release your cities of suffering I'm gonna do that too your city's a sucker I think it's losing my edge hyung I bet people send this in my hedge I mean losing my edge is one of the most clever songs ever myth it's really a mission statement for the whole label kids favorite lyric from new to my hedge I was there I was there but I was there after years and years of being very neurotic and worrying about saying the wrong thing and hurting people's feelings stuff I had found a time where I was like I was able to be pretty crazy and it was okay this is a cry for help or is this the next great single and it was post everyone who know is more relevant than everyone I met the success of LCD really hinged on that track it opened a lot of doors or everyone else at the label the first the label grew out of a group of friends and now the label invites new people in and they you know they become friends and John now finds almost everything I see James of lot less since LCD continued year by year to increase in size take up more of his time where before we were sort of splitting the responsibility I took it all over almost hundred percent for years and years and years he sat right there I would turn 180 and there were James 2010 came around people started to summarize the decade and there was a lot of DFA singles that were included in that and a lot of albums that were included in that it made a lot of us here just like forget like you're like oh you meant something to like a like it definitely left a mark along the way twelve is an important year in the life of a human being it's a very end of your childhood it's the beginning of your adolescence there's something to be said for that perhaps there will be an awkward transitional period in DFAS output from now on I'm just grateful that they actually like still exists there's times when I think like oh maybe they'll just like stop but I think we have years of embarrassing ourselves by trying to be current hopefully if I'm gonna keep making music I only want to do it with DFA for me if there were no DFA like I wouldn't continue as the wand reclaim I mean it's cute and we have it on a lot of coffee mugs and stuff like that and slip mats but I do think it's sort of true like too old to be new too new to be classic too old to be new too new to be classic I don't even know who coined those phrases James tried to get that to catch on I had to fight for that people were not into it too new too new to be old to altima new to to need to be classic too old to be new too new to be classic I got it out well now I get it Oh clever places by the way that's the way the modern way that you finish things down is all right cool man it sucks I do it all the time all right cool man cool she called me

Channel: DFA Records

Views: 50,623

Rating: 4.9337015 out of 5

Keywords: DFA RECORDS, DFA, RBMA, MAX JOSEPH, TOO OLD TO BE NEW TOO NEW TO BE CLASSIC, James Murphy (Musical Artist), LCD Soundsystem (Musical Group), Yacht (Musical Group), Holy Ghost! (Musical Group), The Juan MacLean (Musical Artist), SINKANE, LARRY GUS, Factory Floor (Musical Group), THE RAPTURE, PLANNINGTOROCK, PETER GORDON, Love Of Life Orchestra (Musical Group), SURAHN, Black Dice (Musical Group), Hisham Bharoocha (Musical Artist)

Id: uzNDuKgoJf8

Length: 13min 31sec (811 seconds)

Published: Sat May 24 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/Blackonblackskimask]

I just realized the voiceover is Marc Maron (or someone that sounds a lot like Maron), which brings up the question: WHY HASNT JAMES BEEN ON WTF WITH MARC MARON YET????

[u/evanallenrose]

I love Ahmed's (Sinkane) part.