LCD

by Ruvan Wijesooriya (Photographer)

For the past decade, downtown-New York indie dance music innovation could be summed up in three LCD. The brainchild of frontman James Murphy, LCD Soundsystem grew from a solo project into one of the most highly regarded live bands in contemporary music.

In 2011, at the height of their career, LCD Soundsystem decided to end the band.

From 2004 to the day they quit, photographer Ruvan Wijesooriya navigated through both private and public moments with the influential, Grammy-nominated, NYC indie band. Ruvan was a fan, first and foremost, and quickly became a fly on the wall and instigator who brought new meaning to the term, "I'm with the band." His access and friendship with LCD is something rare in the commercialized and controlled music industry of today, and this close relationship can be seen in the rapport between photographer and subject. The locations include Hyde Park in London, various New York institutions, Coachella, Rick Rubin's recording mansion in the Hollywood Hills, Way Out West festival in Sweden, Miami Art Basel and more. In addition, the scope of the book goes beyond just photography and features various album art and original interviews with members of the band and showcases an exciting design by James Timmins, art director of Dossier magazine. A handful of these photographs were featured in the recent LCD film, Shut Up And Play The Hits , and others have appeared in Rolling Stone , Spin , The New York Times Magazine , and The New Yorker , but the vast majority have never been shown before, making this the ultimate must-have for every fan to remember the band.
 
“All of Ruvan’s pictures remind me of that that you’re geographically fucked, and its all happening right now, somewhere else, without you. There’s an enormous amount of intimacy in them, and promise, and intrusion…”  —James Murphy, LCD bandleader

Genres: Nonfiction

216 pages, Hardcover

First published December 18, 2012

Reviews

[Peter Knox · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entire coffee table book of photographs effectively capturing the VIBE of LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, a band defined (according to the decade+ interviews) by how much they all liked each other.

It's always nice when a friend brings something to the table and Ruvan clearly is a talented photographer with incredible access to James Murphy + his bandmates.

The interviews I hadn't seen anywhere else and while James Murphy could've put a little more effort into his introduction - the entire premise was that he was too busy to do it justice - he did capture that it's nice to have these photos to look back on and he hopes you have a friend doing the same for you.

Any fan will love this... better than any photos they've taken themselves at shows, behind the scenes fun and photos they've never seen anywhere else, and a few famous photos they have because well they're fans. I'm a fan and I enjoyed this quick read and fun collectors item marking the milestone of when they quit the band a decade ago on top of the world... only to restart it and still be there today.

[Gary Fowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light on text, heavy on photographs. Less the stylised glossy magazine tat more the sort of off-guard pics that only come about by someone close to the band. The sort of book you'll be happy to own but won't really return to often.

[Prestanombres Takovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome pics, it's a visual book. Only for true fans of LCD Soundsystem; probably hard to find these days for a cheap price. The graphic design it's very punk, several pictures of Ruvan looks random but with some kind of elegant style. All the members of the band had great times making this book.