James Murphy

James Jeremiah Murphy (born February 4, 1970) is an American musician, DJ, singer, songwriter, and record producer.

The album is dedicated to Jerry Fuchs (1974–2009), who had performed drums live with the band on occasion as well as having a big part with other associated DFA acts.

In response to a legal threat, the Canadian group changed their name to Death from Above 1979.

In the late 1980s, Murphy picked the name Death from Above after seeing a helicopter emblazoned with the slogan in the film Apocalypse Now.

He has used this name for various projects over the years including as nickname for a signature PA set developed for Six Finger Satellite during the mid-90s.

Murphy was born and grew up in Princeton Junction, New Jersey, and graduated from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School in 1988.

In discussing some of his influences and favorite music with Rolling Stone, Murphy namechecked the B-52's, the Fall, Yes, David Bowie and Can.

He has also named Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), Bronski Beat and the Smiths as childhood favorites.

Murphy was a member of Falling Man from 1988 to 1989, Pony from 1992 to 1994, and Speedking from 1995 to 1997.

He was also the sound engineer for Sub Pop band Six Finger Satellite.

(Former Six Finger Satellite member John Maclean is now on Murphy's record label as The Juan MacLean.)

Murphy attended New York University, where he was an English major but later dropped out.

At age 22, Murphy was offered a job writing for the sitcom Seinfeld.

He did not expect the show to be successful and chose to continue with music instead.

In 2000 Murphy engineered Northern Irish DJ David Holmes' album Bow Down to the Exit Sign and was introduced to the record's co-producer, Tim Goldsworthy (formerly of UNKLE).

Goldsworthy and Murphy would DJ together on the Lower East Side, doing so with diverse genres of music.

They went on to found DFA Records with Jonathan Galkin in 2001.

The name "Death from Above" led to a dispute with a two-man Canadian band also using the same name.

His most well-known musical project is LCD Soundsystem, which first gained attention with its single "Losing My Edge" in 2002 before releasing its eponymous debut album in February 2005 to critical acclaim and top 20 success in the UK.

In 2002, Murphy started the electronic dance-punk band LCD Soundsystem, releasing a string of singles through DFA Records.

The most successful of these initial singles was "Losing My Edge", which peaked at number 117 in the UK.

The band released its self-titled debut album in 2005 to critical acclaim.

LCD Soundsystem's second and third studio albums, Sound of Silver (2007) and This Is Happening (2010) respectively, were met with universal acclaim from several music review outlets.

Both albums have also reached the top 50 in the Billboard 200.

LCD Soundsystem was named one of Rolling Stone's New Immortals—"currently active (or relatively recently defunct) artists who [they] think will stand the test of time."

Murphy's second LCD Soundsystem album, entitled Sound of Silver, was released on March 12, 2007.

In its aftermath, he quipped to Mojo: "You don't have to work very hard to write an article about us. "Just use the words 'unlikely frontman', 'bear-like', 'unshaven', 'Talking Heads', blah blah blah..."

He also has a CD in the Fabriclive CD series, Fabric Live 36, made in collaboration with LCD Soundsystem drummer Pat Mahoney, released in October 2007.

In late 2008 Murphy also announced he was to play bass guitar in Free Energy, a classic rock band, with LCD Soundsystem drummer Pat Mahoney and friends Scott Wells and Paul Sprangers, although this was later refuted by Murphy as a misinterpretation.

In October 2009 Pitchfork Media named the track "All My Friends" off Sound of Silver, the second best song of the decade, and a week later, Sound of Silver was ranked at #17 in The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s list.

In late 2009 Murphy moved into film scoring, writing music for Noah Baumbach's film Greenberg.

The album was recorded over the course of 2009 and early 2010 in the Mansion.

April saw the release of the first single "Drunk Girls" with an accompanying music video directed by Spike Jonze.

The soundtrack was released on March 22, 2010.

LCD Soundsystem's third album This Is Happening was released on May 17, 2010, in the UK and May 18 in the US.

In 2011, it was announced that LCD Soundsystem would disband with a final show on April 2, 2011 at Madison Square Garden.

In the following years, Murphy continued to pursue other artistic projects: some music-related, others not.

Murphy announced his retirement from LCD Soundsystem with the release of This Is Happening, and made his last television appearance under that name on February 14, 2011, on The Colbert Report.

In early 2016, the band announced a reunion as well as an appearance at the 2016 Coachella Festival, with their fourth album American Dream and respective tour following afterwards in 2017.

In May 2018, LCD Soundsystem was a headliner at All Points East festival in Victoria Park, London.