Watch: LCD Soundsystem Perform “North American Scum” for First Time in 13 Years

Photo Credit: Bill Kelly

Over the weekend, LCD Soundsystem concluded its three-phase winter residency at Queens, N.Y.’s Knockdown Center with a final trio of performances. On Dec. 14, this closing series of the Annual Winter Function brought a landmark moment that symbolized the band’s current revitalization when the James Murphy-fronted electronica outfit busted out “North American Scum,” a longtime fan favorite left out of the band’s repertoire for 13 years.

LCD’s setlists in the Knockdown Center residency, as with the Los Angeles residency before it, have been relatively stable, with mostly only changes in the order of the band’s countless hits changing. On Saturday, though, Murphy and his band broke from that formula with the unearthed “North American Scum,” which first appeared as the first single for the group’s 2007 sophomore album Sound of Silver. The song was played last at Madison Square Garden in 2011, during a farewell series that preceded a five-year retirement before its triumphant 2016 reunion. Now, as the band begins to release new music again and prepares for its first new studio album in eight years, the return of “North American Scum” arrives as an apt symbol for the band’s renewal.

In October, LCD Soundsystem heralded a new chapter with the premiere of “X-Ray Eyes” on NTS Radio, a techy, minimal production with a proto-Detroit backbeat that arrived as its first single since the full-throttle dance-punk of 2022’s “New Body Rhumba.” The new track officially landed on streaming platforms in November, and since then, LCD Soundsystem has been booked for headline performances at festivals like M3F Festival and Primavera Sound Barcelona in 2025. “It’s the first single of what’s shaping up to be a new album,” Murphy said of the new song and rumors of a forthcoming full-length. “Don’t ask me when that is, because we’re still working on it. But it feels very good to be putting out new music.”

Watch the return of “North American Scum” here. Learn more about LCD Soundsystem at lcdsoundsystem.com.

North American scum for the first time since MSG

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