It's beginning to look like this year's Sundance Film Festival will be very James Murphy-heavy. It was already announced that the LCD Soundsystem frontman/all around super-genius will appear in the comedy called, er, "The Comedy," with Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, of "Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" fame/infamy. And today (via Pitchfork) it was revealed that a full-on LCD Soundsystem concert movie, awesomely titled "Shut Up And Play The Hits" and centered around the band's final show at Madison Square Garden will also debut at Sundance as part of the out-of-competition "Spotlight" series. Somehow not being able to attend that final concert (despite all our scheming) doesn't seem like so much of a letdown anymore.
According to the official Sundance site, the film is, "A documentary that follows LCD Soundsystem front man James Murphy over a crucial 48-hour period, from the day of their final gig at Madison Square Garden to the morning after, the official end of one of the best live bands in the world." The film was directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace and the title comes from a remark Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler made to Murphy.
Having seen the band live a number of times over the years we can definitely vouch for the whole "best live band in the world" thing, and we're endlessly excited to get a glimpse of Murphy & co. in their marathon final show setting (they played for over three hours, including, amazingly all of their excellent Nike+ running mix). While Murphy has remained relatively quiet since disbanding LCD Soundsystem this spring, we're interested to see if his move into acting with "The Comedy" is a one-off or an entirely new career path (maybe something in-between?). Previously, Murphy has collaborated with big time filmmaker Spike Jonze (for the amazing "Drunk Girls" video) and memorably scored Noah Baumbach's "Greenberg." We'll be singing along to "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House" until word about "The Comedy" and "Shut Up And Play The Hits" leaks out of Sundance next month.