LCD Soundsystem and Guns N’ Roses to Reunite at Coachella

Both LCD Soundsystem and a version of Guns N’ Roses featuring Axl Rose and Slash will reunite at Coachella this year, the New York Times reports. An unnamed source with direct knowledge of the California festival’s lineup has confirmed to the Times that both bands will play on April 15-17 and 22-24 in Indio. 

Rumors of LCD Soundsystem reuniting surfaced earlier this year, as reported in October by Consequence of Sound. At that time, DFA co-founder Jonathan Galkin denied the rumors in an email to Pitchfork, but speculation resumed when LCD Soundsystem emerged on Christmas Eve with a new single, “Christmas Will Break Your Heart”.

In July 2010, LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy explained why he was choosing to end the group at that time, hinting at both the final show at Madison Square Garden and that he might reunite the band five years later:

It’s not like some big, dramatic ending– we’ve talked about if in five years we’d want to play again we’d do it. It’s all just gotten bigger than I planned or wanted. Not that I’m against it but I don’t want to get bigger. What’s the goal now– get fucking huge? I don’t want to be a famous person. It’s fucking great where we are. I get on an airplane and nobody has any idea who I am. I just want to do other stuff. And since we know we’re not gonna do another record I feel freer to do the biggest shit I possibly can. Like, ‘Fuck it, we should play Madison Square Garden.’

He continued:

If I thought there was another record, I’d be very uncomfortable and anxious about it and what it was going to do to my life. Putting an end to it frees me up to have fun; it’s like knowing your mortality. As a kid that always wanted to make music, I couldn’t have dreamed of a better place to be than where I’m at right now. I didn’t even know this place existed– to play with your friends and be really satisfied and happy. It’s not so bad.

As for Guns N’ Roses, though they never officially broke up, Axl Rose has been the band’s only original member since 1997, when McKagan departed. This version of the band has toured on-and-off since the early aughts, but their official output has been slim. In 2008, the band released the long-gestating Chinese Democracy. 

In the interim, Slash, McKagan, and drummer Matt Sorum (who replaced Adler in Guns N’ Roses in 1990) formed Velvet Revolver, which was fronted by late Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland.

In recent years, there hasn’t been any love lost between Axl and the original members. “Slash either should not have been in Guns to begin with or should have left after Lies,” Axl said in 2009. “In a nutshell, personally I consider him a cancer and better removed, avoided—and the less anyone heard of him or his supporters, the better.”

But this year, Axl and Slash reconciled. “It was probably way overdue, you know,” Slash said. “But it’s, you know, it’s very cool at this point.”

Comments are closed.