''Shut Up and Play the Hits'' is a 2012 documentary film directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace that follows
LCD Soundsystem frontman
James Murphy over a 48-hour period, from the day of the band's final gig at
Madison Square Garden to the morning after the show.
The film also features intermittent segments from an extended interview between Murphy and pop culture writer
Chuck Klosterman
Charles John Klosterman (; born 1972) is an American author and essayist whose work focuses on American popular culture. He has been a columnist for ''Esquire'' and ESPN.com and wrote "The Ethicist" column for ''The New York Times Magazine''. K ...
. The film premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival on 22 January 2012, and was released in the USA for one night only on 18 July 2012.
UK showings were held on 4 September 2012.
James Murphy performs a duet with comedian and musician
Reggie Watts for one song during the show. Several members of the band
Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara. The band's current touring line-up also includes former core member ...
provide backing vocals during a performance of "
North American Scum". The film's title is a reference to the moment
Win Butler
Edwin Farnham Butler III (born April 14, 1980) is an American-Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist. He co-founded the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire with his wife Régine Chassagne.
Early life
Butler was ...
of Arcade Fire shouts "shut up and play the hits" as James introduces the song.
The film also features brief appearances from
the Juan MacLean, and David and Stephen Dewaele from the band
Soulwax
Soulwax are an electronic band from Ghent, Belgium. Centred around brothers David and Stephen Dewaele, other current members include Igor Cavalera and Stefaan Van Leuven. They were first noticed after the release of their album '' Much Against Ev ...
(thereby mirroring
James Murphy and
Nancy Whang
LCD Soundsystem is an American rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002 by James Murphy, co-founder of DFA Records. The band comprises Murphy (vocals, various instruments), Nancy Whang (synthesizer, keyboards, vocals), Pat Mahoney ( ...
's appearances in the Soulwax film ''
Part of the Weekend Never Dies
''Part of the Weekend Never Dies'' is a rockumentary film depicting the worldwide concert tour of the Belgian band Soulwax.
Director Saam Farahmand filmed Soulwax on their recent international tour dates, showcasing the events and experiences of ...
''). Comedians
Aziz Ansari
Aziz Ismail Ansari (; born February 23, 1983) is an American actor and stand-up comedian. He is known for his role as Tom Haverford on the NBC series '' Parks and Recreation'' (2009–2015) and as creator and star of the Netflix series '' Mas ...
and
Donald Glover can also be seen dancing in the crowd.
The film was released to Blu-ray and DVD on 9 October 2012 in the US and 8 Oct 2012 in the UK, with a digital release on the band's official Facebook page soon afterwards.
A relatively complete audio recording of this concert was released in April 2014, entitled ''
The Long Goodbye: LCD Soundsystem Live at Madison Square Garden.''
This film also featured director
Spike Jonze on camera work.
Reception
The film was met positively by critics and fans alike, particularly for its concert coverage and direction. On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
the film holds a rating of 88%, based on 25 reviews. On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
the film has a score of 72 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Henry Barnes of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' wrote that it is a "gorgeously shot concert film that cuts repeatedly between the near-desperate abandon of the show and Murphy, in his apartment the following day, wandering around in his pants and petting the dog".
In November 2012, ''Shut Up and Play the Hits'' won the "Best Live Music Coverage" category of the UK Music Video Awards.
Track list
# "Dance Yrself Clean"
# "Drunk Girls"
# "I Can Change"
# "Time To Get Away"
# "Get Innocuous!"
# "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House"
# "Too Much Love"
# "All My Friends"
# "Tired"
# "45:33 Part One"
# "45:33 Part Two"
# "Sound of Silver" (intro)
# "45:33 Part Four"
# "45:33 Part Five"
# "45:33 Part Six"
# "Freak Out/Starry Eyes"
# "Us v Them"
# "North American Scum"
# "Bye Bye Bayou" (Alan Vega cover)
# "You Wanted A Hit"
# "Tribulations"
# "Movement"
# "Yeah" (outro)
# "Someone Great"
# "Losing My Edge"
# "Home"
# "All I Want"
# "Jump Into The Fire" (Harry Nilsson cover)
# "New York I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down"
References
External links
*
''Shut Up and Play the Hits''(full video) on
Topic.com
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shut Up And Play The Hits
2012 films
British documentary films
2010s English-language films
2010s British films