This is my fifth column. I’ve already done one eulogy for one of my favorite bands. And now LCD Soundsystem is breaking up. Not breaking up. They’re doing something. James Murphy refuses to be specific about it, but whatever the case, it sounds like there won’t be that much more LCD Soundsystem music in everyone’s future.

Right now, LCD Soundsystem is one of my favorite bands. My ringtone is the title track of their third album. I’ve got all their songs with me at least 75 percent of the time. But, it’s time for me to make an embarrassing confession. I just started to like LCD Soundsystem. Like two months ago. I am not one of their die-hard fans. I have never seen them live and never will. I (clearly) did not get tickets to one of their final shows.

I don’t think I’m a very obsessive person, but when it comes to popular art – books, movies, music – I’m pretty single-minded. If I like an author, I read all of his/her books as rapidly as possible. If I like a director, I watch all of his/her movies as rapidly as possible. And if I like a musician or a band, not only do I listen to all their LP’s and EP’s and singles as rapidly as possible, but I also go online and try to find interviews with them and then download all the influences that they name.

LCD Soundsystem have been on my radar since 2007, when Sound of Silver made a lot of people’s best albums of the year list. When This is Happening came out last year to effusive acclaim, I thought, “I should really check these guys out.” But it took me until February to get around to listening to their albums, which is why I’ve only now really, really started to like them. That’s why it’s moderately upsetting that they’ve decided to semi-terminate their existence right now. For everyone who has loved them for a long time, it’s probably bittersweet, like a long relationship coming to an end. For me, it’s like getting dumped by a soul mate after two weeks.

Luckily, there’s something serendipitous about all of this happening at once. I just started to like LCD Soundsystem, so (of course) I not only downloaded everything they’ve done, but also everyone that they’ve claimed and mentioned as influences. And I don’t want to write another column just familiarizing people with one great band. So it feels fitting, as a tribute to one of the most allusory, patchwork-y bands I’ve ever listened to, to instead write a playlist of LCD Soundsystem influences.

Too frequently, Paper Radio feels like a showoff column in which I just try display a prodigious musical knowledge in order to impress an imaginary readership composed entirely of music snobs. So I want to emphasize, with this column especially, that in this day and age, it’s easy to amass an enormous musical knowledge by spending half an hour on the internet and then a week listening to your findings whenever you can. It’s a gift and a curse because there’s so much that’s easy to take for granted, but, in this case, it’s awesome for me, not to find just one band to love, but a whole world of music that I’d never heard. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Sister Midnight – Iggy Pop

“Nightclubbing” often gets the nod as the Iggy Pop song that most influenced Murphy because “Somebody’s Calling Me” from This is Happening sounds a lot like it. But the opening track of Iggy’s The Idiot is a better fit for the entire LCDS oeuvre. It’s got an odd, somewhat dangerous funk, as if someone was trying to summon a demon in the middle of a crowded nightclub in the ’80s while remaining as inconspicuous as possible.

Heroes – David Bowie

In a congenial interview with The AV Club, Murphy said “As a little kid, ‘Heroes’ was one of my favorite songs, and as a bearded hipster, Bowie/Eno collabs in Berlin are, you know, ‘check’ as cool stuff to listen to that you like.” Nothing to argue with there. The Berlin albums (Low, Heroes, Lodger) are three of the coolest listens of the ’80s, but “Heroes” takes the cake (as both an album and a song) by being incredibly weird while remaining pitch-perfect pop, enough so to be used in the love medley in “Moulin Rouge.”

Da Funk – Daft Punk

At a concert this year, LCD Soundsystem let loose with a couple of riffs from this Daft Punk classic, acknowledging their debt to the French robots and gods of electronic disco-pop. Murphy boasts frequently of being the first to play Daft Punk for the rock kids, and back when it was fresh, this had to be a great song to play for sneering cooler-than-thous: uptempo with crazy, catchy synths and an unstoppable beat. You know this one; you just didn’t know its name.

Scraper – Liquid Liquid

“Cavern” is the de facto favorite from these post-disco/punkers, but I prefer “Scraper.” Salvatore Principato – awesome name – sounds a bit like Jarvis Cocker, and the vocals are chilling over what would otherwise be a crazy dance beat. These guys opened for LCD Soundsystem before their last show, and it’s easy to see why: Their intelligent disco is the perfect warm-up to the more melodic sounds of Murphy and Co.

Living Too Late – The Fall

The Fall – along with Can – are probably the most frequently cited influences of LCD Soundsystem, and it’s pretty easy to see the similarities, especially on “Living Too Late” off of Bend Sinister. Start with a simple, repetitive beat, lyrics that are caustic, yet relatable and minute variations on the beat that, given previous minimalism, sound all but revolutionary. It’s a great formula, both for The Fall and for the now-late, ever-great LCD Soundsystem.

Jonah Bromwich is a senior majoring in English, and an enthusiastic fan of rap, pop and electronic music. Email any comments, questions or suggestions to [email protected].