Q&A with Special Disco Version

_After a solid ten-year run, dance punk group LCD Soundsystem called it quits earlier this spring, playing its final show at Madison Square Garden on April 2. Frontman James Murphy and drummer Pat Mahoney have stuck together, playing records under the name Special Disco Version.

Mahoney recently talked to Assistant Diversions Editor Allison Hussey about his new musical venture._

DIVERSIONS: What is Special Disco Version?

PAT MAHONEY: Special Disco Version is the name of the party and the traveling road show that is me and James Murphy playing records. We had a party in New York a couple years back that was regularly at Santos Party House in downtown Manhattan.

It was every Wednesday night, but we put it on a shelf because LCD (Soundsystem) went back on tour. Now that LCD is retired happily, we’re doing some shows on the road as Special Disco Version.

DIVE: Where did the name come from?

PM: The name came from — we get to travel the world and pick through record shops all over the place and search out things that we love.

It started as, for DJs, 12-inch copies of pop songs. But particularly during the disco era, a band or artist would release a song and then either have a disco dub or a disco version, so the records would be labeled with that. There’s a Carly Simon song that has a special disco version, etc. It’s just taken from that.

DIVE: It seems like now a lot of DJs use mostly laptops, but you keep your records with you?

PM: Yeah. I have too much music that’s on vinyl. Under ideal circumstances, I still think vinyl sounds better, because lot of people play even high-quality mp3s that just don’t sound as good as vinyl.

You could certainly play higher resolution files, but a lot of the time I just find that most people don’t. It’s not even some philosophical thing, I just happen to have a lot of records, and that’s what I play.

DIVE: Have you found it difficult to travel with them?

PM: They’re significantly less heavy than a drum set, but it actually has gotten a lot harder to board planes, for example, with a bag full of records. I have some CDs that I have as backup.

I just also enjoy playing records. It’s really fun. Occasionally they skip or get bumped, and you have people in the audience realize that there’s a human being up there and not just some guy checking his e-mail.