The Lost Arpeggios of Rush Hour

Watching the concert documentary Shut Up and Play the Hits last week, I remembered that James Murphy, in addition to writing the best song about New York since the heyday of Lou Reed, has an awesome idea for the NYC subway: musical turnstiles. The man behind LCD Soundsystem proposed the scheme at a talk at the Yale School of Art this spring, sitting opposite fellow rock star and budding urbanist David Byrne. The talk was supposed to focus on the boundaries between different art forms, but each singer ended up talking a lot about New York, Byrne showing off his bike racks and Murphy voicing this zany and brilliant idea (transcription courtesy of WNYC):

Gothamist went so far as to contact the Metropolitan Transit Authority to test out Murphy's idea at the source. But the MTA's Kevin Ortiz responded with this rather dismissive letter: "While the idea sounds good, we are already in the midst of moving toward a Tap and Ride fare payment system that we hope to implement in 2015. In the meantime, Mr. Murphy should consider auditioning for our Music Under New York program." (Music Under New York is the organization that coordinates the placement of subway performers in the corridors and hallways of the subway system.)