When a prominent chef heard that James Murphy had decided to open a wine bar in Brooklyn, he nudged Mr. Murphy to compose an online journal about the process.

Mr. Murphy mulled it over, at least for a moment.

“I thought I would call it ‘the Worst Idea Ever,’ ” he said the other day with a flick of the self-effacement that became his hallmark as the brain behind the dance-punk band LCD Soundsystem.

No pearls of prose ever materialized, though.

“I’ve never done it because I’m overwhelmed,” he said.

That wine bar, the Four Horsemen, is scheduled to open in early June at 295 Grand Street in Williamsburg, and it turns out that hosting a nightly party in a room with about 40 seats can be as much of a logistical ordeal as hosting one in Madison Square Garden. (Mr. Murphy has actually done that.)

While he has toured the world, both at the front of his band, now retired, and as a globally on-demand D.J., his days now overflow with conversations about slow-moving contractors, stringent health-department regulations and the mysteries of a grease trap. To borrow the title of one of his most popular songs, “New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down.”