Chapstick Weekly-ish
For the prudent gentleman or gentlelady
Check Your Backseat Mix
Kick Drum (feat. Spank Rock) – Shy Child
Tenderoni – Chromeo
Working Bees – The Pinker Tones
You, Me and the Bourgeoisie – The Submarines
Cosmic Rapp – James Pants
The Shake – The Elms
Lay Down The Law – Switches
Vanished – Crystal Castles
Dotted Lines – Electric President
Trying to Put Your Heart Back Together – Slow Runner
Two Sisters – Headman
I Kissed a Girl – Katy Perry
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi – Radiohead
Shut Up and Let Me Go – The Ting Tings
Into the Galaxy – Midnight Juggernauts
Lights & Music (Boys Noize Remix) – Cut Copy
Albums in my Car
Switches, Lay Down the Law
Electric President, Sleep Well
Calvin Harris, I Created Disco
Headman, Catch Me
AmpLive, Rainydayz Remixes
Crystal Castles, Crystal Castles
Catching up with Switches at the Vogue
It was my pleasure and enjoyment to get some time with Switches before they played their June 10 show at the Vogue in Indianapolis, opening a 4-band night with headliners She Wants Revenge.
I’d like to mention that 1) I love English politeness, pomp, and personal presentation and 2) I love the idealist that is the BritPop rocker.
While much of their music is unabashed straight-forward pop (their single, Drama Queen, is the theme song to MTV’s new reality show Legally Blonde), their incorporation of vocal harmonies and unmistakeably, a bouncy danceability, separates them from the pop herd.
“We really separate ourselves with a music talent we can be a bit smug about,” said Matt, the lead singer and primary writer on their current release. “We use a lot of harmonies that sort of reinforce the chord structure. Like on Drama Queen.”
And their talent is evident with the creative approach to the melodies and arrangement on several of their tracks. Most markedly on the track “I Need To Be Needed” with its sweeping vocals that lead into a fabulous harmony late in the track, and in the rhythm of “Lay Down the Law” as well as a short interlude burst in that track with a tooting, minimalist organ sound.
But what is it in the song creation process that really makes them danceable? Do they start out that way?
“We keep it simple,” said their drummer, Steve. “I just play what suits the song, with small variations or touches.”
“It really is a more studied approach to music,” added Matt.
When asked about a one-line shot to describe their sound, they gave me some good answers:
“We’re like a trashy old whore in a three-star hotel suite.” Also, “We sound like trash whips coming in whipped streams.” Editorial note: when an Englishman says whore, I feel like it means something a little less abrasive.
Their music, albeit a bit poppy for this publication at times, is truly enjoyable, and, according to the band, will probably have some electronic instrumentation in its future (which I am excited to hear).
Switches’ album, Lay Down the Law is now available to purchase wherever you might like to buy it. They are currently heading west through the US on the Nylon Magazine Music Tour.
What’s New to Me and Maybe New to You
The forlorn, attractive delivery of this band’s gentle electronic sound will take you to instant nostalgic heights and new, somberly electric lows. Unyielding, steady percussion guides their newest release through labyrinthine verses and echoing choruses, rife with heartstring-pulling melodic ups and downs. Thoughtful, precise, yet utterly self-conscious swells will reach you on an extremely personal level, if you let them. I suggest you do.
If I could get away with just saying, this album is good: you won’t be disappointed, I would. Dancey arrangements, intelligent sequences, and a natural, practiced instrumentation wedge this album neatly in the all-things-dancefloor genre. Drawing from the common influences guiding the electronic/dance world right now, this album probably contains 11 viable singles (out of 13 tracks).
Capricious latin rhythms combine with quirky effects and instrumentation to be capped of with a whipped, hip-swaying funk. Their infectious sound will evolve slowly through your body, from toe-tapping, to head-nodding, to shoulder bouncing, to 100 calorie per minute burning hip gyrations. Sounds like a beautiful summer day street festival in high gear, complete with watermelon stands, round, brightly dressed and flirting women (I’m thinking early thirties), and the far and wee sounds of children playing in sprinklers.
In Case You’re a Dummy
Buy the Beck, Guerolito disc. But Tengan Cuidadolito! This album contains one of the most engaging, compelling remixes ever created by man or machine (Ghettochip Malfunction, the 8Bit remix of Hell Yes). You will end up dancing on a table, couch, desk, or various other available pieces of furniture. Did you like Guero? O’ course ya did! Who th’hell don’t! This is the musical masterpiece follow-up with remixes from Islands, El-P, Adrock, Subtle, Boards of Canada, and Air. What happens when you shove all these people onto a construction site with blueprints and schematics from Beck? Well, this does, duh.
The Alamo: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!
Remember Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!? The wildly eccentric, mostly ineligible, circus-fire vocals whose unpretentiousness begs you to sing along with your best guess on what the words are? The abso f’n lutely rocking four-piece backing band reeking from a full day in the kitchen of everything danceable and late nights on a 1974 BBC live radio broadcast?
This album’s enthralling sound is rumored have been a top pick of legendary David Bowie and legendary David Byrne in the same month. Upon its release, it fulfilled the fledgling promise of the upbeat, rock style on whose leading edge it rode.
This album will forever remind me of my virgin visit to NYC, packed 7-deep into a small 4-door, racing through the Brooklyn streets behind an absolute madman at the wheel, showing little care or consideration to the usual traffic laws and guidelines! If you want, it can remind you of that too.
Long story short, it’s summertime, and your summertime adventures need a soundtrack. Get this one back out. Stomp your feet, shake your fist, get sweaty, and sing into your imaginary microphone on stage in front of an arena filled with rows upon rows of people singing into their imaginary microphones.
Note: I have to reveal here, that this is not much of an “Alamo” for me because it still dominates my 25 most played list 3 years after its release. But I thought it might be for you.
Technology for Sounds: Monome
Adaptable, minimalist interface. Incredible. It’s hard to explain exactly what this is, but easy to explain what its seeming limitations are: none. The sample videos on the blog-like website exhibit a few masters using this device to arrange elaborate electronic compositions. Even more amazing is that they are doing so live. Utterly amazing. If I had the time to devote to incorporating this device into my life, I would!
ps. A thanks to Justin, a random encounter at the Wellington, for pointing me to this one.
Some Things Are Funny
Like jukeboxes.
So, Katie Jones put me on to this article about a T-Shirt company, Threadless, Inc., that is the epitome of the user-interface Web 2.0 infrastructure. What they have done, is built a t-shirt empire built on the voting and purchasing and designing of a large online social network. And it works, with wild success.
Why doesn’t the user-interface work at a bar with a jukebox going? Shouldn’t user selection generally override the bad music that you can already hear on broadcast radio or American Idol? I am not cynical enough, yet, to believe that we have been force-fed popular, uninspiring music enough to have to regurgitate it everywhere we go.
It seems the user-interface override would particularly be effective with the modern jukeboxes that allow user downloads of new albums and tracks, creating a virtually unlimited library.
Yet, why is this not the case? Why don’t people just play something good!? Is it a few squeaky wheels that muck up the entire playlist? The many buzzing thoughts in my head point to no solid solution...however! If I may, I would like to leave off with two thoughts...
1. Is there such a thing as universally, genuinely good music? (ps. if you know anything about it, this is similar to the questions of Plato and his Forms in Phaedo)
2. Is there hope that this “Good Music” can trump musical taste? Can trump genre and popularity and access and familiarity? Can be recognized by every open-minded listener as simply: good.
Next Week:
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