TheBrit and TheYank

A couple of years ago, whilst dating a very mopey boy, I made him a 130+ mp3 mix CD entitled, “Cheer The Fuck Up!”¹ The point of the disc, at the time I thought, was to showcase that being upbeat and happy isn’t necessarily a bad thing — you know, it’s kinda of fun!² Over the years, I would create various and similar themed discs for others and myself, music designed to get fists pumping and car dancing as one drove about town, across state and various points in-between.

When TheBrit and I discussed this week’s theme to coincide with the spring solstice, it seemed fitting that we’d pick songs that would make one want to pump fists in the air, car dance, dance with sheep and just generally get the legs and body moving. Choosing only five songs, with the repertoire now much larger since twee is snarling to be in front and power pop getting more air play, has become that much harder than it was four or five years ago when I made the behemoth 130 song disc. For those of you who know me, a couple of these songs may not surprise you and I think that is because a really good pop song never dies, it just gets remixed and refreshed for the next generation.

Iggy Pop - Lust For Life

Like most of those of my generation³, I fell in love with this song when it was used as the opening theme for the dreamy Ewan McGregor movie, Trainspotting. Of course when the song was originally released, I was five years old and was all about Electric Company and Sesame Street over drugs and flesh machines. But there is something about this song, even with its so vigorous nod to Motown, that over 30 years later it stills sounds remarkably fresh and contemporary. I’ve always had a thing for Iggy ever since I read an article about him in Stuff Magazine in which he talked about the secret for staying so young was daily copious amounts of steak and sex.  Plus the song was co-written by David Bowie, so you know it has some street cred and you can’t help but want to start doing the white guy head bob when it comes on the radio, er mp3 player.

Iggy Pop - official website
Iggy Pop - Last.fm
Iggy Pop and The Stooges - MySpace
Iggy Pop - Lust for Life (Amazon US, Amazon UK, iTunes)

Supergrass - Pumping On Your Stereo

When we began hammering out the details of TBaTY, TheBrit and I decided not to confer with each other on our lists because we wanted to be surprised as to what the other would pick for their songs. Given, however, our similarity in musical taste, I wasn’t too terribly surprised to see Republica’s Ready To Go on his list and neither was he surprised to see this particular song on my list. “That’s a really great song!,” he said. “I know,” I typed smugly. Because why else would I have chosen it if it were not?

I’m not terribly sure how I got into Supergrass but I do rather adore them. I love how they do not take themselves too seriously, think Art Brut crossed with Flight of the Conchords. It was a toss-up between this song and Alright on my short list and I knew that a Supergrass song had to be in the top 5. I went with this song namely because they switch between “Humping” and “Pumping” in the song and the video has their disembodied heads on muppets. But again, the white guy head bob and fist pumping, if I could pogo in my car when this song is playing, I would.

Trivia fact: The guys who directed the video for this song, are also the guys who directed Son of Rambow and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Supergrass - official website
Supergrass - Last.fm
Supergrass - MySpace
Supergrass - Supergrass is 10 (Amazon US, Amazon UK, iTunes)

Black Kids - I’m Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You

Discovered this band via NPR’s All Song’s Considered, which has become one of my mainstays of new and upcoming music. I Just. Couldn’t. Get. This. Song. Out. Of. My. Head. I break into spontaneous dancing when the song comes on! It has become my default ringtone on my cell! Take a bunch kids from Florida with an obsession with Robert Smith, Morrissey, cheeky nods to double entendre and tight lyrics and voila! you have the Black Kids. Formed in 2006, self-produced their first EP in 2007 and discovered via MySpace, these “kids” have been making the rounds with their cute, cleverly wordy, overly catchy pop songs. While this song continually makes “Best Of” lists, chances are that unless you are listening to college/alternative radio, you probably haven’t heard of it. Catchy and approachable, Black Kids have not yet made it to mainstream America.

XFM Scotland did a very clever one take video of the station lip synching the song.

Black Kids - official website
Black Kids - Last.fm
Black Kids - MySpace
Black Kids - Partie Traumatic (Amazon US, Amazon UK, iTunes)

Kelly Osbourne - Shut Up

Yes, that Kelly Osbourne — daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. That Kelly, infamous for her straight shooting mouth which constantly got her into trouble, Osbourne.

The Osbournes was the only reality television show I watched from start to finish, and really, the only reality television show that I even really liked. It didn’t seem too much stretch of the imagination to discover that Kelly was interested in a pop career or that she was interested in making a name for herself outside of the family. The thing that did strike me as the most surprising is that she would keep at it, releasing vaguely decent albums that would run the gamut from originals to covers. Kelly is never going to be a great chanteuse, mind, but she does have chops to make a somewhat successful career with what she does have. If she stays out of rehab and stops bitch-slapping gossip columnists around London that is.

One of the many reasons why I love this song is that Kelly has, even at the tender age of 18 when the song was released, never censored herself or her words and for that, I will always respect her.

Kelly Osbourne - official website
Kelly Osbourne - Last.fm
Kelly Osbourne - MySpace
Kelly Osbourne - Shut Up (Amazon US, Amazon UK)

The Ting Tings - That’s Not My Name

I had originally envisioned when writing this blog that dashing these entries out would be cake — but rather, they take rather large amounts of time between choosing the songs, to what you’re going to say and then hunting down the links to go with the words. And often, in a case like this week where I had to narrow the list from hundreds to dozens to five songs, I spend an inordinate amount of time listening to the same songs over and over, figuring out why I love X song more so than Y song.

TheBF works from home and as I had spent most of the day listening to music with my headphones on making these harsh cold decisions, he had no idea what I was up to musically. Once he was off his gazillion hour conference call, I pulled the plug on the headphones and let the sound of The Tings Tings filter through our apartment. “Hey!” he said, “I rather like this song.” I looked at him in surprise. TheBF and I are as far away from each other musically as humanly possible — he likes Bob Dylan, Afro-pop and Jazz while I lay money down on Brit-pop, shoegaze, post-rock and twee. For him, happiness is a bluesy song about a guy who is bitching about the loss of his cattle to poachers; while to me, happiness is a new Interpol album.

So when either of us says we like a song that is from a genre we don’t normally dip our toes into, we tend to confirm that indeed said choices are superior.⁴

The Ting Tings, power-pop/dance duo from Salford, Manchester, UK. One could argue they are Joy Division crossed with Britney Spears — at least as far as influences go. The whole album is filled of similar simply written, catchy pop tunes that make you want to dance — which is their intent. They will never be accused of putting together overly complicated songs that take ages to decipher - which is also their point. But Katie White has an intelligence on her that one doesn’t normally find in dance pop tunes, which makes them a bit different. Either way, I adore them and am vaguely upset they are not coming to Detroit in their current US tour.

The song Great DJ was featured as the trailer for Slumdog Millionaire.

The Ting Tings - official site
The Ting Tings - MySpace
The Ting Tings - Last.fm
The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing (Amazon US, Amazon UK, iTunes)

1. I seem to have a penchant of attracting mopey (meaning introvert, philosophical, insightful, awkward) boys, romantically and platonically. I also find it ironic that what tends to cure them of their mopiness is hot sex and not necessarily with me. Does Conor Oberst know about this cure?
2. The whole wallowing in self-pity, woe is me crap drives me insane. TheBF is the king of curmudgeons and yet, around me, he’s all about peeing rainbows and shitting leprechauns. See 1.
3. Generation X, of course!
4. When, however, he discovered the name of the band was The Ting Tings, TheBF said he wanted to go vomit because he couldn’t believe he could like a band who called themselves “The Ting Tings.” Yeah, I don’t get it either.

What does Spring mean to me in respect of Music? There’s the literal interpretation, which just sounds a bit too dry to me - do you know any songs about crocuses? And there’s the figurative representation of it being about renewal, emergence and growth. I think we decided to go a third route (although you’ll have to see the column right to confirm that, I could have gotten this completely wrong.) To me, this alternative means the energy and life that some music can bring out of us to make us feel joyful and expectant. Perhaps hope is an appropriate word here too.

Spring is also a striking contrast to the gloominess of Autumn and Winter, two seasons that very much invoke depression. I can be a bit of a mope at times - and there’s an awful lot of mope-worthy music in my collection - perfectly summarised within the opening lines of High Fidelity: “Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable, or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?”

For this theme, therefore, I’ve chosen songs that give me that fist-pumping impetus, that give me a natural high, that make me deliriously happy to be on this planet, that I love listening to when out and about, walking. Believe it not, extensive trawling through my collection revealed there to be at least thirty candidates, which for a miserablist like me is quite staggering. Here are, perhaps, my top five.

Love Corporation - Love

Just look at that cover. Ed Ball, musical polymath and one time executive at Creation Records wrote this first Love Corporation album, which he delightfully calls “the 2nd Acid House album” on his MySpace page - just in case you didn’t deduce that from the cover. It was released in February 1991 towards the closing months of the Second Summer of Love.

Love is the opening track and it’s all about the piano. Unusually, it begins like a coda. A simple but melodic, jaunty housey piano dominates. Its pitch flitting amongst the soft shuffling beats and acid squiggles. In effect a summary of all the dance music that appeared during those years. Then just when we’re becoming accustomed to its prettiness, the tune turns darker through hanging squalls and delays.

But that exists only to highlight the elated conclusion where the piano lead occasionally sprouts bluesy chords and we discover that this coda was actually just the beginning of a much longer sequence. Whether Love is composed or improvised doesn’t matter, it’s lovely.

Love Corporation - MySpace
Love Corporation - Ed Ball
Love Corporation - Last.fm

Republica - Ready to Go

It’s difficult to imagine this song existing without its accompanying videos - there are at least three of them. In fact, were it not for those videos, the song might not have the energy it does. One time N-Joi singer Saffron does her blokish ladette impression, in an extreme sneering example of what’s now called Mockney. She happened to do that on all of Republica’s songs, not that I’m complaining. So when she sings “I’m standing on the rooftops ‘aving it!” you know and feel exactly how she feels. Sure, there’s a darkness behind the exuberance of the song, but that’s not stopped it featuring on hundreds of (mostly football) compilation CDs.

Ready To Go was released in 1996 as the forerunner to their eponymous debut album, although two other singles had arrived two years earlier, including Bloke - which was part of my answer to TheYank’s curve-ball question last year “What Republica song are you?”

If you want a stereotypical example of how all house piano sounded during that time, this is it - Love Corporation’s piano isn’t full enough, which is why the US-centric rock mix of this song is so disappointing: dropping the piano and Garbage-ing it up with extra grinding guitar riffs, thereby removing much of its cheerfulness.

Such is my love of the videos that I had to include one here. This, I think, is the second version that was made for the UK market. It’s longer than the original and is special because, well, Saffron’s pink jacket is just gorgeous:

Republica - Last.fm
Republica - Republica (Amazon UK, Amazon US, iTunes)

Tiga - Pleasure from the Bass

Don’t get me wrong, I love Canada. Some of my favourite people are Canadian. But it’s so underpopulated that anyone who makes music ends up winning a Juno Award at some point in their career. Tiga James Sontag is no exception, winning the 2007 Dance Recording of the Year for the ‘concept album’ that is Sexor - from which this song comes.

This is ideal strutting (not walking) music, in an “opening scene to Saturday Night Fever” kind of way - although have you noticed that in the Bee Gees’ video they just amble? What’s that all about? One listen to the dot-dot dot–dot dash bassline will get you moving, especially when Tiga’s vocals join in so percussively. His fairly nonsensical phrases are usually delivered in a call and response fashion, building and releasing tension several times a measure. As with all good dance music, this is as much about the space between each sound as it is the music itself.

Once you’re hooked into the song through those rhythms, Pleasure from the Bass stays interesting by adding synth lines which mirror or complement the bass, becoming more acidic as the song nears its conclusion. Elsewhere there are builds through the introduction of other percussion - in particular the surprise arrival of lightning handclaps, which serve to defuse then reset expectations. Tiga’s monotone vocals playfully turn into melodies at unexpected moments to increase the brilliance of this track.

And it’s all over in just under four minutes.

Tiga - official website
Tiga - Last.fm
Tiga - Sexor (Amazon UK, Amazon US, iTunes)

Cut Copy - Lights & Music

Last year’s Cut Copy album is the one that LCD Soundsystem should have made back in 2005, instead of the tedious techno trudge that James Murphy ended up releasing (and, yeah, maybe I was the only person on the planet not to be impressed, but still). In comparison, In Ghost Colours is a neon rainbow, burning out retinas through its palatial indie-dance - and it’s proof that Australia does have some musical talent.

Lights & Music, positioned as that all-important third track, is a homage to thrill of dance, played out through the eyes of illicit or unrequited love - of what exactly we’re never told: “Lights and music are on my mind. Be my baby one more time,” and as such could be a companion piece to its predecessor Out There on the Ice.

In contrast to Tiga’s song, this works through multiple layers of sound, shifting sublimely from verse to chorus, break and drop. There’s no rush to get to the rush: that’s why there are two opening stanzas, occupied by bass and lead guitars, achingly kept apart by just that bassline and a shimmering synthetic haze, When the chorus does arrive a full two minutes in, it’s via a two-dimensional swept riff, a rollercoaster teasing us before the fall. Then - just to mess with our heads - Madonna-esque chords teleport us back to the Eighties.

Cut Copy - official website
Cut Copy - Last.fm
Cut Copy - Lights & Music (Amazon UK, Amazon US, iTunes)

Puretone - Stuck in a Groove (Radio Edit)

“Because I’m stuck in a groove, I didn’t hear what you said. Because there’s too many tunes going round in my head”

And lookie here: another Melbourne-ite. Josh G. Abrahams’ second collaboration with fellow Australian Amiel Daemion was less successful than Addicted to Bass, which had reached #2 in the UK in 2002, three years after its Australian debut. Stuck in a Groove is however the far more accomplished song, although it only reached #26. A sure sign of a one hit wonder.

I’m soft on songs about music, even if they start with a sleepy R&B acoustic guitar cut-up and the most trite lyrics - as this one does - because once they filter away, Amiel’s dryly processed spoken / sung intro is beguiling. Behind this, the backing revs up towards the chorus. When that hits with its power chords, sparkling keys and pad bass (think Hybrid), it’s a direct reminder of all the incredible things that music can do. Then, just to the strengthen the point, it’s re-interpreted, stripped down and bettered on the short break just before the close.

My next door neighbour often wonders why I frequently ignore her when she passes by me, out and about in Inverness. She needs to listen to this song.

Puretone - Last.fm
Puretone - Stuck in a Groove [full song]
Puretone - Stuck in a Groove (Amazon UK, Amazon US, iTunes)

Looking back at these five songs, three of them have some bearing or relationship to music. Not surprising really since whenever I’m out walking - and I prefer to walk anywhere than use transport - I’m plugged into my iPhone. Obsessed, me? Yes, and I love it.