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.
