Skip to main contentThe seven most blisterin' tracks of the month, and one that totally sucks, as dictated by the Mark Baumgarten, Kelly Clarke and Richard Shirk. In August, we dance.
The Best
1. Cut Copy, "Future"
Melbourne's fresh-faced electro outfit Cut Copy knows that the secret to a good dance track is the ability to continually recharge your crowd. And they do just that with three distinct and knee-quaking stop-starts in "Future," the dance track of this sweltering summer.
Find it on Cut Copy's Bright Like Neon Love.
2. Josh Hodges, "Want to Die"
"I write these songs to impress you. So what, I'm wasting my time," sings Portland's Josh Hodges. He's wrong. With Hodges' lo-fi, lachrymose pipes and simple, perfect keyboard solos, "Want to Die" is the universal product code slapped on the side of every beautiful relationship that never, ever happened.
Find it on Hodges' album Sexton Blake at cdbaby.com.
3. Les Savy Fav, "The Sweat Descends"
From the moment the dirty disco riffs attack your hips, "Sweat" has got you. But it's only when Tim Harrington's staccato screams erupt into an anthemic singalong chorus that catharsis demands you dance after them--slick, wet and insane--into the abyss.
Find it on the band's collection of previously released 7-inches, Inches.
4. DJ N-Wee, "Zurich Your Shoulders"
This track off DJ N-Wee's mash-up of "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" from Jay-Z's Black Album and "Zurich Is Stained" from Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted complements both pieces of music. Set to the backdrop of Stephen Malkmus' looped guitar lines, Jay-Z's voice has a punch the original Pavement song lacks. Steve-o and Jay were meant to be together.
Find it on DJ N-Wee's The Slack Album at www.theslackalbum.com.
5. The Kingdom, "Die All Over Me"
There is nothing more endearing than some off-key yelping. And with the Kingdom's careening, car-with-no-brakes love song "Die All Over Me," this is one lead singer letting out some gloriously un-self-conscious falsetto Muppet sounds while the indie-rock guitars rattle the garage windows. Awesome!
Find it on a demo at the Kingdom's merch table.
6. Kissing Tigers, "Pleasure of Resistance"
"Pleasure of Resistance" by Kissing Tigers is the catchiest New Wave song about the joys of empty, weird sex since "Sex Dwarf" by Soft Cell. Sure, it's more hetero than, say, Depeche Mode, but it has the same faux-machismo of über-gay New Wavers like Duran Duran. Now we look for the discotheque.
Find it on Kissing Tigers' Pleasure of Resistance.
7. Mouse on Mars, "Mine Is in Yours"
This Mouse on Mars track is as poppy as deconstructed German techno gets. Like its title, the music is strangely sexy and creepy, incorporating slightly vocodered vocals and a seductive industrial thump. This isn't the first time a song has replicated the sound of robot sex, but it is the hottest.
Find it on Mouse on Mars' Radical Connector.
The Worst
The Postal Service, "Against All Odds"
Twenty years later, the Postal Service has reduced Phil Collins' golden guilty pleasure into soulless, featherweight glitch-pop and provided the final proof that Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard has graduated from "earnest" to "complete whiny bitch."
Find it on the Wicker Park film soundtrack.
WWeek 2015