HORNS HORNS HORNS HORNS HORNS

Sorry about missing the end of last week; at the end of my ten-hour Thursday I found out I'd have to pull a twelve-hour Friday, so by the end of all that shit I really wasn't in the mood to do anything other than self-medicate and search out new music. Fortunately, I ended up coming up with something really, really fun.

Do Me Bad Things, "Move In Stereo (Liv Ulman On Drugs)" (Silent Running remix) - So that'd be my favorite indie-rock dance remix of the year*, probably. Really, I just have no idea what to do with Those Horns; having never heard the original, I don't know if they've been added (although Dom Passatino's typically excellent review of their album for Stylus makes me think they wouldn't be out-of-place), but it's hard to imagine this song working nearly as well without them what without all the immediate presence they inject into the track with their appearance in the suddenly-singalongable chorus. And the great thing is that I'm a thousand percent positive that that's just the first hook to grab me; I can already mentally hear this song coming up on the shuffle in the future and flooring me with the monstrous piano breakdown or the deleriously cut-up chorus vocals or etc. I suppose it's fair to write it off as yet another example of that particular kind of self-denying house music endemic to indie rock remixes, and I could probably guess where %99 of the right-thinking world would stand if asked to pick between this and the Phones remix of Bloc Party's "Banquet" (my favorite indie remix from 2004), but the hell with that; the job of an indie remix is to make a song fun to dance to and sing along with, and when I come across a remix that immediately makes me want to do both, well, here we are. (Click here to buy the "Move In Stereo" single from Replay Records)

*note that this doesn't include the Thin White Duke remix of the Killers' "Mr. Brightside", seeing as how the Killers are about as "indie" as Sofia fucking Coppola.

Sasha, "We Got The Love" (feat. Turbulence) - Meanwhile, this is probably going to end up being my favorite thing to come out of Jamaica this year; yes I'm aware of Bionic Ras and Tami Chin and as much of the oft-mentioned Stelfox column-fodder as I can find, but hell, who needs all that when you've got this belter of a digital lovers' rock track? It should really probably say something when even an avowed production supergeek like me can't get past the vocals (especially in light of all this track's effects-laden glory), but good god y'all, it really is quite a performance - apparently rising star Turbulence's howling delivery is the big draw here, but my neophyte ears are having a gloriously hard time dealing with Sasha's gospel-choir-of-one vocal stylings (and I'm sure it's ProTooled like you wouldn't believe, but oh shut up sometimes). I'd say it's a sure bet that this shows up on the eternally ongoing futurepop playlist I maintain on my iPod - even setting aside the fact that it just sounds like the Jetsons' take on dancehall, it's also exactly the kind of song to which a lot of those Girls Aloud/Sugababes/etc. confections aspire. (Click here to buy the "We Got The Love" single [which seems to be mislabeled as "Got To Love"] from All Access Entertainment. Also, the video for "We Got The Love" is available here - scroll down to "More Videos")

Elsewhere:

- If you somehow haven't heard the Arctic Monkeys yet, Headphonesex is your hookup yet again; aside from a thorough gig review and a grip of photos, you can also find a couple of mp3s including the quite-good "Wavin' Bye To The Train Or The Bus". Personally I find the Monkeys to be a little too Hot Hot Heat-y to make me buy into the category-five hype-storm surrounding them at the moment, but fuck, it's not like I didn't get every penny's worth of fun to be had out of Hot Hot Heat, either. And Hot Hot Heat damn sure never came up with a song half as awesome as "A Certain Romance", either.

- Also, fans of DFA insanity will want to make absolutely sure they head over to 20jazzfunkgreats to cop their remix of Black Dice's "Smiling Off". It straight-up gobsmacked me - seriously.

- Tonight is Cut Copy/Army Navy/Foreign Born at the Echo; I'll try to write up a rundown tomorrow, hopefully with pictures. Also, L.A. cheapskates take note - Gang of Four is playing a free show next Monday at Hollywood & Highland (!), and the previously-mentioned Colored Shadows has the free Monday residency all this month at Spaceland. I'm going to make an effort to go to the former and definitely going to make at least one date of the latter, and so should you.

- Finally, a quick hiya to all the new people finding their way over to the site. Yay for growth.