Oui Oui

We love JUSTICE, we love that we got the chance to witness the genius duo at Studio B in Greenpoint for the FIXED party, and we still love that crazy Kanye lost the MTV Europe Award to them (refer to 11/03/06 post). We've been tapping our feet at our desks during work hours itching to get our dance on. I might have gotten caught grooving in my cube. Here's a taste of what's to come from Paris.

Justice - D.A.N.C.E (via Gorilla Vs. Bear)

Bex appeal

Sigh. Still in love. Last week, Fluxblog posted an MP3 of the aformentioned awesome-fest that is the new SEB single. Enjoy.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - "Catch You"

Holy Hail join Kanine!

Yes, it's been a week since we last posted. But there's also a pile of dirty laundry on our floor and 5000 emails in our inbox so, you know.

We first caught Holy Hail at Club Modular a few months back (perhaps opening for Klaxons, our memory evades us at the moment), and they blew us away with their post-punk dance party epic good vibes. Today, our favorite indie record label, Kanine, posted this on their myspace:

NEW SIGNING ALERT! So who needs guitars anyway? Make this our third signing where the guitar guitar, not the bass guitar, is well, less than prominent if existant. Read what you want into that, but technically, it's still the year of the dog and we're still partying! And here to keep it going, meet Holy Hail! We'll be releasing a VINYL single this spring - and all the tracks will be available for digital download.

HOT!

Here's an MP3 to tide you guys over until Kanine releases the good shit:

Holy Hail - "Dig My Grave With the Songs I've Sung"

Photo: Margo Silver for Holy Hail

Blood Red Shoes

Blood Red Shoes: one of those bands that spent like a year on our "MUST LISTEN TO NOW!" list, only to be feverently worshipped about six months after everyone else. They're forn Brighton, UK, they're a two-piece, they sound like Hole with hi-hats--we mean truly, what is there not to love? That's right, NOTHING. They first piqued our interest when they toured the UK with Metric (we know, we wish we had been there too) and they've been on heavy, heavy rotation ever since their single "You Bring Me Down" came to our iTunes via some random blog or other. OMG, here it is!

Blood Red Shoes - "You Bring Me Down"

And the video for BRS' current single, "ADHD":



Don't thank us.

Links:
BRS' official Web site
myspace.com/bloodredshoes
image by Dark Daze

Ruby Ruby Ruby Ruby

Oh man, Kaiser Chiefs. We don't care what people say, Employment was/is the fucking shit. Yes, it was basically Madness, but when Madness aren't around to be Madness anymore, what can you do? We also love the fact that they owned up to the fact of being old as fuck (read: 30's) and basically ate the world when everyone said they wouldn't amount to anything after the demise of their previous band. And really, who doesn't love an underdog?

But this video man.



We mean, we genuinely enjoy the new single, "Ruby" (out 2/19 in the U.K., out never in America because we just don't do that sort of thing), even though it does get a bit repetitive at times. We suppose that's kind of the point--and who are we to debate the friggin' point. That said, I dunno... little people building a city around the band performing? Really? Did they at least like, focus-group it or something? "Ruby" is catchy, yeah, but far from the best song on the album (brilliantly entitled Yours Truly, Angry Mob). If "Everybody's Average Nowadays" (we think that's what it's called) isn't THE feel-good hit of summer 2007, then someone didn't turn in their marketing plan or something. You heard it here first!

Do you like harpsichords?

If you haven’t heard about Bat For Lashes yet, oh just you wait! There is a lot of buzz to come from this Brighton import. Bat for Lashes aka Natasha Khan and co. remind me of a mix of Cat Power meets Björk with the sweetness of On!Air!Library! Fur & Gold (Echo) was released this past September featuring an abundance of tracks that leave you feeling haunted.

Natasha Khan

Download "The Wizard" here. (Pitchfork)

Sophie Ellis Bextor - Catch You

Yes! The strong-jawed one is back! We totally thought everyone had forgotten about poor Sophie Ellis-Bextor after the criminally overlooked pop epic that was Read My Lips in 2002 (never released Stateside we believe), and her second album hardly made a blip on anybody's radar. BUT SHE IS BACK.



The brilliance which you have just witnessed is "Catch You", SEB's new U.K. single. We know, OMG. The hair! The dress! Venice! So gay and awesome.

Though it's no "Murder on the Dancefloor".

Kind of makes you go back to the glory days of reading about Theaudience in Smash Hits... sigh.

Hadouken! vs. Bloc Party.

Unfortunately, the new Bloc Party album sounds like it'll be complete bullshit. To be completely frank, unless something brilliant happens, the whole Kele finally coming out just before the new album drops thing kind of hammered that last nail into the coffin.

Fortunately, DN faves and all-around geniuses Hadouken! have remixed the new 'Party single, "The Prayer", infusing it with their trademark grime-meets-rave beats and rapping over the whole lovely mess. BORE TO SCORE, READERS. Cold check it.

Bloc Party - "The Prayer" (Hadouken! Remix)

For further proof that God indeed exists, Hadouken! revealed on their blog that their next remix will be for reigning Best Spazz-Punk Prog Disco Band Ever, ¡Forward, Russia!! It'll be like one big exclamation point orgy. I just can't.

Making Wednesdays a better place...

CALLING ALL PARTY PEOPLE IN NEW YORK CITY!

This year, the ladies of "We Are Your Friends" are looking to book live acts to perform for our party goers, in addition to booking great DJs. This Wednesday ( January 17th) marks the first live act to perform at W.A.Y.F--Best Fwends. Best Fwends (Moshi Moshi) hails from Texas, layering noise (i.e.: flutes, electronic toy sounds, etc) over danceable tracks, drums and vocals. Check out their Myspace page for streaming audio.

Best Fwends

Not to mention... hellloooo... JAMES FRIEDMAN & JACQUES RENAULT are going to get the crowd going crazy. Get ready for a workout this Wednesday!

Eglantine Gouzy - Boa

Here at DN, we've always been more or less voracious francophiles, from Serge & Jane to camembert and escargot. Quite a few months ago, MFR introduced us to Eglantine Gouzy, a sexy parisienne with a killer, desert-folk song called "Cowboy", that quickly became our chill-out summer jam. Fast-forward to the present day, Eglantine is signed to Osaka Records, released her first album, Boamaster, and has made an incredible video for her first single, "Boa".

Which is below.



Weird bleepy acoustic Franco-chirping? OUI, MES CHERS! No U.S. live dates confirmed as of now, but let's hope she gets over here soon. Sounds like just the remedy to this awful NYC weather, right?

Check out Eggie's (can we call her Eggie?) Myspace: myspace.com/eglantinegouzy

And here's an MP3: Eglantine Gouzy - "Cowboy"

Blow that speaker

Hadouken have made a video for "That Boy That Girl", their fucking awesome new single we can't stop talking about.



It would have made our Top 25 of 2006 if we hadn't gotten lazy and made it at top 10 instead. Shit happens. But it's amazing nonetheless. The little cut-out fluo band members have a certain Bis thing going on, don't you find?

Best of 2006

Yes, it's the moment you've all been waiting for, and only like two weeks late at that. The DISCONAP TOP 10 TRACKS OF 2006! I know, you can barely hear us for the trumpets wailing and children choirs singing the advent of Nirvana, and yet it is true. Feast your eyes, humble mortal, upon the list below, leave thy comments, and stay tuned in the new year for even more posts of admirable nature right here on this very page...

10. The Kooks "Naive"
The most unavoidable Britpop track this year, "Naive"'s instantly memorable chorus ("I know she knows/That I'm not fond of asking") became an anthem at all of their shows. Seriously, we're getting that shit tattooed across our chests. This is one of those songs someone is going to play at a party 15 years from now and we're all going to lose it.

9. TV On The Radio "Wolf Like Me"
We never thought that TVOTR could top the content of their debut EP, but this comes damn close. The pounding drums, the fuzzy, driving bassline, the the soulful gleam of Tunde Adebimpe's voice--all make for the most visceral songs of the band's repertoire.

8. Crystal Castles "Alice Practice"
This isn't even a real song, and it still made our list. That's how fucking good it is. Basically CC lead singer/crazy person Alice mic-checking over twitch-punk Casio beats, this happy accident (posted to the band's MySpace) attracted label attention and resulted in a sold-out 7". A brilliant slice of futuristic dance punk.

7. Born Ruffians "This Sentence Will Ruin/Save Your Life"
Kind of like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, only the Ruffians don't make us want to gouge our eyes out with dirty sticks. A bonus.

6. Amy Winehouse "Rehab"
A year ago, if you had told us British lounge songbird Amy Winehouse would have cracked our top 10, we would have laughed in your face, then made you eat your Norah Jones records and dumped your body in the nearest forest. However, that would have been before Ms. Winehouse won her indie cred badges by going completely nuts, drinking herself to oblivion and remedying the whole mess by chaining herself to her bedframe with nothing but a bucket and a Smokey Robinson record (presumably). The result, anyhow, was "Rehab", a bigger "fuck you" to social respectability than Pete Doherty could ever muster (and better than anything Babyshambles could ever commit to CD). What a waster, but what a talent, also.

5. Morrissey "The Youngest Was the Most Loved"
Morrissey was a bit of a cock this year, what with bribing festival audiences to purchase his singles via text message and refusing to tour Canada because of some fucking seals. That said, his antics almost overshadowed the fact that this song is really, really, really fucking good. We forget that only this man could get an Italian boy's choir to chant the refrain "there is no such/thing in life as normal" and make it utterly meaningful.

4. Grizzly Bear "Knife"
Remember the gay pagan wedding in Wet Hot American Summer? Imagine if Otis Redding had been the minister, Joanna Newsome the ringbearer, and Stephen Malkmus the best man. That's the basic idea here.

3. Nelly Furtado "Maneater"
"Comeback" doesn't even BEGIN to describe this woman. From world-music snoozefest to glammed-up pop vixen, courtesy of God (a.k.a. Timbaland), Nelly Furtado's transformation was this year's most welcome surprise, and "Maneater" was the golden highlight.

2. Peter Bjorn and John "Young Folks"
We were sad when Victoria Bergman, the boy-voiced Swedish bombshell from the Concretes, called her former band quits, but if it was a necessary decision in order to lend her vocal chops to this perfect nordic pop anthem, then so be it. Singlehandedly making whistling and bongos cool, "Young Folks" climbed to the top of our iTunes 25 Most Played playlist effortlessly.

1. CSS "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above"
Dry humping your eardrums from here to Sao Paulo, 2006 was the year CSS asserted their reign as Queens (and King) of the disco revolution, and "LMLALTDFA" was their unrivaled anthem. Catching your ear from the first trembling theremin, "DFA" gobbled up every dance floor in the universe like a giant rave kid popping E, and in a year where basically all we did was dance, what more could we possibly ask for? The best song of 2006 by a longshot.