We were going to Photoshop the members of Hot Chip's heads onto some Rolex watches for this post

...but quickly realized we couldn't be bothered. Instead, here is a fairly recent press shot featuring the majesty of Joe Goddard's ginger beard:



Sigh.

The faithful readers of this blog (all five of you) should know by now that we don't like Hot Chip: we fucking adore them. It's of our humble popinion (that was a typo but we are SO keeping it) that they are currently the Best Pop Band in the World, and we could go on and on and on about how happy it makes us that five not-so-easy-on-the-eyes laptop geeks from England that literally sound like '60s stop-motion cartoon Davey and Goliath can make dance music that tops the charts--it literally makes us believe, for the length of an album, that we're not all going to slowly die in a horrible post-apocalyptic wasteland due to global warming. There are people who don't like Hot Chip's new record Made In The Dark, and to those people we say: fuck you in the asshole.

Yesterday we came across Hot Chip doing a cover of Wiley's current amazing "crossover" (read: it was made by a black man but white people like it) hit "My Rolex" the band recorded for Jo Whiley's BBC Live Lounge program, and it is obviously the most brilliant thing we're ever heard in our entire lives, the best bit being at 2:37 when Joe starts going "Jo Whiley's a party girl and she knows it" which is exactly the so-uncool-it's-amazing attitude towards pop music and culture that make Hot Chip the best. We know the song has been out for ages (i.e. like a week, literally eons in Internet Time) but here/now it is if you missed it:

Hot Chip - My Rolex (Live at BBC Live Lounge) (YSI)

Hot Chip - My Rolex (Live at BBC Live Lounge) (zShare)

Sigh... Jose Gonzalez

Our love for this man cannot be measured in mere words. His new album is categorically both "amazing" and "best ever", and you hsould buy it now. Jose recently did a podcast for AOL's "The Interface", and here he is covering "Teardrop" by Massive Attack (unfortunately sans singing fetus, are we right).




Do you love it? We love it.

Oh Darren

Remember when we said Darren Hayes couldn't get any gayer?



We were wrong.

So the new Lil' Chris video is out then

...and it's a cover of Jermain Stewart's "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off". This is possibly the first time a 17-year-old boy has said these words, even in song.



Coincidentally, this song is really, really good, much better than the original:



And this:



And this:



Whatever the hell that was. So anyway, Lil' Chris is back on top. Drinks all 'round, etc.

An urgent plea to the pop star population to stop with the Rihanna covers

We love Rihanna, and we love Mandy Moore, but the two just don't mix. Case in point:



Why. People need to stop doing "moody" covers of this fucking song, nothing will ever be as good as the original, OBVIOUSLY.

Let's hear it for the old school.

See Calvin, this is how to do an alternative version of your hit single :(

This is a post celebrating the immensely old news that the almighty Dragonette have covered "The Girls" by Calvin Harris and have called it "The Boys" (normally we are totally against changing gender roles when covering pop songs, but we must say, this is a stroke of utter genius). The cover sounds great and has totally restored our faith in "The Girls" after the 2007 Calvin Harris Acoustic Guitar Fiasco we reported on yesterday. It's fresh and awesome and Dragonette are the best female-fronted pop band out there right now--oh yes, and here's the song.

Dragonette - "The Boys (Calvin Harris Cover)"

Amazing.

More proof that "Umbrella" is the new "Hey Ya"/"Crazy In Love"/"My Love" etc etc

This is a man named Scott Simons.



He is one of many people to have recently covered this year's R&B/Hip Hop Crossover Hit "Umbrella" by Rihanna*. While being quite "easy on the eyes", Scott is not an Amazing Pop Artist, therefore his version of "Umbrella", while having good intentions at heart, is approximately 34 times inferior to the original. We suppose it's cool to give it a listen for curiosity's sake.

Scott Simons - "Umbrella" (Rihanna* Cover) [stream via Myspace]

PS: Someone get Keane and/or The Feeling and/or The Fray on the phone, please.

*Why did we even say that? Everyone knows it's Rihanna.