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)

ONE PURE THOUGHT

Hot Chip's newest release, Made in the Dark (Astralwerks/DFA) dropped in early February and we have been raving about it for months now. We would write about them everyday if we could to be honest.

Well, we've got a treat for you. Here's a remix of the track, "One Pure Thought" by Streetlab.

Check it out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hot Chip - One Pure Thought (Streetlab Mix) (mp3)

MADE IN THE DARK!

Photo credit : Bevis Martin and Charlie Youle

As you already know, we adore Hot Chip. Their latest album, Made in the Dark (Astralwerks) comes out on February 5th. What better way to snap out of your winter depression than to go out and shimmy to Hot Chip live. We plan on doing that this weekend and we advise it as the best medicine on the reals.

Check out their title track, 'Made in the Dark' - here!

HOT CHIP ON TOUR
February 2nd, Highline Ballroom, New York (SOLD OUT)
February 4th, El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles (SOLD OUT)
April 10th, Starlight Ballroom, Philadelphia
April 11th, 9:30 Club, Washington
April 12th, Terminal 5, New York
April 14th, Paradise, Boston
April 15th, Metroplis, Montreal
April 16th, Phoenix, Toronto
April 17th, Vic Theatre, Chicago
April 18th, First Avenue, Minneapolis
April 21st, Commodore, Vancouver
April 22nd, Showbox, Seattle
April 23rd, Crystal Ballroom, Portland
April 24th, The Fillmore, San Francisco

The pop gods have spoken

Here is a picture of the new Hot Chip record and a kettle we bought at Ikea:



After literally DAYS of harassing our mail"person" and viciously accusing them of grand theft, a nice-looking UPS man knocked on our door this afternoon and gave us our copy of Made In The Dark in exchange for our signature on his little computer-y thing. That, readers, is how the BUSINESS works.

Here is what we think of Made In The Dark:

1. It will inevitably be The Best Record Of 2008, unless Sophie or Kylie unexpectedly knocks one out of the park, which is highly unlikely at this stage of the "game".
2. The opening track, "Out At The Pictures", is great and makes us want to dance in a very bizarre fashion, but only after it drones on for the first minute: OBVIOUSLY THIS IS ART.
3. "Ready For The Floor" is still as good as "Since U Been Gone".
4. The packaging is also quite nice, which is good as we now live in a society where some fucking cardboard slapped together with some glue is the only reason to own a record. You can't tell in the picture but the artwork is EMBOSSED. LIKE A WEDDING INVITATION. We can only assume that Hot Chip want to marry us. We do, Hot Chip, we do.
5. They haven't taken that annoying spoken word part out of "Shake A Fist", but we suppose beggars can't be choosers, etc.

Overall score: 1,000,000%

Alright, so this is Hot Chip

And we are totally fucking obsessed with their new single. Yes, every blogger on Earth has been going on and on about "Ready for the Floor" ("IT'S AMAZING!" "IT SUCKS!" "IT WAS WRITTEN FOR KYLIE!" "IT'S ABOUT BATMAN!" etc etc) but the truth of the matter is blatant, and goes something like this:

1. "Ready for the Floor" is better than "Call the Shots"
2. "Ready for the Floor" is better than "My Dunks"
3. "Ready for the Floor" is better than "2 Hearts"
4. "Ready for the Floor" is better than "Bleeding Love"
5. "Ready for the Floor" is better than "Clean up Your Eyes" (but not by much)
6. "Ready for the Floor" is better than "Gimme More"
7. "Ready for the Floor" is better than "Bizzle Bizzle"
8. "Ready for the Floor" is better than "Sweaty"
9. "Ready for the Floor" is better than "About You Now"
10. "Ready for the Floor" is better than "Song 4 Mutya"

HOWEVER

1. "Ready for the Floor" is not better than "Catch You".

Here is the extended version of "Ready for the Floor", entitled "Ready for the Floor (Extended Version)".

Hot Chip - "Ready for the Floor (Extended Version)"

Thank God for Hot Chip.

God, not another Weird YouTube Rut...

Not again...

This one will be totally worth it though, because we're about to post the video for Hot Chip's super awesome and super gay new single, "Ready For the Floor".



IT'S ALL BATMAN REFERENCES. It's amazing and great and possibly the best song of the year (after "Call the Shots" and some of the Tracey Thorn singles). We love Hot Chip because like all great bands there's only one of them (when, let us not kid ourselves, there are about five Klaxons at the moment). They are one in a million, and kind of remind us of what the Scooby Gang would sound like if they were all men in their 30s and started an electro band.

Joe would be Scooby, obviously.

Sorry About The Really Short, Somewhat Meaningless Posts At The Moment...

...but life is kind of taking its own course right now. Last night we saw Hot Chip, and they killed it. We'd like to officially declare them the '00s answer to the Spice Girls.

Anyway, the real (REAL) reason of this post is to showcase the new Unklejam video, which is a bit Busta Rhymes if you ask us but who are we to complain. It's called "What Am I Fighting For?" and it's brilliant.



We really hope they're not one of those bands that major labels sign for all of 87 minutes because they think it's a good way to make loads of cash really quickly but then change their minds :(