Monday, October 13, 2008

Sex-fueled dance rock mix

Like the fortune cookie game where each prophecy is easily appended with "in bed," it isn't hard to find sexual subtext in rock music. For some of these songs the references are glaringly obvious while others are open to interpretation, as always. But most have an undeniably danceable backbone- the first step to having fun whether you are "dancing with yourself,*" dancing with a partner, or simply need some party music.

Between the brothers of The Jesus and Mary Chain playing and singing about a blow job from a girl's perspective and Le Tigre asking for "more, more, more" (while still keeping their feminist lenses firmly on their faces), there is a little something for everybody on this mix.

Download the first 10 tracks here.
And the last 10 tracks here.

Track listing and notes:
  1. MGMT- "Electric Feel"
  2. !!!- "Must Be the Moon" Live, these guys and girl exude sexual energy. I learned some new pelvic thrust dance moves from Nic at his Pitchfork performance this year.
  3. Fischerspooner- "Just Let Go"
  4. Enon- "Disposable Parts" Sung from the voice of a girl who will take what she wants from you but won't give you a piece of her never sounded so dance-y. Toko Yasuda sings like she knows you don't need a partner in order to be lasciviously awesome.
  5. Oxford Collapse- "For the Winter Coats" All the verses speed up just to slow down for the pleading chorus. Favorite verse lyric: "You got so excited for the coming of cold/that you blew your load on your winter coat."
  6. Violent Femmes- "36-24-36" Discovered outside the Oriental Theater in Milwaukee by The Pretenders, the Femmes' Gordon Gano sings about ideally proportioned woman over a suggestive upright bass line.
  7. Spank Rock- "Bump" Rhymes as dirty as blunt weed are layered over a beat and cowbell reminiscent of War's "Lowrider."
  8. The Jesus and Mary Chain- "Just Like Honey" JMC slow it down here with airy vocals and fuzzy guitars that hardly sound like they were produced in 1984.
  9. Interpol- "Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down" Is Stella a prostitute? A beautiful woman who can detach sex from emotion, causing much pain to the narrator? Just a pretty name to put in a song?
  10. Daft Punk- "Digital Love" If Johnny 5 and R2D2 ever got down to business, this is what it would sound like.
  11. Le Tigre- "Eau D'Bedroom Dancing" The softer side of Le Tigre.
  12. TV on the Radio- "Wolf like Me" Unabashed and animalistic. Two consenting, one with a powerful lustiness.
  13. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah- "Satan Said Dance" As with the Bloc Party's "Halo,"this is also the only song I could stand on CYHSY's latest.
  14. Charlotte Gainsbourg- "The Operation" The musical menage a trois of Gainsbourg, Air and Jarvis Cocker produces a hauntingly beautiful result.
  15. VHS or Beta- "Night on Fire"
  16. Bloc Party- "Halo"
  17. Pretty Girls Make Graves - "This is Our Emergency" Creation and inspiration can be sexy as something outside of yourself, but especially when shared and felt with others.
  18. CSS- "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above" For super-duper scene points, look up Spank Rock's remix of this song.
  19. Death From Above 1979- "Sexy Results" Sebastian Grainger's solo project and MSTRKRFT sound nothing like DFA 1979, suggesting the lightning in a bottle that was the chemistry of DFA 1979.
  20. MGMT- "Electric Feel (JUSTICE Remix)"
* Billy Idol is either a complete liar or has a good sense of humor for denying that "Dancing With Myself" isn't about what everybody knows it is.

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