Pop Rocks & Coke

Keywords: Pop, rock, uppers, dancing, sweet tooth (teeth?)
Use while: Jogging, aerobics, stairmaster, getting ready to go out on Friday night, cleaning your house super fast, having an impromptu dance party
For fans of: Bee Gees, ABBA, Cheap Trick, The Cars, Prince, B-52’s, Human League, Madonna, Johnny Hates Jazz, Technotronic, blink 182

1. “Mistress Mable" by the Fratellis, from "Here We Stand" --- It’s fun. It’s got a lovable, Cheap Trick-ish quality that makes you bounce. The lead singer told me they were the worst lyrics he’s ever written. I believe that. But words aren’t everything.
2. "Troublemaker," by Weezer, from "Weezer" --- Weezer got progressively worse over the course of its first five albums. Radically awesome '94 debut "Weezer" was era- defining; by 2005's "Make Believe," Rivers Cuomo's band seemed a release away from turning into the Goo Goo Dolls. This sixth album saves the band from that fate.
3. "I Just Want the Girl in the Blue Dress to Keep on Dancing," by Mike Doughty, from "Golden Delicious" --- What a brilliantly simple and wonderful song.
4. "Electric Feel," by MGMT, from "Oracular Spectacular" --- MGMT has a joke rock/space rock thing going on. But like obvious antecedents Ween and the Flaming Lips, MGMT is a pop band at heart. This song rips off Prince (or Rick James? Or Eddy Grant? Maybe all three.). It’s both blue-eyed funk and a lo-fi disco groove. Fun fact: U2 and Dave Matthews producer Steve Lillywhite handpicked the band for a six-figure, four-record deal with Columbia the summer they graduated from college.
5. “A-Punk” and...
6. “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” by Vampire Weekend, from "Vampire Weekend --- Don't blame Vampire Weekend for what it can't control. New York hipsters and bloggers have preposterously puffed up the Columbia University quartet. Granted, Afro-pop/indie rock is an odd choice for a guy with Paul Simon's voice - but hey, that's how Ezra Koenig sings. None of this changes the fact that VW's debut hits you like a brick made out of sunshine, rainbows and puppies. Well, puppies that love "Graceland," mid-period Talking Heads and British Invasion harpsichords.
7. “The Grey Estates,” by Wolf Parade, from “At Mount Zoomer” --- As a writer I should probably not use the phrase “contagiously catchy,” but seeing as how I just did...
8. “I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance,” by Black Kids, from “Partie Traumatic” --- Dance! Dance! Dance! You thought bands commanded you to get on the floor before, but nobody, not even Black Kids-predecessors New Order, Scissor Sisters, or the Go! Team is as bossy as this Florida quintet. If the songs didn't distractingly demand that you shake your booty, the '80s redux shtick would get old. But no time for that. Dance! Dance! Dance!
9. “Move,” by CSS, from “Donkey” --- People mock ’80s dance pop but, well, okay, it’s really mockable. But I’m still really glad modern bands are stealing stuff from the Pet Shop Boys, Bananarama and “Rockit.”
10. “Paper Planes,” by M.I.A., from “Kala” --- M.I.A. is pretty awesome but not as awesome as “Slumdog Millionaire,” which is way awesome. Maybe this song is too heavy for this mix, but it was too damn good to ignore.
11. “Sex on Fire” and...
12. “Use Somebody,” by Kings of Leon, from “Only By the Night” --- It's not called arena rock because it's played in arenas. It's called arena rock because it's got a blend of majesty, bluster and universal appeal capable of enthralling crowds of thousands. These are KoL's two brilliant arena rock anthems from "Only by the Night.” "Sex on Fire" is more typical of KoL. It's weird, arty garage rock, but it’s also big and euphoric. And once you dig it, once you see that arena rock isn’t all Kansas or Styx, the song becomes a gateway drug into their old stuff. "Use Somebody" is corny and campy, but it’s the awesome crescendo every arena act needs. It's their "With or Without You," their "The One I Love," their "Yellow."
13. "Wishing Well," by Airborne Toxic Event, from "The Airbourne Toxic Event" --- I know almost nothing about this band and I’m trying to keep it that way. I have a suspicion they’re a major label band being forced down the throat of every tween in every Hot Topic across America. But this song... God am I nuts? This is my 2008 “Thrash Unreal" (see my 2007 mix for more info on "Thrash Unreal").
14. "Spaceman," by the Killers, off "Day & Age" --- Over three albums, Las Vegas' Killers have chronicled their hometown's evolving ethos. "Hot Fuss" was Sinatra's kingdom of pop built on blood. "Sam's Town" was Sin City's seedy '70s and '80s with raw songs about trailer park reality in the shadows of a glitzy, decaying strip. "Day & Age” is the bigger, more showy, almost Disneyfied metropolis. Sadly for the Killers, that’s the least interesting Vegas. But Brandon Flowers is talented and with Vegas’ stygian legacy winning out in the new millennium I think album four could be gold.
15. "Better than This," by Keane, from "Perfect Symmetry" --- Singer Tom Chaplin is after not just Bono but Bowie, Big Country's Stuart Adamson and Simple Minds' Jim Kerr. Tim Rice-Oxley frames the vocals in "Scary Monsters" and Thompson Twins-like keyboards. And Keane confirms what the Killers have told us for years: '80s pop is no joke.
16. "Tora, Tora, Tora," by Pretty & Nice, from "Get Young" --- This may be the most telling anecdote about modern rock ever: Pretty & Nice, a new Boston band with a seemingly bright future meets one of its idols, Built To Spill bassist Brett Nelson - a guy signed to a major label for 15 years with many storied records and tours under his belt - this summer buy having their van break down in Boise, Idaho and discovering he’s the manager of a Jiffy Lube. Not quite the days of old where making it meant snorting coke off a stripper's midriff at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go. Anyway, we’re back to the really bouncy stuff.
17. “Pot Kettle Black,” from Tilly & the Wall, "O" --- Lots of great rock 'n' roll depends on gimmicks: the Ramones, KISS, David Bowie. But if something's all gimmick, well, we all know how far Rockstar Supernova got from one lame, reality TV-driven gimmick. You might assume a band with a tap-dancer instead of a drummer would fall into the forgettable and lame category, but Tilly & the Wall rules.
18. “Listen To Your Body Tonight,” by Black Kids, from "Partie Traumatic" --- Okay, we’re back to the Black Kids. Why? Because you kids used to love dancing. The Twist, the Watusi, the Mashed Potato. What happened? Rock became increasingly cynical and dancing was replaced with brooding and angst. But the urge to dance can't be extinguished. And, as any Freudian will tell you, suppressed urges sooner or later bubble up. Last year the hipster id manifested itself with “Partie Traumatic.” Dance! Dance! Dance!
19. "Cold Shoulder” and...
20. "Best for Last," by Adele, from "19" --- Adele’s amazing. Strikingly, staggeringly amazing. She made this album at 19. Wrote all the song herself, played a lot of the guitar, and that voice is like a supercharged Amy Winehouse - big without lapsing into that cliched “American Idol”/Mariah Carey histrionic octave jumping shit. Just listen to “Best For Last.” It sounds like Etta James dueting with jazz bassist Paul Chambers. But when I saw her live I realized the upright jazz bassist I was hearing on the album is all Adele. She did the song solo singing and thumping out this exact bass line on an acoustic bass guitar. Shit, man, it was fucking nuts.
21. "Kids," by MGMT, from "Oracular Spectacular" --- Thanks for listening. Now Dance! Dance! Dance!