Hot Chip

Song Of The Day: Girl Ray – Give Me Your Love

Posted on by Paul in Song of the Day | Leave a comment

When Girl Ray first came onto the scene back in 2017, they caught my attention with the jangly, twee sounds of their debut, the cleverly named Earl Grey. When they returned a couple of years later with Girl, their sound switched to a much more overtly “pop” sound – an unexpected but welcome turn of events. It’s always great to see a band branch out and experiment with different sounds and Girl Ray managed to do so while still sounding very much like themselves. And now the London based trio is back with a new single which may be their best offering yet.

Produced by members of Hot Chip, “Give Me Your Love” is eight minutes of pure joy that seems tailor made for the dance floor. That it comes along with a Midsommar-inspired video that culminates in a dance party and romance instead of all the murder found in the original source material is just the icing on the cake. Check it out below.

Lollapalooza Day 1 Review: Hey Marseilles, Hot Chip, Smith Westerns

Posted on by Celeste in Everything | Leave a comment

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Celeste went to Lollapalooza the past weekend, here is her take on the annual Chicago festival.

Winner of Friday Lollapalooza: Hey Marseilles
I only knew about this small band who was playing on the tucked away BMI stage because I have a friend who is local to the Seattle area where the band hails from and she told me I had to go see them. It’s hard not to love a band full of tall, good looking men holding an assortment of string and wind instruments. Songs abounded with the sound of the mandolin, guitar, viola, trumpets and accordion. There was also hand clapping. Even the half of the crowd who had obviously just come early to catch chance the rapper who was performing next on the stage were enjoying themselves. That’s a true testament to how much fun these guys are.

Most disappointing act of Friday Lollapalooza: New Order
They weren’t actually that bad. I just passed the Queens of the Stone Age stage while on my way to New Order and, much like restaurant order regret, spent the entire time wondering if everyone at the other stage was having a tastier time.

Loudest act of Friday Lollapalooza: Smith Westerns
I literally could not hear anything for the next thirty minutes.

Best local act of Friday Lollapalooza: Smith Westerns
It was worth it not to be able to hear anything for the next thirty minutes.

This local-Chicago-band-made-good apparently used to play really sloppy shows – their act was also their rehearsal. The band has since grown out of the practice, and they sounded much cleaner and more professional at this Lolla fest. While the Chicago hip-hop community tends to have a cohesive Chicago feel to them (I’d say we’re known for our witty rappers – Lupe Fiasco, Chance the Rapper, Kanye) the Chicago indie-rock community doesn’t seem to have to have any kind of style associated with them – these guys almost have a southern twang alt-country thing going on and it works for them.

Most fun act of Friday Lollapalooza: Hot Chip
Every time I’ve seen Hot Chip it’s been by accident and every time they’ve blown me away. Last year at Pitchfork and then again this year at Lolla – they’re just a great festival band. Their set is just an hour of pure unadulterated good old fashioned fun. Halley and I have decided that the greatest compliment you can give someone is that when you’re with them you have zero fomo. I have zero fomo when I’m watching Hot Chip. There’s literally nowhere else I’d rather be.

Most talented act of Friday Lollapalooza: Jessie Ware
Sure there might have been better dancing, better light shows, more sing-alongs and so on and so forth at other stages, but for pure talent, Jessie ware wins.

Retro Song of the Day: Hot Chip – Over and Over

Posted on by halley in Song of the Day | Leave a comment

I am easily infatuated with songs that either 1) have a great beat or 2) have catchy lyrics… so when the two come together – game over – I will loop that four-to-five minute track endlessly through my day for weeks on end. The last song I found to possess this combination is Hot Chip’s Over and Over. The song starts with chimes, progresses to… cowbell and claps? Then brings in the synth. Basically, it’s already fulfilled criterion 1 within the first twenty seconds. When lyrics begin around the :50 mark the song only gets better. Key lines include:

“Laid back, Laid back, Laid back/We’ll give you play back”
And
“Over and over and over and over and over/Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal/The joy or repetition really is in you.”

Can I tell you what exactly it means? No. Can I tell you I love it? Absolutely.

Pitchfork Music Festival Review: Cults, Youth Lagoon, Nicolas Jaar, Hot Chip, July 14, Chicago

Posted on by Ricky in Concerts | Leave a comment

How to describe Pitchfork? By far one of my favorite festivals in Chi-town, I’ve heard it described as ‘Lollapalooza for hipsters’ and ‘the poor man’s Lollapalooza’, but it’s more than just an off-shoot: Pitchfork has an ethos all its own. This year’s Pitchfork ethos can be summed up with the following phrases: mud pits, ribbon dancing and jammin’ in a poncho. It might have rained in Chicago on Saturday, but in Union Park Mother Nature was just giving the good Pitchfork attendees more props to use whilst dancing their feelings.

The first act that I caught was Cults on the green stage. When Halley saw Cults, she summed it up as “essentially a stage full of hair” which is not untrue. Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion both have beautiful brunette locks that take up more space onstage than you would think possible. They put on a decent show, playing “Go Outside” and “Abducted”, two of my favorites from them, but I thought they could’ve done more to get the crowd excited, and I ended up drifting over to the blue stage for Youth Lagoon when they came on about a half hour later.

I didn’t know most of the bands who were playing at Pitchfork on Saturday (the only reason I ended up going was because my friend won tickets – thanks Amber!), but I youtubed around for most of the bands, and I really took a fancy to Youth Lagoon. Trevor Powers (the man behind Youth Lagoon) has a nice, mellow mix of experimental/pop/electronic/twee/Americana. Man definitely sings straight through his nose, but while in some cases that can make a body want to punch someone in the face, in his case it fit perfectly with his sound. I approve Youth Lagoon – you may continue.

I stuck around at the blue stage for American/Chilean, organic/minimalist electronic artist Nicolas Jaar. I had looked him up beforehand and was intrigued, thinking I would at least stick around for a little bit, was further intrigued when he appeared onstage in a button-up shirt and a sweater in the 90 degree and humid as-all-get-out weather, and was determined to stay when a man with a saxophone walked onstage. Five minutes later I was questioning that decision as we were still listening to the “experimental noise” intro, but five minutes after that when the band dropped their beat I was totally sold. Although their set was only 25 minutes or so because of technical problems it was probably my favorite of the fest.

At this point I could say that I made my way over to the Red stage for Hot Chip but that would be a lie. At this point what I actually did was meander over to the vegan-gluten-free-dairy-free food vendors and consume kettle corn, lemonade, a vegan reuben (which the man next to me was nice enough to point out looked like it was constructed from glue and newspaper – thank you sir!), and dairy-free chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream – all of which was surprisingly (especially in the case of the last two) delicious.

I then made my way over to the Red Stage. While Jaar might have had my favorite set of the day, Hot Chip definitely had my favorite patrons. Hot Chip is one of those bands that I have in my itunes only because my college roommate transferred all of her artists from A to J into my computer. Honestly I don’t love their recorded work, but live they were lovely – catchy and altogether endearing, and the crowd really responded to that. Highlights included three guys tying together their ponchos and jump-roping to the beat as well as a 20 foot wide, 20 foot long, 1 foot deep mud pit containing a raging dance party. It’s not the most elegant way to sum it up, but really it was just an all around good time.

I decided to leave it there. Grimes and Godspeed You! Black Emperor finished off the night for others, but I wanted to end the night with that splendid image of mud, mustaches and manic-dance-parties before my bedtime hit and I got grumpy. So until next year Pitchfork!