#13: Dance Rock

Let's start with the catchy shit first, yeah? Then we can move on to the older stuff.

Number one is a reasonably new track, described to me as "reggae rock". Couldn't agree more. What I also agree with is the fact that Triple J played it the other day as my alarm and I recognised it immediately when Rach' played it in the car a few hours ago as a song that had been stuck in my head earlier that day. It's fucking catchy and I love it. And to think, I was going to hunt through my entire music collection (of nearly 9K songs) to hunt the thing down, and have it be a fruitless search. Contrary to Up Up Up, however, this song does belong in my collection. I'd say this is more dancy than reggae rock so I'd call it a hybrid. And I'd call it amazing. No, I don't suddenly like rock. No, I'm not suddenly about to move over to Mick Jagger. I just think that we should start respecting dancy and catchy tracks that are just totally awesome. I would go so far as to say that it deserves its own genre name. The next song fits right in, too:

This one is older. But not by much. I remember hunting this track down after December last year. Can't remember exactly when. But hey, they're from Ballarat and that's proof that Ballarat is so much better than my home town because this song is just as good. It ticks all my boxes. No mentioning the song title in the lyrics: tick. Upbeat, dancy beat combined with upbeat, dancy melody: tick. Two verses, two choruses: tick. Song evolves: tick. 3'16" length: OK, it's not perfect. But hell, a club remix wouldn't be too hard to sort out. I like it. And I also reckon it deserves a little more than "obscurity" from Australia, especially since they're a band called Gold Fields who come from the gold fields... wait, I SEE WHUT THEY DID THAR. Still, it's halfway rock and halfway dance and for some reason the two genres mesh really really well. And yes, I almost spelt "mesh" with an 'x'. "Mexh". Holy crap, I've invented a new word. And I wish I could invent songs like this, very similar example band:

Wait, it's wrong to call them an "example". These guys are the epitome of dancy rock. In fact, I'd say they almost pioneered it if I didn't know better. Alright, this wasn't exactly the best song to work with because it's more synth than guitar but my gods these guys are geniuses. (genii?) Apparently they're influenced by 80s disco. I can see that. Around 2'42" and onwards there's a few sounds and styles reminiscent of Vangelis (amazing pioneer) and that's probably one of the reasons I fell in love with this particular song. Also because the video features sports. And various sports. Not cricket though. I like cricket. And I like Cut Copy. Buy their albums. And enjoy your guide to dance rock, supplemented by this slightly more synthy but equally kickass band:

If you think that video is weird, you should see their stage show. If you think that video is cool, you should see their stage show. If you think that video is psychedelic, you should see their stage show. If you didn't like the video but still loved the song. you should see their stage show. If you hate this song, I challenge you to listen to Shempi and still claim you don't like them.