Dangerous, Dirty, and Unfun

Regular readers of Dangerous, Dirty, and Unfun should, by now, be very intimately familiar with my taste in music. I’ve said many times in the past that I’m not ashamed of the music I listen to, and I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. But still, that doesn’t mean I’m closed off to new stuff! In the interest of growth, self-improvement, and exploration, I’ve been dipping my toe into some of the Pitchfork-approved indie-type bands that the cool kids are apparently listening to these days.

This isn’t like, an official blog project or anything, so don’t expect any updates or insights or anything like that. It’s just something I’m giving a try. I started off going through LCD Soundsystem’s first album, which everyone told me was like looking into the face of God, but I found to be kind of meh. Probably not my cup of tea. I also went through Passion Pit’s first album, Manners, which I liked much more. Passion Pit, for the unintiated, are from Cambridge, and are what Carles would describe as an indy bleepy bloop band. You’ll recognize their music from this Palm Pixi commercial, as well as a recent Radio Shack commercial which I can’t seem to find.

The song used in that Radio Shack commercial is called “Little Secrets,” and it inspired me to write this blog post you’re reading right now. Here’s the weird video for “Little Secrets”:

It’s a pretty catchy tune! You all know that I love a good falsetto. But listen to the music behind the words. What do you think of when you hear those bleeps and bloops? I pride myself on having my finger on the pulse of my readership, of being on the same wavelength, but I’ll forgive you if you didn’t, like me, immediately think “This sounds like the soundtrack to a Sonic the Hedgehog game.” I know not everyone was raised on Sega.

But still! It kinda sounds like a really well-produced level for Sonic 4! Now, the Sonic games always had good music. And Passion Pit is a relatively popular group. Does anyone else smell crossover appeal?

What I’m saying is, instead of going through all the trouble of developing new synth melodies, why doesn’t some enterprising young indie band just sample the eff out of one of those awesome Sonic songs? This sort of thing isn’t unprecedented. Go to Youtube and you can find all manner of dance remixes to Sonic the Hedgehog songs. Like this one:

That’s a hot track, no? Now imagine this: write up some kooky lyrics, spruce up the 16-bit music, slap on a strong backbeat, and you’ve got a pretty awesome indie song with Hill Top Zone as a base:

Now, this isn’t to diminish the kind of music that Passion Pit makes. I thought that album was pretty good! What I’m saying is, I think whatever person that wrote the Sonic soundtracks was a pretty good musician too, and in fact, she might have been ahead of her time. Someone ought to finish the job, and get some bumpin’ indie tracks out there.

All this said, I don’t think my little foray into indie hipster music will go very far. I remember listening to LCD Soundsystem and thinking “This sounds a bit like the White Stripes, but instead of face-melting guitar, it’s got a synthesizer.” So I talked to a pal of mine who was a fan and asked him why I shouldn’t just listen to the White Stripes in the first place. “Precision!” he said, which seemed to me to be a poor substitute for face-melting guitar. Then again, I was raised on Clapton, Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin. If you were ever wondering from whence I derive my musical philosophy, listen to the last two and a half minutes of the Hold Steady’s “Most People Are DJs.” And if you don’t get it after that, then I’m really not sure what to tell you.