You've a Right to be Confused

Hot Club de Paris - I Wasn't Being Heartless When I Said Your Favourite Song Lacked Heart

I've been a total hermit lately. A boring old man. More excited about putting compact florescent in my light fixtures than anything else. But fuck that. It's summer. The weather is perfect. There's some money in my pocket. The Celtics posted the most uplifting victory I've ever seen last night. And there's a new Hot Club de Paris record dropping next week.

And here we have one of their songs. It's got everything you want: a circular, sharp guitar line, a hum in the background like the final wind from an electric bagpipe, a bass line that hops from tree to tree, and the dry snap of a tight snare. They're one of the tightest three-pieces going right now, modernizing the angular mid-90s sound of bands like cap'n jazz and adding british school boy charm to the mix. It's perfect.

My favorite part about all this is that they're so obsessed with mid-90s midwestern emo that they went to Chicago to record. As a fan of that stuff myself, I really appreciate that level of commitment.

The whole record is excellent. I like it even better than their first one, 2006's Drop Til it Pops. This new one, Live at Dead Lake, picks up where they left of, smoothing off some of the rough edges and bringing some more competent songwriting to the table. There's still plenty of scrap and fight in them though. I'm not sure of its american availability, but it's out next week in the UK from our good friends at Moshi Moshi. Highly recommended.