Megan's Top 18 of 2008 - #7 - Hot Chip

My top ten has changed no less than a dozen times over the course of my trying to rank them. So at this particular moment in time, when the chips fell, Hot Chip landed at lucky number 7.

While their previous album The Warning helped them make a name for themselves, this one really catapulted them into the big time, and it's easy to see why. Made in the Dark is a dance-big beat-electro-folk-Prince loving-funkadelic triumph. It sizzles like steak on the grill in the middle of July, baby, and don't you forget it. For being a bunch of pale dudes from London, Hot Chip knows, and has perhaps always inherently known, how to get the kids to shake their asses. Never fails.

Some of Hot Chip's finest moments are to be found on Made in the Dark, including the first three romper stompers "Out At the Pictures", "Shake a Fist", and "Ready for the Floor." The most sublime moment for me comes at song #8, "One Pure Thought", the song that looking back on their 9:30 Club show this year most gave me the chills. O, that guitar, o those beats...slays me every time. And then there's "Hold On", that devilish imp of a song with some of the best lyrics of the year ("I'm only going to heaven/if it feels like hell/I'm only going to heaven/if it tastes like caramel"). Love it, love them. End of story.

Live Review: Hot Chip @ 9:30 Club, October 8

I'm pretty sure I could see Hot Chip live every night for an entire month without getting bored. That might not seem like much of a declaration, but coming from a rather fickle Gemini notorious for bouts of boredom it's quite a statement. After all, it's not often that I'm willing to make the rush hour drive to DC during the middle of the week, but for Hot Chip the drive is but a small price to pay. My third Hot Chip show (and second at the 9:30 Club) thus far was as breathtaking as the first, as exciting as the second, and quite possibly the best of the three.

Every Hot Chip show I've had the pleasure of attending, be it in the friendly confines of the 9:30 or the blazing heat of the California desert, has had the same feel; the pre-show air has been crackling with excitement, alive with anticipation. Not only that, but people seem genuinely happy at Hot Chip events. I know I'm happy to see them, and it's nice to feel like others share that joy.

The stage configuration proved to be a complete opposite to my first Hot Chip show at the club. Instead of that initial show's lineup of Hot Chip-ians in a row, with their respective Casios and other electronic aides in front of them, tonight as at Coachella the band was set up in a more standard format, that is to say with plenty of instruments and plenty of room to bound and dance all over the stage.

In terms of the show itself, well, I might be blinded by my love of Hot Chip here but I don't think it possible for them to have been much better than they were. From the ferocity of the opening "One Pure Thought" to the cheekily introduced ("this is one some people might know") crowd favorite "Over & Over" to the fantastic end mashup of the Sinead O'Connor smash "Nothing Compares 2 U" with the band's own slow jam "In the Privacy of Our Love" the band romped their way through it all with aplomb and sizzle. Throw in a wicked new track (possibly called "Artifacts") and the inclusion of one of my all-time favorites "Down With Prince" and you've got all the ingredients you might need for a perfect night on the dancefloor. And I'm sure I've said it before, but really, any band that uses the lyric "I'm only going to Heaven if it feels like Hell/I'm only going to Heaven if it tastes like caramel" is a winner. I left the 9:30 safe in the knowledge that Hot Chip had just put on one of my favorite sets of the year.

I'd be willing to go out on a limb and call Hot Chip one of the best damn live bands on the planet right about now. Sure, they do a little more knob-twiddling than the other bands that get my blood pumping, but I'm hard-pressed to think of a band that has the sheer delight factor that Hot Chip does. If it's a smile your face is in need of, Hot Chip might just be the perfect prescription.

[photo by Megan Petty]

Album Review: Hot Chip – Made in the Dark

It fell into my lap, the cover robin’s egg blue with a raised, bronze-colored design reminiscent of some kind of relic from the Mayans, Aztecs, or Incas. Holding it, I felt my breath quicken and my hands gripped tightly in anticipation. For what I was holding in my hands, friends, was a copy of the new Hot Chip album, Made in the Dark, follow-up to their breakout album The Warning, and it doesn’t get much more exciting than that. I’ve pretty much been waiting for this for ages. And oh, it was worth the wait.

Hot Chip is a band that doesn’t mess around. They like to get down to the business at hand, which in this instance is the creation and implementation of a killer dance album. My first impression is that the boys of Hot Chip spent their summer vacation buying every obscure, electro record from the early 1980s they could get their hands on, because Made in the Dark sounds straight outta 1983. And yet, it also sounds fresher than most releases you’re likely to hear all year. The manipulations of the retrotastic beats and bleeps combined with the textbook Hot Chip dual-vocal attack reconciles the old and new quite nicely, showing a further evolution of the sounds found on The Warning.

Somehow, Hot Chip managed to take everything good from their 80s inspiration without being bogged down by sounding too much like throwbacks. I kept listening for the throwaway songs, the filler, and they never showed up. From the opening intensity of “Out at the Pictures” to the end of the unexpectedly romantical slow jam “In the Privacy of Our Love,” it’s one great track after the next. How can you not love a song featuring the line “I’m only going to Heaven/if it feels like Hell,” as does “Hold On”? “Bendable Poseable” was a part of their set list during last year’s tour, and it will soon wriggle its way into your brain’s synapses, so catchy is this song. “Whistle for Will” is dedicated to Ezra Jack Keats and Will, and I find it impossible not to love a song inspired by one of my favorite authors from my childhood. Thirteen songs, thirteen little bits of superfragilisticelectrobeattacularness to enjoy over and over and over. Thank you, Hot Chip.

Take from it what you will; Hot Chip wants to party all the time, Hot Chip gets down tonight, Hot Chip loves to party like it’s 1999. But the general idea you should take away from this album is that Hot Chip can still break your legs and snap off your head, not to mention the whole making you dance your ass off thing. It might only be February, but I don’t think it’s too early to predict that Made in the Dark is going to end up on plenty of year-end lists when December rolls around. It’ll be on mine, that’s for damn sure.

Make sure your Tuesday includes a stop at your local record store, for all your Hot Chip needs.