Dance-Punk 2000: A Weekend Playlist

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At the turn of the millennium, as my twenties rounded the bend toward 30, I was looking for something new to listen to, something colorful, something catchy, something happening right now. Obligingly, a bunch of poseurs, geniuses, weirdos, and douchebags snorted up kilos of '80s sounds and sneezed them back out into various post-post-punk and nuevo-new-wave bands.

Some of those bands used their guitars to make people dance. As if the Red Hot Chili Peppers had never happened, these new dance-punk bands picked up the thread of post-punk dance music like Public Image Ltd., Gang of Four, and James Chance & the Contortions. The words “spiky” and “angular” became essential for any rock critic.

What did it all amount to? About the same as any half-underground, half-commercial scene: some fun nights out and some memorable songs. Here’s a solid hour of them (also compiled in a YouTube playlist and a Spotify playlist).

The Rapture - “House of Jealous Lovers” (2003)
This was the moment when everybody seemed to realize that something was happening, that all these dancey indie rockers were throbbing in unison. A deadly bass line, dub-deep production, and expertly deployed guitar shards make the irritating vocals (a common hazard in this subgenre) worth putting up with. My guess is that half of the bands on this list heard this single and started learning disco beats at their next practice.

LCD Soundsystem - “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House” (2005)
Smart aleck James Murphy turned down a job writing for Seinfeld when nobody knew what a big deal the show would be. Sucks for him, but he landed on his feet with his label/production house, DFA Records, and his own band, LCD Soundsystem, a big enough deal to garner multiple Grammy nominations and a massive “farewell” show at Madison Square Garden when they initially retired in 2011. “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House” is typically clever and propulsive, a fantasy of hosting a massive dance show in your living room. Both the house-show to-do list and the garagey synth riff show Murphy’s punk upbringing.

Klaxons - “Forgotten Works” (2007)
College kids start a rock band, name it after the air horns often heard at raves, make a joke about their style of music being called “new rave”, get swept up by the British press in the joke, then get dropped when the joke gets old. Only in Britain!

Le Tigre - “After Dark” (2004)
Riot Grrrl icon Kathleen Hanna, Johanna Fateman, and JD Samson had been exploring arty feminist punk dance territory for years before the hipsters caught on. So while some of their anti-corporate fans grumbled when Le Tigre signed to major label and recorded comparatively slicker stuff, it’s hard to begrudge them for demanding a piece of the action they helped create - especially when songs like this are so catchy.

Q and Not U - “This Are Flashes” (2002)
Another band that came out of the American DIY punk milieu - in this case, the DC post-hardcore scene nurtured by their label, Dischord Records - Q and Not U were also there half a step earlier than the club kids. Unlike a lot of dance-punk, “This Are Flashes” isn’t just one extended groove: it builds to an a cappella breakdown and then shifts rhythms to charge to the finish line.

Franz Ferdinand - “The Dark of the Matinee” (2004)
Their stated mission was to make music for girls to dance to. They had the high cheekbones and on-trend haircuts of male models. But Alex Kapranos is a way smarter lyricist, singer, and songwriter than he has to be, and musically, they’re far more Gang of Four than Duran Duran. One of my favorite bands of the decade.

Thunderbirds Are Now! - “198090” (2005)
Noise nerds from suburban Detroit apply their copious brains to sarcastic, well-constructed dance punk. Frontman Ryan Allen has gotten steadily more straightforward ever since, including the pseudo-FM-rock Friendly Foes and the cleverly named power pop project Ryan Allen and His Extra Arms. Good move. Weirdos playing straightforward genres is how all the best music is made.

New Young Pony Club - “Ice Cream” (2005)
A ridiculous, entertaining British troupe updates “I Know What Boys Like” for the MySpace age.

Hard-Fi - “Cash Machine” (2005)
These blokes are obviously talented and they have good taste: you can hear all kinds of good influences going on in this sophisticated self-production, from Blur to the Clash to dub. Why, then, did they choose such a, well… cheesy name for their band? Frontman Richard Archer told an interviewer he thought it was a term legendary reggae producer Lee “Scratch” Perry coined to describe his own sound. But Archer admitted that he couldn’t remember where he read that, and “may have dreamt it.” Whatever: he’s the one who’s recorded several good albums, sold millions of records and played with guys from the Clash, the Jam, and the Specials, while I’m up late sitting at my kitchen table writing about his band for a daily deal store on my decrepit laptop, so… good on you, Richard!

Liars - “Mr Your On Fire Mr” (2001)
From the art-damaged end of the Brooklyn scene came this four-piece, who briefly sounded like Gang of Four when nobody else did. Then they moved on to a concept album about witches, then some kind of drum-circle album, then God knows what else, I didn’t have the energy or patience to keep up with a band so much smarter than me.

Moving Units - “Going for Adds” (2004)
Moving Units were the exact opposite, indie journeymen for whom the new sound was just a vehicle for pop songs. What’s funny is, both approaches yielded equally good records!

Bloc Party - “She’s Hearing Voices” (2004)
Bloc Party were passing through on their way somewhere else, turning into a massive indie-arena-rock institution. But they didn’t always sound like Coldplay’s mildly cooler cousins!

CSS - “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death from Above” (2005)
These Brazilian hipsters took nothing seriously. Their band name stands for “cansei de ser sexy” - Portuguese for “I’m tired of being sexy.” Their frontlady, Lovefoxxx, wore tie-dyed bodysuits. And they hit the big time when this song (about another dance-punk band, Death From Above 1979, who I don’t like very much so I didn’t include them on this list) somehow turned up on the sitcom Ugly Betty. It was a weird time.

The Dead 60s - “Nationwide” (2005)
A band sounding too much like the Clash is usually no problem for me. But it was for these guys. While their self-titled debut album attracted attention for its convincing but enjoyable simulacra of Sandinista!, it also got them pigeonholed to the point that very few people heard their far better, more rock-sounding second album Time to Take Sides, and they broke up shortly thereafter. Too bad, I would’ve loved to hear more.

The Faint - “Worked Up So Sexual” (1999)
All us St. Louis kids knew about these guys, when they rolled up for a show at an anarchist community center, was that they were a band from Omaha. When they ripped through this ultra-catchy synth-sleaze number, it sent shockwaves through that dusty basement. New wave revival quickly got familiar, then overfamiliar, but it sounded pretty damn fresh in 1999.

Radio 4 - “Calling All Enthusiasts” (2002)
At first, these New Yorkers paired a capable enough Gang of Four/Clash sound with the lamest possible “protest” lyrics. Check this out: “I’m really sorry but we’ve gotta start resisting / It’s not a request, we really are insisting on this now.” IN YOUR FACE, ESTABLISHMENT! I hoped, in future records, that the lyrics would get better to match the music; sadly, the music got worse to match the lyrics.

LCD Soundsystem - “North American Scum” (2007)
In anybody else’s hands, it would be hard to take a successful and ultra-hip band complaining about how sometimes they meet mean people when they’re touring Europe. But James Murphy makes it funny and rousing with the same songwriting acumen that made LCD Soundsystem’s 2007 album Sound of Silver the masterpiece of this subgenre and one of the best albums of the 2000s.

The Rapture - “Get Myself Into It” (2006)
Look how little it took to turn the Rapture’s post-punk spikiness into pop friendliness (and I don’t mean that as an insult). It’s the same template as “House of Jealous Lovers”, but with a little more reverb, a couple of extra vocal hooks, and most of all, an earwormy horn riff - and you got yourself a new disco classic.

Get yourself into these past weekend playlists: