Hot Chip: just can't get enoughpick

U.K. dance commanders keep the floor moving with big beats and top tunes

By Scott T. Sterling, Metromix

April 9, 2008

Hot Chip: just can't get enough
Alexis Taylor (L) and Hot Chip just want you to dance (Credit: Bevis Martin/Charlie Youle)
For those who have yet to see “101,” the 1989 Depeche Mode tour documentary, it's a revelation. Four eyeliner-wearing Brits in bondage gear playing melodic industrial pop tunes somehow became one of the biggest U.S. concert draws by the end of the big ’80s, and famed documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker captured the moment perfectly. The film ends with the band playing a sold-out show at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl, and it’s hard to imagine a synth-pop band ascending to such heights in the current musical climate. Unless that band is Hot Chip.

In the span of just two albums, the British quintet have ridden rhythm-intensive pop to international stardom, and their reputation for stellar live shows finds them playing in front of sold-out audiences regularly. A 2007 show at the Fonda had the building literally shaking from the 1200 pairs of dancing feet stomping along to their analog beats.

On their third album, “Made in the Dark,” Hot Chip crank the disco machine up to 11 and occasionally forgo poppier leanings to get their inner rock star on. Songs such as calypso-flavored live favorite “One Pure Thought” open with big guitar riffs before succumbing to the beats. “Shake a Fist” is a menacing groove that comes to a screeching halt to introduce a cheeky sound-effects rhythm war before subtly returning to the original tune. “Ready for the Floor” is classic Hot Chip, a chirpy, high-pitched skip-pop track unafraid to show off the group’s Erasure and OMD cassette collection. Singer Alexis Taylor even has a couple of Billy Joel moments on the melancholy title track and on “Whistle for Will,” which finds him crooning over sparse piano chords.

Of course, the band had to cancel a special show at the El Rey slated around the album's release due to illness—but the boys are on the mend and ready to rock L.A. twice before the month is over. First they're part of the sonic orgy that is Coachella on Saturday, April 26.  To make up for the El Rey date, Hot Chip will also headline a special show at the Mayan on Monday, April 28.

You’ll want to see them now before they follow in Depeche Mode’s footsteps and start rocking arenas. History has a way of repeating itself like that.

Scott T. Sterling is Music editor for Metromix Los Angeles.

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