Friday: Two different ways of singing about love, sex.

There are two bands I've been thinking about this week: Fictionist, playing here in town at Lambert's next week, and Hot Chip, who I'm going to go see in San Francisco this April.

Have a listen to this Fictionist video below, and tell me it's fitting for the weather we've been having lately. (And by "weather," I mean "ceaseless Seattle-like drizzle.")

Fictionist is a piano-rich rock outfit out of Salt Lake, and I heard about them through my friend Cody. While this song is rainy day music indeed, their newer stuff is more drum-forward, more rock.  A little more "Wilco," in style if not in lyric.  Cue up "Human Wings" on their MySpace page to see what I'm talking about.

In all fairness, and this is a subjective point, the content of the songs themselves may be a touch heart-on-the-sleeve for me. But that probably has more to do with the fact that the love song crooners I grew up with wore make-up (The Cure) and were a little difficult to take seriously.  Still, I dig Fictionist's sound, and if you do too, you might want to slate a portion of your evening next Friday to check them out.

Moving into slightly different territory, let's chat about our geeky synth favorites from across the pond: Hot Chip.



Their new album, One Life Stand, has received mostly positive reviews, and I have to say...I'm becoming a fan, too. Slightly reluctantly. Only because I'm a sucker for the dance party Hot Chip grooves, like "Ready for the Floor," and this album has bits of that too, but is deliberately more earnest. Sincere. "Hand Me Down Your Love," for example: A tune plenty head-bobbing, but also wistful.

My pal Andrew directed me to this articulate review of One Life Stand on FACT Magazine, which describes the album as "soul music without the sex." (Don't you completely love that.) Some might argue that Hot Chip has always been devoid of the sex, to which I say: au contraire.  The song "Sexual Chocolate" is probably ironic, but I don't care. I still think it's hot.

Anyway, if you're a Hot Chip fan: What do you think of the new album?