Friendly Fires started playing hardcore music at aged 14, yet they name Prince as one of their primary influences, so its no surprise that they are now strengthening a genre I like to refer to as punk-funk.

This song ‘On Board’ has been featured in commercials for Wii Fit, so you can now get your punk-funk on while exercising with your mii avatar.

Their debut full-length album was released in September, 2008. Its going for $15 on Amazon. I’m about to buy it.

Ratatat is baaaaaaaaaack.

I love their sound. They’re almost like trip hop meets Trans Siberian Orchestra. Pieces of this song sound like original Nintendo games too.

Ratatat is a New York City based electronic music duo, consisting of guitarist Mike Stroud and synth/keyboardist Evan Mast.

They’re yet another successful musical Skidmore alum, along with Garrett Dutton of G Love and the Special Sauce, though they didn’t start playing together until after college. They released their first and self titled album in 2004 (my favorite), in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on Stroud’s powerbook.

They’re supposed to put on a stellar live show. I hope they make it back to San Francisco soon.

Jams Simliar to Ratatat – Shempi

DJ Mehdi – Pocket Piano
LCD Soundsystem – Tribulations

Started as a project by frontman Dan Whitford in 2001, Cut Copy has emerged as one of the world’s most loved Melbourne-based bands, touring worldwide with the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Daft Punk, Mylo, and Bloc Party, and playing shows in front of 50K+ people back home in Australia.

This track, off their 2008 release, In Ghost Colours, stays consistent with the general themes of love and hearts, referred to regularly from start to finish on the album.

Before starting Cut Copy, Whitford was a graphic designer, which may explain why Cut Copy is one of the few bands to have a nice looking blog as well as a nice looking widget. I went forward and made my own Cut Copy widget too if anyone is interested.

Two nights ago, I saw them at the Mezzanine in SF, and of the 10+ shows I’ve seen there, Cut Copy got the crowd moving the most. Sure, The Presets warmed up the crowd nicely, but Whitford and co. worked the crowd like seasoned musical vets – performing simple dance moves and urging everyone to get more into it. What I like most about this is that they did it in a tasteful fashion that was neither corny nor cliched.

The lighting was spot on as well. Its no wonder that their top single off this album is titled Lights and Music.

Cut Copy offers both, and converts indie rockers and post punkers into fans of electro and new wave music in the process.

If you like this jam, checkout their music video for Saturday, off their first album.

Released back in 2004, Kasabian was all over the UK radio waves at the time, and have since released a follow up album that I’m not as fond of.

The band is named after Linda Kasabian, a young girl who was driving the escape car for Charles Manson, just after he killed the wife of Roman Polanski.

Former band member Christopher Karloff discovered Linda Kasabian while reading up on jailed serial killers. He immediately took to the name, then shared it with his band mates who took to it as well.

Similar Jams:

Listen to Bloc Party – Pioneers
Listen to the Editors – The Racing Rats

Not much is known about Ghostland Observatory. They don’t jump at the opportunity to elaborate on current or past projects, and they don’t post many videos on YouTube. All that is known of this Austin based duo is that they create a blend of music that sounds like a cross between Daft Punk, Queen, and Michael Jackson. Ask them what it sounds like, and they’ll say ‘Like a Robot Making Love to a Tree.’ Now that’s a mental image fit for A&E.

See them in concert, and they act the part of their influences. Singer Aaron Behren wears the tightest white pants West of 1978 and synth virtuoso Thomas Turner wears a full body cape and says little to the audience. Aaron is the crowd motivator, running around the stage and screaming into the mic for a full two and a half hours.

Now that they have just released their third album Robotique Mystique, their sets have become noticeably longer too, which means your ears will be ringing for an extra day or two following the show.

This track Midnight Voyage comes off their first album Paparazzi Lighting

Similar Sounding Jams:

Calvin Harris – Disco Heat
The Black Ghosts – Repetition Kills You

CSS (the band) , often confused with the front end website design computer language, is an electropop group from Brazil. They sing about stuff like sex, and love, and sexiness. Stuff that has almost nothing to do with front end website design computer languages.

This track Lets Make Love and Listen Death from Above is from their first album Censei de Ser Sexy, which has more of an electro sound than their follow up album Donkey.

Their first album shares the full name of the band. CSS stands for Censei de Ser Sexy, which, when translated from Brazilian Portuguese, means ‘Tired of Being Sexy’.

Folks may also recognize this band from their song Music is My Hot Hot Sex, which strengthens their musical themes of sex and sexiness. This song was also used for an iPod Touch commercial.

For more of a techno sound, check out the streaming version of The Knife – Like a Pen

For a similar electropop sound, check out Chromeo – Tenderoni

The Black Ghosts, possibly confused with the Black Lips or Black Tide, have arguably nothing in common with either of those bands. The Black Ghosts are an electrorock band from the UK, composed of two guys who met over the internet, where as the latter are american rock bands who met in high school.

The Black Ghosts’ debut album was released a few weeks ago, and this song Repetition Kills You is their first single off that album. After checking this jam, I’d recommend checking their entire album for electrorock classics.

A similarly sounding song is LCD Soundsystem – Tribulations, though don’t expect any british accents with this one.

I’d also like to give a shoutout to Pia Jean for telling me about this jam.

As mentioned in a previous post, Calvin Harris gets all the girls. After weeks of digging, I think its because he brings the disco heat.

This is the kind of song that makes you think that you’re walking around an Urban Outfitters.

For a gentler sound, check out Cut Copy – Saturdays

Phew, and I almost misspelled this blog post.

Comprised of four guys from New York, The Rapture have been recording their electro spin on post punk since 1998, releasing two full length albums in the process – Echoes and Pieces of the People We Love. This jam Whoo Alright Yeah Uh Huh comes off the latter, which includes songs with a more polished sound. Danger Mouse was one of the three producers who helped The Rapture record this album.

Some people say that The Rapture are forerunners of the Post Punk movement of the early 2000′s.

Well that may be, but their lead singer still looks sub 20 years old. Him and the guys from the Black Lips.

For bands that sound like the Rapture, check out the Sunshine Underground’s song Put You in Your Place.

Datarock seems to be one of those bands that is better recognized by the mashups and remixes of their songs rather than by the songs themselves. That may explain why the biggest DJs in the world are sampling their songs, yet they’re a band that still can’t fill a major venue in San Francisco.

I Used to Dance with My Daddy isn’t as well-known as their jam Fa-Fa-Fa, which is featured in a Coca Cola commercial as well as in the video games Fifa ’08, NHL ’08, and NBA Live ’08, though its equally as catchy and emblematic of their electro rock sound, kind of a Cut Copy without synthesizers.

Datarock is a Norwegian band, but all of their songs are in English. One of my favorite parts about the band is that they play all of their shows in matching red jumpsuits.

I actually prefer the original version of this jam over the many remixes, but I’ve included a remix by Comet below.