"We would live on Delancey Street, but then you cut your hair, and it ended there..."

I think rock and roll is the best when it's fun. Yes, it's nice to hear a deeply serious throaty song and know that "Jeremy spoke in class today," but sometimes you just want to put something on and bounce up and down and smile. Here are some bands that continue the tradition of danceability, cheeriness, and/or general good times. Perhaps one's sound will put a smile on your face.

The Orion Experience - There's No Love in Februrary. This diverse New York band uses its sound to hearken back to an earlier age. Their song Adriane has a definite B-52s feel to it, mostly because of the female singer's contribution. There's a clear happy beachy 60s vibe from some of their material and their website is a total 1980s videogame spaceship throwback. They're all over the map decades-wise but use their older influences to have fun. Their music exudes an energetic vibe that just makes you want to bop along to it. Shoot some lasers at The Orion Experience.


Mystery Jets - Diamonds in the Dark. I discovered the Mystery Jets earlier this spring when I was checking out the upcoming releases from Steve Aoki owned Dim Mak records, who have brought out such bands as Klaxons and the Scanners. I can't say that I know much else about them other than the fact that they make good music. It also seems that one member's father is part of the band, and that's really unusual and highly fascinating. Would you go on tour with your mom or dad? That's got curfew written all over it. Mystery Jets also maintain their own blogspot blog here: Behind the Bunhouse.



WinterKids - Adore. Much like the name of the song, I adore the WinterKids. The moment I heard their song "Tape It," I knew I would be tapping my toes to their beat for as long as they'd churn out heavily accented semi-hipster music. They are a cute bunch of musicians from a town called Peaslake in Surrey, England. They look like every alumni from Emerson College or other fine arts schools, down to the asymmetrical hair, wide eyed engagement of cameras, tight jeans and tailored suits, and obvious (mostly slight) flair for the dramatic. Their songs are so melodic and lack the psuedo-intellectual pretentious nature that their look suggests, so they are the ultimate in fun. Yay! I know that was a strange backhanded compliment, but they truly are a band to watch. Here they are at a gig they played in New York at Byte the day before my birthday: Indierotica.

And here's "Tape It," the song that won my heart.