That’s the very reason why Tilly and The Wall entered my radar. The awesome indie pop group brings together some of the elements that I dig — catchy yet simple melodies, an awesome chorus, girl singers and an infectious rhythm. Tilly and The Wall has all of these, with one notable absence in their band — a drummer. Yes, Tilly and The Wall has decided to forego using a drummer to mark its rhythms, and instead has made a tap dancer their official percussionist. You might think that a) the band must suck, and b) it’s obviously a gimmick. The tap dancer idea may indeed be a gimmick but one listen to their songs and you’ll definitely realize that they don’t suck  — in fact, they are wonderful. Their music has a whimsy that you rarely see in music (except of course, if you love listening to twee pop where whimsy is a required ingredient) and the human rhythms of Jamie Presnall, Tilly’s tap dancer, are quite infectious.

To prove how cool they are, here’s Alligator Skin from their 2008 album, O.

Tilly_and_The_Wall – Alligator_Skin

I’m on the constant lookout for fresh music. And when I mean fresh, I mean music that’s not played ad nauseum on MTV — besides I don’t consider majority of what’s played on that channel as music anyway, most of it just manufactured merchandising crap. One band I stumbled upon almost four years ago was Fujiya and Miyagi. Despite the very Japanese name and the obvious conclusion that it’s a duo, the band is actually a trio from Brighton, England (they have since added a fourth member on drums).

The band plays electronic music that immediately evokes seminal electronic outfits like Can, Neu! and Kraftwerk — a very Germanic flavor that really makes you crease your forehead because of the disparity and seeming contradictions of what the band represents — three English lads with a Japanese band name that evokes a duo who play German electronic music. It may sound strange on paper, but the initial blast of their music will bring that sudden realization — it actually works! And works well, indeed. Fujiya and Miyagi brings an almost indie rock/punk rock flavor to electronic music that is palpable. Like any good rock song, it has heft and attitude and swagger, but since it’s electronic music that’s the foundation of the songs, it is infectiously danceable — but not in a dance club kind of way. This is dance music for the mosh pit.

Fujiya and Miyagi have already released two excellent albums — 2005’s Transparent Things and 2008’s Lightbulbs. I love both of them and would recommend them both without question. One of my favorite tracks from Lightbulbs is the album opener Knickerbocker, a really catchy song with lyrics that are almost nonsensical. As the band explained,  it’s “a vibration of words that sound good.” And sound good it does.

Fujiya and Miyagi – Knickerbocker