Music We Listen To, feat., The Ting Tings
Genre: Indie Pop, Dance Punk, Neo-Disco
Like all articles on The New Haberdasher, this story is presented to you for free. If you like what I do, consider supporting my work with a small monetary contribution at my Patreon and thank you.
The collapse of Alternative as a distinct music style in the mid-90s left a lot of detritus in its wake. Post Grunge might have been decent at first as an effort to bring melody back to the grindy gritty heroin come-down. A massive hole was left on the radio which was filled happily by girl and boy-band pop on the one side and pathetic agro rap rock and NuMetal on the other. The scene was primed for a revival of straight forward no frills fundamentalist guitar music, which we got in the White Stripes, the Strokes, and the Killers.
An adjacent indie rock band which scored a fairly big hit in 2004 was Franz Ferdinand. They hit after the other ones here in the states, but they were certainly at the tail end of that indie rock business. The thing about Franz Ferdinand was that unlike the Strokes and later the Killers, who emulated that sort of new wavey sound of early 80s British music which expressed itself in the States as bands like Joy Division, Madness, The Human League, and the Culture Club, Franz Ferdinand was actually from the British Isles, and were legitimate British Rockers, while the Killers and the Strokes merely adopted that sound and made it famous here.
As Indie Rock hit saturation in the US around 2004–2005, Indie took a weird folk turn here. Suddenly bands were all huge, their bass drums were like portable tympanies, the vast majority of the bands were choruses, and the songs sounded like they were anthems from the 1890s. This what I called “Stompy” sound was ubiquitous in the US, and more modern sounding music was no less folky, as the Plain White T’s from Chicago blew up and made that sort of acoustic reaction to the early Strokes massive. Despite the release of seminal records by The Postal Service (2003) and Gnarles Barkley (2006) during this post garage period, music for alternative and indie folks in the US was retro, to say the least.
But over in England, they were still rocking! Lilly Allen released her decidedly snotty debut album Alright, Still full of pop music with punk attitude. And a couple years later, in 2008, a group called The Ting Tings launched their debut album called “We Started Nothing.” I’d make it the last gasp of Britpop that made it to the States.
Here is the single from that record, which broke that band in the US which will be almost instantly familiar. It’s called “That’s not my Name.”
I posted the live version of this song, two full years into their career, because it is certainly as good, but also, the end is just a blast! This Manchester duo consisting of Katie White on vocals and Jules De Martino on drums with backing vocals is packed with energy, and this song is easily sing-along, almost like it is delivered by a cheerleader who has just f — king had enough! It sounded like Lilly Allen had started a rock band.
The next tune from the record “Shut up and Let Me Go” sounded like a follow up of Franz Ferdinand’s “Take me out.” The bassline is unforgettable, while the guitars strum along up front. White kind of sing chants her lyrics, but I would say her delivery was perfect for this funk/disco dance tune. I can easily imagine thousands of people in their audiences pogoing to this song. But, more relevantly, the backing music for this tune became the anthem for PBS Kids’ commercials for years, along with White’s iconic, almost breathed exclamation “Hey!”
I’ll also say, this video is pretty typical of the style of many of their videos. They seem to enjoy playing with slightly longer cuts and multiple versions of themselves in their videos. Their video from the second single from “We started Nothing” called “We Walk” which involved several versions of them stopped in mid air and in mid jump, and randomly one and then another would randomly complete their motion. Another video for the song “Wrong Club” featured laser phantograms set against some funky dance tune reminiscent of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” from the previous summer or Bruno Mars’ smash “Treasure” from 2012, both retro funk.
None of the Ting Ting’s later records were nearly as big as their first record. It seems that they always felt a bit retro, but they have never felt dated to me. This is straight forward, danceable pop music, with an attitude. But the early 2010s, their sound had been largely forgotten as Indie went almost completely electronica from bands like Phantogram, while the radio was taken over by R&B singers and eventually mumble rappers and Drake. Listening to the Ting Tings reminds me of the last few gasps of Britpop, though a bit more emphasis on the pop. I really enjoy this band’s music, and I hope you get a chance to check out this great British band from the middle Aughts.
Here’s the Ting Tings’ Newest Album, The Black Light, which is Music we Listen to.
Like all articles on The New Haberdasher, this story is presented to you for free. If you like what I do, consider supporting my work with a small monetary contribution at my Patreon and thank you.
