The indie danceploitation sound that’s been sweeping the nation since 2004 officially died for me upon seeing Supersystem at BAR this January and finding myself bored to tears. However, four-on-the-floor-plus-hi-hat action and agitprop did fit together oh-so nicely at one point circa 1980. Therefore, I think the original stuff still holds-up well in ’06 and needs to be unearthed before everyone gets completely sick of disco-punk.

While practically every British post-punk band from Joy Division to The Fall had moments of disco-beat infatuation, danceable American post-punk was a rarer find given the then-dominance of hardcore. The only significant American counterparts were a glut of New York bands that emerged after the noisy chaos of downtown no-wave, and a few completely isolated practitioners, like The Embarrassment from Wichita, Kan.

Nevertheless, I tried to balance the two sides of the pond nonetheless and juxtapose like-minded, but geographically disparate artists (read: the delightfully twisted Contortions with The Pop Group). As a caveat, not all of these bands are purely dance-oriented (The Embarrassment, the Contortions), and not all of these bands had an all-encompassing antisocial desire to search and destroy (ESG, Liquid Liquid). Oh, and I left off the most obvious example, Gang of Four, but everyone already knows their back catalogue like the back of their hand, so there’s no point in using a precious 4 minutes of Maxell XL II to restate the obvious.

— Peter Feigenbaum ’06, who really does know every single band and casette tape format ever in existence.

i survived disco (punk) once already!

1) “We Are All Prostitutes” : The Pop Group : We are all

Prostitutes

2) “I Can’t Stand Myself” : James Chance & the Contortions : No New York (compilation)

3) “So Hungry, So Angry” : Medium Medium : Hungry, So Angry

4) “Optimo” : Liquid Liquid : Optimo EP

5) “Too Many Creeps” : Bush Tetras

6) “We’re So Cool” : The Au Pairs : Playing with a Different Sex

7) “You Make No Sense” : ESG : New York Noise (compilation)

8) “Hot Knights” : A Certain Ratio : I’d Like to See You Again

9) “Sorry for Laughing” : Josef K : The Only Fun in Town

10) “Celebrity Art Party” : The Embarassment : Heyday

1979-1983