The Ting Tings

Some times, there are things like The Ting Tings. Things you just know will find an audience, no matter what. Things you just know will be bumpin' in DJ booths in no time, if not already. Things bound to become popular because their mere existence almost defines popular. You know what I mean. Toni Basil "you take me by the heart when you take me by the hand" things. Well, The Ting Tings are an example of these kinds of things.

I first found out about The Ting Tings by seeing a post about them over on Hear No Evil just the other day. I'd never even heard of them but the song I was hearing on MySpace clicked with me right away. Turns out they're not well known in the US yet, or even in their home (UK) if we're being totally honest - though they just rocked Glastonbury and have a billion UK dates lined up for the near future, they're still a band learning just who they are. Regardless, the wheels of popularity push forward and The Ting Tings are currently experiencing the starts of one of those good old fashioned British meteoric rises to fame. Wait and see. We'll be hearing songs by The Ting Tings in commercials for iPhones before you know it.

Not your run of the mill male/female duo, The Ting Tings sound much more like Gwen Stefani mixed with M.I.A. and CSS than they do The White Stripes, or Matt and Kim. This is a good thing, in case you didn't know. Good because you, like me, find yourself (strangely) needing more pop-dance-cheer grooves like "Hollaback Girl" and less sticky Icky Thump'n hump. You're looking for that special something in a song that makes you love it immediately, even at the cost of being sick of it nearly as immediately. Right? Like when your feet start to move, hips shaking, without you really telling them to - it's the music. The beats. The delivery of the vocals. You can't help but move to it. You want more music like that. Then four days later you're sick of it. But you still want to hear it so badly for those four days that you listen over and over and over again until the song gets "Hey Ya'd" right off of your iPod altogether. "Hey Ya'd"? Yeah. Or like what happened with Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy". Or any of a number of popular summer jams... Not saying we're looking at this year's #1 hotness, but The Ting Tings are a band with the potential to create many infectiously memorable songs as they grow into their songwriting. In fact, I think they already have. As of today at this moment right now, I love them.

Listen:
"That's Not My Name"

Watch:
"That's Not My Name" live @ Islington Mill - 9 June 2007

Live in the UK? See The Ting Tings live.

Visit The Ting Tings on MySpace and have a listen to "Great DJ".