Theme Park – The Art of the Mixtape

Doin’ It Right In The Land of 1000 Dances, A Mixtape

Art of the Song presents Doin’ It Right In The Land of 1000 Dances, a free mix for your downloading pleasure! Perfectly calibrated to get those hips shakin’ and feet tappin’, play this on your speakers and get ready to dance the night away! If you’re feeling lucky, just click the picture for the download, or wait til after the tracklisting to click the link below.

Please note that it’s a zip file, and won’t have the proper track order, but if you put all the songs on your itunes, then click the Doin’ It Right In The Land of 1000 Dances.m3u file, iTunes does the work for you. Now that’s what I call Doin’ It Right!

Doin’ It Right In The Land of 1000 Dances :

1. Hang Fire – The Rolling Stones
2. Coming Back to Me Baby – James Carr
3. Pressure Drop – Robert Palmer
4. Keep On Movin’ – King Tuff
5. Doin’ It, Right – Cheers Elephant
6. Hit and Miss – The Tins
7. 100 Yard Dash – Raphael Saadiq
8. Black Snake – Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
9. Soulless- Fake Problems
10. I’ve Got To Convince Myself – Allen Toussaint
11. Morning Crimes – Theme Park
12. Caught Me Thinkin’ – Bahamas
13. Fantasized – Robert Cray
14. Happy Pills – Norah Jones
15. Land Of 1000 Dances – Wilson Pickett
16. Shotgun – Jr. Walker & The All-Stars
17. Ophelia (from The Last Waltz) – The Band
18. Act Nice & Gentle – The Black Keys
19. The Night Before – The Beatles
20. Please Be It – The Generationals
21. Hold On! I’m Comin’ – B.B. King & Eric Clapton

Doin’ It Right In The Land of 1000 Dances.zip

Goodness gracious do British band Theme Park sure know how to pull a hook. They might just be my favorite band to come out of 2012. Ever since I stumbled on the music video for “Jamaica” (the single proper comes out on the 20th) I’ve been desperately looking for more of their music. “Milk” was fantastic with David Byrne-esque vocals to boot, but I’m also really digging the overall sound on “Morning Crimes, the song I’m featuring here. It’s a really subtle build of a song, but the arrangement works perfectly. If/ When these guys hit the USA for a tour (they will be touring with Bloc Party in the UK in the fall) I’m definitely there. For now, enjoy "Morning Crimes”.

Morning Crimes – Theme Park

Summer Gems 2012: A Mixtape

To grab the mix, either click on the image or the text.

Track-listing:

1. Peoples – Cheers Elephant

2. The Fritz – Cruiser

3. The Walk – Mayer Hawthorne

4. Everyone Knows – Vacationer

5. This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) – Talking Heads

6. Milk – Theme Park

7. The Hale Bop – Mystery Jets

8. She’s So Scandalous – Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears

9. Fletcher – Blitzen Trapper

10. Sir Duke – Stevie Wonder

11. Skin It Back – Little Feat

12. Carrying The Torch – Generationals

13. My Baby Is The Real Thing – Allen Toussaint

14. Come On Sock It To Me – Syl Johnson

15. Got To Be Some Changes Made – The Staple Singers

16. Scratch My Back – Otis Redding

17. Knock On Wood – Eddie Floyd

18. Blackmail – Robert Palmer

19. Ain’t Gonna Stop – Natural Child

20. Greatest Hits – Mystery Jets

21. If You Let Me Be Your Anchor – Dawes

(Image Courtesy of We Are Handsome)

For the endless deluge of indie bands out there that have tried to follow through on the sounds like Talking Heads witty world pop mantle (see Dirty Projectors, Vampire Weekend), UK transplant Theme Park are looking like the best challenge yet, though with an updated sound. It’s really “Milk” one of their first singles from their upcoming debut album (due out in August) , that nails down the frenetic David Byrne vocal with some nice energetic dance-floor indie pop a la Hot Chip. However, if “Jamaica”, their latest single proves anything, Theme Park is no flash in the pan and they know how to write a catchy summer hook.

Milk – Theme Park

Jamaica – Theme Park

RIYL: TV On The Radio, Talking Heads, Phoenix, Hot Chip