Let me just start by saying this: I’m really quite fond of the NME. The UK music mag has been introducing me to some of my favorite bands since high school, and it’s still where I find a lot of great music. Sure, they’ve got an annoying tendency to fall in love with a band and then ditch them when it’s no longer cool to be a fan, but I’m just glad they led me to them in the first place. I don’t really worry about the petty trend-chasing.

That said, Luke Lewis’ recent blog on NME.com probably irked me more than anything I’ve ever seen in the mag. Its focus was this Saturday’s Record Store Day and how it’s “a bit late to get misty-eyed about record shops” because “they’re already screwed.” Lewis goes on to argue that it’s really just false nostalgia that makes people romanticize these stores in the first place, because the oft-lionized helpful music store employees never really existed, or, at the very least, disappeared decades ago.

Lewis would know because he worked in a record store for four years. Well, guess what? So did I, and I can tell you firsthand that those kind of people do exist, and it wasn’t exactly “decades ago.” I’m not saying every record store is packed with devoted music experts who are just there to help, but some employees certainly are in it for that reason. As tough as it is for any record shop to survive, I find it hard to believe anybody’s in the biz as anything other than a labor of love these days.

Look, I realize that Lewis is probably right about the fate of music stores. It probably is too late to reverse the fortunes of the world’s ailing record shops. There’s a whole generation of kids who’ve never had to pay for music, and those who do just go to Best Buy…we all know the facts. But, at the same time, why belittle the only significant effort anyone has made in the past 10 years to help out indie record stores? If all the giveaways, in-store performances, and limited-edition releases give these shops a day of spectacular sales, how is that a bad thing? If it makes even a handful of people think twice about not even buying their favorite bands’ records, then it’s a worthwhile endeavor.

Maybe I’ve just reached my breaking point with the negativity spewed out of what seems like nearly every blog lately. Lewis’ article feels an awful lot like a case of degrading something just to prove how much smarter you are then all of the people supporting it. Which is unfortunate — and just so very depressing.

So, go support Record Store Day on April 18, and don’t feel stupid for doing so. Sure, it would be nice if you supported them on any of the other 364 days of the year, but if you can get together some extra cash for this Saturday, it really is better than nothing. I’m personally going to try to hit up a few stores in Baltimore and DC, and if I can get that limited edition Smiths 7-inch they’re offering, it’ll be worth it for me. I guarantee there’ll be something there to make it worthwhile for you.

Click here for a list of US releases made exclusively for Record Store Day

Click here for a list of UK releases made exclusively for Record Store Day

I don’t like many video games. At least, not current ones. There was a time when I was a huge video game fanatic, but that time was about 20 years ago, when I was in 3rd grade, and Super Mario Brothers was the height of technological excellence. Once games got all fancy, with their realistic graphics and complicated storylines, I kinda lost interest.

What I do like, though, is electronic music, especially the French house variety. And no, this isn’t me going off on the randomest tangent ever — there is now an old school platform game combining the two previously mentioned interests. It’s not often that I get to use the phrase, “If you like ‘80s video games and the music of Daft Punk” in a coherent sentence, but thanks to Shane Brouwer, now I can.

Brouwer, (who’s also the guy behind that Initials’ remix of the Teenagers that we loved so much), has created a side scroller game in which you help none other than Daft Punk get their stolen samples back. From Justice, because that’s who stole them. It’s as if this was invented just to amuse me.

The game is basic as can be, but it’s charming on a number of levels, from the midi version of “One More Time” that plays in the background to the choices of “samples” that you gather up. Because, seriously, what would Daft Punk do if they lost their sample of Will Smith’s “Gettin Jiggy Wit It”?

So, if you like ‘80s video games and the music of Daft Punk, this is what you’re doing today while you’re supposed to be working. Click here to work it, make it, do it…oh, you know the rest. Just check it out.

Inspired by numerous CDs uncovered during a recent cleaning spree in my bedroom, “Forgotten Gems” spotlights some of our favorite albums from the past. Not necessarily those that are universally considered classics – this one’s for those often overlooked treats that deserve to be remembered…

Dirty Vegas - S/T (2002)

Some albums are undeniably of a certain time and place. Duran Duran’s Rio, for instance, sounds unmistakably like 1982. Similarly, Green Day’s Dookie will be forever linked to 1994. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – the albums that wind up sounding the most dated are often that way because they were such definitive works in their day.

But then there are those bands whose sound is a little tougher to place in a musical timeline. Listen to any track other than “Days Go By” on Dirty Vegas’ self-titled release, and it’s not easy to pinpoint where exactly it fits in the pantheon of electronic music. Songs like “The Brazilian” And “Throwing Shapes” harken a bit back to the big beat scene circa 1997 – a little Vegas-era Crystal Method here, a little Dig Your Own Hole-style Chemical Brothers there. But then there’s a number of tracks that could easily belong to the current downtempo scene. “Candles,” in particular, sounds like something Zero 7 would kill to have written.

Of course, “Days Go By,” the band’s lone US hit, is quite reminiscent of its actual time period, that being 2002. But that’s mostly because its placement in a Mitsubishi Eclipse ad was part of that early 2000s trend of using hip, indie-ish songs in car commercials. Not that this isn’t still done (see: every iPod commercial ever), but in the days before TiVo and Hulu, a whole lot more people actually paid attention to commercials. Sure, we all got kinda sick of “Days Go By” at the time, but listening to it now, it actually holds up rather well.

Though Dirty Vegas is a bit all over the electronic map, there’s a really nice vibe to this album that deserves to be heard start to finish. Sort of like the ebb and flow of a party – jolts of high energy tempered by quiet “please-leave-me-alone-I-am-so-wasted” moments. And its closer, an acoustic version of their ubiquitous hit, is as good as it gets for a final track. I must say, of all the bands covered in our Forgotten Gems series, Dirty Vegas is probably the one I would most like to hear a new album from. Which makes it nice to read in their blog that the guys are currently working on new material, some of which you can check out at the Dirty Vegas MySpace page.

Watch: Dirty Vegas - “Days Go By”

Seriously, how many good bands does France need these days? As if it wasn’t enough to have the secret formula for good beats housed between Daft Punk and the crew at Ed Banger Records, now they’re starting to corner the market on charming pop bands as well. Seems a bit greedy if you ask me.

Of course, with all the (well-deserved) attention on Phoenix lately, it’s actually all too easy to forget about France’s other breezy pop quartet, Tahiti 80. In fact, if Phoenix has flown somewhat under the radar in the States, then Tahiti 80 is so far under, they’re practically subterranean. Which is too bad because songs like “1,000 Times,” from their 2002 release Wallpaper for the Soul, are the stuff laid back summer days are made for.

New single, “Unpredictable,” is along the same sun-drenched lines, and I’d expect nothing less from these guys. An adorably animated video is pretty much the only suitable companion for a song like this, and, of course, that’s exactly what they’ve given us. Not exactly “unpredictable,” but when it’s this nice of a sugar rush, who’s complaining? Not me.

Watch: Tahiti 80 – “Unpredictable”

I’m a big fan of British humor. However, I am also aware that there’s a good bit of it that wouldn’t go over with a mass audience here in the States. I can understand why a show like The Office, for instance, was reworked for America. There’s a level of dryness and offbeat pacing to the Brit version that’s probably just a bit too far outside of a typical American sitcom to draw the kind of numbers NBC needs to keep it on the air.

The IT Crowd, however, is a different story. You could put that show on US tv exactly as is, and it would probably be a big hit. In fact, that’s just what IFC did – but it’s IFC, so, you know, only so many people are gonna see that. I talked about this in Blendetta’s feature on the best shows you aren’t watching, but now that it’s finally out on US dvd, it seems worth another look.

The IT Crowd has a very basic premise: follow the adventures of two nerds working in a big company’s IT department, along with their new boss, who isn’t exactly computer savvy. While it’s a funny idea – and one that I’m quite surprised hasn’t been done before – it’s also an idea that could get old real quick. And it probably would – if it didn’t have one of the funniest casts ever assembled. People always talk about how great the comedic timing is on 30 Rock, but I’d argue that The IT Crowd actually runs circles around that show, if only because its premise is just that much harder to sustain.
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Pop music is probably the most disrespected genre out there. No one wants to admit they like pop music, and bands often don’t want to admit that’s what they play. So, we get all these little subgenres – indie pop, synthpop, electropop, etc – so that the cool kids can like pop music, but claim it’s something else.

So, in a world where genre snobbery is the general rule, there’s something absolutely refreshing about a band that calls themselves Das Pop. A band that specializes in wonderfully catchy 3-minute blasts of pop perfection – and doesn’t claim otherwise. Das Pop write the kind of songs that stay in your head for days, the kind of infectious guitar-driven melodies that prove pop music isn’t strictly the domain of people like Britney Spears and Lady Gaga.

Das Pop actually aren’t the new kids in town. They’ve been around in one form or another since ’94 and released two albums, I Love and The Human Thing in the early 2000s. Their first single, “A Different Beat,” was even something of a hit in their native Belgium.

However, it’s their upcoming self-titled release that has them poised to break out in a major way. Due on April 27 and produced by Soulwax’s Dewaele brothers, Das Pop’s got the kind of songs that shoud be all over the place in record time. Remember all those late ‘90s bands that had one great pop hit and were never heard from again? Stuff like Eve 6’s “Inside Out” or Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta?” Well, Das Pop’s got just those sort of insanely catchy songs. Difference is, they’ve got a whole album of them.

It actually takes me back to an interview I did years ago with Ted Phelps of Imperative Reaction. When asked about his band’s transition from experimental industrial music to a more mainstream, pop-oriented sound, he said, “It’s much easier to write a 10-minute song with no structure than it is to write a really good hook.” If that’s true, Das Pop must’ve had a hell of a time writing this album. Perhaps it’s time to give some respect to the power of the really good hook.

Listen: Das Pop – “Underground”