Are You Ready For More?
So I’m in a pretty bad mood today, as my good friend Jia is in Austin, Texas for Austin City Limits and insists on calling me repeatedly during my favorite bands’ sets (I’ve gotten calls during “Marching Bands of Manhattan” and “Banquet” so far), and I’m so jealous I want to break things. But I can take solace in the fact that after two weeks of waiting for my copy of The Go! Team’s new EP, which I special ordered from Australia, I finally have it in my hands/on my pod.
After conquering indie dance floors everywhere (and Pitchfork) with their 2004 debut, Thunder, Lightning, Strike, The Go! Team are back in action with the Are You Ready For More EP, previously available only at shows on their recent tour of Australia. The six song EP serves as both proof that brainchild Ian Parton isn’t just a one-album wonder, and also serves to satiate the masses until The Go! Team’s sophomore album, or at least the US/Remixed version of Thunder, Lightning, Strike (available October 14th), is released. The EP opens with the US/”single” version of “Bottle Rocket” which, aside from cleaner production and new vocals from lead-singer Ninja, is still the same classic dance-floor anthem we know and love. Pitchfork summed it up accurately when, in their review of the album, they wrote that the new version is “sort of like seeing your girlfriend with a new haircut”. The next track, and highlight of the EP, is the wintry instrumental piece, “The Ice Storm”, complete with swirling (presumably arctic) winds and jingling bells. Next up is another instrumental b-side, “We Listen Everyday”, which harkens back to the The Go! Team’s touchstone action-hero-theme-song sound, but doesn’t really stand out as anything particularly special. The next two tracks, previously unreleased “Did You Feel It Too?” and b-side “Hold Yr Terror Close” feature, for the first time, drummer Chi Fukami’s relatively (in comparison to Ninja, at least) subdued vocals. The EP goes out on top though, with another new track, “We Just Won’t Be Defeated”, which showcases The Go! Team doing what they do best, creating extremely danceable, chaotic (but at the same time controlled) noise and rocking the fuck out. Download Are You Ready For More’s highlights below.
MP3s:
“Bottle Rocket” (Single Version) - The Go! Team
“The Ice Storm” - The Go! Team
“We Just Won’t Be Defeated” - The Go! Team