Musician Monday: Datarock

Hey everyone! Welcome back to Musician Monday, that special time of the week where some awesome bands' sound waves enter your ears. This week we are going international with a Norwegian group that started off in the year 2000. Filled with fast tempo and electronic style, they are upbeat and always drive the energy in the room through the roof. This high energy and their poppish sounds are the perfect background for your next weird Euro dance party. Of course, I'm talking about Datarock.

Datarock's big appeal comes from two major sources, their physical style and their sound. First the style. As seen from above, they look like your stereotypical international hit artists. They dress weird (all in tight red jumpsuits) and act even weirder. Their music videos are super artsy and they come across as too cool for the public. Under this facade is a wacky group of musicians that don't care what people think of them. To me, they are an example of the ultimate bad-asses in this way. Next is their music. Their songwriting is hilarious. All of the songs are super quirky, and a lot of them reference random things like falling in love at computer camp or Maybelline. Backing these often shouted vocals is an even better instrumental section. Featuring heavy synth, the backing is very electronic and evokes the stereotypical European funky pop that you'd expect out of these guys. All in all, Datarock is a group that looks exactly how they should sound, and then they sound even better. Here are some of their songs:

Computer Camp Love (3:08)

Combining a hilarious music video with an even more hilarious story, Computer Camp Love is exactly what I'm talking about when it comes to wacky song lyrics. Despite the weirdness, the song has an awesome beat that catch your attention and won't leave your head for the day.

True Stories (2:50)

This next track off of their second album shows off Datarock's groovy side. It feature's a moving beat and yet another weird and awesome music video. The lyrics sound like they make sense when you listen to them, but look at the actual lyrics and they really say nothing. The whole sound is through their delivery and melodies behind it. One could argue the song is just a reference to older music and its influence as well.

Laurie (4:25)

Lastly, here's my favorite Datarock song. Laurie is full of feel-good sound with its calm, steady melody and upward, driving baseline. Other than that, I don't have much to comment. It's pretty simple otherwise; just give it a listen and enjoy it.

That concludes this brief segment on Datarock. In other news, I still haven't gotten off of my lazy butt to finish up and publish the Spotify article's conclusion, but it's coming. One day when I'm not too tired from work to actually do something valuable I'll put it together and put it up. Until then, let me know what you think of Datarock and of anyone else who you think deserves a mention on here.