Hockey - Love Is Strange

Anyone remember Portland, Oregon’s Hockey? We vaguely do. We wrote about them a couple of times way back in 2009 and our conclusion at the time was that whilst Too Fake whilst a pretty decent low rent attempt at being LCD Soundsystem, there wasn’t a lot else to get excited about. “The band let themselves down with some unforgivable second rate white funk moments that made even the most excruciating slap bass moves from Mark King of Level 42 seem acceptable,” we said of one live show. Well that was then and this is now and Hockey are back. A new twitter account was recently unleashed with these words in 3 tweets “If U R on the right track, things will come along to show U U R on the right track. Don't get too excited. Stay on the right track. U know we had a twitter account that mysteriously vanished. U know we almost changed our band name,” and a slow jam called Defeat on the Double Bass Line was premiered on Filter Magazine.

However it’s the second song to emerge from the new world of Hockey that has reaffirmed our faith in the band a little. It’s called Love Is Strange and it sounds like the group (who are now just a duo consisting of Ben Grubin and Jeremy Reynolds) have been spending their time playing console games, listening to Hot Chip and Vampire Weekend and creating miniature funky computer grooves that lightly nudge you in the direction of the dance floor. The trouble with pop music is that a band’s window of opportunity often has the shutters closed on it very quickly. The question for Hockey is have those shutters been bolted tight or can Love Is Strange push them open a little?

Hockey - Love Is Strange