Song of the Week - Sofi Tukker - Throw Some Ass

 

You may not know it butt this is what you knead. A peach of a video and a song that asks you to get off your backside and dance. If your plans have gone a rye, don’t worry, it’s impossible to feel sour when you hear this. Let’s just hope that it makes Sofi Tukker a bit of dough.

Warning: The video contains a beautiful set of buns. And some baguettes that despite being at the pool don’t get soaking wheat all over.

Right. That’s enough bread / ass puns. Song of the week, no question. Possibly tune of the summer. Come on UK, a lot of you are still way behind with Sofi Tukker, stop loafing around and get into them. The album Bread arrives this summer.

Sofi Tukker - Throw Some Ass (Video)

SOFI TUKKER · Sofi Tukker - Throw Some Ass

Sofi Tukker (ft Gorgon City) - House Arrest

Feeling a bit shite? Is Covid-19 getting you down? Does the world seem a bit f*cked up? OK. Here’s a solution. You need a banger. A 100% epic pop banger. With recent research (here) showing that pop music is now playing at the fastest it’s been for a decade (the average tempo of the top 20 best sellers each year is up to 122 beats per minute) it seems that all we want to do in these weird times is dance dance dance. As I suggested around the time when I reactivated this blog at the start of lockdown, one of the most important jobs for musicians right now is to entertain and put some happiness in people's lives. I can’t think of a better tune to achieve that feeling and shake that booty to than Sofi Tukker’s House Arrest.

Having already clocked up big numbers on streaming services with the track now our favourite New York based musical duo have delivered the official video which shows what they’ve been up to during lockdown.

Remember when this all started and it seemed like every single act on the planet was rushing to their bedrooms to film a poor quality Instagram live stream of them strumming their acoustic guitar and wailing badly, thereby demonstrating how rubbish a lot of live music can be when cobbled together quickly and without good production, then disappeared from view? 

Well, not Sofi Tukker. 

No, our dynamic duo took the ‘it’s a marathon not a sprint’ approach and bedded down for some serious DJing. That is to say serious in commitment, but not in intent; their sets have been a riotous romp of elation and warmth. Sofi Tukker have become my best friends on the internet; producing a daily soundtrack of escapism for over 100 days now. I love the way they just naturally dance in the same rhythm, sidestepping together without even looking at each other. I love their humour and friendliness; this isn’t some faceless DJ duo going through the motions, telling you to put your hands in air whilst they dream of the cash they’re raking in. I love their colour and joy. And I love the tunes they play.

Did I mention House Arrest is an absolute banger?

Well sometimes things are worth repeating.

Watch the video, which features some clips of their sets, fans dancing to them (including a penguin) and a lightning strike. Then realise why Sofi Tukker has owned lockdown.

If you need some banger education. This is it. By the end you’ll have graduated with a first class honours degree in bangerism.

Footnote: Gorgon City feature as well – but to be honest I didn't really notice. 

Sofi Tukker - House Arrest (Video)

Diary Alert: Put Fri 13th In Your Diary And Follow These Instructions. Thank You.

What are you doing this Friday 13^th? Forget all that ‘unlucky date’ crap. This one is going to simply fabulous.

Here’s what you need to do:

1.      Book the day off work / school / college (hopefully quite a few students will already be off on Easter Holiday). If you can’t book the day off, pull a sickie.

2.      Buy some Champagne. Remember to put it in the fridge the night before. If you can’t afford Champagne a cheap bottle of Prosecco from Lidl or other discount supermarket will be perfectly acceptable.

3.      Go to bed and set the alarm for a reasonable time so that you have had enough sleep, but it’s not too late in the day that you have missed out.

4.      Wake up, don’t bother getting out of your pyjamas, but maybe brush your teeth. Nobody likes morning breath and you need to make a bit of an effort for this special day.

5.      Ready yourself for a full-on dance / listening party (with the emphasis on dancing) for two new albums that have magically appeared on your streaming service of choice overnight. Both albums are by bands that have featured heavily on Breaking More Waves, both are fronted by a boy and girl who have delivered vocals on their songs, both have a sense of humour, colour and fun about what they do and somehow seem connected (at least in my head in terms of what they do) even although as far as I can tell they have never met.

6.      Go on your favourite streaming service (you can buy the records on physical form tomorrow) and press play. The two albums in question are Treehouse and Confident Music For Confident People.

7.     The two bands are Sofi Tukker and Confidence Man. They are both f*cking brilliant. Excuse my swearing, but they are.

8.      Dance your bloody arse off. Drink the champagne. Repeat.

In summary: Friday 13^th. Wake up. Clean teeth. Champagne out. Soffi Tucker and Confidence Man albums on the stereo. Dance in your pyjamas and go batshit mental.

Here’s a new song from Sofi Tucker. It’s called Batshit. As Prince once said, Let’s Go Crazy. 

Sofi Tucker - Batshit

New Music: Sofi Tukker - Baby I'm A Queen

Let’s face it, New Music Friday can be both a blessing and a curse. Yesterday I wasted the best part of three and a half hours working my way through the UK edition of Spotify’s NMF playlist to find very little to connect with. But then away from the playlist there’s the new Sofi Tukker. Oh yes, and Sofi Tukker rule. 

New single Baby I’m A Queen is the sound of Sofi Tukker grabbing pop by the nether regions and twisting them hard until an intense climax. It’s all about a chunky granite guitar riff, Sophie’s finest vocal delivery yet and some techno-club beats that thwack like they're trying to raise hell. 

Of the track the band say: “Baby I’m a Queen is about embracing tumultuousness and vulnerability. Just because you are vulnerable, doesn’t mean you have to let yourself be belittled or infantilized (Why is “baby” the default nickname?) We are strong and empowered because we cry, because we desire, and because of what is chaotic about us. This song is about standing up as strong and powerful, because of that courage to share ourselves. It’s about being both a baby and a queen at the same time.”

The good news is that Sofi Tukker has announced the release of the debut album Treehouse for April 13th. They’ve also announced a world tour that runs through from late March to August. The bad news is that for those of us in the UK that tour doesn’t include our fair land. However, the tour is labelled Part 1, so perhaps we’ll all get to the chance to dance hard with them later this year?

Sofi Tukker - Baby I'm A Queen

New Music: Sofi Tukker - Best Friend (Featuring NERVO, The Knocks & Alisa Ueno)

Oh, here we go again. Another dirty and cartoon-like tune from Sofi Tukker. Right now these kids seem to be able to do no wrong. It’s why their name keeps appearing on Breaking More Waves.

“You are my best friend and we’ve got some shit to shoot,” the new song announces before a brassy sample kicks in and a low hip grinding bass does the rest. It got me on first listen. It probably will do the same to you. None of that 'it's a grower' crap. It just dives straight into the pool and then keeps swimming.

A celebration of friendship and love, Sofi Tukker say about this about the tune: “To the friends we have had long before Sofi Tukker, the friends we have met along the way, and the friends we have not even met yet, you all make our lives so much better: this song is dedicated to all of you.” Featuring NERVO, The Knocks and Alisa Ueno, Best Friend is chock full of guests and chock full of the good stuff. This one needs to be played loud. Apparently he song features on the advert for the new iPhone X, so that will be some good exposure for the duo.

Sofi Tukker play some headline shows in Europe at the end of September and beginning of October (including one at London's Oslo on 1st October) before they set off on a mammoth North American tour supporting Odesza up till nearly Christmas.

Sofi Tukker - Best Friend (Featuring NERVO, The Knocks & Alisa Ueno)

New Music: Sofi Tukker - Fuck They (Video)

You may well recall before Breaking More Waves took off on holiday (with just the occasional post such as this one - normal service resumes sometime mid-August) I mentioned the forthcoming sweary new Sofi Tukker beast of a tune Fuck They. That animal is now out in the world and is positioned to assault your earlobes, with over thirty F-words in its three minutes of fingers-up-at-the-world dance attitude, if it hasn't done so already. Thirty is certainly a decent amount of potty mouthed foulness, although nothing compared with the Super Furry Animal’s The Man Don’t Give A Fuck which clocked in at over fifty. 

Whilst Fuck They has been streaming for a couple of weeks now, the video has only just gone live. Filmed in Toronto and directed by Mac Boucher, whose previous work includes videos for Grimes, HANA and Yukon Blonde it features a cameo by celebrity hairstylist and frequent band collaborator Danny Moon, a nod to Tucker Halpern’s past basketball life, the best carrot munching moment you’ll see this year, lots of head nodding, messy drinking and a whole lot more that will probably leave you uttering a few expletives yourself. Unleash your inner animal and enjoy the WTF colourfulness of Sofi Tukker.

For those (like me) in the UK who have been patiently waiting for the band to come back to our shores, you finally get a chance to see the duo when they play Oslo in Hackney, London on 1st October. Tickets are available by clicking here.

New Music: Maggie Rogers - Alaska (Sofi Tukker Remix)

I can’t remember the last time I posted a remix on Breaking More Waves, it’s something that I just don’t seem to do that often these days. Here’s one I couldn’t pass on though. After all, at the back end of last year I named, as I always do in late November / early December, ten artists that I believed were Ones to Watch for 2017. Two of those artists were Maggie Rogers and Sofi Tukker*. So, when the two of them came together musically, there was an inevitably that the results were going to find their way on to this little corner of the internet.

So what’s the output? The results are perhaps not the pounding, riffing, weird-out, hip banger that you might expect from Sofi Tukker**. Instead they’ve taken the chilled soulful coolness of the original and whisked it off to Ibiza for a mellow sunset moment. Imagine a classy seafront bar / terrace, a cocktail and everything being right with the world, whilst this loops on repeat in the background. That'll do nicely.

*Footnote: The 10 artists I selected as Ones to Watch for 2017 were Skott, Maggie Rogers, LANY, Hazel English, Seramic, Dave, Sofi Tukker, Jerry Williams, Cabbage, Liv Dawson.

**Footnote 2: Keep an eye and ear out for Sofi Tukker’s forthcoming single out later this week. It’s very sweary, very good and you definitely won’t be hearing it on the radio. 

Maggie Rogers - Alaska (Sofi Tukker Remix)

New Music: Sofi Tukker - Greed

Total banger alert!

Take one call and response chant, a pumping house backing, some crafty guitar licks and some smooth lyrics about keeping you up all night and there you have it. Ten imagine throwing in a dancefloor, darkness, strobes, dry ice and a whole bunch of people ready to go batshit mental and you’ve got yourself A MOMENT. 

Actually, you’ve got yourself A MOMENT even without the dry ice and strobes. Just turn this one up and add it to your best bangers in the worlds ever playlist.

There's a hint of Sleigh Bells with this one, as Sofi Tukker bring the noise. "This is one of the first times Sophie has ever screamed," say the duo. "Unfortunately there's a lot to scream about right now."

Sofi Tukker - Greed 

New Music: Sofi Tukker - Johny

You know that moment at the party when you can sense that everyone wants to dance, but they’re just waiting for the right track to drop? First there’s a little bit of head nodding, smiling at each other, drinks are knocked back, the occasional shoulder is dropped, the hips start to swirl and then as the music grows (and someone turns it up louder) people start to groove. Johny by Sofi Tukker is that groove. It's delicious.

With its bassy sass and slinky guitars Johny speaks the language of dance, even if like me you can’t understand a word Sophie is singing except for the “Johny can you hear me,” line. 

To get fans involved with the release of the song (which you may well already be familiar with if you’ve played the EA Sports' FIFA 17 video game) the duo has launched a "Johny" hotline +1 866-445-6469 (international charges apply) where fans can call in to enter for a chance to chat with Sophie and Tucker or win select prizes. There are 3 options when calling:

Press 1: Listen to Johny 

Press 2: Leave a voicemail for Sophie and Tucker 

Press 3: Enter into a contest for a chance to speak with the band

And on Friday between 5:30 - 6PM EST callers who press 3 will have their call forwarded directly to Sophie and Tucker's mobile phones for an opportunity to speak with the band! My tip: If calling don’t just say “Hey guys I love your music.” Try to think of something interesting to ask. Can they translate the words of this song for you, perhaps? Or how they felt when they were told they were on the infamous Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch 2017 list? No don’t, that’s embarrassing for me when they just answer with “The what?”

Sofi Tukker - Johny

My Favourite 5 Singles Of 2016

You’re not a proper music obsessive unless you do some end of year lists – right? Well, I certainly have plenty of them, and the big one, my end of year album list, will be published here right at the end of the year with 25 albums, one posted each hour from midnight to midnight on New Year’s Eve, each one with a few accompanying thoughts.

For now, here are my 5 favourite singles of 2016. There’s no messing here, no written commentary, just the music. This is my final post of the year until everything related to the 25 post marathon on New Year's eve. Have a good Christmas.

1. Maggie Rogers – Alaska



2. She Drew The Gun – Poem



3. Sofi Tukker – Drinkee



4. The XX- On Hold



5. Anteros – Breakfast

Ones to Watch 2017 #7 - Sofi Tukker

The story of how New York’s Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern met goes something along the lines of this: Tucker was looking to become a basketball player but following a long-term virus he changed his plans and turned to learning how to DJ and produce. Sophie was playing acoustic bossa nova music at an art gallery gig one day where Tucker was the DJ for the event. They met, Tucker remixed one of Sophie’s songs on the spot and Sofi Tukker was formed.

Pan forward and now Sofi Tukker are a fully formed duo, delighting audiences with their cool-party vibe shows and a versatile debut EP called Soft Animals; a number of tracks from which have featured on Breaking More Waves. 

If there’s one word to describe the music of Sofi Tukker it would simply be FUN. Fusing worldwide influences (check out Sophie’s near chanted delivery of the lyrics of Drinkee, a poem by the Brazilian poet Chacal for example, that found its way onto an Apple Watch advert), with elements of house and pop, Sofi Tukker create a carnival of sound that works equally well on home headphones or banging out of a huge soundsystem. They’re clearly two people that despite having very different personal tastes meet in the middle to create to something a little bit unique. 

For 2017 go and see them live if you get the chance (warning: there may be dance routines) and hope for further releases to match the big grin pleasure of their debut EP. 

Sofi Tukker - Drinkee (Video)

Sofi Tukker - Matadora

New Music: Sofi Tukker - Awoo (Video)

5 reasons why you should love Sofi Tukker and their video for Awoo:

1. Because pop songs with a silly word that you can shout out every time the band sing it are weirdly exhilarating. Do it. It will make you feel happy.

2. Because they’ve got swans in their swimming pool.

3. The video has cute chicks in it. And before the internet police have a go at me for the use of my language in the previous sentence, please consider the fact that sometimes you are too busy trying to fit things to your own narrative that you miss the obvious point at all. Watch the video before making judgements.

4. Because Sofi Tukker make doing dance routines cool again.

5. Because Sofi Tukker make pop fun again.

Sofi Tukker - Awoo (Video)

New Music: Sofi Tukker - Drinkee (Video)

The last post on Breaking More Waves was about Sofi Tukker and now here I am, in what is probably a first for this blog, writing about them immediately again. The first post was because they recently banged out a delightful tune called Awoo from their forthcoming Soft Animals EP (which incidentally features a giraffe on the cover, always a good idea, after all one of the best pop videos of the last few years (here) had a giraffe in it). Now Team Tucker and Team Sophie (I’ve yet to decide which team I’m on yet, at the moment I want to vote for them both) have released their first ever video for Drinkee. You’ll probably remember Drinkee from back in 2015. It’s an absurdly addictive track that mixes a snappy guitar riff with Brazilian poetry and some house grooves; because of its brilliance it even found itself on an Apple watch advert.

Last night I went to see the band play live in London. Many elements of their live show are incorporated into the video, namely Sophie’s halter neck and white flared trousers garb, the band's ability to do a cool head roll (at 2:05) and the weird instrument they have that appears to be some sampler pads on some sort of rotary pole (at 2:15). Sadly the jungle backdrop and Tucker’s immensely cool water sip moment ( at 1:08) didn’t make it into the live gig this time round, but they did manage a few choreographed dance moves, including Sophie attempting ballet even though she admitted she can’t do ballet at all. 

Sofi Tukker is my new favourite pop band. Go see them live, listen to their Soft Animals EP and watch this video to make your life that much better.

Sofi Tukker - Drinkee (Video)

New Music: Sofi Tukker - Awoo

Sofi Tukker (they’re a duo consisting of Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern) have been picking up a fair head of steam with previous releases such as Déja Vu Affair, Drinkee, Hey Lion and Matadora and now you can add new track Awoo (feat. Betta Lemme) to that list. Get your dancing shoes on for this one as it takes a simple keyboard riff and rolls with it before going for the kill with a pause, a glorious shout of ‘Awoo’ and some percussion that heads off to planet oblivion. Sometimes we can all overthink music, both in terms of its creation and its meaning. Sometimes you’ve just got to let go of your inhibitions and have some fun. This is one of those tracks to do exactly that to. Yeah it's silly, but sitting stroking your beard and listening to Radiohead forever isn't really enjoying life is it?

Sofi Tukker hit the UK this week, touching down for just 1 day, but with 2 shows on Friday 1st July. 1st as part of the supporting bill at Massive Attack’s Hyde Park concert and then later in the evening with their own headline gig at the Lexington. If you’re at that second gig I’ll see you down the front for a dance.

This track as well as all the other tunes they’ve put out so far have been collected together and will feature on Soft Animals, their debut EP, due on 8th July. That phrase 'eagerly anticipated' is over used and not always true when used by music writer types, but certainly from my point of view Soft Animals is exactly that.

Sofi Tukker - Awoo