Top 10: French Kiss Records

French Kiss has been one of my favourite labels for several years, and not just because it's run by some of the guys from Les Savy Fav (though that obviously helps). They have a fantastic roster of bands and a great record of making tracks freely available to get people hooked. People like me. Finding out that a new band has signed there consistently counts as a fruitful recommendation. Speaking of that, try these!

The Detachment Kit - Sitting Still, Talking About Jets 
Yes, it has a stupid prog name.  And it gets worse on that front: the album is called They Raging, Quiet Army.  Whatever that means.  But if I had to make an all-time top 10 without a theme or niche, this would be a live contender.  The Detachment Kit oscillate inexplicably between amazing and turgid without any warning (if they were hirsute I'd happily refer to them as bipolar bears), but this is the very top end of that scale.  If you need another reason to listen, I can do no better than refer you to the Queen Beaktapus board game enclosed with their second album.  See also: Skyscrapers, Dead Angels Make Slow Sound

The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy! 
This is just a song about a girl, and a guy, and a horse… called Chips Ahoy.  The horse, not the girl or the guy.  It doesn't have a point, a moral or a hidden meaning.  It's just fun to listen to, and triple that live. Witty lyrics and world-class riffs.  I can't recommend their gigs highly enough, but only because any accurate description would stop me getting tickets next time.  I've never seen anyone look happier than Craig Finn on stage.  See also: Constructive Summer, Stuck Between Stations, The Swish, Cattle And The Creeping Things, most of the rest of their songs…

Passion Pit - Little Secrets
You probably know this already.  Passion Pit are terrible live - the guy can't sing at all - but the recorded versions are bouncy and fun, so why let that ruin it for you?  Epic falsetto dance music, for all I know.  See also: I've Got Your Number, Moth's Wings

Thunderbirds Are Now! - Eat This City
They're VERY CURRENT, and they're VERY HUNGRY.  At least, that's what I took away from this song.  Either that or they're VERY ANGRY ABOUT ZONING RESTRICTIONS.  This is a silly band with silly song names like Panthers In Crime and Enough About Me, Let's Talk About Me, but this track is the highlight of a great album.  And the band name probably seemed less ironic when they were still releasing records.  See also: Better Safe Than Safari, 198090

Rahim - 10,000 Horses 
This song goes woo woo in all the right places.  Also some wrong ones, but the balance is in their favour.   I don't know whether Rahim are still releasing music and can't recommend any other songs, but only because I haven't heard them.  Hey, how about this: you do some work for once and tell ME whether they're good!  This isn't all one way you know.

Local Natives - Sun Hands
They're a bit like the Fleet Foxes you read all those laudatory things about that you couldn't hear in their boring records.  I shouldn't complain: I did get to see The Clientele massively overshadow them as support.  Anyway.  Where was I?  Ah yes, this band.  They're critically acclaimed AND good, so give last year's debut album a try.  See also: Airplanes, Who Knows Who Cares

Enon - Come Into 

If you remember guitarist John Schmersal's previous band Brainiac, you probably already know Enon.  Noisy jerky indie, sometimes with added Japanese girl vocals.  Never knowingly overproduced.  This is from their first album, Believo! - the later ones were probably more consistent, especially the brilliant High Society.  See also: Natural Disasters, Starcastic

The Dodos - Winter 
Stripped down - drums, guitar, man voices.  Quite different from most other French Kiss bands.  If you need to crack your way out of a tedious singer-songwritery rut, this would be a good place to start.  See also: Fools, Walking

Lifter Puller - Space Humpin' $19.99
Lifter Puller (LFTR PLLR to fans and irritable vowel sufferers) were Craig Finn's first band.  I'd apologise for including this song alongside the Hold Steady, but I'm just not an apologising kind of guy.   Plus, it's awesome.  It's hard to summarise the difference between the two bands, but let's try: all Lifter Puller's songs about drugs are very slightly less mature and articulate.  Lifter Puller had their own internal universe - a cast of characters, a map of streets and stories.  Apparently people still make pilgrimages to Minneapolis intersections referenced in their songs.  Not very many people, you understand.  A select and crazy few.  See also: Lie Down On Lansdowne, Half Dead And Dynamite

Les Savy Fav - Tragic Monsters 
I couldn't leave them out and wouldn't want to.  I've seen them a few times: when Tim Harrington started throwing lost-and-found women's shoes into the crowd in the rain at Victoria Park, I caught one and kept it for a year (almost entirely through forgetfulness).  At another gig, he taught my sister a lesson by shoving her phone down her top for texting during a song.  Punky songs with clever lyrics that are just easy enough to sing while off your tits or 30 metres into the crowd above their heads while naked in a dustbin.  "What we don't know can't hurt us yet", this song says.  Apply that rule and go buy their albums today.  Hell, give your record collection a spring clean and go get all the albums on this list.