Cornershop – “Topknot,” plus doggy fashion tips

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Cornershop – Topknot (Feat. Bubbley Kaur)

Cornershop - Topknot (Caveman remix, Feat. M.I.A.)

I woke up at 6 am this morning (for undisclosed reasons) to a world covered in a thin blanket of snow. Yes, it’s that time again, fellow Middle Westerners – time to avoid Best Buy out of the fear of seeing your friend’s mom there while you’re stoned looking for a replacement battery-pod cover for your favorite Wiimote; time to budget for an extra twenty minutes of boot-tying, scarf-wrapping, warm-glove-fingering, cat fur coat-zipping, and insulating latex body-suit putting-on; time to “forget” to buy gifts for inferior family members; time to quit smoking, start drinking, and keep sweatin’. Or something. What?

One of my favorite aspects of winter, aside from wuzzy sweaters, is wintertime musical advocacy (not really). I could go one route and suggest to you, noble reader, a steady diet of Atlas Sound B-sides and somnambulant post-rock and then, as you sleep, just do this at your sleeping face for like 20 minutes straight. Also, If you didn’t wake up, I’d tousle your hair.

Instead, I’m going to divert your attention from frozen winter balladry and suggest that you listen to this song, a classic Beach Boys-style pop gem, except not really. Actually, it’s a delicate little electronic summertime whatchamacallit, upbeat but strangely wistful, sung entirely in Punjabi (you can make up your own words; mine are about robot heart transplants, thankfully not yet illegal in this Great American Midwest, vote NO on Prop 211), called “Topknot.” The band, Cornershop, is Indian by way of Leicester (apparently a city in England that is not London), but that doesn’t really matter, not in the way that it matters to, say, M.I.A., whose sub-continental heritage over-informs just about everything she does, to the extent that even the albums sitting next to Kala on the shelf this holiday season have started to bear the distinct odor of Tamil uprising and mango chutney (this is true, scout’s honor). Cornershop wield their Indian-ness with more subtlety and cleverness, which is why “Topknot,” on the other hand, is good. Great, in fact; a worthy addition to the already teeming masses of Indian twee-pop stutter-step-electronica superhits. Plus, vocals by a lady named Bubbley. It’s almost summertime. Bam!