| "Shake a Fist" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Hot Chip | ||||
| from the album Made in the Dark | ||||
| Released | 23 October 2007 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 5:11 | |||
| Label | Astralwerks | |||
| Songwriter(s) |
| |||
| Producer(s) | Hot Chip | |||
| Hot Chip singles chronology | ||||
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"Shake a Fist" is a song by English electronic music band Hot Chip from their third studio album, Made in the Dark (2008). It was released on 23 October 2007 as the album's lead single. The song was almost included on Hot Chip's second studio album, The Warning (2006). [1]
Alexis Taylor stated that the lyrics, "I move underwater, I eat what I slaughter", were formed as a result of him "imagining what it would be like to take salvia divinorum ", which Joe Goddard had taken at Glastonbury Festival. [2]
"Shake a Fist" was described by The Guardian as a "brooding, industrial, 12-inch introduction to Made in the Dark". [3] Prefix described the song as having "squeaky synths and a laid back bass line playing sidekick to ominous urban jungle drums" with vocals that have "a well defined power dynamic", whilst BBC Music said the song "blends terrific acidic bass [with] jagged snares" and has "shamanic backing vocals". [4] [5] The Irish Times characterised "Shake a Fist" as "a dizzy skyscraper of a track, full to the brim with sonic smarts and tricks yet hard-wired to a snaking, nagging groove". [6]
A sample of Todd Rundgren's voice was used as a result of Al Doyle and Alexis Taylor being fans of Rundgren's third solo album, Something/Anything? (1972). [1] The reception to the sample was mixed; musicOMH called it "delightful", but The Guardian dubbed it "grated". [7] [8] The Toronto Star highlighted "Shake a Fist" as a "top track", and described the song as "more intense and vaguely threatening than anything they've done before", although the use of the Todd Rundgren sample was described as "intrusive". [9]
| Region | Date | Format | Label | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 23 October 2007 | 12" single | Astralwerks | [10] |
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, multimedia artist, sound engineer and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the band Utopia. He is known for his sophisticated and often unorthodox music, his occasionally lavish stage shows, and his later experiments with interactive entertainment. He also produced music videos and was an early adopter and promoter of various computer technologies, such as using the Internet as a means of music distribution in the late 1990s.
Something/Anything? is the third album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released in February 1972. It was his first double album, and was recorded in late 1971 in Los Angeles, New York City and Bearsville Studios, Woodstock. Three quarters of the album was recorded in the studio with Rundgren playing all instruments and singing all vocals, as well as being the producer. The final quarter contained a number of tracks recorded live in the studio without any overdubs, save for a short snippet of archive recordings from the 1960s.
A Wizard, a True Star is the fourth album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released March 2, 1973, on Bearsville Records. It marked a departure from his previous, Something/Anything? (1972), with its lesser reliance on straightforward pop songs, a development he attributed to his experimentation with psychedelic drugs and his realization of "what music and sound were like in my internal environment, and how different that was from the music I had been making."
Todd is the fifth album and second double album by American musician Todd Rundgren, released in February 1974 on Bearsville Records. It is the follow-up to the previous year's A Wizard, a True Star and features a comparatively heavier reliance on guitar playing and synthesizers. About half of the tracks were performed by Rundgren alone, with the other half recorded with varying configurations of musicians. In the US, the album peaked at number 54, while lead single "A Dream Goes On Forever" reached number 69.
Skylarking is the ninth studio album by the English rock band XTC, released 27 October 1986 on Virgin Records. Produced by American musician Todd Rundgren, it is a loose concept album about a nonspecific cycle, such as a day, a year, the seasons, or a life. The title refers to a type of bird (skylark), as well as the Royal Navy term "skylarking", which means "fooling around". It became one of XTC's best-known albums and is generally regarded as their finest work.
Gregory A. Hawkes is an American musician best known as the keyboardist for the rock band The Cars.
Hot Chip are an English synthpop band formed in London in 2000. The group consists of multi-instrumentalists Alexis Taylor, Joe Goddard, Al Doyle, Owen Clarke, and Felix Martin. They are occasionally joined by former member Rob Smoughton for live performances and studio recordings. The group primarily produces music in the synth-pop and alternative dance genres, drawing influences from house and disco.
The Warning is the second studio album by British band Hot Chip. The album was released in the UK on 22 May 2006 by EMI Records and in the United States on 3 June 2006 by Astralwerks. Notable tracks include the UK singles, "Over and Over" and "Boy from School", as well as "(Just Like We) Breakdown", which was featured and remixed on the DFA Records compilation album The DFA Remixes – Chapter One. The album was nominated for the 2006 Mercury Music Prize.
Alexis Taylor is a British musician, best known as the lead vocalist and keyboardist/guitarist of the band Hot Chip. He is also the keyboardist in About Group and a solo artist.
"I Saw the Light" is a song written and performed by American musician Todd Rundgren that was released as the opening track from his 1972 album Something/Anything?. In the album's liner notes, Rundgren states that he intended the song to be the hit of the album, and copied the Motown tradition of putting hit songs at the beginning of albums.
Made in the Dark is the third studio album by English indietronica band Hot Chip, released on 4 February 2008 through EMI internationally and Astralwerks and DFA Records in the United States. Comprising 13 tracks, a defining feature of the album is the strong presence of romantic ballads. The ballad "Made in the Dark" was described as "sublime" by one critic, although not all the ballads received universal praise. Alexis Taylor, the main contributor to the lyrics, said he was proud of the album lyrically and felt that feelings of love and happiness, partly the result of his recent marriage, had contributed to the album's romantic tone.
"Ready for the Floor" is a Grammy Award-nominated song by British electronic group Hot Chip, and the second single from their 2008 album Made in the Dark. It was released on 28 January 2008 and peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart in February 2008.
"Boy from School" is a song by English indietronica band Hot Chip. It was released on 8 May 2006 in the UK as the second single from their second studio album, The Warning (2006). The original title of the song was shortened for the single release on the request of EMI. The song was covered by Portastatic in 2006, Maritime in 2007, Grizzly Bear in 2010 and Tears For Fears in 2013.
"Hello It's Me" is a song written by American musician Todd Rundgren. It was the first song he wrote, and was recorded by his group Nazz as a slow ballad, released as the B-side of the band's first single, "Open My Eyes", in 1968. A mid-tempo version of "Hello It's Me", recorded for Rundgren's 1972 solo album Something/Anything?, was issued as a single in 1973, reaching No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
"One Life Stand" is a single by Hot Chip from their 2010 album of the same name. It was released digitally through the iTunes Store on 30 November 2009. The physical release date was 1 February 2010. Vocalist Alexis Taylor said of the song, "I'm talking about turning a one-night stand into someone's whole life and I think that's quite a nice thing to say".
"Couldn't I Just Tell You" is a song written by American musician Todd Rundgren that was released on his 1972 album Something/Anything?. In July, it was released as a single and reached number 93 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. The song is considered influential to the development of the power pop genre.
"I Can't Take It" is a song by the American rock band Cheap Trick, which was released in 1983 as the second single from their seventh studio album Next Position Please. The song was written by Robin Zander and produced by Todd Rundgren.
In Our Heads is the fifth studio album by English electronic music band Hot Chip, released on 6 June 2012. It is the band's first album to be released by Domino. It was recorded in a span of five months at English producer Mark Ralph's Club Ralph studio in London. The promotional single "Flutes", for which a video debuted on 15 March 2012, was made available as a free download when pre-ordering the album through Domino. A limited-edition 12-inch vinyl of the song was eventually released on 2 April 2012.
True Romance is the debut studio album by English singer Charli XCX. It was released on 12 April 2013 by Asylum and Atlantic Records. Originally scheduled for release in April 2012, the album's release was delayed for a full year and had been in the making since early 2010 when Charli met with producer Ariel Rechtshaid in Los Angeles. To promote the album's release, Charli embarked on a three-date UK promotional tour in April 2013.
Why Make Sense? is the sixth studio album by English electronic music band Hot Chip. It was released in the United Kingdom on 18 May 2015 via Domino and was co-produced by the band and English record producer Mark Ralph. Similar to their previous album, In Our Heads (2012), it was recorded at Ralph's London studio, Club Ralph, but also at Angelic Studios in Northamptonshire. For vinyl and compact disc copies of Why Make Sense?, the album's cover art has 130,000 variations of its design, which comprises a set of parallel lines intersecting with each other in front of a coloured background. Three official singles were released from the album: "Huarache Lights", "Need You Now", and "Started Right".
