Oooh Watch Out

It is truly inspiring in these troubled times to see a towelhead and a heeb making beautiful sexxx jams together. Chromeo is Pee and Dave, friends since their Montreal adolescence. They’ve crossed the Gaza Strip of music to fuse their predilections for two lamented 80s genres into a wholly welcome new thing. Pee, the gun-clapping brown-skinned Quebecois, brings Cameo, Timexx Social Club, Zapp, and all those smooth lovers to the table. Dave, the Semitic bookworm and walking hip hop almanac, contributes echoes of Phil Collins, Bronski Beat, and other similar underground punk rockers.

Chromeo is signed to TIGA’s Turbo label, and with their first release, the “You’re So Gangsta” 12”, they’ve announced their mission statement to the world: slick-ass lover’s funk done to the max (real popping basses and sax solos), with nary a trace of irony. That’s right—no fucking irony. These guys are to smooth jams what Andrew WK is to pop metal. “These electroclash kids are like, ‘Ha ha, you’re so funny, you’re pretending to be a sad robot,’” mocks Dave. “But I’m not like, ‘Oh, it’s the 80s, let’s put on makeup and laugh.’ No. I can play any instrument and Pee [can] also. There’s real musical skill behind it.”

Let’s face it, it’s time for the next thing. Electro is getting a bit long in the tooth. And just like Gary Numan preceded Rockwell, Fischerspooner precedes Chromeo. It’s simply the logical step—there are electro-y touches, like synth melodies and twee female vocals, but when was the last time you heard a talkbox? “When we do a show, Pee plays a live talkbox, the whole rig with the tube in the mouth, and kids just bug out when they see that.”

It’s especially proper that Dave and Pee are ready to step to electro, because if history dictates, their type of music will be the next thing resurrected by nostalgia merchants. (It goes like this, mark our words: electro, smooth rock, industrial, grunge. By 2005, kids’ll be wearing flannel again.) Dave has only one specific ambition in mind for Chromeo in the present, though. “I want to write sincere love songs, like ‘Cool It Now’ by New Edition,” he says. “That is one of my all-time favorite tracks in the universe.”

CHESTER A. ARTHUR

Chromeo’s debut LP,

She’s In Control

, is out early in 2003. “You’re So Gangsta” is available now.