Das Racist featuring Chairlift - “Fashion Party”One thing Das Racist excel at doing is calling attention to imbalances in social power, and highlighting ways we can be ignorant of and/or insensitive to other people’s contexts often without necessarily having negative intentions. Some of these misunderstandings and tensions get laughed off, sometimes they are cause for sharper words. A lot of the time their critique falls somewhere in between, as they go for a lot of ambiguous targets. There’s always this understanding that these race and class relationships are complex, that histories are tangled and confusing, and we’re usually not aware of when we’re being racist because, well, that’s what ignorance is — not being aware. Das Racist aren’t the types to offer solutions, but they’re really good at pointing out ignorance, and that’s a valuable service in and of itself.

“Fashion Party” is an interesting song for them in that their songs usually only represent one side of a socially awkward encounter, but this one covers both sides, and they are equally uncomfortable. The premise of the song is that the group have been invited to some fashion event, and while both Das Racist and the woman who invited them — portrayed by Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek, a surprisingly solid rapper — want something from each other, they’re not really committing either way. The Das Racist guys are attracted to the glamor and money and beautiful women, but they feel out of place. It throws them off and makes them defensive, which in turn sends weird signals to their host, who sings “I don’t know if you want to hit me or if you want to dance.” There’s some desire for connection here, even if it’s just for rather shallow ends, but it doesn’t happen because everyone is too self-conscious. The song sounds smooth and relaxed, but at its core “Fashion Party” is uncertain and too self-aware to actually have a good time. Thankfully, that nervousness doesn’t transfer to the listener and override the soft, luxurious tone of the track.

Get it for free via Das Racist’s website.

Today’s streaming 7-inch is the new one from Japandroids; the latest in their 5-part 7-inch series. “Heavenward Grand Prix” is an all-new track, and “Shame” is a PJ Harvey cover (from her awesome 2004 record Uh Huh Her). The street-date for this one isn’t til next week, but you can actually order it right this very second — on clear vinyl — from the Polyvinyl store.

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