This spring, my girlfriend and I lamed out after a very rocking Hold Steady show in Bloomington, Indiana and returned to our hotel room earlier than we had expected. We turned on the tv and started watching SNL because Seth Rogan was hosting, and hey, he is pretty fucking funny. We were talking and missed the introduction of the musical guests that night. It didn't seem that important at first. Another indie rock band full of fey boys singing earnestly about something. But then that earnestness turned into urgency and suddenly we were paying attention. Suddenly we were tripping all over ourselves trying to figure out who the hell it was that was blowing us away in that hotel room in Bloomington. To be honest the last group I would have ever guessed it would be was Phoenix, who have always been an "also ran" French pop band for me, well behind fellow countrymen Air and Sebastian Tellier. But it was, and this year was the year Phoenix finally got it right, really right. "Lisztomania" set a new standard in indie pop music, infectious as hell, with just the right amount of song progression to make it intriguing beyond the basic verse verse chorus template, but not make it too complicated to take it out of the pop realm, and all played with a tightness that can only come from a band who has been kicking it around for nearly a decade now. Sorry I ever doubted you Phoenix, if I had known it was all leading to this, I would have never have questioned you. That SNL performance here, and an inspired Brat Club mash up here
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