
I originally wanted to do a list of the 10 best tracks entitled "Chinatown". Unfortunately I couldn't gather enough tracks with the name. Even if I could complete a list it would be with a couple of cheap imitation chinatowns that i found scouring the worldwide interweb for "tracks entitled chinatown", chinatowns that i didn't care to listen to and neither would you. So i've expanded the scope of my list to consider tracks named for all things China in addition to ones named for Chinese enclaves in major metropolitan areas. However, chinatowns are still the focus here, and I tried to keep as many of them on the playlist as possible. here it is.
10. "All The Way To China" by James Figurine
James Figurine is yet another moniker for the musician behind Dntel and Figurine. This track is lifted from his Mistake Mistake Mistake LP, and it is your typical light and airy electropop China.
9. "China Grove" by Doobie Brothers
Classic rock China, goes well with Budweiser.
8. "Chinatown" by Thin Lizzy
From the album Chinatown (I know, chinatown overload). This is your standard brute rock chinatown. The guitar solo gets really annoying and kind of kills it though. "Living and dying down in Chinatown."
7. "A Chinese Actor" by Califone
Califone is a really good band out of Chicago. Drone-rock chinatown.
6. "Chinatown" by Do Make Say Think
This is Chinatown to listen to on rainy days or long drives…days when you're floating, days when you remember too much. Minimalist post-rock chinatown.
5. "Chinatown" by Wild Nothing
Chinatown is pretty much the only thing I know about this band. 2010 Chinatown.
4. "China Girl" by Iggy Pop
Co-written with David Bowie, Iggy Pop's version appears on his 1977 album The Idiot. When he sings "I'm feeling tragic like I'm Marlon Brando when I look at my China girl" i get chills down my spine. Iggy Pop chinatown, tragic chinatown.
3. "Chinatown" by Destroyer
From his upcoming album Kaputt, more 2010 chinatown. I've always had a weak spot for Destroyer, and like a lot of his tracks it took more than one listen for this one to really grow on me. However, once you decide you like it the hazy melodies stay lodged in your head. Dan Bejar can really place you on an emotional rollercoaster--he's seamlessly snide and impassioned. There is drunken schmaltz in one line and balladry in the next. There is regret in Destroyer's chinatown. His chinatown is sentimental when it knows it should not be. It is a classy man in a seedy establishment. There is sadness in Destroyer's chinatown, but not too much…because hey, it's only life. "I can't walk away at all in Chinatown." Destroyer's is a heady chinatown.
2. "China Steps" by Women.
I only recently discovered these canadian art-rockers--one of my big music revelations of 2010. "China Steps" is from Women's Public Strain (2010). If you don't have both albums by this band, get them. Women's china has a pulsing bass line and shifty, trebly guitar jarring through it. Make noise-rock stew out of Deerhunter, No Age and Deerhoof and you get Women. Damn it, how did i miss this band for three years?
1. "Chinatown" by Luna
"Chinatown" is the opening track on Luna's 1995 album Penthouse. Luna rules, Penthouse is a great album, and Dean Wareham is cool as shit. His chinatown wins. I got the idea to look into other artists' chinatowns while listening to Luna's chinatown; and, we may have learned that there are other chinatowns out there, but when I think of the song "Chinatown" I'm thinking of this one. When Wareham sings "looking lost in Chinatown" I'm pretty sure I'm right there with him, meandering around with the shimmering, lazy Fender guitar sounds. Message to other chinatowns from Luna's "Chinatown": "you can't be lucky all the time." Luna's chinatown is superior.
How do you like your chinatown? Download and decide.
"Chinese Translation" by M. Ward
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