With an iPod and The Saturday Knights even the most mudane tasks can become fun. Doing the dishes is fun. Paying the bills is fun. Cleaning the cat box is more fun than a barrel of funny monkeys doing those things funny monkeys do. The Saturday Knights full length debut, Mingle, is one of those old school party albums where anything goes. Rock, pop, hip-hop, soul, and funk all have a place in the mix, and with an all star list of contributors including Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil, Jim Horn and The Muscle Shoal Horns (Pet Sounds and the original Shaft soundtrack), and The Dap Kings (Sharon Jones & Amy Winehouse) it’s all done very well. Lead single, “Dog Park,” straddles rock and rap, but not in the regrettable late Nineties style, but how it was done before Rage Against the Machine inspired a legion of rhythm deprived imitators to get their rap on. The beats are kept simple, but delivered with enough thump to shake your bumper, while the guitar melody glides easily above the bounce. And as this is the Saturday Knights, the lyrics are delivered with an abundance of wit. Around a story of a broken relationship and an inherited dog, comes the chorus, “Dog park/You can show off your chain/Dog Park/It’s so off the chain.” It’s so simple, and so obvious, but it brings a smile to my face every time.

MP3: The Saturday Knights – Dog Park

Mingle by The Saturday Knights will be out June 24th on Light in the Attic Records.

The Saturday Knights Myspace
Light in the Attic Records

Photo by Hillary Harris