Me and Guiliani Down by the School Yard in Bloomington, MN

!!!
's 2003 single
Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard (A True Story)
vaulted the group to the very forefront of the latest wave of
punk
-
disco
bands. Over the nine-plus minutes it takes
"Me and Giuliani"
to unwind, the band investigates every aspect of the tremendously funky groove and lets
Nic Offer
's mumbled vocals (very
Strummer
without the razorblades) weave in and out like a punch-drunk fighter (or like a relatively sober
Shaun Ryder
). Every couple minutes there are breakdowns in which
Offer
bursts into
"Footloose,"
and there's another at the very end that cuts out everything but the background vocals and some mighty handclaps.
"Intensifieder Sunracapellectrohshit Mix 03"
is more insistent with
's vocals very up-front in the mix. The groove is tighter and the production borrows some vocal-splicing and beat-twisting techniques from
techno
. While
the Rapture
and to a lesser extent
Radio 4
made off with all the headlines,
was making the best music of all the retro-
dancers. ~ Tim Sendra