contemporary song reminiscent of Air's "Surfing on a Rocket?"

December 22, 2012 12:54 PM

This is a name-that-song. There's a somewhat recent song that is sort of similar to the refrain from Air's "Surfing on a Rocket" - the chords that start the song's main progression seem to have the same intervalic movement as the beginning of the refrain in SoR, and both songs have staccato clean guitar parts, though the guitar in the more recent song is more busy & sounds like it has the sharp string-on-fret attack of hammer-on playing (I could be wrong about that). I know I know this song & it is driving me crazy. For sociocultural context, I heard it last night in a bar/restaurant in Silverlake (Los Angeles). Thanks, amazing people!
posted by univac to media & arts (8 answers total)

I've always thought the chords in "Surfing on a Rocket" are similar to those in the Go-Gos "We've Got the Beat."
posted by thebazilist at 1:48 PM on December 22, 2012

Any other attributes? Voices male/female, lyrics, accents, etc?

One band I know of that's similar in style is Klee.
posted by samsara at 2:03 PM on December 22, 2012

Male vocal, I assume U.S.
posted by univac at 2:09 PM on December 22, 2012

The mood/style of the song is not Air-esque, just the chords at the beginning of the progression that resemble those from the refrain of the Air song. This song features guitar (clean, no distortion etc) heavily, I don't remember any synth parts at all.
posted by univac at 2:20 PM on December 22, 2012

Possibly "Myth" by Beach House?

Oh, never mind, I obviously didn't read your responses before typing.
posted by Mothlight at 2:51 PM on December 22, 2012

The guitar melody near the start of that sounds (to me) somewhat like the guitar melody at the start of Lovesong, by the Cure. It starts at about 15 seconds into Lovesong.
posted by Flunkie at 4:07 PM on December 22, 2012

It was STRFCKR by Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Third.
posted by univac at 11:04 PM on December 31, 2012

Wow, that's definitely influced by Air. Interesting trivia item, that song was also used in Target's pink pepto commercial in 2009.

Kind of funny when you think about the awkwardness of crediting the original artist "StarFucker."

P.S. I think the song's name is "Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second." Glad you found it!
posted by samsara at 3:55 PM on January 1