The Cool Kids “Bundle Up + TV on the Radio “Will Do” | Song reviews

“Bundle Up”
The Cool Kids

When the Cool Kids dubbed their full-length debut When Fish Ride Bicycles, it was as if they knew the record would be forever delayed. Having settled legal disputes with their former label, the record is now coming out. The Chicagoans can return to the business of building a time machine back to 1986. Unfortunately, all folks want to talk about is that the band is now signed to Mountain Dew. Yes, the soda. But that’s not much different than Sony paying your bills. The Kids will just have to perform at more BMX rallies.

“Bundle Up” sticks to the early Def Jam template, rolling down the street with its foot off the gas, an 808 rattling in the trunk. Crispy fake snares tick away under chilly synthesizers. Sir Michael Rocks boasts of being “the only third-grader in the school with a beeper.” Hip-hop deserves its nostalgia acts, too. Just as Chicago needed a song that makes our brutal winters sexy. But then the chorus toasts “the city of the frozen lakes.” Isn’t that Minneapolis?

Sir Michael Rocks goes solo, opening for Chip Tha Ripper at Lincoln Hall Sunday 6.