One-Day Contest: Win Chemical Brothers Tickets

We still remember sitting in Danny's back in 1995 when one of the bartenders started this track named "Leave Home" on the bar's cruddy stereo system. Back then, Danny's was basically a punk-rock house party every night, and the aggressive electronic song that suddenly tumbled forth stunned the entire room. We didn't know quite what to make of it, but we realized that someone had finally successfully synthesized a dance track with a rock and/or roll attitude.

That mind-bending track was off The Chemical Brothers' debut, and the band went on to help redefine the common man's perception of what dance music could be. Indie rockers discovered it was OK to shake their hips, Jeep-driving frat boys learned something else besides the electric slide, black-taffeta'd goths learned to sway to a different beat, and everyone met on the dance floor amidst blaring sirens and thunderous drum breaks.

The Chemical Brothers have continued to release solid albums over the years, although we must admit, as countless bands have appropriated their sound, their most recent output had us feeling a little less than moved. The band recaptured our attention earlier this summer with We Are The Night, a powerful return to form. We wouldn't call the disc backward looking, but we would say it recaptures some of the excitement of their earliest singles, and the most obvious improvement is the band's successful wrangling of its guest singers. Many of the more recent vocal contributions have run roughshod over songs that would have been better without them, but this time around The Chemical Brothers have paired up singers with their songs perfectly. Standouts are the Klaxons-driven "All Rights Reversed" and the goofy rap Fatlip provides on "The Salmon Dance." And of course there are the requisite dance-floor ragers mixed with more thoughtful melodic workouts throughout the remainder of the disc.

The band is stopping in Chicago next Monday, September 24, for an 18+ show at The Riviera. We've got two pairs of tickets to give away to some lucky readers, but you need to enter now, since we're closing the contest at 5 p.m. today. Enter after the jump and good luck!

Photo by Mick Rock.