Since we have a tendency to look below the radar for our music, we decided to take a weekly look at The Populist View. We’ll stop short of calling our tastes underground, let’s just say we’re pop-culturally inept. So we’ve devised a way to keep up to date.

Its quite simple actually. We’re just going to give side by side comparisons of top ten U.S. singles from Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and the Official top ten UK singles of every week. This way we’ll always know what’s spreading the cheese for radio programmers and people who still buy music in the two most influential music markets in the world. And if this week’s list is any indication, the people want their Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga on both sides of the Atlantic!

Billboard’s top ten U.S. singles for the week of 05.28.09
#01. “Boom Boom Pow” – The Black Eyed Peas
#02. “Poker Face” – Lady Gaga
#03. “Blame It” – Jamie Foxx feat. T-Pain
#04. “Don’t Stop Believin’” – Glee Cast
#05. “I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)” – Pitbull
#06. “New Divide” – Linkin Park
#07. “Day ‘N’ Nite” – Kid Cudi
#08. “Halo” – Beyonce
#09. “Birthday Sex” – Jeremih
#10. “Waking Up In Vegas” – Katy Perry

The Official top ten UK singles for the week of 05.28.09
#01. “Bonkers” – Dizzee Rascal & Armand Van Helden
#02. “Boom Boom Pow” – The Black Eyed Peas
#03. “Number 1″ – Tinchy Stryder feat. N-Dubz
#04. “We Made You” – Eminem
#05. “Red” – Daniel Merriweather
#06. “In For The Kill” – La Roux
#07. “Not Fair” – Lily Allen
#08. “Kiss Me Thru The Phone” – Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em feat. Sammie
#09. “Poker Face” – Lady Gaga
#10. “Fairytale” – Alexander Rybak

Domestic life with artificial intelligence and a white bed dominate the screen for Röyksopp’s new single “The Girl & The Robot,” which also stars Swedish singer Robyn.

The Norwegian duo employs more of a club anthem mixed with slight techno tendencies for the song, which will be released in stores next month. It starts out with a haunting and hooking electro powerhouse with Robyn’s sweet-like vocals stating “I go mental every time you leave for work” and asking when her beloved he-bot will be home.

The song is the second single taken from Röyksopp’s new album Junior, which also features guests Lykke Li and Karin Dreijer Andersson (The Knife/Fever Ray). The video marks the first time band members Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge appear in their own video, of who we had great pleasure trying to spot.

Robyn, who borrows a bit from the La Roux handbook to hair styles and lounges around in a futuristic cocktail dress, looks pensive for much of the video. What happens when you fall in love with your pre-ordered robot man? What happens when he does landscaping outside? What happens when a pregnancy test is involved? Watch below and see if these Europeans are really predicting the future.

Röyksopp Featuring Robyn – “The Girl & The Robot”

For a 21 year old being touted by international media as a fresh face of electronic music, La Roux’s Elly Jackson has a pretty good head on her shoulders. The Brixton native, who with band mate Ben Langmaid comprise the duo, carries the interview out more like a conversation between friends than for a publication, and also isn’t afraid to swear.

Playing five dates on her mini-States tour, the red-headed one stopped in San Francisco to play Popscene as part of the Club NME series — a rag of which she has also been fawned over. But the show that night proved there are some truths behind the chops. Jackson took a bit to warm up to the crowd, playing closer songs “I’m Not Your Toy” and “Bulletproof” with more enthusiasm, dancing with her beats and facing out into the crowd more. She teased the audience by leaning into the front row almost tauntingly. “Which one of you is gonna have this up on YouTube tomorrow?” she asked before screams of confirmation answered her question.

We chatted with her pre-show, and in addition to her amicable nature, she also was very cool about our extreme stuttering problem from a lack of coffee.

“God, I’m so sorry I keep fucking up these questions,” I said apologetically. “Thank you for being patient.”

“Oh, no worries,” Jackson responded. “The point is that you get them right. I’d much rather have you say it the way you want to.”

Five Questions For La Roux
How much hair product do you think you use a month to get hair as awesome as yours?
Oh, wow, I don’t know. In a month, usually one can of mousse, intense mousse. You don’t need much wax but there’s that, and also very strong hairspray.

You’re an electronic powerhouse now, but you used to be more inclined to folk music when you first started out.
It wasn’t like we decided to electronic music out of the blue or anything. It just happened really naturally. My dad taught me guitar from the age of 6 and I was introduced to all music: rock and blues, folk. As a kid I liked Joni Mitchell a lot. I guess it was just kind of natural to write in that style. I wrote songs from the age of 12 and that’s where I pulled inspiration from. If you think about it, Paul Simon is pretty synthy — and you can quote me on that — people like Stevie Wonder also can fall into this. When I met Ben I’d written a lot of songs in a folk kind of area, and the more we wrote together, it just became a bit passé to us and we took it out of the tracks to start to go more dance.

For you, where is the line between creating original content and paying tribute?
I think there is a bit of both in what we do. It’s kind of annoyed me when people have taken the 50s or the 60s [to incorporate into their music], and people don’t bat an eyelid, but when you put the 80s in, people go, “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I mean, you weren’t there in the 50s, and then the counter is “But don’t you like rock and roll?” It’s like the 80s have this tainted thing on it. There is a lot of the revival of the leggings and spandex and American Apparel going on, but there was a classy cool romantic appeal that we’re appealing to, not the neon part. More Tears For Fears side.

While I was doing research I found there’s actually a band called LeRoux, which describes themselves as “Southern Rock/New Orleans Funk/Classic Rock/Power Ballad band with excellent harmonies, tight musicianship.” How do you differ?
Sounds like a big jerk off to me. What a bunch of assholes. Who says that about themselves?!

They do! On their own website, even.
That’s so contradictive as well, all the descriptions. Why do you need to write it down when it’s…ah, never mind (laughs).

Since you guys just got off a UK tour with her, is Lily Allen as horrible as she’s made out to be?
Do people think she is horrible? (laughs) To say what we think…like, when everyone else does that in their friend group, they’re not seen as bad. But when it’s written down and the facial expression is done, then it gets taken out of context. If one of your friends said it, you wouldn’t even remember if it sounds horrible or bitchy. She’s really not like that at all. But you have to know it to understand it. Someone went on my MySpace and left a comment that said “You’re such a bitch!” And that really hurts, because really, really, really, really I’m not a bitch, but now I can’t change your mind because you think I’m a cunt.

Electro-popstress La Roux made her Stateside debut at Brookyln’s Studio B over the weekend. The 21-year-old singer, also known as Elly Jackson, is still in our fair land with stops in San Francisco and Los Angeles yet to come. With a RUB-less DJ Ayres and Nick Catchdubs (better known as Flashing Lights) warming the crowd — and despite the usual Studio B technical problems — La Roux left the audience sweaty and happy.

[The Flashing Lights DJs]

La Roux will be making her Stateside debut this upcoming April. The 21-year-old singer, also known as Elly Jackson, will be traveling across the Atlantic from the U.K. to perform five dates in the U.S. next month. 

La Roux has been heating up London warehouse spaces with 80s-influenced electro-pop tracks since last year, and has gained a large U.K. fan base. Now, La Roux will be hitting Brooklyn, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, giving North American fans a taste of what the firey red-head has been cooking up across the way in the U.K. 

The Quicksand EP will also be released by La Roux this April in the U.S. The Three-track EP will be released off of Cherrytree Records. 

La Roux tour dates
04.03.09 – Brooklyn, NY (Studio B)
04.04.09 – Montreal, OE (Les Saints)
04.05.09 – Toronto, ON (The Drake)
04.09.09 – San Francisco, CA (330 Ritch)
04.12.09 – Los Angeles, CA (Roxy)

We like a good theme as much as the next person, so apparently it’s UK day around here and that’s how it’s going to stay. In keeping, we’ve got the new (as of last week) La Roux video for the single “In For The Kill” for your viewing pleasure.

La Roux – “In For The Kill”