A Stone In The Ground

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Fainting by Numbers – aka Alexis Taylor and Justus Köhncke – have a double A side single out at the moment. As well as a cover of John Lennon’s Watching the Wheels, the single features a Fainting by Numbers original, A Stone in the Ground (click link below to watch the video).

Alexis Taylor says of the video: “Award-winning visual artist Oliver Payne has made an incredibly beautiful, funny and very affecting video for A Stone In The Ground. Justus and I are really pleased with how Oliver’s video turned out – it is by far one of the most wonderful things I’ve been involved with, and certainly a breath of fresh air in the world of music videos. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.”

The single is available as a limited edition 12″ and a download via Moshi Moshi.

Festival Season Is Upon Us – UPDATED

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Hot Chip‘s summer schedule has been coming together on the site for the last couple of months now. In case you’ve missed any gig announcements or want to check whether the band are swinging by your town/country, here are all this year’s summer festival dates – now updated with ticket links.

25/05 – Primavera (Parc del Forum, Barcelona, Spain)
01/06 – Ahmad Tea Music Festival (Hermitage Garden, Moscow, Russia)
13/07 – Ilosaarirock (Joensuu, Finland)
20/07 – Latitude Festival (Southwold, UK)
21/07 – Longitude Festival (Marlay Park, Dublin, Ireland)
27/07 – Blue Balls Festival (Luzern, Switzerland)
02/08 – Lollapolooza (Grant Park, Chicago, USA)
03/08 – The Grove Music Festival (Niagara-on-the-Lake, On, Canada)
04/08 – Osheaga Festival (Parc Jean-Drapeau, Montreal)
15/08 – Paredes de Coura (Porto, Portugal)
17/08 – Route de Rock (St Malo, France)

As well as Hot Chip live dates, there are various DJ dates by most band members taking place across the whole summer – the live pages were fully updated with all available dates last week, check there for details.

About Group Will Be Between The Walls

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About Group – the quartet of John Coxon, Charles Hayward, Alexis Taylor and Pat Thomas – have announced details of Between The Walls. Their third album will be released through Domino on July 1st.

Between The Walls captures the sound of a band ‘playing’ together, in both senses of the word – experimenting and trying things, being playful, as much as being a group performing as a unit together. Between The Walls is the sound of people pushing towards and pulling against one another simultaneously. It is the sound of buzzing amplifiers, sudden musical non-sequiturs, loud blasts of straight synth lines cutting through melody and structure. And it is also the sound of beautiful and odd electronic textures and brilliantly defined and deliberate drums, underpinning fragile but deliberate performances of sad songs and country ballads. ‘The balance between songwriting and free playing, and a lack of clarity about which mode we will be in for any given amount of time, is the key to About Group.’ Alexis Taylor

Between The Walls will be available on CD, LP, download and on special edition 2 x CD, featuring a bonus disc with DJ loops which will be available through Dom mart and indie stores only. Pre-order the album HERE. Download album track, Walk On By, HERE.

The album features:

1 After Video
2 Walk On By
3 All Is Not Lost
4 Words
5 Graph Paper
6 Make The World Laugh
7 Love Because
8 Nightlife/Sinking
9 Untitled
10 I Never Lock That Door
11 Yes
12 If You Can’t Love Me

About Group are Charles Hayward (This Heat, Camberwell Now), John Coxon (Spring Heel Jack, Spiritualized)
Pat Thomas (played with Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley) and Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip).

Chip Into America

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Currently playing festivals and packed out headline shows across the States, it’s fair to say Hot Chip have blown a fair few minds. The Guardian’s Tim Jonze tweeted that last weekend’s set at Coachella was the best of the weekend and added in a review online “Hot Chip have been steadily building themselves a reputation as one of Britain’s best pop bands and the same can be said for their live show, a set almost scientficially engineered to thrill a giddy festival crowd”. Meanwhile, across the other side of the country, the Village Voice reviewed the band’s earlier sold out New York Roseland Ballroom gig as “an unstoppable, endlessly gratifying 80 to 90 minute party.”

The band’s U.S. dates continue this week with a show in Las Vegas on Thursday (with support from Four Tet) and a second Coachella set on Saturday evening (4/20). After that, the band begin an all out assault on the summer festival circuit, playing shows in Spain, Russia, Switzerland, Canada, France, the US and the UK. As always, all dates can be found in the live section of this site.

UPDATED Joe Remixes Dirty Projectors

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Hear Joe Goddard’s staggeringly good remix of the Dirty Projectors ‘The Socialites’ here. The track is released digitally and on 12″ on May 13th via Domino. Look out for forthcoming Joe Goddard remixes of Chicken Lips, Andreya Triana, Ramona Flowers and Iamamiwhoami (we’ll post them when we get links).

UPDATE: Joe’s mix of The Ramona Flowers is now online via Clash Magazine. Click here to listen.

AND ANOTHER UPDATE: Hear Joe’s mix of Chicken Lips here.

UPDATED – New Build Single, Video and USA Dates

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Felix Martin and Al Doyle’s other band – New Build – have a new single out now called “False Thing” and Felix has directed their first ever video!

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Available directly from the band HERE or from iTunes HERE.

Following on from the storming Hot Chip performances at Coachella, Felix and Al are bringing their “other” 7 piece band to the West Coast of the USA for the first time, and with it their unique blend of electronics, funk and raw energy.

In support is the excellent UK band NO CEREMONY///, making this something of a mini British invasion.

More details about each show below!

Saturday 27th April: Britweek Festival Show @ Echoplex, LA
Sunday 28th April: The Independent, San Francisco
Tuesday April 30th: Doug Fir Lounge, Portland
Wednesday May 1st: Neumos, Seattle


Alexis Plays Charity DJ Gig

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Alexis and friends will be spinning records in aid of Childhood First on Saturday 16th March at Life Bar (2-4 Old Street, London, EC1). DJing with Alexis on the night will be John Coxon (About Group, Spring Heeled Jack), Green Gartside (Scritti Politti), Susumu Mukai (Zongamin) and Guy Bolongaro – all for a great cause and, to add to that, there’s the possibly of a surprise live performance from a very special guest.

Alexis Announces New Projects – UPDATED

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Never one to rest for too long, Alexis Taylor has been keeping himself busy with two new projects.

Firstly, Alexis sings on a Hot Chip produced track on the new Fimber Bravo album – you can hear it here. He plays a couple of dates as part of Fimber Bravo’s live band before heading out to the States for Hot Chip dates:

8th March: Heaven (supporting Jamie Lidell)
19th March: The Barfly (XFM X-posure Night where Alexis also supports)
5th May: Land of Kings Festival, Hackney
18th May: The Great Escape Festival, Brighton
21st July: Latitude Festival

You can hear Fimber Bravo and Alexis on Radio 4′s Loose Ends this week – we’ll post an iPlayer link after broadcast.

Secondly, Alexis announces a single release as one half of Fainting by Numbers – a collaboration with German techno producer Justus Köhncke. They release a double a-side single ‘Watching the Wheels’/'A Stone in the Ground’ on April 15th (like the Fimber Bravo LP, this is also released on Moshi Moshi). Pitchfork described the single as “the perfect balance of longing and regret” – you can hear A Stone in the Ground here.