The Bears LP, Be Strong, is out in January - there was a fantastic piece in the Observer last week, click here if you missed it.  

Al
& Felix's band New Build have their super ltd, hand printed debut 12" Misery
Loves Company, coming out this Monday 28th Nov. To celebrate they'll be
playing some records on that day at Rough Trade East from 7pm, and also signing
some copies. Come down and have a little boogie. The debut New Build live show
is next week at the Islington Electrowerkz on Tues 29th.

Felix & Al's band New Build have announced their
first single "Misery Loves Company" for 28th November. The 3 track
ltd edition hand printed 12" can be found at the bands site www.newbuildband.com or at their bandcamp
page: http://newbuild.bandcamp.com/ The first live show by the band will be at Islington Electrowerkz on the 29th
Nov. Get your FREE tickets at http://www.eatyourownears.com/events/new-build/ The full album will be released in early 2012.

The 2 Bears will play a loft party in the East End on Bonfire Night with Horsemeat Disco mainmen Jim Stanton and Severino. Bunga Bunga takes place on November 5th - tickets are a tenner and are available from the Dalston Superstore and via Resident Advisor.  

Alexis Taylor will be DJing at a Kitsuné Club Night in Paris on October 7th
at La Machine du Moulin Rouge. The line up for the night features: IS TROPICAL
(live), LOGO (live), BEATAUCUE, THE TWELVES, ALEXIS TAYLOR, JERRY BOUTHIER and ICONA
POP. You can buy tickets here - for more info, check the Kitsuné site here.  

The 2 Bears – aka hardest
working man in showbiz Joe Goddard and Raf Daddy – are playing a series of DJ
gigs over the next couple of months in the UK before heading out to work on
their winter tans in Australia. Their next single, Work, will be released on
Southern Fried in November while their absolutely corking LP, Be Strong, will
emerge in the New Year.

In the meantime, the dates are:

September

23/9 - Annie Mac presents... at the Warehouse Project, Manchester

30/9 - Nick Grimshaw Presents,
Sheffield

October

7/10 - Stealth, Nottingham

14/10 - Snafu, Aberdeen

15/10 - Stiff Kitten, Belfast

21/10 - Annie Mac Presents... in Oxford

28/10 - Moda, Lincoln

29/10 - Wax On, Leeds

November

4/11 - Annie Mac Presents... in Bristol

5/12 - Bunga Bunga, Shoreditch

19/11 - Death Disco, The Arches,
Scotland

26/11 - Stereosonic, Sydney,
Australia

27/11 - Stereosonic, Perth,
Australia

December

2/12 - Stereosonic, tbc,
Australia 

3/12 - Stereosonic, Melbourne,
Australia 

4/12 - Stereosonic, Brisbane,
Australia

Check locally for times, prices, etc. 

Not content to be working on new Hot Chip material and finishing off the 2 Bears record, hardest working man in showbiz Joe Goddard is releasing a single "Gabriel". Described by Sasha (clearly a man who knows his club onions) as 'absolute tune of the summer", you can buy the EP off iTunes here. A physical release of the single will be available through Greco-Roman and DFA in the States.  

You can buy a highly beautiful extremely limited t shirt featuring related artwork here. 

Alexis and Joe are spinning records at a free gig in Dalston tomorrow night (Tuesday 26th July) - full details are...

PETER GORDON: LOLO STEREO FEATURING MAX GORDON AND
DAVID CUNNINGHAM

THE SHACKLEWELL ARMS, 71 SHACKLEWELL LANE, DALSTON, E8
2EB

Legendary exponent of the New York’s downtown music
scene LOVE OF LIFE ORCHESTRA’S PETER GORDON will be making a special club
appearance, LOLO STEREO. Gordon will be playing saxophone and
synths, mixing new tracks and remixing tracks for his recent album “Love
of Life Orchestra” (DFA 2229). LOLO STEREO will also feature
Max Gordon on trumpet and electronics and David Cunningham on
guitar.

Love Of Life Orchestra’s original line up featured
ARTHUR RUSSELL a close friend of Gordon’s with whom he worked
extensively. LOLO were recently the subject of a retrospective by James Murphy
and DFA, who showcased both their ability to straddle the worlds of
dance music and pop, and more avant-garde, experimental work.

Download your free ticket here.

About Group play a handful of
European dates this week… the dates, venues and stage times are:

Amsterdam Paradiso, Thursday July 21st, doors at 21.00 hours, on stage 21.30

Valkhof Affaire Festival, Nijmegen, Friday July 22nd, on stage 18.55

Boomtown Festival Kouter, Ghent, Saturday July 23rd, on stage 20.00

Also, Alexis will be playing a DJ
set  at AIR, Amstelstraat 16 // 1017 DA // Amsterdam on July 22nd
from 01.00-03.00. 

The very good people at Domino Records started their own radio station this week - Domino Radio - for one week only. Earlier in the week John Coxon and Alexis Taylor presented a program celebrating the music of, and around, Alex Chilton. You can hear it archived on the station here for the next few weeks - while you're there, have a dig around, the station is absolutely brilliant. 

Also, About Group
play Get Loaded in the Park this Sunday on Clapham Common in London (12/6/11). Whilst it's unlikely that anyone would like both Razorlight and About Group (nevermind like Razorlight at all), there's
a one-off chance to find out whether maybe you do... For more info, visit their site here. 

Pic by John Coxon

The band will be playing a bunch of festival shows over the summer both in the UK and in Europe. They play at:

Sun 12th Jun Get Loaded In The Park, London, UK

Sun 25th Jun Glastonbury Festival, Pilton, UK 

Thu 21st Jul Paradiso, Amsterdam, Holland 

Fri 22 Jul Valkhof Affaire, Nijmegen, Holland

Sat 06 Aug Field Day, London, UK 

Sun 07 Aug Big Chill, Herefordshire

Thu 11 Aug Way Out West, Gothenburg, Sweden

Joe Goddard and Raf Daddy aka the 2 Bears are about to release a new record - the Bear Hug EP - on Southern Fried. They are holding a launch party on 13th May
at The Nest (with special guest Toddla T and friends). For more info, click here or here. Elsewhere, the Bears will be out on the road over the next few months - catch them in rave mode at: 

May

6/5 - Club Train, Aarhus, Denmark

7/5 Slakhuset, Stockholm, Sweden

13/5 - Scandalism @ The Nest, London -
Bear Hug EP Launch Party

14/5 - Paris Social

June

4/6 - Spring Festival, Graz, Austria

24/25/26 - Glastonbury

July

August

20/8 - Death Disco, Glasgow

27/8 - AMP Creamfields

30/8 - AMP, Amnesia, Ibiza

September

11/9 - Bestival 

The About
Group LP - Start and Complete - is out in all good shops on Monday (via the good people at Domino).  If you buy it on Saturday 16th
on vinyl in a record shop that's promoting the very brilliant Record Store Day, you get a free bonus 7".
Also the vinyl comes with download code for all your iPod needs. 

Alexis has recored the soundtrack to Guy Bolongaro's documentary The Last Emperor. There are a couple of screenings coming up... 

First showing is as part of the London Independent
Film Festival at 19.00 at the Roxy Cinema in Borough on 18th April. Then on the Friday 29th at 18.30 at the Genesis Cinema
in Bethnal Green as part of New UK Talent: Documentary.

There's an ace About Group live recording on the Guardian's website - click here to watch. There's also a great review of the LP from the good folk at the BBC.

Gig wise, the band have been added to a pretty brilliant line up for Field Day festival (Saturday 6th August in Victoria
Park, London). Tickets are available here and here. 

Although there's no scheduled Hot Chip live dates, you can hear the chaps spinning the platters that matter in various locations and various guises over the coming months. We'll add any new dates to this but in the meantime, here's who's playing where and when. 

2nd April
        Alexis,
Proud2, London

8th April
         Felix,
Chillout Festival, Dubai

9th April
         The
2 Bears, Lolita, Barcelona

10th
April         The
2 Bears, Dazed/Xoyo, London

15th
April         The
2 Bears, Palais de Congres, Liege

15th
April         Al,
The Tunnel, Milan

16th April
        Felix,
Lanificio, Rome

21st
April         The
2 Bears, Warehouse Project, Manchester

22nd
April        The
2 Bears, 10 Feet Tall, Cardiff

23rd
April         Felix,
We Love, Ministry of Sound, London

6th May            The
2 Bears, Train, Aarhus

6th May            Alexis,
Sherbet Lounge, Bournemouth

7th May            The
2 Bears, Slakthuset, Stockholm

13th May           The
2 Bears, Scandalism, The Nest, London

14th May           The
2 Bears, The Social Club, Paris

20th May           Alexis,
The Westbury, London

26th May           Alexis,
Swing, The Top, Paris

1st June            Joe,
The Spring Festival, Graz

11th June
         Felix,
Jamm, Brixton

11th June
         Felix
& Al, Cocoon, Frankfurt

12th June
         Felix
& Al, We Love, Space, Ibiza

31st July
          Felix
& Al, We Love, Space, Ibiza

14th Aug           Felix
& Al, We Love, Space, Ibiza

20th Aug           The
2 Bears, Death Disco, The Arches, Glasgow

27th Aug           The
2 Bears, Creamfields, UK

30th Aug           The
2 Bears, Annie Mac presents at Amnesia, Ibiza

11th Sep           The
2 Bears, Bestival

Just had this in from Hot Chip
friend and collaborator Grosvenor... it's a benefit gig for Japan that's
happening in London tomorrow night. Obviously an incredibly worthwhile cause -
all the details are here.

"Alexis and I are playing a gig
on Sunday as 'Bang & Olufsen' - and Joe is DJing as 2Bears. The party
happens at The Others, 6-8 Manor Road, Stoke Newington, N16 5SA. Venue phone
number = 02088023755. The schedule looks like this..."

6pm - 6:45pm = NOW DJs

6:45pm - 7pm = MOUTH 4 RUSTY (live)

7pm - 7:20pm = NOW DJs

7:20pm - 7: 40pm = ROSHI (live)

7:40pm - 8pm = NOW DJs

8pm - 8:40pm = LAETITIA SADIER (live)

8:40pm - 9:10pm = GAGGLE DJs

9:10pm - 9:40pm = BANG &
OLUFSEN (live)

9:40 - 10:10pm = 2BEARS DJs

10:10pm - 10:40pm = MAN FROM
URANUS (live)

10:40pm - 12:30am = GAGGLE & 2BEARS DJs

As we speak Felix, Joe and Alexis are
filling their wheelie-suitcases with vinyl and decanting their favorite
toiletries into 100ml bottles in anticipation of a glorious weekend of
pan-European dee-jaying, travel and experiences.

In a classic pincer movement, Alexis &
Felix will begin playing records at The Lux, Lisbon on the 25th of March whilst
Joe simultaneously performs his record-playing act at  Tonfrequenz,
Dusseldorf.  As the night ends, Alexis will be helped into his escape
capsule and blasted back to Hot Chip HQ in London through the series of
pressurised tubes that run under the Bay of Biscay.  

Felix then travels by tram and monorail to
the Tivoli, Utrecht to play records whilst Joe continues in an easterly
direction to play his records at the Arena, Vienna on the very same night
(March 26th) .

Al will be monitoring proceedings from the
LCD Soundsystem space-station currently in a geo-stationary orbit over
Connecticut.  Owen’s plans are unclear; he has been incommunicado since
purchasing a Wallander box set in a motorway service station.

Jimbaud, March 2011 

January is an important month experienced
by almost everyone.  We caught up with Owen to hear his take on the first
8.2% of 2011.

"January is a great month to drink
herbal teas.  My current favourite is Roobois, made in a pot.
 No milk in mine, thank you very much."

"I've also been watching quite a
lot of Wallander.  Of the three actors who have played the eponymous
Swedish detective my favourite is Krister Henriksson followed
by Rolf Lassgård.
 I'm not a huge fan of Branagh's
interpretation".

"January is a also a time when I
like to think about Reebok Classics a bit.  I've found that these (1 2 3 4) youtube videos have helped.
 There's no sound, but actually quite like adding my own
"soundtrack" by humming along.  Try 3/4 time for something a
little different!". 

"I'll be rounding off my January
in style by watching Felix deejay at JAMM
in Brixton this Friday.  He is usually quite good so I should
enjoy most of it."

Thanks Owen!  Sounds like you've been
having a pretty fun January!

Excited to post news of the first single from Alexis' side-project - About Group - whose forthcoming second album will be released via the good people at Domino on March 14^th 2011. To quote the press release... 

"You’re No Good is a re-versioning of Terry Riley’s landmark 1967 track, on which
the minimalist composer took Harvey Averne’s latin-tinged soul track, You’re
No Good, and turned it into a free flowing piece of
tape loop improvisation. Running two copies of the track alongside one another,
Riley weaved between the tapes, dropping out and slowing down the song to
create what may well have been the world’s first ever remix.

Playing a live version of You’re No Good in the studio, About Group take the
same approach as Riley but in real-time. Cutting accross the basic structure of
the track to firstly deconstruct it down to its raw parts before building up to
create a loose kind of pop improv. The result is an eleven minute space jam
that combines Riley’s experimentation, with the street-level funkiness of the
original Harvey Averne recording.

About Group are:

Charles Hayward (This Heat, Camberwell Now, Monkey Puzzle Trio, Clear Frame)

John Coxon (Spring Heel Jack, Spiritualized)

Pat Thomas (has played with Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley, Jimmy Carl Black and Eugene
Chadbourne amongst countless others)

Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip)

You’re No Good is released on Monday the 14^th of March on 12” vinyl and via digital download.  The single is backed with an exclusive version of album
track ‘Rough And Smooth’."

Click here for a glimpse of About Group
performing ‘You’re No Good’ - we'll post more news on the album in the next couple of weeks. 

Proud new dad and peer of the realm Sir Elton Hercules John CBE
has been kind enough to include "Brothers" in his top 10 list of New Pop Classics in this month's
Rolling Stone magazine.  Thanks Elton!  Following
his spirirt of evaluation and enumeration we caught up with the guys
to find out all about their all time favorite lists.

Joe: Even though its over 12 years old now I’d probably still go for the
“100 Best Albums of All Time” voted for by Q
Magazine readers in 1997. It’s just a great list from a great year! Automatic for the People, Revolver, OK Computer make a solid 3,2,1 that’s
tough to argue with to this day. It’s a shame that Fat of the Land didn’t
chart higher than 9th as it was stuck behind What’s The Story Morning Glory,
but you can’t have everything.

Al: I’m a big fan of this list of limited edition Kit-Kat flavours. Some of them
sound pretty unusual like “bubblegum”, “beet” and “apple vinegar”.  Sadly
I’ll never know what they taste like as I choose not to eat products
manufactured by Nestle.

Alexis: There are 206 bones in the human body and this list names them all, from head to toe.
 Seems like a sensible way to organise the information to me.

Felix: As a football lover I always like to read the Barclay’s Premiership.  It’s a list that’s
always changing but always of interest.  I’d like it even more if
Liverpool were number one though!

Owen: As 2011 is the bicentennial of his birth, I’m sure
a lot of people would expect me to pick classical composer Franz
Listz.  In actual fact my favorite list is probably
the longlist for the Man Booker Prize.  For me
the shortlist is certainly NOT a case of less is more.

Thanks guys! And thanks Sir Elton! 

A few Hot Chip end of year bits that you might have
missed... One Life Stand has made the albums of the year lists in Q and Uncut and also scored the # 43 slot on Top 50 albums of the year on MySpace Music calling the album "their best and most sonically ambitious record to date" and a "sophisticated art-pop masterpiece"... "I Feel Better" is featured in Pitchfork's
Top 40 Music Videos of 2010... and finally, one of the nicest men in pop, The Guardian's Alex Needham, declared the album his favourite of the year via the medium of Twitter. Massive thanks to everyone who has bigged up the album. 

Hot Chip have been announced as part of the Yota Space Festival in St Petersburg. Some bits from the press release...

"A handpicked line-up of cutting edge artists has been
invited to showcase their unique talents at the inaugural Yota Space Festival
from 5th – 19th December. The two-week event will be launched on the 5th
December with a multi-media party headlined by Hot Chip. They will be joined by
up-and-coming, Masters of Skweee and SCSI-9. Other artists ranging from Brian Eno to onedotzero will
premier new work at the festival in Russia.

Open from 12pm to 10pm each day, Yota Space is set to
attract more than 40,000 people during the two-week period, and will give
visitors the opportunity to touch, explore and interact with the world’s most
exciting multimedia art - all within the setting of one of the world’s most
beautiful cities."

For more info, click here.

A clip for the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy/Hot Chip collaboration is now online on Pitchfork. The video for 'I Feel Bonnie' was directed by Sam Lawler.
Will Oldham filmed his bits, Sam filmed/directed all the
band/Alexis/Joe footage on Super-8 and edited the video based around Alexis's original concept. Sam Lawler is currently making the HBO Central
Europe documentary film 'The One That Got Away' (coming 2011) that tells the
story of a holocaust survivor. The film is a collaboration with members of Hot Chip
(Felix did the sound work and is overseeing/producing the music). Hope you like. 

ABBEY
ROAD LIVE HERE NOW RECORD LCD SOUNDSYSTEM and HOT CHIP LIVE SHOW AT ALEXANDRA
PALACE 10^tH NOV 2010

Abbey Road Live Here Now has provided fans with
the very special chance to get their hands on the live recording from one of
the un-missable shows of the year at London’s Alexandra Palace, which marks the
start of a UK autumn tour by these two extraordinary bands. The limited edition
double CD, complete with full artwork and the live sets from both artists, was
made available just minutes after the gig finished last night. Established in
2004, Abbey Road Live Here Now use world class sound engineers and state of the
art equipment to capture the concert in all its glory.

In the past six years, Abbey Road Live Here Now have
recorded over 300 shows across the globe for some of the world’s biggest
artists, including Depeche Mode, Blur, Slash, Pixies, Franz Ferdinand,
Goldfrapp, Doves, and Underworld. Now, they will be recording two of the
biggest and best-loved electronic music pioneers and allowing fans to take home
ultimate gig memento.

Click here to buy.

Just a quick on to say that the first date of the Hot
Chip US tour is tonight at the House of Blues in San Diego with special guests
Nortec Collective. Next stop is the legendary Hollywood Bowl in LA (on Friday)
with LCD Soundsystem and Sleigh Bells. Rounding off the weekend with a show at the Warfield
in San Francisco (on Sunday) with Sleigh Bells 

Hopefully see
you down the front.

This week sees the release of 'Didn't Know What Love
Was', the first of two original musical collaborations featuring Bernard Sumner
and Stephen Morris from Bad Lieutenant, New Order and Joy Division, Alexis
Taylor and Joe Goddard from Hot Chip and 'We Have Remixes' faves Hot City will
be released as a free download, followed by the release of the accompanying
music video on November 2nd. The track was recorded at Alexis and Joe's home
studios and at Real World in Bath last month and was co-written and produced by
Alexis, Joe and Bernard. Strings on the track were recorded by Geese who
collaborated on the 2008 'Made In The Dark' EP. 

'Didn't Know What Love Was' had a worldwide exclusive
'Hottest Record in the World' on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 Show on Monday and is
now available to music fans globally from today (October 6th) via free download
from the Converse website. There will be a new Hot City Remix following soon
after. 'Didn't Know What Love Was' follows up on the success of this summer's
'All Summer' featuring Kid Cudi, Rostam from Vampire Weekend and Best Coast and
the massive hit 'My Drive Thru' featuring Julian Casablancas, Santigold and
Pharrell Williams.

As previously announced, Hot Chip head out to the U.S.
next week for dates with LCD Soundsystem (see the gig guide on this site for
more info) followed by both band's co-headline tour in the UK including shows
at Alexandra Palace and the Coronet in London.  

After some jigging about with cities and venues, the
Hot Chip October North American tour is finally all good to go. As you probably
already know, some of the gigs are with old friends LCD Soundsystem (we've
noted which). The others are Hot Chip headline shows. Wherever possible we've
linked to ticket sales in the tour dates section. Additional support comes from
Sleigh Bells (check locally) and Hot Chip favourites Nortec Collective (San
Diego). 

The dates are:

Wed 13th - House Of Blues, San Diego

Fri 15th - Hollywood Bowl (with LCD Soundsystem), Los
Angeles

Sun 17th - Warfield, San Francisco

Tue 19th - The Venue, Salt Lake City

Wed 20th - Fillmore Auditorium (with LCD Soundsystem),
Denver

Fri 22nd - Eagles Ballroom (with LCD Soundsystem),
Milwaukee

Sat 23rd - Roy WIlkins (with LCD Soundsystem), Saint
Paul, MN

Mon 25th - The Aragon Ballroom (with LCD Soundsystem),
Chicago

Tue 26th - The Riviera Theatre (with LCD Soundsystem),
Chicago 

Wed 27th- The Fillmore Detroit (with LCD Soundsystem,
Detroit

Fri 29th - Voodoo Music Fesitval, New Orleans

Sun 31st - Moogfest, Asheville, NC

Fri 19th ARGENTINA Buenos Aires Hot Festival 

Sat 20th BRAZIL Sao Paolo Planeta Terra Festival 

Weds 24th CHILE Santiago Teatro Caupolican

Fri 26th MEXICO Mexico City Infield del Hipodromo de las Americas

Sat 27th COLUMBIA Bogota Bogota Music Fest

Check locally for ticket prices. 

In a
change to the previous news story, the Hot Chip remix EP of tracks from the
hugely acclaimed album ‘One Life Stand’ is available to download from iTunes and other digital services from today.
The physical vinyl release will still be available on 6th September
2010.

‘We
Have Remixes’ features alternative versions of Hot Chip tracks by
inspirational producers. From Todd Edwards’ space age garage retake on ‘Hand Me
Down Your Love ‘to Osborne’s lounge house version of ‘Take It In’; Caribou’s
electro-acid fried reconstruction of ‘Brothers’ to Hot City’s deranged rave
revival attack on ‘We Have Love’, ‘We Have Remixes’ manages to pull together a
selection of the very best dancefloor manipulators in the world right now. An
essential counterpart to one of the albums of the year.

‘We
Have Remixes’ features:

01.
Hand Me Down Your Love (Todd Edwards Micro Chip Remix) 6.46

02.
We Have Love (Hot City Remix) 4.59

03.
Brothers (Caribou Remix) 5.09

04.
Take It In (Osborne Remix) 7.16

Of
the remixers, Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard says, “These are some of our favourite
producers, people that we have been following for years and have been friends
with for years as well in some cases.”

You
can hear the genius Caribou mix of Brothers over at Stereogum and Osborne's gorgeous take on Take It In at Urb magazine. 

Ahead of the already announced UK dates in November, Hot Chip are heading back to the States for a series of gigs in October 2010. Although most are with LCD Soundsystem, there are a couple of Hot Chip gigs and festival appearances. Tickets from usual outlets, prices vary from town to town. See you there. 

OCTOBER DATES (with LCD SOUNDSYSTEM unless otherwise stated)

13   San
Diego  RIMAC Arena

15   Los
Angeles Hollywood
Bowl

17   San
Francisco  Warfield
*

19   Salt
Lake City The
Complex

20   Denver  Fillmore
Auditorium

22   Milwaukee    Eagles Ballroom

23   Saint
Paul, MN  Roy
Wilkins

29   New
Orleans  Voodoo
Music Festival*

* these gigs are Hot Chip only, not
supporting LCD Soundsystem

There's a hot out of the studio EP of new versions of tracks from Hot Chip's hugely acclaimed
album ‘One Life Stand’ due for release on September 6th. 

Titled ‘We Have Remixes’, it features
alternative versions of tracks by the band and by inspirational producers. From
Todd Edwards’ space age garage retake on Hand Me Down Your Love to Osborne’s
lounge house version of Take It In; Caribou’s electro-acid fried reconstruction
of Brothers to Hot City’s deranged rave revival attack on We Have Love, ‘We
Have Remixes’ manages to pull together a selection of the very best dancefloor
manipulators in the world right now. An essential counterpart to one of the
albums of the year.

‘We Have Remixes’ features: 

01. Hand Me Down Your Love (Todd Edwards
Micro Chip Remix) 6.46

02. We Have Love (Hot City Remix) 4.59

03. Brothers (Caribou Remix) 5.09

04. Take It In (Osborne Remix) 7.16

The EP is released on 6th September on
12" vinyl and download.

Of the remixers, Joe Hot Chip says, “These are some of our favourite producers, people that we have been
following for years and have been friends with for years as well in some
cases.”

Long term friends, associates, label mates, band mates... Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem team up for the ultimate double header Autumn tour in the US and the UK. These gigs promise to be absolutely gob-smackingly brilliant, coming on the back of each band's recent album releases and a summer rammed with set-honing festival appearances. The dates are:

October

Weds 13 San
Diego RIMAC Arena USA

Fri 15 Los
Angeles Hollywood
Bowl USA

Sun 17 San
Francisco Warfield USA (Hot Chip only)

Tues 19 Salt
Lake City The
Complex USA

Weds 20 Denver Fillmore
Auditorium USA

Fri 22 Milwaukee Eagles Ballroom USA

Sat 23 Saint
Paul, MN, Roy
Wilkins USA

November

Weds 10 London Alexandra Palace UK 

Fri
12 Cardiff Arena UK 

Sat
13 Sheffield Magna Arena 

Mon
15 Manchester Apollo

You can buy tickets for the UK shows online here when they go onsale on Friday July 23^rd at 9am. Get in there early, they'll go fast! 

Who: Hot Chip.

Where and when: Other stage, Friday 8.45pm.

Dress code: A combination of top-to-toe red (Joe Goddard), Dr Strangelove sunglasses (Al Doyle) and a baseball cab modelled on the crown jewels (Alexis Taylor).

What happened: Hot Chip often take a couple of songs to whir into gear, such is the array of steel drums, vocoders and keyboards needed to recreate their sound. This time, just as everything clicks into place, the band opt to play Over and Over (their biggest hit) a sprightly three songs in. Unfortunately, this means that an ample number of fair-weather audience members decide to leave before the next song – a rapturous version of Hand Me Down Your Love – even kicks into place. It's their loss, because tonight's performance, though truncated, is one of the best Hot Chip have ever given. Clearly swept up in the moment, the band look as if they're having the time of their lives as they belt out We Have Love, I Feel Better and Ready for the Floor. Those who remain to see the set through obviously feel the same.

Who's watching: Not that many people. Thom Yorke's surprise appearance on the Park stage has left Hot Chip with a fairly modest-sized crowd.

High point: A gorgeous, perfectly executed Hand Me Down Your Love.

Low point: For a band with four solid albums under their belt, the set was too short

In a tweet: Masters of their genre (whatever that may be) with the capacity to make the crowd dance. Not just hands in the air, shuffling about – really dance.

Photo by Carsten Windhorst - used with permission and thanks! 

Al Doyle on
the window… “When we were asked about taking a window at Selfridges and
creating a ‘Hot Chip’ installation we immediately thought of Pete
Fowler.  He’s an amazing artist who we have been friends with for years,
and I live next door to his studio so we see a lot of each other, but
we’ve never actually worked on anything together. He jumped at it and
came up with great ideas straight away so it’s been a real pleasure
putting this thing together.  We’ve really let him just get on with it
and pursue his vision which he has done beautifully.”

and Pete Fowler… “I was chuffed to be asked by the
band to create a design for a window display interpreting their recent
single I Feel Better. I took the lyrics mostly as the inspiration for
this design, the words touch on both happiness and darkness, love and
fear and I decided to transplant these feelings into this design. Two
creatures alone in a sometimes frightening, cruel but wonderful
world, both in it together.

One of my ideas was to use an almost fuzzy felt like material,
applied in an almost craft like manner by the production team to create
the interior of the window, with the frame and band portraits applied
directly to the window. I can’t wait to see it!”

It’s up now – check it out over the next few weeks while wandering
down Oxford Street. You
can view some pictures over at the band’s Myspace site.

With their fourth album, One Life Stand has already being hailed as a
classic (described in Q as “an early marker for the best album of the
2010” and The Observer as “Their best work…an extraordinarily lovely
whole.”), Hot Chip – collectively Alexis, Joe, Al, Felix and Owen – take
time off from a madly busy touring schedule to talk about love, life,
London and Wiley’s all-star phone book.

For a band who often get labeled as ‘intelligent’, the current
record seems to be coming entirely from the heart…

Felix Martin: It’s the heart filtered through the head via the balls.

Excellent! Was that intentional? The openness of it, not the
balls…

Joe Goddard: There was some intention to be more open, just because
we’ve been labeled as clever clever previously. There was a vague
feeling that we shouldn’t let anyone misunderstand us with this record.

It really reminded me of a lot of early house records, both
sonically and lyrically in the way that those records quite often have
very pure, uplifting lyrics. It’s almost like dance music has become
darker and darker and the euphoria has been replaced.

Joe: I think that’s a good point. All the way through I had it in my
mind that I wanted to replicate the feeling that you get from those
records and the feeling you get during a DJ set, where it’s serious,
dark and moody then so see just a crack of light at the end of it. I
love the point where a DJ set relaxes and it all gets very loving, where
the DJ tries to bring the crowd back together.

Which makes sense when you hear the record, which seems like a
very pure form of pop music. In the same way that someone like the Pet
Shop Boys just sound like themselves, One Life Stand just sounds like
Hot Chip.

Alexis Taylor: We spent longer working on One Life Stand than any
other album we’ve made. We kept listening back to what we were working
on in order to give it more time to breathe. Obviously we still listened
to music other than our own and DJed a lot but for me it felt very
different from everything else we’d done before. All of last year was
dedicated to this record. We spent so long listening to ourselves,
living with those songs, rather than moving on quickly. It was a
self-contained year, it was the most focused we’ve ever been as a band
on one of our records.

So how did you work prior to this album?

Alexis: We usually had intensive bursts of working on songs over
quite short periods of time. We’d often end up mixing tracks while doing
other things like going on tour… We’ve never really had the luxury of
time when recording before, quite often that’s been our own decision.

It’s interesting that you did it last year as there’s been lots
of extracurricular work going on over that period, whether making solo
records (Alexis’ Rubbed Out and Joe’s Harvest Festival), doing
productions or remixes, touring with LCD Soundsystem or DJing.  Do those
external influences feed into the band?

Alexis: Knowing we were going to make a concise 10 track album meant
that we could all do those side projects and do them more freely. I’d
find myself working on certain songs that this time round were never
contenders for this record that might very well have made it onto
previous Hot Chip records because this time around there was a focus on
getting it as tight as possible. We wanted to avoid the album seeming
like it had a load of very disparate sources firing into it. Trying to
focus on the succinct pop songs, lots of ideas naturally ended up being
explored outside the band. That said I don’t think any of us
intentionally went out of our way to make music away from the others.

Joe: It’s nice when you don’t have the burning desire to try to
squeeze a random idea into the Hot Chip record just because you can, you
can do that somewhere else if you want to. It meant the Hot Chip record
could be something very special. I really appreciated that fact. I do
really enjoy making music on my own but it’s becomes lot of work making
all those decisions yourself. Coming back to Hot Chip felt like such a
pleasure. This record could be that focused when you have outlets away
from the band.

In the last couple of years you’ve collaborated with an
incredibly diverse array of artists over the last few years – Wiley,
Peter Gabriel, Robert Wyatt to name just a few. How did they come about?

Alexis:  They just all happened to be in Wiley’s phonebook.

Look he knows Peter Gabriel! Brilliant! What did those
collaborations teach you?

Joe: Wiley taught us the best part of the song to do the “Olly Olly
Olly”’s in. we had one rehearsal with him prior to playing at
Glastonbury (2008) and we were trying to work out how the song (the Hot
Chip remix of Wearing My Rolex) would work live. He kept saying things
like “Short chorus here, then I’ll do the Ollys…” which kept confusing
the hell out of us. He kept referring to them as if they were the big
moment in the song.

Al Doyle: Funnily enough, it turned out they were a pretty big
moment. You’ve got 40,000 people going “Oi Oi Oi” back at you while the
sun’s setting in front of the Other Stage, it’s definitely a moment
you’re going to remember.

Alexis: We worked with Wiley over an incredibly short period of time.
The rehearsal was literally 30 minutes and they we never saw him again
until maybe five minutes before we walked onto stage at Glastonbury.
When we were playing, he walked onstage just as we started playing the
song, which was the end of our set. It was a bit seat of the pants but I
really loved it. He just failed to come to the next two gigs that his
management had booked him to play with us. The Peter Gabriel
collaboration was completely different. XL Records set it up so that we
could cover a Vampire Weekend song (the Gabriel referencing Cape Cod
Kwassa Kwassa). We were going to look after the music and he was going
to sing their lyrics. I happen to be a massive fan of his music so it
was incredibly exciting to do.

Joe: It was very nerve-wracking for me because the date was
approaching for us to go to (Gabriel’s studio) Real World to produce the
session and I have no idea how you go about producing a session for a
massive artist. I was working on drum loops and things on the train on
the way down and the engineer was saying “what’s the bit rate” and
“what’s the sample rate” and “how’s the song structured”…

Alexis: In the end, he allowed us to release the mix that Joe did of
the track, which probably sounded a lot less like a Peter Gabriel record
than anything he would normally make. He openly admits he’s obsessed
with layering and layering hundreds and hundreds of sounds. It’s really
nice to hear how bare it ended up being.

An edited version of this appeared in the
Daily Note