Biography
or History of Klaxons
Klaxons are a Mercury Prize winning English
band, based in London. The word 'klaxon' is derived from the Greek verb
klazō, meaning "to shriek", and most commonly refers to air-raid sirens
or other warning devices. They are currently signed to Rinse Records,
their own branch of Polydor Records.
Following the success of previous singles "Magick"
and "Golden Skans", the band released their debut album, Myths of the
Near Future on January 29, 2007. The album won the 2007 Nationwide
Mercury Prize.[1]
After headlining their first tour (the 2006
NME Indie Rave Tour), as well as playing numerous festivals worldwide,
the band are currently working on their second album.[2]
****
Background information
Origin London, England
Genre(s) Psychedelic pop
Dance-punk
New Rave
Indie Rock
Years active 2005-present
Label(s) Current
Rinse Records (Polydor) (UK)
Modular Records (AUS)
Geffen Records (CAN/US)
Previous
Angular Recording Corporation (UK)
Merok Records (UK)
Website Official website
Members
Jamie Reynolds
Vocals, Bass guitar, Keyboards
James Righton
Vocals, Keyboards, Bass Guitar
Simon Taylor-Davis
Guitar, Backing Vocals
Steffan Halperin
Drums, Backing Vocals
Former members
Finnigan Kidd
Drums
****
History
Formation (2005 - 2006)
Simon Taylor-Davis grew up in Stratford
Upon Avon where he met James Righton, who was a year below him in
school. James taught Simon how to play guitar, and later they (along
with members of Pull Tiger Tail) were in a band called 'Hollywood is a
Verb' which was very briefly active during the summer of 2004. While
studying Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University Simon was approached by
Jamie Reynolds, the boyfriend of one of his housemates, to form a band.
Jamie Reynolds grew up in Bournemouth and
Southampton and was active in several bands from his early teens,
however the bands quickly dissolved and he dropped out of school to work
in record shops over the next few years. He later moved to London after
he was made redundant, spending his redundancy money on a studio kit in
order to record with Simon and James under their early guise of "Klaxons
(Not Centaurs)"[3].
The lineup was recently bolstered with the
addition of drummer Steffan Halperin (former drummer Finnigan Kidd left
to focus on another band, Hatcham Social [4])), who was recruited for
live gigs after appearing on the album version of the track "Atlantis To
Interzone" (the rest of the percussion on Myths of the Near Future was
provided by the album's producer James Ford). As of early 2007 Halperin
had become a quasi-official fourth member of the band, being listed on
the Klaxons MySpace page and present in several interviews. However he
remains mostly absent from the band's music videos, appearing only in
the early video "Atlantis to Interzone" and briefly in the 2007
re-release of "Gravity's Rainbow".
Angular/Merok/Modular Records (2006)
Klaxons' debut single, "Gravity's Rainbow"
was released on March 29, 2006 on Angular Records. Only 500 copies were
released, and all were printed on a 7" vinyl decorated by the band
themselves. Radio 1's Steve Lamacq was the first DJ to play the band and
band recorded a Maida Vale session for his show on the strength of
'Gravity's Rainbow'. The band's second single, "Atlantis to Interzone",
was released on June 12 of the same year. It was their first release for
new label Merok and led to further coverage in the NME. The song enjoyed
even more radio coverage including play from Zane Lowe and daytime BBC
Radio 1 plays from disc jockey Jo Whiley, who repeatedly, and
mistakenly, called the song "Atlantic To Interscope". Zane Lowe also
wrongly credited the song as "Atlantis To Interscope".[5].
They released their first EP, Xan Valleys
in the UK on October 16, 2006 on Modular Recordings.
Polydor Records (2006 - present)
In 2006, the band signed to Polydor
Records. Their first single for the label, "Magick", was released on
October 30 and reached #29 in the UK Top 40 the following week.
In August of that year, Klaxons played at
the Reading and Leeds festivals, playing in the Carling tent on each
festival site. The Carling tent, at both festivals, is the smallest
stage and as a result large numbers of people were forced to watch from
outside the tent. Fans sounded "Klaxons!" and cheered loudly between
songs, brandishing glowsticks, seemingly giving credit to the "New Rave"
(see below) bandwagon label. This term was coined by Angular Records
founder Joe Daniel and later used by NME to describe the burgeoning
scene.
The first single from their debut album,
"Golden Skans", was released on January 22, 2007. It reached #16 in the
UK Singles Chart on download sales alone, two weeks before the official
release of the CD. It climbed to #14 the next week, eventually peaking
at #7 after the CD release. On January 24, Klaxons performed on the BBC
Radio 1 Live Lounge, performing "Golden Skans" and a cover of Justin
Timberlake's "My Love", to great acclaim from Jo Whiley.[6] The band
then released "It's Not Over Yet", a cover version of a song originally
by Grace. The track included the "My Love" cover as a b-side, and
reached #13 in the UK Singles Chart.[7]
Their debut album, titled Myths of the Near
Future, was released on January 29, 2007. It entered the UK Album Charts
at #2, beaten only by Norah Jones's album Not Too Late.
The band have recently collaborated with
The Chemical Brothers on the track "All Rights Reversed", taken from the
duo's new album We Are the Night and have expressed on several occasions
an interest in working with Dr. Dre or Snoop Dogg on their follow up
album (plans for which have not yet been finalized)[8] but which will be
called Myths of the Near Past.
On September 20, it was revealed that the
band were to release a double album featuring 27 tracks mixed
exclusively by the Klaxons. Entitled A Bugged Out Mix, the band follow
in the footsteps of Miss Kittin, Erol Alkan, Felix Da Housecat and
Simian Mobile Disco, who have all made similar contributions.[9]
Klaxons are currently on tour through the
United States and will be playing gigs across the nation, including at
the Fox Theatre in Boulder, Colorado on October 4th.
'Nu Rave'
HMV describes Klaxons as "acid-rave sci-fi
punk-funk", while their MySpace page touts 'Psychedelic / Progressive /
Pop'. However, they are one of the isolated acts being referred to as
'Nu Rave', a genre term coined by Angular Records founder Joe Daniel,
who released the trio's first single. Though the band's sound is
decidedly art rock, they draw upon some less common influences - notably
the rave culture of the 1990s, which they appropriate and redefine in a
post-modern fashion. Their influences are perhaps most represented in
their covers of rave hits "The Bouncer" by Kicks Like a Mule and "Not
Over Yet" by Grace. Both tracks have since been released by the band,
the first as part of a double a-side with "Gravity's Rainbow" in March
2006 and the latter as a single on June 25, 2007 titled "It's Not Over
Yet".
While the band are consistently hailed as
the defining act of the sparsely-populated Nu Rave movement, Klaxons
have worked to avoid being typecast as champions of the disputed genre
that may or may not exist. Even so, Klaxons member Jamie Reynolds
expressed no regrets at the dubious honor, saying that "...it's great
that it started as an in-joke and became a minor youth subculture"[10]
The Klaxons have been described as a
'manifestation of a Nathan Barley joke' by users of online communities.
Musical Style
Klaxons' music is often supernatural and
magic-realist in theme, as shown in a number of song titles and lyrical
content. Examples of this are "As Above, So Below" (favourite saying of
Aleister Crowley), "Atlantis to Interzone" (a William Burroughs
reference), "Magick" (Crowley) and "Four Horsemen of 2012"/"Gravity's
Rainbow" (Thomas Pynchon references). The original name of Klaxons comes
from a line in the art text, The Futurist Manifesto. "Forgotten Works"
also contains references and lines from Richard Brautigan's In
Watermelon Sugar.
Discography
Albums
Myths of the Near Future (29 January 2007)
Polydor Records #2 (UK)
Myths of the Near Past (2008)
EPs
Xan Valleys (16 October 2006) Modular
Recordings
Singles
Date of Release Title Uk Top 40 Chart
Position Album
March 29, 2006 "Gravity's Rainbow" / "The
Bouncer" N/A N/A
June 12, 2006 "Atlantis to Interzone" N/A
N/A
October 30, 2006 "Magick" 29 Myths of the
Near Future
January 22, 2007 "Golden Skans" 7 Myths of
the Near Future
April 9, 2007 "Gravity's Rainbow"
(Re-recording) 35 Myths of the Near Future
June 25, 2007 "It's Not Over Yet" 13 Myths
of the Near Future
To be announced "Totem On The Timeline"[11]
- Myths of the Near Future
Contributions
"4 Horsemen of 2012" - On Delete Yourself
compilation 'Digital Penetration' (July 31, 2006)
"Magick (Simian Mobile Disco Mix)" - On NME
compilation Club NME Presents Dancefloor Distortion (October 7, 2006)
"Gravity's Rainbow" (credited to "The
Klaxons") - On Tony Hawk's Project 8 In-Game Soundtrack (October 17,
2006)
"Gravity's Rainbow (Van She Remix)" - On
Kitsuné Music compilation Kitsuné Maison Compilation 3 (November 22,
2006)
"Gravity's Rainbow" - On Angular Recording
Corporation compilation 'Future Love Songs' (December 11, 2006)
"Golden Skans to Interzone (So Me Remix)" -
On Ed Rec Vol. 2 label compilation from Ed Banger Records (March 19,
2007)
"The Bouncer" (credited as "Bouncer") - On
"Kiss Does...Rave: Original Rave V New Rave" compilation, Disc 2 (April
30, 2007)
"Golden Skans" - On "Magic Moves" Ski Film
teaser (April, 2007)
Covers
"Golden Skans" covered by Kaiser Chiefs on
Radio 1 Live Lounge Session
"Golden Skans" covered by Mark Ronson on
Radio 1 Live Lounge Session
"Gravity's Rainbow" instrumental version by
The Central Band of the Royal British Legion[10]
"The Bouncer" original by Kicks Like A Mule
"Trick or Treatz" original by Metronomy
"It's Not Over Yet" original by Grace
"My Love" original by Justin Timberlake
"The Night" original by Frankie Valli and
the Four Seasons
"No Diggity" original by Blackstreet
Awards
2007 NME Awards: Best New Band[12]
2007 Mercury Music Prize: Myths of the Near
Future
References
-
^ Mercury Music Prize: The nominees.
BBC News. Retrieved on 2007-07-19.
-
^ Klaxons get writing. 6 Music.
Retrieved on 2007-08-27.
-
^ Band Name History. From Klaxons
Profile on mp3.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-26.
-
^ Klaxons on FasterLouder. Interview
from FasterLouder. Retrieved on 2007-06-05.
-
^ Setlist from when song was wrongly
credited. BBC Radio 1 Show. Retrieved on 2007-06-26.
-
^ Band Pictures. From Whiley's BBC
Radio 1 Website. Retrieved on 2007-06-26.
-
^ Klaxons Profile. Chart Stats.com.
Retrieved on 2007-08-16.
-
^ , Klaxons Want To Work With Dr. Dre.
Interview from nme.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
-
^ , Its A ‘Bugged Out’ Life For
Klaxons. Retrieved on 2007-09-21.
-
^ a b Interview. By The Guardian
newspaper, February 3, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-06-26.
-
^ Forthcoming Singles in the U.K..
Retrieved on 2007-08-21.
-
^ Klaxons crowned Best New Band at
Shockwaves NME Awards. NME.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-24.
****
The
above biography has been copied in part or in whole
from an article on
Wikipedia.org
"The Free Encyclopedia." It has been modified under
the NGU Free Document License Section 5 in the
following manner: (1) All links within the article
have been removed, including text links such as
"[#]"; (2) The "[Edit]" text and link have been
removed [if you would like to update the article,
you may do so from the original page]; (3) the table
of Contents links and text have been removed; and
(4) all of the sections of the original article have
not been copied. All of the above text is available
under the terms of the
GNU Free Document License.
URL of Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaxons
Date Article Copied:
October 2007
We
will try to replace this article with an original
biography in the near future, but we hope this will
be of help to our visitors in the mean time. |
