515 Presents Sneaky Sound System - 24th Sept

515 tripod

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1316562684&v=app_2344061033&ref=ts#!/event.php?eid=128990370477019&index=1

POD + 515 Presents
Sneaky sound system
Support:Al Gibbs
Fri 24th sept @ Tripod
Advance tickets ?18
Advance Tickets from usual outlets. Phone/internet bookings subject to
extra service charges.
www.ticketmaster.ie/24hr Hotline 0818 719 300
More info www.pod.ie

Sneaky Sound System Biog

Arguably the biggest band in Australia right now is Sneaky Sound System. Their
single ?I Love It? had the longest chart run in Oz history, their
debut album has gone twice platinum and at one point they had four
singles in the Top 40. They played the Antipodean Live Earth concert,
supported Robbie Williams, and
cleaned up at the Arias, the down-under version of the Brits. Yet
Sneaky are not
a hard-touring rock band or a manufactured pop act. They?re certainly pop and
proud of it, but their background lies in their country?s exploding
dance scene.
Sneaky Sound System are Sydney trio Miss Connie (Connie Mitchell), Black Angus
(Angus McDonald), and MC Double D (Daimon Downey), three very different
characters bonded by a riotous sense of fun. Their origins lie in the hugely
successful club night Sneaky Sundays, thus they make music imbued with
frolicking nightlife energy but also flecked with sing-along
radio-friendly 1980s electro-pop.

Their story began back in 2000 when Daimon met Angus at a fancy dress party
and stole the flute from his mariachi costume. They became friends and decided
to start a club on the quietest night of the week. Angus spun tunes and Daimon
hyped on the mic. It wasn?t some trendy minimal techno joint, but
unpretentious
hands in the air fun, ?no shoe-gazing, no wallflowers,? as Angus
describes it. Still going strong seven years later, it packs in around
1000 people each Sunday, and guests have included Tiga, LCD?s James
Murphy, Mylo and Hot Chip.?I got fired from my job after that first
Sneaky night,? Daimon recalls, ?because we had such a good time I
didn?t go to work the next day. Angus was in publishing and was made
redundant the next week. We thought, ?**** it, let?s keep doing this
and see how far we can go?,?

Angus had long had musical aspirations. He spent time in New York as a
singersongwriter followed by four years in London developing his DJ
skills on the club scene. Daimon, meanwhile, was born in South Africa
and raised in the tiny rural town of Bellingen on Australia?s east
coast. He came to Sydney to be an artist but ended up a barman. Once
Sneaky Sundays was up and running, however, everything changed.

In 2003 Sony asked them to put together a mix CD. The result was ?Other
Peoples Music?, a housey affair that ran into edgier territory such as
Gonzales and Metro Area, occasionally overlaid with live
instrumentation and Daimon?s rapping.

It was a success and before long the pair tried their hand at their
own music. The third piece of the Sneaky jigsaw was about to fall into
place.
For five years since leaving school Connie Mitchell had been in reasonably
successful industrial rock band Primary but after they split, she was
at a loose
end. One day, as she sat in a park playing guitar to a friend, Angus
and Daimon
happened by and asked her to sing for them.

?I thought they were a bit dodgy,? recollects Connie, ?You know, two
guys coming
up to you, excited, jumping around a bit, saying ?Come to our studio?.?
They did, however, have a recording set up - Whack Studios - and when Connie
sang through what was to be their breakthrough single, the contagious
dance-pop
of ?I Love It?, Sneaky Sound System had their vocalist. Within days,
they?d laid
down vocals to their eponymous debut album which, as Angus says, ?has one foot
in the clubs and one foot in the pop world.? The industry, however, was not
convinced.

?We were told by every label we might sell 10,000 copies and it wasn?t
worth it,?says Angus, ?so we decided to do it ourselves.?

Setting up their own label, Whack Records, they did exactly that with
slow burning but spectacular results. Strangely though, ?UFO?, their
catchiest song of all, was almost an afterthought. Angus wrote the
music and chorus ? ?I saw a UFO and nobody believes me? - in two
minutes after watching a National
Geographic programme about flying saucers. The next day Connie attended to
the verses; she, after all, could relate to the subject matter, having
once been
abducted by aliens. One night putting a few pieces of washing out on
the line to
dry?

?I heard this buzzing sound like a swarm of flies moving from left to
right,? she remembers, ?I looked in the sky and saw three white lights
doing super-quick
triangular movements. When I came back in everybody said, ?Where have you
been?? I looked at my watch and I?d lost 40 minutes about which I have no
recollection.?

Almost as worrying was suddenly playing in nightclubs. Primary had only ever
played pubs and venues. ?I?d never been in a club before,? she
giggles, ?It?s a
completely different world, it?s mayhem, isn?t it??

Sneaky Sound System were soon bona-fide pop stars, recognized in the
street or,
in Connie?s case, having to pose for a fan photo when she?d popped out in her
pyjamas to buy a pint of milk. The recognition also resulted in her making
prestigious guest appearances on albums by Kanye West and Snoop Dogg. A
whirlwind of Sneaky tours began with a full band, initially a
completely sold out
run of dates at home and then all over the world. Appropriately, they even
popped into Ibiza. ?That is one messed up place, I don?t know how they
get away
with it,? says Daimon, ?The loneliest, quietest place on earth is the airport
departure lounge in Ibiza...?

At home they toured with the aforementioned Robbie Williams, Jamiroquai and,
perhaps the group they have most in common with, The Scissor Sisters.
?They knew the words to some of our songs and, on our first date
together, stood
on the side of the stage cheering us on,? laughs Daimon, ?Jake Shears had been
recording with Kylie Minogue and apparently they were obsessed with our song
?Pictures?.?

Now Sneaky have finished their second album, working with Spike Stent of
Madonna and Gwen Stefani fame. For world release, it will be compiled with the
best of their debut and released in September 2008. Like the Scissor Sisters,
they?re a pop band whose heart lies in the swirling giddy party
attitude of club
culture. And like all the best pop bands, they?re a team of distinct
personalitiesand roles. Black Angus, named after a corrupt copper from
Oz TV series ?Blue Murder?, is the musical dynamo, MC Double D is the
flamboyant showman with a mic ? ?Better to be looked over than
overlooked,? he says - and Connie, the quirky front woman whose
hobbies include fast cars and robot-building, is quite the opposite of
a diva. In a time of predictable R&B dross and Luddite indie bands,
it?s refreshing to be presented with an ebullient outfit overflowing
with such hooky choruses and colourful character.

515 tripod

Deep Into The Bowels Of House added to the backroom