The Japanese Popstars (Live) + Paul Chambers (Live) @ 515 - 29/4/11

515 tripod

POD + 515 Presents
The Japanese Popstars (live)
Paul chambers (live)
LRB
29th april @ Button factory
Advance tickets €17.50 inc booking fee
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

JAPANESE POPSTARS BIOG
'Song For Lisa' single out 20 April 2011,
‘Joshua’ single out June 2011
'Controlling Your Allegiance' album out June 2011.

The Japanese Popstars are ravenous. Since they first tasted success in 2006 with their first two releases on a small indie dance label, their career has been one smooth, upward curve. But now that line is about to take a sharp rise vertically. Three lads from Northern Ireland who have spent the last two years racking up the air miles as they’ve taken their coruscating live show to all four corners of the globe… and still found time to make the record of their lives with their second album, 'Controlling Your Allegiance'.

The Japanese Popstars – Gary Curran, Declan ‘Decky Hedrock’ McLaughlin and Gareth Donoghue – may have been together for just four years, but they’ve carved out a reputation to rival the biggest names in dance music as a must-see live act and purveyor of raucous, foot-stomping, energetic electronic dance music. In the two years since their debut album 'We Just Are' dropped on Gung-Ho!, they’ve gone on long tours of the States, played in Australia, across Europe and, of course Japan – a place that’s especially taken them to their hearts. No surprises there, then.

But it’s 'Controlling Your Allegiance', the first fruits of a new deal with Virgin, that’s the real leap forward. The trio admit having to sharpen up in every department, not least because they’ve used vocalists for the first time. And not just any old session singer either. First single, 'Destroy', featured an idiosyncratic and eerily compelling vocal from Jon Spencer (of Blues Explosion fame) set atop a squelching, brooding slab of nu-electro that climaxes in an unholy riot of angry synths.

Decky from the Japstars had the idea of enlisting The Cure’s Robert Smith for one of the rough edits. “We sent Robert an email and heard nothing for six months,” explains Decky. “Then randomly we got an email to say that it had gone into his spam folder.”. Fortunately, Robert went onto the band's MySpace site, loved what he heard and said he wanted to work with the boys. The result is 'Take Forever', which, with its chiming guitar riff, low-slung bass and feint air of melancholia, is a quantum leap from anything that was on 'We Just Are'. It’s the sound of The Cure had they been born in 2011.

Other names to get the special Japstars treatment include Mercury Prize-nominated Irish singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan on the uplifting, melodic house of 'Song For Lisa' and Chicago house legend Green Velvet who asked The Japanese Popstars to work with him after the lads had DJed with him several times. That led to 'Let Go', a storming, tumultuous, twisted, electro barrage. Earlier in the year they had remixed for the Editors, the boys then drafted in the bands lead singer Tom Smith, recording his icy vocals for 'Joshua' in Dean Street Studios; whilst Simon Neal, singer of the hugely successful Biffy Clyro, has leant his vocals to 'Growl & Moan', an anthemic heavy synth staple. James Vincent McMorrow, the man described as Ireland’s answer to Bon Iver, the American psych folk singer, contributes his unique falsetto to 'Shells Of Silver'. At 100bpm, it shows The Japstars have a milder side.

Perhaps their favourite track of all, 'Fight The Night', features Morgan Kibby, the American vocalist with ethereal French nugazers-cum-seventies revivalists, M83. As huge M83 fans, the lads were especially made up to have secured Morgan’s services. “Her voice is so otherworldly,” says Gareth. “When she sent her vocals back it was a jaw-dropping moment. It was then we realised this was such a move on from the first album.” And that it most definitely is. Too many bands crumble as egos clash and gobs mouth off. That won’t happen with The Japanese Popstars. The sound they make might be brash, loud and in yer face, but that doesn’t extend to the personalities themselves.
As one message from an American fan on their Twitter feed points out, there’s some irony to their name as they are neither Japanese nor popstars. Well, they’ll never be the former. But popstars? On the evidence of 'Controlling Your Allegiance', you wouldn’t want to bet against that now.

For further press information please contact: Paul.guimaraes@virginmusic.com
www.thejapanesepopstars.co.uk
www.facebook.com/thejapanesepopstars
www.myspace.com/thejapanesepopstars
www.twitter.com/deadmau5




THE SUNDAY TIMES: “DANCE MUSIC DARLINGS”
WORD: “LITERALLY AMAZING... THEY’RE INCREDIBLE LIVE TOO”.
NME:“CROWD-PLEASING ORB-MEETS-KRAFTWERK ANTHEMS...PULSATING PRODIGY AGGRESSION... IT’S TIME TO GET THE PILLS IN”.
THE TIMES: “THE FAST-RISING ULSTER MEN COOK UP A JAGGED ELECTRO MONSTER”
MIXMAG: “THE MOST EXCITING NEW ELECTRONIC ACT ON THE PLANET”
DJ MAG: “ONE PART KITSUNE STYLE DISTORTO-RAVE, ONE PART CLASSIC STADIUM DANCE THE LIKES OF WHICH WE HAVEN’T SEEN SINCE ORBITAL”
POPJUSTICE: “F*CKING AMAZING”
THE GUARDIAN: “SINGLE OF THE WEEK: TOTALLY STUPENDOUS MECHANICAL POP MUSIC”
THE FLY: “DAMAGING DEMENTED STUFF INDEED”

Paul Chambers Biog
Paul Chambers is a producer, live artist and DJ who got involved in electronic music in the early nineties. He spent years sharpening his skills to a knife-edge on the electronic underground, which resulted in early releases on DJ Hell's label. But it was in 2008 when things really took off after Soulwax discovered his live performance and invited him to join their travelling circus for the Radio Soulwaxmas Tour. He shared billings with the likes of Justice, Tiga, Erol Alkan and Boys Noize. This is wheremany of them discovered and started to play out Chambers’ ‘Yeah, Techno!’ The track was an immediate success and became a well-received staple in the 2ManyDJs headline set, and got big support from Mr. Oizo, The Chemical Brothers, Hot Chip, etc.

Now, thanks to his perfectly formed, razor sharp techno, Chambers was set for the limelight proper and it didn't take long for him to start travelling the world with his analogue synth packed live set. When not abroad, he’s working on remixes for the likes of Boys Noize, Etienne De Crécy, Sound of Stereo, Goose, and others, and of course his own productions.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Paul-Chambers/26487561133
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu2iG0cEtB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu8UU3-ImaM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7h_a6j9gjk

515 tripod

Song for Lisa - Check it out:

http://youtu.be/G6YaPIvERSU