Klaxons

Infobox musical artist
Name = Klaxons

---

Img_capt = Klaxons at the Eurockéennes 2007
Img_size = 250
Landscape = Yes
Background = group_or_band
Origin = London, England
Genre = Dance-punk Indie rock New Rave
Years_active = 2005-present
Label = Polydor, Modular, Geffen, Angular, Merok Records
Manager = Gary Starr
URL = [http://klaxons.net/ Official website]
Current_members = Jamie Reynolds
James Righton
Simon Taylor-Davis
Steffan Halperin
Past_members = Finnigan Kidd

Klaxons are a English indie rock/dance punk 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.

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.cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6903225.stm|title=Mercury Music Prize: The nominees|publisher=BBC News|accessdate=2007-07-19]

After playing numerous festivals and headlining tours worldwide (including the NME Indie Rave Tour) during late 2006 - early 2007, the band started working on their follow-up album in October 2007.cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/news/20070724_klaxons.shtml|title=Klaxons get writing|publisher=6 Music|accessdate=2007-08-27]

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 in mid-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 because of their shared love of nu-krautrock pioneers Fact|date=January 2008 Die Plankton.

Jamie Reynolds grew up in Bournemouth and Southampton and was active in several short-lived bands from his early teens. He dropped out of school to work in record shops over the next few years, then 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)"cite web
url=http://www.mp3.com/artist/the-klaxons/summary/
title=Band Name History
publisher=From Klaxons [http://www.mp3.com/artist/the-klaxons Profile] on " [http://www.mp3.com mp3.com] "
accessdate=2007-06-26] .

The lineup was recently bolstered with the addition of drummer Steffan Halperin (former drummer Finnigan Kidd left to focus on another band, Hatcham Social cite web
url=http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/allabout/artist/8254/Klaxons
title=Klaxons on FasterLouder
publisher=Interview from " [http://www.fasterlouder.com.au FasterLouder] "
accessdate=2007-06-05] )), 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 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".cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/zanelowe/tracklistingarchive.shtml?20060509|title=Setlist from when song was wrongly credited|publisher=BBC Radio 1 Show|accessdate=2007-06-26] .

They released their first EP, "Xan Valleys" in the US on October 16, 2006 on Modular Recordings.

Polydor Records (2006–present)

In 2006, the band signed to Polydor Records. Polydor's first action was to take all of Klaxons videos off YouTube.Fact|date=January 2008 Their first single for the label, "Magick", was released on October 30, 2006 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.cite web
url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/jowhiley/galleries/983/1/#gallery983
title=Band Pictures
publisher=From Whiley's BBC Radio 1 [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/jowhiley Website]
accessdate=2007-06-26] 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.cite web|url=http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id=3988|title=Klaxons Profile|publisher=Chart Stats.com|accessdate=2007-08-16]

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 begun writing for their second album which will be produced again by James Ford. It will not be called "Myths of the Near Past".A recent picture in James' blog depicts music software being used to produce the new album, with the track heading "Sweetheart".

On September 20, 2007 it was revealed that the band were to release a double album featuring 27 tracks mixed exclusively by 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. It was officially released on 1 October, 2007.,cite web
url=http://strangeglue.com/klaxon-mix-bugged-out/1945/
title=Its A ‘Bugged Out’ Life For Klaxons
accessdate=2007-09-21]

Klaxons singled out a new song that has strong prog influences as a guide to one possible direction the album may go in, revealed recently NME. Guitarist Simon Taylor said: "We wanna make something that's bigger and softer and louder and lo-fi and heavier produced - just lots of contradictions. I think it's gonna be like the last record but swollen. We've been listening to a lot of European prog music and dubstep and dance and folk. A huge broad variety of things really. There's one track we've been playing in soundcheck, it's this massive prog opus."

Klaxons performed with the singer Rihanna on the song "Umbrella" which had "Golden Skans" mixed into the background during the Brit Awards 2008 held in London on February 20, 2008.

Klaxons won 'Best Album' at the 2008 NME Awards held at London's IndigO₂ Arena on February 28, 2008. This followed having won 'Best New Band' the previous year. Klaxons also won 'Best International Album' and 'Best International Track' for "Golden Skans" at the first American NME awards, which were held in Los Angeles, California.

Most recently, the band debuted new track "Calm Trees" at a concert in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, on October 2, 2008.cite web|url=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pkp6IdHZlSo|title=Klaxons - Calm Trees LIVE (Watt, Rotterdam, 02.10.2008)|publisher=YouTube|accessdate=2008-10-05]

'Nu Rave'

HMV describes Klaxons as "acid-rave sci-fi punk-funk", a phrase lifted directly from Tim Chester's Radar feature in NME, 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. It is questionable whether or not the style referred to as "New Rave" is even appreciably different from the older genre dance-punk. Even so, Klaxons member Jamie Reynolds expressed no regrets at the dubious honour, saying that "...it's great that it started as an in-joke and became a minor youth subculture"cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguide/features/story/0,,2004020,00.html|title=Interview|publisher=By The Guardian newspaper, February 3, 2007|accessdate=2007-06-26]

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 lyrics to "Forgotten Works" are based on Richard Brautigan's "In Watermelon Sugar".

Discography

Albums

*"Myths of the Near Future" (29 January 2007) #2 (UK)

Compilations

*"A Bugged Out Mix By Klaxons" - (1 October 2007)

EPs

*"Xan Valleys" - (16 October 2006)

ingles

Awards

* 2007 NME Awards: Best New Bandcite web|url=http://www.nme.com/awards/news/26762|title=Klaxons crowned Best New Band at Shockwaves NME Awards|publisher=NME.com|accessdate=2007-07-24]
* 2007 Mercury Music Prize: "Myths of the Near Future"
* 2007 XFM: Live Breakthrough Act
* 2008 NME Awards: "Myths of the Near Future" Best album
* 2008 Ivor Novello Awards: "Golden Skans" Best Contemporary Song (Nominated)
* 2008 NME Awards USA: "Golden Skans" - Best International Track

References

External links

* [http://www.klaxons.net Official site]
* [http://www.Myspace.com/klaxons Official MySpace]
* [http://www.klaxonsfansite.co.uk Official Fansite]

Interviews/Reviews

* [http://www.ianroullier.com/interviews_and_features/klaxons.htm Interview for musicOMH.com December 2006]
* [http://www.staythirstymedia.com/200802-018/html/200802-klaxons.html Exclusive interview with Thirsty magazine]
* [http://www.prefixmag.com/features/klaxons/interview/16508/ Interview with Klaxons] Interview with Klaxons on prefixmag.com
* [http://www.jambase.com/headsup.asp?storyID=10997&disp=all Get Lifted With London's Klaxons] Interview/Article on JamBase.com
* [http://subculturemagazine.com/interviewdetails.php?id=44&PHPSESSID=759e4ffee445dbbfdb571a1175a5b364 Interview with the band at Subculture Magazine]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguide/features/story/0,,2004020,00.html Interview with the band at TheGuardian.co.uk]
* [http://www.oc-tv.net/en/movies/klaxons.htm Meet Klaxons, Interview James Righton & Live Concert on OC-TV.net]
* [http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/04/18/klaxons/ Interview and performance at The Current]
* [http://kingbobbysix.blogspot.com/2007/10/klaxons-interview.html Interview with Rob Townsend]
* [http://www.unseentv.com.au/channel/unseen/videos/73.html Interview InTheMix and Unseen TV]
* [http://www.soundfires.com/reviews/21 Soundfires.com review of Golden Skans]
* [http://www21.sbs.com.au/alchemy/index.php?pg=ct&ct=1&sc=2&id=490 Klaxons Interview with Alchemy SBS Radio]