Little Joy

Rough Trade Records is pleased to announce the forthcoming release from Little Joy. The band's self-titled debut will be released on November 4, 2008.

Little Joy is Binki Shapiro, Rodrigo Amarante and Fabrizio Moretti, three friends who dropped their routine at their respective hometowns to make a record in Los Angeles, California.

Through a chance encounter at a Portuguese festival in Lisbon, where both Amarante (Singer/Guitarist of Los Hermanos) and Moretti (drummer of The Strokes) had performed, the two chatted well through the night and into the morning by the side of the river, humoring the idea of working together on music that had no affiliation to their particular bands.

A year later, Amarante traveled to the United States to record with Devendra Banhart on his Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon album. On the off hours of an arduous recording process, Amarante would meet with Moretti to discuss anything but music.

Binki Shapiro, musician and native of Los Angeles, was introduced to the pair through mutual acquaintances and became a fast friend, encouraging the two to focus on the music they had spoken of long before. Through the process of late night "show-and-tell" the three developed and arranged songs Moretti had begun and soon after started writing original music for the group as a band.

A couple of months later they all moved into a house in Echo Park to demo songs and soon after, with the help of producer Noah Georgeson, who had recorded Banhart's album, they finished their self-titled debut, Little Joy, named after the cocktail lounge just down the street from their home.

Previous to the album's release the band will play select dates with Banhart's band Megapuss. A headlining tour is in the works for November and December. [PR]

One of those non-Megapuss, Little Joy headlining dates is at Mercury Lounge in NYC on November 13th. Tickets are on sale Wed at noon.

The Megapuss album, Surfing, "is being released by Vapor Records in physical formats October 7 and [was] digitally September 16." Listen to Megapuss at MySpace. Listen to Little Joy at MySpace. All known tour dates below...

Continue reading "Little Joy (w/ a member of the Strokes) - new album & 2008 Tour Dates (some w/ Megapuss aka Devendra Banhart)"

Devendra Banhart met Vincent Gallo. I would like to see the pictures if there are any. Also,

Well, I (Devendra) have a band -- it's me and the drummer from Priestbird, Greg Rogove. What started off as a joke -- "Let's start a band and let's make up song titles" -- to our surprise and shock, we started writing songs, and we've written eight songs that I'm really really proud of and excited about. We're gonna record a real record, and we're called Megapuss. Also, I've always wanted to do something like a small traveling festival with, like, three known bands and some people that maybe haven't put out a record yet and also involve organizations like NARF ... I think that would be awesome.

AND, RELATED REMINDER: Jonanna Newsom is playing BAM. Public ticket sale begins Jan 2.