Who: Britain’s coolest new band the xx, fronted by singer-bassist Oliver Sim and singer-guitarist Romy Madley Croft, who uniquely blend sultry boy-girl indie pop with austere, icy post-punk and dub grooves. After hitting it big back in the UK with their debut xx, the trio — producer/beatmaster Jamie Smith rounds out the line-up — was named the MVP of this year’s CMJ Festival in October.
Sounds Like: On their debut, Sim and Croft’s hushed voices come together with a me-and-you-against-the-world closeness — it’s booty-call music for the indie-rock set. Smith’s minimalist production matches pitter-patter beats with echoing “Wicked Game”-style guitars, and it renders the longing in their voices even more stark.
Vital Stats:
• Sim and Croft met when they were only three years old, bonding in high school because of their mutual shyness. “We couldn’t even get up in front of a class to do a presentation!” says Croft. Sim studied harmonies on his sister’s Aaliyah records, Croft taught herself to play songs by Hole and the Distillers in her bedroom.
• The band wrote song lyrics via e-mail, but when it came time to perform the tracks, neither one wanted sing in front of the other. “It was like, ‘You first,’ ‘No, you first,’ ” Croft remembers. “So we sang at the same time.” Adds Smith, who plays synths and drum machines onstage for the xx, “They learned how to talk together at three years old. Now they’re learning how to sing together.”
• The xx have already attracted the likes of Spoon’s Britt Daniel and Courtney Love to their concerts, plus one audience member that Sim says, “if you’d told me when I was 15 that this would be happeni...
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily