I came across Little Joy in 2008 as they released their self-titled freshman classic. However, at the time I was accumulating such an abundance of music that I didn't dedicate much time to really listening. Jump forward a year to 2009. We were at Coachella watching Devendra Banhart. He had this great guitar player with him. I was strangely drawn to the guys stage presence, voice and perfect chops. It was almost like I enjoyed his contribution to the show more than Devendra. Later on in their set Devendra introduced his band and I found out that it was Rodrigo Amarante of Los Hermanos playing guitar alongside Noah Georgeson. They then performed "Keep me in mind." Everybody in the tent danced like puppets to that sound of rock and roll that has roots in the 60's and leaves made of new age indie pop. At the time I thought the song to be written by "Los Hermanos" yet I could never find it, nor could I hear the title of the song when they performed it. Anyhow, a few weeks ago I thought I would listen to "Little Joy," I had the time to finally really give the album a thorough listen. To my surprise I ran across "Keep me in mind!" I about lost my mind. I have probably listened to that song about 100 times since then.
Doing a little background research I found out that "Little Joy" is made up of "Los Hermanos" front man Rodrigo Amarante, The Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti and multi-instrumentalist Binki Shapiro.
One thing I have always known about "Little Joy," is that their music supersedes barriers or genres, as each songs is unique in some way, yet you hear the similarities all at the same time. I can completely get lost in their music. This is such a great album that it is steadily moving up in rank of my all time favorites PERIOD. Give it a week or two........
Info: (Wikipedia)
Little Joy is a Brazilian/American rock band formed in 2007 by Los Hermanos singer/guitarist Rodrigo Amarante, The Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti and Binki Shapiro. Amarante and Moretti met in 2006, at a festival in Lisbon where both their bands were performing, and the idea came up to start a new musical project unrelated to their respective bands. In 2007, with Los Hermanos on hiatus "for an undetermined amount of time"[1], Amarante travelled to Los Angeles to collaborate with Devendra Banhart on his Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon album. He and Moretti met during recording breaks and talked about "anything but music." Through mutual acquaintances, they met multi-instrumentalist Binki Shapiro, who encouraged the pair to work on a few songs Moretti had begun writing. The band then moved into a house in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles to write more original music and record some demos. The band was christened "Little Joy" after a cocktail lounge not far from their house. Their eponymous debut album was recorded with the help of producer Noah Georgeson and engineer Beau Raymond, whom Amarante met during his sessions with Devendra Banhart. It was released by Rough Trade Records on November 4, 2008, and was hailed by Pitchfork Media as "one of the sweetest, most listenable, consistently enjoyable records of the season." [2] Their debut album was given four stars by Rolling Stone magazine and Nick Hornby[3] voted it his favourite album of 2008.
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