Who was billed5 artists
In the order the promoter listed them.
Set times were not published.
Most of these pairings were meeting for the first time that night.
the pairs that have met
8 of the 10 pairings on this bill were first meetings.
- Hot Chip and Mike Simonetti — 1 shared bill before that night, first on Sat 28 Sep 2024.
- Mike Simonetti and Simonetti — 3 shared bills before that night, first on Sat 9 Mar 2024.
Who they are
“There's something odd about Hot Chip.”
their own biography
the whole biography
There's something odd about Hot Chip. Some fracture between conception and actuality that makes them all the more intriguing. Ostensibly Hot Chip sign up to the HipHop dream as espoused by MTV Cribs and presumably as lived by, ooh, Pharrell Williams? They just seem to have some problems translating it to Wandsworth, SE London, is all. In fact they seem to have trouble squaring it with the equal, but to some extent opposite, influence of, say, Bill Callahan from Smog. Or Lambchop. Or Crystal Gayle. So, instead of doing the obvious thing and working out what sort of band they are going to be, they conclude that they will be all of them at once. And then they'll make it all in a room smaller than the box room at your Mum's house. With whatever's lying around. That is, whatever's lying around - toy trumpets, kazoos, blah. This to conform to a cherished idea of Brian Wilson's that, in the studio, anything goes. "Whereas a band like Primal Scream simply want to BE The Rolling Stones for one album, then King Tubby on the next, and Royal Trux on another, we prefer to make references in miniature to the spirit of the records and performances we love and admire," says vocalist/keyboard player Alexis Taylor. "We might apply an interesting approach to recording that we have learnt from an artist, but with a different set of aesthetic principles. So traces of RTX, Anti-Pop Consortium, 'I'm Your Man' era-Leonard Cohen, Stevie Wonder, Tom Petty, MadLib and Will Oldham, for example, may all be somewhere in one song, rather than becoming the blueprint for an entire album." The crux of all this, though, is the dynamic tension between the sheer respect for the production techniques of, say, Darkchild on Brandy's 'What About Us?', and a very English (and, some might say, white) need to tell it a little more like how it is. So, on the Neptunes inspired 'Playboy', you get the aspirational ghetto stylings of a Hype Williams as re-shot by Mike Leigh, with Hot Chipper Joe singing about blazing Yo La Tengo from his Peugeot as he tools round Putney with the top down. 'Pathos' is a word that springs to mind not for the first or last time while listening to 'Coming On Strong'. But Hot Chip are nothing if not funny, although it's safe to say they are pretty deadpan in their humour. This is perhaps best exemplified by 'Keep Fallin'', a song which contains Alexis Chip's somewhat provocative boast that he is "like Stevie Wonder" but "can see things". This in a song that manages to shoehorn in musical nods to Ween, Womack & Womack, the Spencer Davies Group, plus the great Stevie himself, while lyrically referencing the myth of Sisyphus and cracking crap jokes. Phew! "It should sound packed and be brimming with ideas, like 'Pet Sounds' or 'Paul's Boutique'," says Alexis before tracing the roots of Hot Chip's sound to the interplay between his naivety and Joe's knowledge. And this is the way it seems to go. Hot Chip say they have between 10 and 15 songs on the go constantly, recording everything they play together and then painstakingly piecing together the best elements into a new whole, which often bears little relation to the source material. "Like Public Enemy," they say by way of example. Unlike most of their heroes and role models, however, Hot Chip prefer things to be slightly off or too loud or in some way odd, and set great store in the accidental nature of recording. Perhaps it is this that gives them the slightly homemade feel that permeates the whole 'Coming On Strong', and makes it an album so high on charm. The party sounds that intersperse the Tom Tom Club-by 'Beach Party' are more back-garden barbeque than the primetime Prince which inspired them, and are deliberately designed to evoke innocence rather than more Bacchanalian pleasures. Elsewhere, home itself is never far from centre stage, whether it be the bereft rooms and empty refrigerator of 'Crap Kraft Dinner', or the quiet domestic tragedy of 'Baby Said'. "Baby said she wanted adventure / I said, baby, the outside world's not safe / We should sit down". And, outside the home you get... the car. Yes, the aforementioned hymn to the Peugeot is but one of three tunes on the joys of driving to be found on 'Coming On Strong'. 'You Ride, We Ride, In My Ride' is Will Oldham cruising with his crew after a night on the piss, with what Joe calls UK garage polyrhythms and Alexis insists is actually a disco bassline. 'Shining Escalade' meanwhile is an auto-erotic phantasy about the SUV of the same name, with Alexis playing straight man to Joe's daft flights of fancy. This is a situation found throughout the record; Alexis high reedy vocal and often deadly sincere words, juxtaposed with Joe's browner, slightly ludicrous baritone, pointing us towards the more playful elements of Hot Chip. And, in truth, they are both meaningful and meaningless. At the same time. They like to sing sweetly about aggressive situations, and make jokes about things you really should cry about. 'Coming On Strong' is, like the man says, chockfull of more ideas than you could satisfactorily identify, many of them purely signs and ciphers for the participants' own delight. Thankfully, it functions first and foremost as a pop record, albeit the decidedly odd one hinted at in the first sentence. Hot Chip are: Alexis Taylor (vocals / keboard) / Joe Goddard (beat master / vocals) / Owen Clarke (Keyboards ? guitar) / Felix Martin (drums / MPC) / Al Do It (guitar).Their RA profile lists Astralwerks, DFA Records, EMI Records, Kitsuné Musique and 3 more.Recently at Elsewhere · often with Bipolar Sunshine, Chaske, Flair Gambit, none of them here that night
“Jersey born, bred and based, Mike Simonetti is a man of many caps.”
their own biography
the whole biography
Jersey born, bred and based, Mike Simonetti is a man of many caps. As an artist he’s in demand both as a solo act and as one half of acclaimed techno duo Pale Blue. In the business, he’s a multiple influential label founder with 25 years of breaking bands and accelerating culture to his name. In life, he is a serial crate digger and music lover. With a steady flow of releases and remixes on his own 2MR, Manpower’s Me Me Me, Public Release, Crosstown Rebels, Correspondant peppering the sets of premiership selectors such as Dixon, Ame, Mike Servino and Maceo Plex, the 2010s have seen Mike steadily rise to prominence as one of this decade’s most consistent, exciting and innovative producers both solo and with Elizabeth Wight as Pale Blue. This is no coincidence: Simonetti’s status is the result of decades of diligent work across multiple musical movements from punk to acid house as both a DJ and label owner. In the early 90s he founded cult imprint Troubleman Unlimited, a label responsible for breaking the likes of Chromatics and Glass Candy and releasing music by Prurient, Vatican Shadow, Zola Jesus, The Walkmen, Speedking (James Murphy’s first band), Unwound, and many many more acts long before their mainstream exposure. This tastemaker trend continues throughout every label Mike has founded since retiring Troubleman and exploring more dancefloor focussed sounds: between 2007-15 he ran Italians Do It Better with Glass Candy’s Johnny Jewell, during which time it became a by-word for innovative electronic fusion. Now 2MR (2 Mikes Records co-founded with Mike Sniper and Adam Gerrard) carries the mantel for joyous unpredictability and forefront electronic fusion, encouraging the boldest and most vibrant experiments from exciting new innovators such as Savile, Bottin, John Barera and many more. Galvanizing Mike’s ahead-of-the-curve signature and reflecting his ever-broadening musical brushstrokes in the studio and reputation as an international DJ, 2MR is yet another chapter for the man of many caps: an artist, a DJ, a label owner, a crate digger, a music lover…Their RA profile lists Crosstown Rebels, Italians Do It Better, Perseo, Correspondant and 5 more.Recently at House of Yes, Black Flamingo · often with Timo Lee, Panthera Krause, Peter Invasion, none of them here that night
Recently at House of Yes, Black Flamingo, Bossa Nova Civic Club · often with Spiñorita, Baby Wolf, Acid Alien, none of them here that night
Recently at Good Room, Eavesdrop · often with lovetempo, Justin Strauss, Timo Lee, none of them here that night
names these artists often play with — not that night
- Gianna G1 with Hot Chip and 1 with Mike Simonetti
- Timo Lee1 with Billy Caldwell and 1 with Mike Simonetti
- Justin Strauss4 with Billy Caldwell
- lovetempo4 with Billy Caldwell
- Aazure1 with Hot Chip
- Acid Alien1 with Simonetti
- Alice Iguchi1 with Simonetti
- Baby Wolf1 with Simonetti
668 said they were going — busier than a usual Saturday at Good Room.
how this compares
- Median final count, Saturdays at Good Room422
- Middle half finished between274 and 566
- Past Saturdays at this venue counted156
The room
Good Room — 477 events and 1,024 distinct artists since Aug 2023.
Holds about 500.
Most-tagged here: House (6) and Techno (3). genre tags on this room’s listings