Two Door Cinema Club

One Liner: Crazy fun Irish dance pop with guitars involved

Poster Position: 4

Thoughts:  Not at all what I expected, I thought this was an older indie band.  Not sure who I was thinking of, but this has a totally different sound that I thought, kind of Passion Pit and Postal Service (check the vocals and synth in "I Can Talk") mixed with a new take on the Cure (check the guitar in "Next Year").  They also remind me of the Bright Light Social Hour at times. Super surprised that they are on the fourth line of the poster, but they are apparently bigger than my musical knowledge.

Two albums, 2012's Beacon and 2010's Tourist History.  You have to imagine that they are putting out a new album this year, otherwise it is even weirder that a band I've never heard of, who hasn't made music in three years, and who doesn't appear to have much radio play on their tracks in the States, would be named as a top 14 band at ACL.  I say that, but their tunes have a bunch of plays, with a top five that are all over 20 million a piece.  The top track is creeping up on 100 million streams, at 95.4 right now, called "What You Know."

That guitar riff is where I hear Bright Light Social Hour's "Back and Forth."  Super hooky, really a fun song.  Hard to imagine hearing that at the festival and somehow just standing still and listening.  I think you'd be required, by the laws of physics and biology, to jam loose and wriggle all over the people around you.  Sounds fun.  That track is off of the 2010 album, as are the other songs in their top three most popular on Spotify.

Interesting aside, where do you think these guys might be their most popular on YouTube? Dublin? London?  Brooklyn?  Nope, somehow they are overwhelmingly their most popular in Bangkok, Thailand.  Over 10.4 million views in Bangkok, with the next closest city being Mexico City at 3.6 million.  What is up with that?  Austin doesn't even crack their top 100 cities.  Is there a paid spambot in Thailand just racking up views for their label?  Do their English lyrics translate into funny words in Thai?  There has to be a reason for this.

The most popular track off of that newer album is called "Sun," which clocks in at 29 million streams.

Man, their lead singer looks like he's nine years old.  But this is another sunny, fun-ass dance track. How fun are these guys?  I was not feeling them when I started this blog post, but as I've listened to the music, I just can't not like the groove, the sunshine, the light-touch riffs, the whole package.  I can imagine these guys being really fun to see play this stuff live, a massive dance party festival.  We'll see how the timing works out, but I like it.