The Bowery Presents

The Mercury Lounge upcoming shows

Futurecop!
11:30

Hey Willpower
10:30
Hockey
9:30
Theophilus London
8:30

Venue:
The Mercury Lounge
Date:
Fri 1/23
Notes:
21+
Doors: 8:30 PM / Show: 8:30 PM
$10
Tickets
Futurecop!
myspace
British duo Futurecop! consists of Manzur Iqbal and Peter Carrol (both aged 26). The pair met at University and remained friends ever since, sharing a passion for 80s pop culture which has evolved into Futurecop! Growing up in Manchester in England, Manzur developed a taste for a wide range of music, going through various stages of metal, indie, rock and punk. As his musical tastes evolved, one thing remained constant throughout his life; a secret love affair and obsession with 80s pop culture. He joined a punk band in college (‘We were crap'), but the experience did consolidate a wide, eclectic range of influences which continued into University. Taking a subsidiary course in Politics, he met Peter and a friendship was formed. Manzur adds; 'We were just into the same things, music, films, and most importantly 80s culture; the whole thing started there really'.

Spending his formative years on the suburbs of London, Peter took a much less varied path in terns of his musical tastes. "Where I lived, there were only a couple of really popular musical genres" he explains. "Everyone was listening to hip-hop or garage when I was growing up, so that was all I was into until I was about eighteen. Then I came to University, started going to serious clubs and I haven't stopped listening to electronic music since'

After University, the pair remained friends but moved back to London and Manchester respectively. After two years passed, Peter was busy burning himself out with heavy partying and djing, while Manzur decided to spend most of this time locked in his room! With the aim of creating electronic music which emulated the 80s sounds of his childhood - Futurecop! was born. Using just a laptop and a midi keyboard, some free programs off the net and with absolutely no knowledge of making electronic music, he admits that 'At the beginning it was frustrating, trying to understand and program music; I didn't know anything. But through it all I had the strong motivation to create a sound and style which echoed the soft pop electro synths of the eighties and just basically capture my childhood experience of 80s movies and TV shows and make music out of it , I just wanted to create my feelings through music and the MySpace of 80s pop culture. I think I achieved that in the end'.

Although Manzur happily admits that the sound is reminiscent of everyone who shared a childhood in the same era, he would prefer not to categorize it as a particular style. "I don't know much about genres, if anything its pop music" he confesses. “The whole thing about Futurecop! is it’s a lot to do with the brand, music is just one part of it. I didn't make music to try and be anything or impress anyone, and I have no pretensions about it; its just me having fun and creating something I wanted to because I felt passionate about the sound and image I wanted to create. Never thought so many people would be into it! So I'm not worried of people finding it cheesy / soft / too pop, especially with all the noise music around at that time. So it’s a special feeling to know there are people out there into this idea just like me"

About a year ago things really started to snowball, with interest from record labels, live performances and dj sets. This is when Manzur decided to get Pete on board to Futurecop! to look after the live performances and djing. Plus, they gathered it’s more fun doing this with your best mate! ‘The main forum that people have had access to the music is through the blogs and MySpace’ adds Peter; 'Disco dust, Flou Kids, Valerie, Iheartcomix and Trashbags have been amazing for our gaining exposure, we've been grateful that they have featured it because it has been a great platform to getting the music heard and we are living proof that MySpace is big deal, all you need is a cool MySpace idea and good tunes which you can make from free downloads!’

They have performed in LA, Germany, Austria, Ireland, and Australia, with numerous gigs in London. Did the pair enjoy touring Australia? 'Definitely' says Peter. ‘We were a little overwhelmed by the amount of fans out there, but we had so many nice comments from Oz that we can't wait to go back.'

Do they have any final thoughts on the future? Manzur quickly replies "We’re just trying to keep having fun. It's a bonus that the music is appreciated, and as long as the enjoyment is there for us we will keep doing it, that’s all that matters.”
Hey Willpower
official website
myspace
Hey Willpower was conceived one night in july on 3rd street in san francisco when linton and i were at a tussle show and i was still smoking. we were talking about our love for r&b pop/hip hop and how linton had lived in the same building in harlem as Sean Paul the summer before and our favorite songs on kmel. i gave linton a ride home and the Busta/Mariah song "i know what you want" came on and we just listened in awe. as if linton was reading my mind, linton said we should get together and make a song using all the elements of pop that we've ever loved. a couple of days later we started working on a song in linton's basement. i came up with some vocal melodies and keyboard/guitar parts and left linton overnight with them. the result was the backing track for "uh-uh-uh". after exhaustively stalking linton and trying to convince em to drop everything and work on this project, linton told me they had to go on tour with their band the Aislers Set. i was left despondent in sf with a new computer and this music in my head. i met tomo through a friend and we hardly even asked each other on a music date before we were on a regular practice schedule furiously writing and recording music. tomo loves blippy bleepy yet melodic landscapey music the most. i had to coerce him a bit into some ass-shaking, but he eventually caved in. whether it's a hot beat or bass part or a strangely beautiful keyboard melody, he always brings something unique and inspiring to the music. we'll be hanging out and he'll be tapping out a beat with the keys in his pocket and we'll record that. i grew up listening to Michael and Janet and L'Trimm and pop that my sisters would turn me on to. as soon as I heard Sonic Youth and the Velvet Underground my world turned inside out and I started voraciously ingesting anything other than what was played on the radio. i became immersed in the indie music world with my band Imperial Teen, all the while reveling in the latest greatest pop/hip hop songs and records. Hey Willpower feels like something new and exciting and postmodern without being smug or ironic. although it's different from Imperial Teen, it makes perfect sense to me to be making the music we're making because it comes from what i love about music. when we're performing live and people are doin' their dances and making noise, we know it's right. i'm good with the chin scratchers and musicologists and philosophers too, but sometimes you have to let the emotions take over. let's dance now and we can talk about it later if you want.
Hockey
myspace
Hockey are individually from all over the United States, via band stints in Los Angeles, Spokane and Portland – To quote a line from I Wanna Be Black – all the band’s witty, biting lyrics are written by Ben – “everyone’s making dance music now true, but we started in 2002”.

‘When we started making music’ says Ben, ‘we wanted to make music that people could have fun to at the parties we played.’

‘We wanted to make dance music that was infectious,’ says Jerm. ‘Almost like: this is a band but it might as well be a DJ.’

‘We didn’t want to just get up and do our thing,’ says Ben.

‘We want people to react. That was our deal.’
Theophilus London
official website
myspace
THEOPHILUS LONDON is a rapper, songwriter and producer from Brooklyn. Fader magazine places him at the center of the borough’s new urban pop movement, while UK music weekly NME goes in a bit further: ”...his patter is sumptuous, his look untouchable, his soundscapes plucked from mythical ghetto neverlands…he’s the real deal.” His first mixtape JAM! was a buzzy DIY effort that tipped off early adopters in the underground, but it was the independent release of This Charming Mixtape via his brand The Lovers in early 2009 that introduced London’s voracious pop appetite and minted him as an artist to watch beyond mere hype. Gliding effortlessly from clubby original productions to 90s rave throwbacks, afropop electrojams, Kraftwerk samples, a backbreaking bass refix of a Whitney Houston torch song—all of it stitched together with London’s breathy, unpredictable flow—This Charming Mixtape’s wildfire appeal soon saw London igniting clubs in Europe and America with stunning live performances. It’s possible this is the arrival of a once-in-a-generation talent: Theophilus London is very much in this moment but not of it. He is currently at work on his debut album.
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