!!! (Chk Chk Chk)

After a tour together, Black Liquorice and Popesmashers decided to mix the former's disco and funk style with the latter's noisy aggressiveness, and !!! was born. The band's name was inspired by the subtitles of the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, in which the mouth-clicking sounds of the Bushmen were represented as "!". However, as the band themselves say on their website: "!!! is pronounced by repeating thrice any monosyllabic sound. Chk Chk Chk is the most common pronunciation, but they could just as easily be called Pow Pow Pow, Bam Bam Bam, Uh Uh Uh, etc."

Based triply in Sacramento, California; Portland, Oregon; and New York City, their debut full-length record came out in 2000 as a self-titled album on the label Gold Standard Laboratories. This was followed in 2003 by the acclaimed single "Me and Giuliani Down By the School Yard" (the song title is wordplay, combining the Paul Simon hit song "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" with former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani's name), a lengthy track combining house beats with sinewy basslines, psychedelic guitars, and simple, silly lyrics which quote the title song of the musical Footloose.

They are known for their cathartic live shows, and are commonly associated with the dance-punk movement. A second full-length, Louden Up Now, was released on Touch and Go in America and on Warp Records in Europe in June of 2004. In June 2005, !!! released a new EP covering "Take Ecstasy With Me" by The Magnetic Fields, and "Get Up" by Nate Dogg. The following December, the original drummer for the band, Mikel Gius, was struck and killed by a car while riding his bike. !!! has finished their new album called Myth Takes and is playing an extensive world tour to promote its March 2007 release.

Ticket details are not yet out. Updates to come.

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