2007 - YEAR OF THE LIVING DEAD!!

It's almost New Year's Eve! I'm excited... except for the fact that Nostradamus appears to have predicted ZOMBIES(!!!) for next year:

"The year of the great seventh number will be accomplished.
It will appear at the time of the games of slaughter;
Not far from the great millennial age,
When the buried will go out of their tombs."
-Nostradamus, Century 10, Quatrain 74



Oh No!
Well, I suppose we'll just have to enjoy the rest of this zombie free year while we can. I know we have been!
Last night we played the Echo, and it went really well. We had a ton of fun. I know I saw some people taking pictures, so hopefully we'll be able to stick some of those up on the blog soon. It was a really good night.

We met up with Jeff from CSG music (I believe he was the music supervisor for the films Leprechaun 3 and Leprechaun 4: In Space.. brilliant!) and his friend Eve, who invited us to play at his art gallery party tomorrow night. Hence this giant advertisement I'm about to place here:



It's going to be brilliant, come by!
Speak soon!
Love,
Joe

Boxing Day

Happy Boxing Day, readers!

We apologize for the lack of correspondence, but we've been so busy with all this Christmas going on! Actually, that's not true at all, we're just lazy, but we have been fairly active.
Wednesday night was the big "Indie-Rock Posada" at JC Fandango, and it was brilliant! I think the pictures from this show are the first pictures taken of us with our drummer, Nico.. so if you've not been to a show recently.. I don't know. You can see what Nico looks like playing drums!



I don't know if you can really tell in that first picture, but Luke's wearing silver shoes.. Silver shoes! How cool.
So, yes, that show went very well. The sound at JC Fandango is fantastic. If you missed it, you really missed out!

What else is new? Well, I can tell you about some of the things Luke and I got for Christmas...
I got an E-Bow.. Some of you have probably heard of it.. It's a little box that uses electro-magnets to create infinte sustain blah blah blah but it's incredible!!! It works with a guitar to make it sound like this or this or this!!.. Excellent!

And Luke got a DVD of Peep Show, which is the greatest show ever made.

Okay, I think that's it for now.. We're playing the Echo on Thursday.. Brilliant!

See you soon.

GREETINGS FROM THE DMZ

We were mentioned this week in the OC Weekly.. how tremendously exciting! Here's part of the article, in all it's glory:

"Teenage Reid baby brothers Pop Noir have that transatlantic lag that comes from too much astral travel between Manchester and New York City in the year 1979 (on Trans World Astral, probably) but from afar I have watched them hustle and learn to not rip off Joy Division so much. Now they are in the dance-punk DMZ - we've all lost friends there- but if they nudge in any direction except cool/fool/school haircut pop this is gonna work out admirably. Get into Artery, guys. At JC Fandango with Los Abandoned and Go Betty Go."
-Chris Ziegler

Good stuff! And remember, he says "de-militarized zone", not "no man's land" (chortle)!

My favorite part is how many people comment on our appearance.. and I'm not being sarcastic, I am genuinely amused by the comparisons. Here's a list, in no particular order, of the people we've been said to look like;

Syd Barrett (that's everyone's favorite, it seems)

Jim and William Reid of the Jesus & Mary Chain

Marc Bolan

"The one in Sparks who doesn't look like Hitler"

"something out of a Tim Burton movie"

Russel Brand (ppfffff)

The Horrors (I think that one was meant as an insult)

Ben Stiller (I think that one was meant as a compliment.. hahahaha)


Watch this blog, the list may grow!

Memories.

Remember when we played with Seth Cohen's band at the Galaxy in Santa Ana?
Well I was just watching NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly and Landon Pigg was the musical guest. There were four bands on that Seth Cohen show; we were first, Mr. Pigg was second, and then Big City Rock and Big Japan. We went up to Landon afterwards to congratulate him on a good set, and he just said "Thanks, that means a lot, coming from the first band," really sarcastically... or so it seemed to me. Needless to say, we were taken aback.

Seth Cohen, on the other hand, was very nice. So nice that, in fact, I should start referring to him by his real name. Here's that picture of us with Adam Brody and Laura, Pop Noir's former merch girl:




Apparently Crispin Glover's What Is It? premiered at the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles this weekend, December 8, 9, and 10, and we missed it. I'm disappointed. Both of our weekends were pretty wild in their own right, but that would have been the icing on the cake.

Christmas is a-coming!

We're currently working on a Christmas gift for all of you, and let me tell you... it will be spectacular! We haven't quite decided what it will be yet, but when we do... oh boy! That's if we can pull it off. It might just be too spectacular. Keep checking back, I'll let you know how things go.
This mystery gift will be presented free to all of you who attend this event:



We're pretty excited about this one. We're playing early, true, but that means we can have a massive party with you all afterwards. JC Fandango is our absolute favorite club anywhere in the world, and it's five days before Christmas, so come out, have too much to drink, eat some really good tacos, and most importantly, have a dance with us.
In other news, the Plush show last Sunday went well, despite the rain. We announced Nico's departure from the band, after two shows, to serve as the new King of Chile after the dictator Pinoche's death (fortunately that's not going to work out, and Nico's staying here with us, for the time being). And I danced with an old man. Here's some souvenir's from the show; the setlist:

and our merch price list:

Both of these were originally written on napkins, but you can print them out on printer paper, crumple them up, and sell them on ebay.

It's been awhile, how are you all?
Love,
Luke

Showoffs!

I just posted this pleasant little collection of Pop Noir reviews on the "About Pop Noir" section on our myspace, and I'm proud these blurbs (if you will), so I figured I'd put them here, too...

"I basically had two burning questions about Pop Noir. One being why did it take me so long to become aware of this band and two - what label head is making the biggest mistake of their life by not signing them? Add them. Love them. Spread the word."
-Melissa Madore, The Rockit - L.A.'s Only Rock & Roll Newspaper

"Pop Noir, an LA-based band, had some really interesting songs we'd heard beforehand, but their gig at One Central was overflowing. Definitely worth checking out on their London gigs next week at The Windmill and The Dublin Castle."
-RecordoftheDay.com

"Pop Noir, like a welcome ray of Californian sunshine, take to the stage. Nineteen year-old twins Joe and Luke... tall and wiry, both with a shock of unkempt black hair and dressed in the skinniest of skinny jeans, the brothers look like something straight out of a Tim Burton movie... very Noir I suppose you could say. But it's not just their look that's striking, their tunes are just as stylish. Luke sings lead vocals and plays bass and keys, Joe sings and plays lead guitar, add a drum machine and you have Pop Noir; infectious bass-led indie pop that harks back to the post punk sounds of the late 70s and 80s... think Joy Division with a hint of Orange Juice for the modern indie generation. Strutting around the stage and dance floor in all their mod cool the McGarry brothers certainly leave an unforgettable impression. Sleek, stylish pop to sashay in your vintage snake-skins to, Pop Noir are far too catchy to go un-noticed. Watch this space. Log on to their MySpace www.myspace/popnoir.com and listen to single 'Don't Fool Yourself' – you'll be hooked."
-Victoria Addinall, www.hitsheet.co.uk

"The McGarry Brothers (Joe and Luke) look not dissimilar to Marc Bolan or the one in Sparks who doesn't look like Hitler, their dad used to design record sleeeves for Joy Division and Jilted John amongst others and the rich musical history is apparent. For a duo their sound is remarkably full mixing up early synth sounds, drum machines and post-punk guitars."
-Designer Magazine

"As everybody gets up close and personal in the dense audience, the duo take to the stage and rip into a set louder than their limited personnel suggests. Initial opinions form as to how great they look onstage together with leather jackets and huge hair, then the music slowly starts to take hold. Shades of Depeche Mode (but nowhere near as moody) and The Rapture (but nowhere near as manic) come through in their thumping beats coated in chirpy guitar lines. Worth keeping an eye on..."
-Rob Allen, The Manchester Evening News

"Sometime during a recent club gig, I flipped for Pop Noir, eighteen-year-old twin brothers who are natives of Manchester, but have lived in Huntington Beach long enough to adopt Southern California accents. In April, I had another chance to spin records on the same bill as Pop Noir and, once again, I thought I lost my mind... Whereas Joe and Luke McGarry's set at Diskoteka in March revolved around a few choice cover tunes mixed in with the twins' original material, this time around, the duo focused predominantly on original work. The brothers included several selections from their second demo, including "D.I.Y.," "How the West Was Won," and "The Seaside," all available through the band's website www.popnoir.org. The highlights of Pop Noir's set included several new and unrecorded tracks. Of these, "Don't Fool Yourself" is the song that has to be a hit, with its combination of gritty, garage-rock guitars and minimal electronic embellishments."
-Liz O, www.musictruth.co.uk

How lovely! Well, tomorrow night (which I suppose is actually tonight, since it's now 12:20am) we have a show at Red Dragon Studios in Hollywood, a party for The Rockit (one of the papers listed above). It should be loads of fun! It's all ages, but if you're 21+, FREE DRINKS ALL NIGHT!! I think under 21's get free drinks, too.. but not fun ones. Unless you consider Pepsi fun, which I guess I actually do.

If you're in the OC area, though, we're playing again at Plush in Fullerton on Sunday night. That's going to be great, too. And remember, both of these shows (and all upcoming shows from now on) will be with our new drummer! So imagine Pop Noir as you already know it, and multiply it by 10,000. That's how good it is.

Okay, I'm off to get some sleep. Goodnight, and I hope to see you tomorrow or Sunday!