News from Pop Noir

2011-03-23T16:23:00.001-07:00

Multimedia message

2008-05-23T12:40:00.001-07:00

Creepy picture from Continental Inflight magazine.

2008-05-18T18:31:00.000-07:00

POP NOIR IN JAPANESE

Our friend Monique, studying abroad in Kanagawa, Japan, has translated the lyrics to "Don't Fool Yourself" into Japanese.
WE don't speak the language (yet...), but we trust her enough to stick them up on the blog!
The lyrics are broken up into 3 sections; English, Japanese characters, and then the Japanese pronunciation.

“Don’t Fool Yourself"

Mister Kiss-kiss bang-bang, faster pussycat kill kill
See the precious mountain; pressure’s mounting on your will
The devils in the details, if you read between the lines
You know this road’s a dead end, but you still ignore the signs

Don’t fool yourself
It’s something else

You keep slipping up and you keep sliding down that slope
You slither to the rhythm like your snake-hips had a hope
Fumble in the jungle; keep your ear pressed to the ground
You know there’s something coming but you still ignore the sound

Mister Kiss-kiss bang-bang; faster pussycat kill kill
See the precious mountain; pressure’s mounting on your will
Hearts are something tangible, but just beyond your reach
And when you’ve learned your lesson, it’s not one you want to teach

"自分をだまさないで"

ミスター・キス‐キスバン‐バン　もっと速くネコちゃん、殺しなさい殺しなさい
貴重な山を見てる；圧力は君の意志を上がること
詳細に悪魔、君が行間を読むなら
このロードが行き止まりであることを知ってるが、君はまだサインを無視してる!

自分をだまさないで
それは他の何かだ

君はスリップして上がり続けて、そのスロープを滑りおり続ける
腰のしなやかな動きは期待を裏切らないように君は滑らかにリズムをとる
ジャングルにファンブル；地面に君の耳を押し続けて
何か来ることものがあるのを知ってるが、君はまだ音を無視してる

ミスター・キス‐キスバン‐バン　もっと速くネコちゃん、殺しなさい殺しなさい
貴重な山を見てる；圧力は君の意志を上がること
心は確かにそこにある、でも手の届かないところにある
そして、レッスンを学んだ時、それは君が教えたくない

“Jibun wo damasanaide”

MISUTA KISU-KISU BAN-BAN motto hayaku NEKOchan, koroshinai koroshinai
Kichou na yama wo miteru; atsuryoku wa kimi no ishi wo agaru koto
Shousai ni akuma, kimi ga gyoukan wo yomu nara
Kono ROUDO ga ikitomari dearu koto wo shittteru ga, kimi wa mada SAIN wo mushishiteru!

Jibun wo damasanaide
Sore wa hokano nanika da

Kimi wa SURIPPUshite agari tsutzukete, sono SUROUPU wo
Koshi no shinayanaka ugoki wa kitai wo uragiranai youni kimi wa nameraka ni RIZUMU wo toru
JYANGURU ni FANBURU; jimen ni kimi no mimi wo oshitsutzukete
Nanika kuru koto mono ga aru no wo shitteru ga, kimi wa mada oto wo mushishiteru

MISUTA KISU-KISU BAN-BAN motto hayaku NEKOchan, koroshinai koroshinai
Kichou na yama wo miteru; atsuryoku wa kimi no ishi wo agaru koto
Kokoro wa tashikani sokoni aru, demo te no todokanai tokoro ni aru
Soshite, RESSUN wo mananda toki, sore wa kimi ga oshietakunai

2008-05-18T00:54:00.000-07:00

RUBICON

Here's a 17 second preview of our new song "Rubicon", performed live for the first time at Hang The Djs at the Echo in Los Angeles. May 17, 2008.

2008-05-16T14:31:00.001-07:00

Band Practice.
Here's Nico and Joe on the double-kick.
Who's better??? I can't tell.
I just figured out how to send videos from my phone to this page... so expect more inane videos.
Or should I say INSANE videos??? Wooooo!

2008-05-12T14:11:00.001-07:00

So I was at an art show in Echo Park on Saturday, and this was the closing performance. At least I hope it was. It was a guy covered in wigs, sitting on the pavement and giving a speech in Spanish. He had a bunch of silver balloons as well, which he was releasing one by one... and when all the balloons were gone, he locked himself in a car boot, and the car drove away. I captured some of it on my mobile, but I was really just waiting for him to stab somebody, for a minute it seemed like that was how it would end.

2008-05-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

Looks like we've set a new personal record! What's that, nine months? Nine months without updating our blog! We could have had a kid in that time. Excellent.

Well, we've got lots of exciting stuff going on, so I'm sure we'll be maintaining this thing a bit better from now on.

While you're waiting for us to get our act together, though, have a look at these brilliant pictures from our show at Fullerton's Continental Room last Thursday:

That last picture there is post-show, when we raised the curtain again for Nico's brilliant encore, an impromptu performance of Deep Purple's "Highway Star". Bizarre.. Legendary!!

For more pictures, go to willteeyang.com.. They're excellent!

2007-08-06T00:53:00.000-07:00

P.S.

Luke and Marily Manson have the same t-shirt.

I would elaborate on this, but I'm too lazy. I'll just leave you to wonder what t-shirt it is.

Unfortunately I had a picture (doubly interesting, because MM had no makeup on, and he looks ridiculous), but I threw it away because I couldn't think of anything to do with it.

Oh well, it's not that interesting anyway!

2007-08-06T00:41:00.000-07:00

Jesus! We are lazy about this, aren't we?
Well, the past month or so has been quite busy, so I have an excuse..
But isn't that how all of our posts start?

Anyway, we've been recording, writing new material, building websites, illustrating, being seen, being scene, having our pictures taken, playing shows and making new friends. Tough stuff!

We played a show the other week at Evocal in Costa Mesa, and it was absolutely insane. The most fun we've had in ages. I think it may be the first time that clothes have been removed to our music (hopefully not, though, hopefully it's just the first time we've been privvy too). It certainly was a hot, sweaty affair!
Oh my.
Needless to say, can't wait to play another show there. The vibe was just so great! I know that's a very hippy-dippy thing to say, but seriously, next time we play there, come out and see for yourself.

So, yeah...
I'll post some images and things like that soon, just to make things more interesting for you, dear reader, but I should be off now.. it's almost 1am! What am I doing on the computer at this hour?

Speak soon,
Love,
Joe

2007-06-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

IT"S BEEN FAR TOO LONG, BLOG FRIENDS!!!
It seems every one of our posts starts that way! But we've been mega busy, so it's almost excusable. Almost. We've been putting the final touches on our recordings, which are just about finished, and we've been remixing some tracks too. The remixes will be available TONIGHT at our show at Plush, in Fullerton, on a one-time-only, super-limited-edition CD that you get for free if you say you're there for Pop Noir. But seriously, it will ONLY be available tonight. How exclusive!

In other news, Joe and I have both been illustrating for that cool magazine, THE DISTRICT. I've also designed a few t-shirts for super-hip music newspaper L.A. RECORD. Keep an eye out for those in the next few weeks, they are really fantatstic, if I do say so myself. Maybe once they're out, I'll put some pictures up, so you know what to look for.

If we can't see you tonight, then check out our other upcoming shows. We're doing the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa on July 5th, The Beauty Bar in San Diego on July 27th, and sundry other Los Angeles shows in between!
See you out there, Pop Pickers!!!

Ps. We promise to update this blog more frequently.

2007-05-24T03:56:00.000-07:00

Luke and I are off to Florida in an hour!

Not for anything Pop Noir-related, but because we're receiving the Silver T-Square award from the National Cartoonist's Society for service to the profession and NCS. We're the youngest-ever recipients!
Harry Truman was awarded one in 1950, and Eisenhower got one in 1954..
Cool!
See, we're good at everything.

Well, must go pack my bag.. we'll probably post some pictures when we get back..
See you soon!

2007-05-17T15:57:00.000-07:00

There's a good article in the OC WEEKLY this week, about us. We're in a band called Pop Noir. Very informative!!!

Twin White Dukes
Animated Anglophiles Pop Noir bring some Manchester to OC
By HOBEY ECHLIN

“We live a block from the beach, but we’re as white as ghosts,” says Joe McGarry, twin of Luke, who together are Pop Noir, OC’s most unlikely band of pasty-but-cute, sharp-featured 19-year-old twins in that kind of Gene Loves Jezebel/Edward Scissorhands kind of way. They don’t surf or skate; they paint and make cartoons and animation for friends’ bands (Bad Dudes, etc.) and websites and have been honored by the National Society of Cartoonists. Which isn’t as cool as Mani from Stone Roses and Primal Scream buying them beers, sure, and why wouldn’t he? Pop Noir’s music so far—they are only 19, remember—sounds like a marginal Manchester band from 24 Hour Party People.

Dad Steve, see, is a Factory-era Manchester OG (original gurner). The senior McGarry was mates with late Joy Division manager Rob Gretton, and two drummers in his post-punk bands were A Certain Ratio’s Donald Johnson and Primal Scream’s Toby Tomanov. He was the graphics guy for Rabid Records (Slaughter and the Dogs fans, there ya go) and designed Joy Division’s AnIdeal for Living sleeve. He downplays the Manc legend. “You had no way of knowing how mythical that whole scene would seem 30 years later. At the time, it’s just some assholes next to you in a bar,” he says. “But I do see my sons doing what we were doing 30 years ago.”

Joe (guitar, drum programming, production, good cheer) and Luke (bass, vocals, keys, brooding) never had a chance at a normal SoCal career path. “We grew up listening to New Order, Happy Mondays and A Certain Ratio because these were people my dad knew,” says Joe with a sigh. “Plus, the stories made it all seem really appealing.”

After dad landed a cartoon-syndication deal, the family yo-yoed between the U.K. and SoCal before settling in Huntington Beach so the twins could go to the Orange County High School of the Arts.

Pop Noir’s success as an OC band is bittersweet. They draw well enough in LA at Viper Room and the Echo for a band with just a MySpace and demos. They’ve played the OC circuit, opening for Kinky at JC Fandango’s last year, where they hosted an Anglophile monthly. It lasted just five months. “We had bands we liked, like Explogasm and Army Navy play,” says Joe. “But it got harder to get LA bands to come down.”

“I know it sounds conceited, but we are actually bigger in Europe,” chimes in Luke. Dad helped get the twins a spot on ex-Factory honcho Tony Wilson’s In the City festival in Manchester last summer. “Mani was drunk, buying us pints, and Donald Johnson [said], ‘If you ever need a drummer . . . ’” (They have one now: Nico.) Then they sold out a club in Paris purely on word-of-mouth.

Pop Noir’s MySpace demos reveal a bluesier, sleazier take on the Franzblockillerspol neo-disco thing, more “Rapture” than The Rapture, with Laughing Stock-era Talk Talk guitars that would make Tim Friese-Green blush and Bez dance. “A lot of the bands come out of the whole Gang of Four/herky-jerky thing,” Luke says. “We come at it from the groovier side.

“We either get compared to New Order or early Rolling Stones,” he adds. “We can live with that.”

2007-05-15T01:02:00.000-07:00

HOWE Video

Here's a little video of us extolling the virtues of HOWE clothing. Or, here's a video of Joe extolling the virtues... I remain conspicuously silent. Anyway, we love HOWE. They provide us with most of the fancy clothes we wear onstage.

It's been 2 weeks since our last post! We're terrible at this!!!
We added a last minute show last Wednesday at CLUB NME (at good ol' Spaceland). It was a lot of fun. We always have fun. And then on Saturday we played a party in Culver City for some people from Kung Fu records...home of the Vandals and Stiff Little Fingers... not really our scene, right? Well, again, we had a great time.
Tim Armstrong from Rancid was there.
How punk are we?

2007-04-30T18:10:00.000-07:00

We've just added a show at Spaceland with The Autumns..
And here's another occult flyer:

It's 21+, so anyone underage will just have to wait until Tuesday's show at Chain Reaction!
See you soon.

Love,
Joe

2007-04-30T14:10:00.000-07:00

Look at this good flyer I made last night!

Spooky, yeah?
Makes you want to go to the show, doesn't it? All sorts of things could be going on that night!
Well, it won't be a Satanic Mass in the woods as the video suggests, but it will still be good.

See you then!
Love,
Joe

2007-04-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO?

I'll tell you.

Last week was our mini-tour.. I mean really mini. We played The Key Club in Hollywood on Tuesday, April 24, and then The Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco on Wednesday, April 25. We were going to play a third date on the Thursday in Santa Barbara, but we ended up not doing that. That'll be a story for another time, I guess. Or, I can never mention it again, and leave you to make your own suppositions as to why that show didn't happen. Mysterious!

Anyway, we've got some good pictures and video here.
This is us playing "Santa Ana" at The Key Club..

And here's Luke in the van on the way to San Francisco:

Nico playing air guitar at a gas station somewhere near Bakersfield:

And all of us leaning into the wind in Soledad, outside a Carl's Jr.:

Good trip.
Talk to you later.

2007-04-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

For the last few months we've been busy recording with our friend Bryce Martin, and finally we have new music to share with you. The new material also features our incredible drummer, Nico.

We're living with these mixes for a couple of weeks before we do our final bits of tweaking, but we're excited about this stuff, so we thought we'd share some of it with you on myspace... whether you want us to or not!

We've put some new material down and re-recorded songs that you may already be familiar with. Right now we've uploaded new versions of "DIY", "Don't Fool Yourself" and "In Like a Lion". We've also included "Santa Ana", which you might know from our live shows. The sessions also included recordings of "Girls of Prey", "The Seaside", "Perfect", "Bang The Drum" and "How The West Was Won".

Hopefully all this and more will be available soon on an album.. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the rough mixes that we are sharing with you online.

Love,
Pop Noir

2007-04-19T01:20:00.000-07:00

"Blogger" is such a jerk! I can't figure it out. Why can't I title my posts anymore? This is ridiculous.

Anyway... we've just added a show at Chain Reaction in Anaheim on May 8th. It's all ages, and we'll be playing with Monsters Are Waiting and The Deadly Syndrome. The tickets are $10... which is a bargain, I know!!!
Who knows when we'll be playing Orange County again after this? We don't, so you better come out, you might not see us for a while!!!

In other news, I (Luke) have had two drawings published this week in the LA Record and The District Weekly. The drawings are of Blood Brothers and Raekwon, respectively. Keep an eye out for them!

2007-04-14T11:34:00.001-07:00

Click the following links to read reviews of us and our video for DIY from French magazine Gonzai.

www.gonzai.com/pop-noir-video

www.gonzai.com/pop-noir

My favourite bit in that one is the description of Pop Noir as "The Arctic Monkeys without acne".

Check out the whole magazine at www.gonzai.com.

Merci beaucoup, a bientôt!

-Joe

2007-04-11T11:36:00.000-07:00

There's a brief mention of our performance at the Beauty Bar on San Diego's nightlife blog "Napkin Nights".
Follow this link to read more, and check out some pictures from the night here.

There'll be more news soon, I'm sure of it!

2007-04-07T12:54:00.000-07:00

Pop Noir have been busy little fellows these past few weeks.. that's my excuse for not updating this blog for ages again.
We have done some good stuff, though! This blog post will be part 1 of 2 in which I will share our adventures for the week of April 2 - April 9.
Monday night we were at the Viper Room. We're very proud of ourselves, as it was our first time headlining the Indie 103.1 sponsored weekly show and, not to sound too cocky or anything, we were pretty great! The sound there was good, too. What fun! Our pal Jennie Warren took some excellent photos, which I will now show you.. hold onto, er, your hats, or something!

Okay! That's my post covering Monday.. Later on I'll post some pictures etc. from last night's show in San Diego..
Byyyeeee.

2007-03-29T15:39:00.000-07:00

Right, so I think the recording is just about done.. finally!! If there's anything more to be done, it's just final touches etc. We're quite the little perfectionists!
We have a show at The Beauty Bar in San Diego.. so that's new. April 6th! Come check it out.

We're playing in LA tonight.. The flyer I made is rather nice, if I do say so myself.

Normally I wouldn't be bragging about things like that, but I'm just using it as an excuse to post the picture the flyer was based on:

Amazing!

Anyway, after tonight we have two very important, very BRILLIANT shows lined up: Plush Cafe tomorrow, and The Viper Room on Monday night..
Now, we want everyone who can come to be there on Monday, so email/myspace us is you want to be on the guestlist..

Okay!

2007-03-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

So much to tell you!

Monday night we returned to JC Fandango (our favourite club), to open for The Pinker Tones, from Spain. We premiered our newest song, which is going under the title "Bang The Drum".. I'm not sure if that will change.. Anyway, we were great, The Pinker Tones were great, and they were really nice guys, too.
Also, we nicked the rehearsal PA from one of the back rooms of JCF, so now we have a PA to practice with! When I say "nicked", though, I mean the club owner let us take it. I just wanted to make us sound like bad-asses. Ha!
All in all it was a great night! Thanks to everyone who came out. We had a brilliant time.

Last night we made our San Diego debut, and that was also a good evening! I'm not really sure what to tell you about it.. We only played a short set, 20 minutes or so, but it was still great fun. We managed to squeeze all our hits in there (tee-hee). But don't worry, we'll be playing longer at our upcoming shows. You'll get your money's worth! I actually have no idea what else to say about this show.. We should have some pictures from both shows soon, I think.. I'll post those as soon as we get them.

What else is new? We're going to try our damnedest to finish up our recording this week.. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!! The stuff's sounding good, hopefully you'll be hearing it soon. The new version of "DIY" has been played a couple of times on INDIE 103.1 fm this week, perhaps you've heard it? I know some of you have, you've told us!

Hmm.. something else. Oh yeah! Luke and I went to see The Presets last Saturday at EXPLEX. We didn't even know that place existed! Well, we did, and we knew it was underneath the Echo in Echo Park, but we couldn't figure out where..We figured it out, and let me tell you, that place is great!! It's now our goal to play there, just because it has such a cool vibe.. Playing the echo is tons of fun, and EXPLEX is kind of like a rave version of the Echo, if you can kind of figure out what I mean by that.. I don't know. We'll try toget a show there, then you can come see us and find out what I mean.

Okay, I think that really is all I have to report!
See you Thursday (Club Audio), Friday (Plush), or Monday (THE VIPER ROOOOM!!)!

Love,
Joe

2007-03-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

People keep asking us, SAN DIEGO'S CLUB POP NOIR HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH US.
It was very nice of them to name an entire club night after us, but we think it just causes unnecessary confusion!
Their club opens at the end of this month, we're debuting in San Diego a week before, on March 24th.
So NO, we're NOT playing Friday, March 30th in San Diego, or any other Friday in San Diego as far as we know.

Don't waste your money, we won't be there!

In other news, we have a show Monday night at JC Fandango in Anaheim with The Pinker Tones, an incredible electronic band from Spain. Tickets are $15 dollars, but if you print out and bring this flyer, you can get in for just $5!

So, come out on Monday, or next Saturday, but not next Friday to Club Pop Noir, because that's something else entirely.

Love,
PN

2007-03-05T01:19:00.000-08:00

Wow, I really can't believe how terrible we've gotten at updating this blog.
I'm still trying to figure out a clever way of reworking our site, so that will be my excuse for not keeping this thing up-to-the-minute. That and the fact that we're still in the recording studio, so really nothing has changed.

Oh, well, we're now recording at a different location (a house), so I guess that's new. We should post some pictures, but really, we're just in a bedroom. You all know what a bedroom looks like!
Actually, I missed a great opportunity to take some pictures when we were tracking drums. We were in a garage full of hunting paraphernalia, so I could have shown you plenty of Pop Noir with boxes of bullets, deer heads, and snake skin. I suppose I could just go in the garage and take photos, but I think that would be a bit weird.

Another new thing, we were interviewed in Dirrtyglam Magazine.. check it out here:

dirrtyglam.com

Good stuff.

Well, that might be it for now.. I'm going to go watch The Sarah Silverman Program.

P.S. Come to The Viper Room on April 2nd (if you're 21+ or have a fake ID).. We're headlining, It's an Indie 103.1 night, and there's free vodka for everyone! What more could you possibly ask for? Oh yeah, you can get in for free if we like you enough to let you know the password! Perfect.

Ah, Young Love.

2007-02-02T11:22:00.000-08:00

We've really not been updating this thing often enough, have we? Well, I have a feeling that will change soon.
We're working on redesigning the website, making it more high-tech! And by that I mean trying to make it so updating the thing is less work! You see, when it comes to anything other than music or artwork, we're very lazy.
So this update is taking a long time, because I have to figure out all this boring html, javascript, asp, flash programming code blah blah blah nobody wants to hear it! But trust me, when it's done it will be worth it!

In other news, we played with Young Love at the Knitting Factory last night. Good show! It was a ton of fun. Thanks to everyone who came out, and thanks to Dan from Young Love for having us. That was our first time playing the Main Stage at the Knitting Factory, so now we've played every room in the place. Wonderful.

I think we might have pictures soon. There was a professional photographer we met before the show, I think he took some during the set, and I know he took some band photos of Luke, Nico and I..

Anyway, I think I'm going to go.. but hopefully we'll have a new website soon and all that, and we'll be updating more frequently!

Love,
Joe

2007-01-30T12:22:00.000-08:00

Will somebody please send pictures of Pop Noir and Nico?
He's started to make his own.

Love,
Joe

Recording, Day 2

2007-01-13T13:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we spent 11 hours in the studio recording guitars, bass, vocals, keyboards... all that stuff. I'll say it again: it's sounding great. Adam and I borrowed Bryce's car to buy Subway sandwiches (I recommend the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki). He drives an old VW beetle with only one seat in it... so I had to roll around on the floor in the back. Here's the pictures from day 2.

Never time for ANYTHING!

2007-01-10T23:42:00.000-08:00

We've been so busy lately, it's insane. As we mentioned in the last entry, Joe and I have been doing some animation projects for ClearChannel. I hadn't left the computer for 8 straight days, working from 11am till 3am! (I'm the dedicated one.) But, we finally finished last night. Here's a couple new cartoons for you to check out:
Usher.
Country Music.
Weird, right?

Aside from the cartoons, we've started recording some songs with the help of our friends Adam and Bryce of Cute Phase, at their studio in beautiful Vernon, CA. It's right next to some train tracks and a breakfast cereal factory. Joe, Nico and I were there all day today, and it's sounding great, we're very excited. Here's a few pictures from the session:

Luke, with the cereal factory in the background.

Joe!

Nico!

Luke!

Joe taking a break.

Nico... not doing what he's supposed to!

10:15 Saturday Night (you know, like the song!)

2007-01-06T22:12:00.000-08:00

...I'm actually writing this at 10:12PM, but I figured it was close enough.
Luke and I are just about to go out, live it up in Orange County! Luke is currently eating a bowl of ice cream.
Alright, now it's 10:15, so I'm absolutely justified in using that title. Luke is now eating a box of Wheat Thins.

Latley we've been busy, working on projects other than Pop Noir (ie our little art company, Fantastic Heat Brothers)... We've been working for ClearChannel, doing these weird animated birthday greetings available from various radio station's websites, or something like that! Here's one of them, check it out. Keep in mind, we don't write them, we just make the cartoons.

New Year's Eve Eve at Eve's.

2007-01-05T15:07:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR, READERS!

If you missed our Arrowspace 11 show last Saturday (Dec 30th), then you missed something amazing. Despite the power going out twice while we were playing, we all had a whale of a time!
The gallery is owned by this guy Eve, who used to be a backup dancer for Sade, and the place itself is like one of those movie art galleries...pretty surreal. Drunk North Africans, people riding bikes (indoors, my goodness!), oil paintings, and a guy who looked exactly like Vanilla Ice and spoke in riddles... It was like the mad-hatter's tea party in Sodom and Gamorrah!

Left to right: Luke, Eve, Joe, Nico, Jeff (Leprechaun 3), and Lillian.

Your pals. For life!

Nico is in there somewhere, playing drums for the impromptu "Jam Sesh"/James Brown covers.

After that, we all went our separate ways to celebrate the new year. I turned up on the party photo site The Cobrasnake (click here to try and find me), Joe ended up at some party where somebody urinated on the floor, and nobody has heard from Nico since Saturday. We've tried playing Judas Priest really loud from our rooftop as a kind of beacon for him, but it hasn't worked. If you've seen him, please call us.

Laterrrr.

Ps, I was kidding about Nico. I just don't know how he spent his New Year.

2007 - YEAR OF THE LIVING DEAD!!

2006-12-29T22:43:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-26T12:12:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-16T12:52:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-12-13T02:03:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-12-13T00:56:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-12-07T00:15:00.000-08:00

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!

New Member Added/Pop Noir Has A Drummer

2006-11-23T12:33:00.000-08:00

Please help us welcome Nico to the band. You may know him as the drummer from Enjambre, but now you'll know him as the drummer from Pop Noir! We're very happy to have him.
Check out our first three shows as a three-piece band:

December, 7 2006 at Red Dragon Studios (FREE DRINKS all night!)
1444 N. Higland Ave. (Highland @ Sunset), Hollywood, California 90028
Cost: $10

December, 10 2006 at PLUSH (all ages)
207 N Harbor Blvd, Fullerton, California 92832
Cost: $8.00

December, 20 2006 at Indie Rock Posada at JC Fandango w/ Los Abandoned + Go Betty Go!
1086 N State College, Anaheim, California
Cost: $8

And just in case you're wondering, the rehearsals are sounding incredible.

See you soon!

That's Fancy!

2006-11-23T11:57:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night we visited the TV studio where the wonderful "That's Fancy" program is filmed, and performed for their cameras and a small studio audience. We'll have more details on when you can see it soon.. but I'll tell you what we do know.

That's Fancy airs Fridays at 8:30pm and Saturdays at 1:30am on Adelphia/Time Warner Cable (Ch 95: Buena Park, Fullerton, Placentia, Santa Ana, Ch 97: Anaheim, Villa Park, and Ch 98: Brea, Yorba Linda, Anaheim Hills). I think our show will be on next friday (not tomorrow) and will run for a month (so that's eight times).

Great! Like I said, we'll give you more info as we hear about it. Also, if you don't live in Orange County (or those areas of Orange County), it'll be up on YouTube soon.. so we'll keep you posted on that, too.

Until then, here's some wonderful photos of the set from our pal, Kim (KC Photography).

Welcome Back!

2006-11-13T23:59:00.000-08:00

We returned home from our European conquest Thursday night, but we've been working non-stop since then on an animation (part of our other project, Fantastic Heat Brothers, a design/illustration thing.. we'll have a website soon, you'll hear about it).. so we've not had a chance to fill you in on the final days of the adventure.. Unfortunately, I'm far too tired to fill you in on those details now.. so I'll just have to post a video from our final UK performance (this time around).
So, here it is, us playing In Like a Lion at Dublin Castle in Camden, London:

Oh, and I just found this video of us playing Paint It Black at the same show.. good old YouTube!

So.. I think I might have to go to bed now, try to rid myself of this jetlag before our big Troubadour show on Wednesday. Speaking of which.. go to that!

Okay, I'm off. Goodnight!

VIDEOS

2006-11-06T11:34:00.000-08:00

Here are some videos for you to enjoy, readers!
1)Performing at the Windmill, Brixton, last night:

(sorry that gets cut off halfway through, our camera ran out of memory)

2)Luke keeping warm outside the Midland Hotel, in glorious Manchester!:

3) Luke keeping warm outside the G-Mex Centre, in glorious Manchester!:

It really was cold.

We'll be posting more fun stuff soon enough. Tomorrow is the show we've been waiting for, Club Fandango at Dublin Castle, Camden!

Bonfire Night

2006-11-04T13:28:00.000-08:00

In Paris we were going to visit Pere Lachaise cemetery, just around the corner from our hotel, to see Jim Morrison's grave.. but we woke up too late. And besides, we're not really Doors fans. We did get to visit a souvenir shop by the Garde du Norde train station, though. French people love Zorro (and nudey coffee mugs)! At least that's the impression we get.
We did a bit of touristy business today with our cousin, Issy, stopping by the Pirate Castle. I actually have no idea what it is, but it has a "Pirate Club", and it's located on a little canal where, apparently, dead bodies are always turning up. What a treat!
.
Speaking of dead bodies, here's Luke threatening Issy with a knife at a bar in Primrose Hill (where lots of posh celebrities like Kate Moss go)!

It's Bonfire Night tomorrow, so of course everyone is celebrating tonight. There's fireworks going off everywhere. We joined in the festivities with some sparklers.

Very mature!
Okay, well, I think we might be going out to "party it up" (is that a phrase anyone has ever used? Luke insists upon using it) here in Camden. Wish us luck! We have a show tomorrow though.. so we'll have to make sure we get some beauty rest! Teehee.
Also, I think my toe is either broken or badly sprained. I fell down some stairs.. or rather, fell up some stairs. Some sitars. Ha.
Take that, Guy Fawkes!

A Bientot

2006-11-04T12:45:00.000-08:00

We have now completed Phases I and II of our European conquest (Manchester and Paris) and are now heavily underway with Phase III (London). These past few days have been very busy. Here are some pictures, although I doubt they really do our activities justice.
Let's try to do this in order of occurence...
Here's Luke taking refuge from the Manchester's bitter weather inside a phone booth:

and getting into the Halloween spirit outside One Central with a spooky lime mask by Corona:
.
Now, here's a picture of.. I don't know, actually. It was a golden statue hanging from the ceiling of La Fleche D'or, the club we played in Paris:

and a really blurry picture of our first French performance:

(We'll have more pictures from this show soon.. as well as the rest of our European gigs).
Before I continue with this little photo-diary, I'll give you some details on the Parisian gig. It was packed! We were very surprised by the turn-out, considering we were completely new to the country.. but I don't want to sound as though we're blowing our own trumpets, as it were. The people at La Fleche had a pre-gig dinner for us and the other bands; wine and veal! How very European. It was all so civilized! After the show we wandered over to our hotel (all our gear in tow.. a miserable trip!) to get some sleep. The room was, for lack of a better word, crap. The door handle came off when I tried to open the door! Here's some photos of the room:

Notice the red glow on the wall, it comes from this:
.
Isn't that excellent? Right outside the window! Even the curtains didn't block out the light from that thing!
So now we're in the home-stretch, as they say. We'll be seeing you soon, which in French is: A bientot!
Love,
Joe

LEGENDARY!

2006-10-31T03:59:00.001-08:00

Happy Halloween, readers! Luke and I are watching a program on BBC4 right now about horror films like The Omen and The Shining. Spooky!
Sorry it's taken us so long to update again, but we've been stocking up on good things to tell you. I think pictures may be doing a lot of talking, though, as some of this weekend's amazing-ness is beyond description.

Friday, we drove about 5 hours down to London to see New Order at Wembley Arena.. you know, because we were on the guestlist. And it was fantastic.

Sunday night was the best night of this trip so far, though. It was the night of our official In The City showcase. Luke and I wandered about the city for a bit beforehand, looking for chocolate bars, actually, but Luke ended up in some sort of bizarre space-pod thing. There were speakers and video-screens inside, projecting video clips of the solar system and Manchester. Here's a picture of Luke outside and then inside it. Maybe you can figure out what this thing was supposed to be. It said "Alternative Energy" all over, if that helps.

Next, we played our set, and, not to toot our own horns or anything, but it went really well. The place was packed! The show was at One Central, a really great club right in the center of Manchester. Underground. Apparently we were one of the buzz bands for the night, and it was honestly rammed with people, right to the very back of the club, not just the room we were in. A good feeling!

And the toilets were unisex, which was a bit odd.

After the gig (I say gig even though I feel silly), we hung out with Donald (A Certain Ratio) again. He's great! He asked if he could be the "noir" in Pop Noir. Here's a picture of him and Luke.

Then, guess who showed up? MANI! Can you believe it? The bassist for the legendary Stone Roses and Primal Scream. Look at these pictures!!!!!

Yesterday we stopped by the house we lived in as babies,

the world-famous Hacienda (Pop Noir mecca), which is now an apartment building,

and Marks & Spencer's supermarket, where we found a cake which looked like a hedgehog

Okay, Thursday we're off to Paris, so if we don't update before then, I'm sure we'll have more amazing things to tell you about after that.

See you soon,
Lots of Love,
Joe.

Thursday.

2006-10-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

Again, haven't got too much time, but I'll stick up a few pictures!

Joe reading the comics at LAX.

Joe and Steve at Yianni's Fish and Chips.

The two of us outside Night & Day.

Luke, looking thrilled to be taking novelty holiday snaps!

That's about it for now. We're on the guestlist to see New Order at Wembley Stadium tomorrow night.
I will be sure to let you know how that goes!

Love,
Luke.

Manchester Day 3

2006-10-25T03:08:00.000-07:00

Can't do much of an update right now, as I'm in a house in Gatley, but our first two days in Manchester have been excellent. Monday night I accidentally blew up our step-up/step-down transformer and filled the house with smoke. I maintain, however, that it was not my fault!
Last night was our English debut show at Night & Day. It was advertised on XFM, one of Manchester's main radio-station, which was rather exciting. Thanks to everyone who came out to welcome us to the UK. We'll be putting up some pictures from our trip soon.. we didn;t manage to take many pictures last night, as i bought batteries for our camera for a quid from a plastic bag next to the counter in some crap shop. Ha! Needless to say they didn't last 2 minutes.
Donald Johnson, drummer for our heroes A Certain Ratio, came to the show last night. Excellent!!! More on that later, I'm sure we'll be meeting up with him again.
Anyway, must go now, we'll have further updates soon!
Love,
Joe

This Is It!

2006-10-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

We're leaving for the UK in a few minutes.. just thought I'd post a blog to let you know our plan.
We're going to be putting up accounts of our little adventures and loads of pictures from our trip as often as possible.. so check back often!
To give you a little taste, here's a picture of Luke and I in the car leaving the Orange County Museum of Art the other night:

How exciting!
So keep checking in, and we'll keep you abreast of our first European tour!
See you soon,
Love,
Joe

Catch up!

2006-10-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

So we're leaving for the UK in a couple of hours, I'm just going to update you on recent events. Firstly, Thursday morning we opened up our LA Times and found this, front page of the Huntington Beach Independent!
So far, our neighbor is the only one who's recognized us.
Friday Night was our Bon Voyage Party at the Knitting Factory, with Cute Phase, The Bubonic Plague, and Death of A Dancer, who all played marvelous sets. Pictures coming soon.
We were hanging around outside the Knit, and browsing through the free "alternative" LA reading materials, when we found The Rocket. They have an column called Myspace Music Review, and guess who was featured???
You can read both articles here, respectively:
http://hbindependent.com/articles/2006/10/20/features/hbi-popnoir19.txt

http://www.therockitnews.com/story-myspace.php
Stay tuned for a new entry every day, regarding our invasion of Europe!
Talk to you soon,
Luke.

We need some FRESH AIR!!!

2006-10-16T14:58:00.000-07:00

Excuse the terrible title of this post, but due to our involvement with Pepe Jeans' new campaign, Fresh Air, we've appeared in Streetwear Today magazine.
Its distributed in the UK, Japan, Germany Switzerland, USA, Czech Republic, and France.

See you all on Friday???

9 DAYS TILL THE PARTY!

2006-10-11T01:04:00.000-07:00

First of all, here's the flyer for the Bon Voyage party. Each and every one of the bands on the bill is amazing!

So I better see you all there.

Second: We have our new song "In Like A Lion" up on the old "m-space". Click here to give it a listen!

THREE: Steamy pictures from our LAST EVER Sol Art show, October 6th, thanks to Betty's camera-phone:

Fantastic Heat Wave

2006-10-05T23:35:00.000-07:00

Birthdays are coming up.. Mine is October 10th (this Tuesday) and Luke's is the 11th. To celebrate, we're playing this Wednesday at the Knitting Factory, Hollywood, with The Protomen and Makeup and Vanity Set (of Tennessee!). To make it extra-special, though, we're not playing as Pop Noir, we're Fantastic Heat Brothers. It'll be different, it'll be wild!

This show, however, is not to be confused with our going away party (also at the Knitting Factory) on October 20th. That one is going to be mind-blowing. Do you hear me? Mind-Blowing!!! Check out this line-up, right? Peep this: Pop Noir, Bubonic Plague, Cute Phase, Death of a Dancer. Wow!

So the October 11th show (Luke's birthday, remember?) is going to be a completely different set, and tons of fun. What I'm trying to say is... come to both of them. If you have to pick just one, though, come on the 20th, because you want to see us off, right? Wish us good luck in Europe and all that. Imagine we're doing it for you, guys. We're ambassadors for LA/OC!

Enough promotion for now.. actually, one more thing: come see us at Sol Art tomorrow. This is our last OC show of 2006!

Tune in again soon! I'm going to tell you a story. I would tell it to you now, but I've got to build up my typing stamina first! Im going to give myself carpal tunnel syndrome!

Oh, here's a story, a short one. Luke and I had a teacher when we were in 10th or 11th grade at the Orange County High School of the Arts who had carpal tunnel syndome... oh wait. I don't think she did. Oh! You know what it was? She did most of her work on computers (she was an art teacher, it was an arts school) and she'd always warn us about the dangers of CTS (I'm going to call is CTS from now on), saying not to type for too long, to take breaks fairly frequently and to hold the mouse properly, otherwise we'd develop carpal tunnel. Maybe she did have it once? Anyway, that's not what this story's about.

She slipped one day on the stairs at her other job, and broke her arm, but in a really terrible way! She ended up having to have a metal rod inserted into the bone because it was so wrecked. The cool thing was, though, that she got this big sponge block to put around her arm while it healed (I guess she couldn't have a cast) and she had all the students draw on it. Then she put it in the art show at the end of the year. Yuck! I think, if I remember correctly, one day she took the sponge thing off to show the braver students her temporarily-bionic forearm. I didn't see, but I imagine it was horrible. Maybe I just made that up, though. I hope not!

Okay, see you soon, my hand's starting to hurt.. oh no!!

Love,
Joe

Chain Reaction etc!

2006-10-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

Friday night we played Chain Reaction with Mickey Avalon.. it sold out! Our condolences to the huge number of people turned away. All we can say is that you should have got your tickets early.. and that you should come see us this upcoming Friday at SolArt in Santa Ana with Cute Phase and Machines Make Noise!
Actually, everyone should come to that one, it's a cheap, fun evening in the heart of Orange County. What more could you ask for? Besides, it's our last Orange County show this year, maybe even our second to last California show! Who knows? As I'm sure we've mentioned several times already, we're off to Manchester, London and now PARIS(!!!) at the end of October.
But I digress! The Chain Reaction show, which is what I intended to tell you about, readers, went really well. It actually saw what I believe was our first mosh-pit. I didn't realize anyone could slam-dance to Pop Noir, but it turns out it's very possible. Isn't that nice?
Well, I'll get back to mixing our new song so that we can put it up on our myspace profile. I know you'll like it!

HEAR GALLERY + PLUSH.

2006-09-27T20:17:00.001-07:00

Above are a few pictures from the Plush show on Sunday (9/24). They were taken by the lovely Miss Molly.
We had so much fun this weekend. If you missed either the Hear Gallery on Saturday night, or Plush the next day, you must be feeling pretty miserable right now, and as well you should!
There's still hope, though, if you are in the LA or OC area. We're playing at Chain Reaction on Friday with Mickey Avalon. I keep telling you this, and I know it's sinking in, but one more time: BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW!

So anyway, Saturday night at the Hear was fun, as always. I was standing on that steep stairway leading to the club, and some girl ripped the railing right out of the wall on her way up. She didn't do it on purpose, but she didn't seem too concerned either. That was good. Last time Joe and I were there, Andy Rourke from the Smiths was DJing. We spoke to him briefly, he was very polite.

Sunday was the best show at Plush EVER! Thanks to everyone who joined in the fun and brought a flashlight. Here's a brief recap: we turned the lights off, and had everyone turn on their flashlights. Then I wore a cape that said "LUKEULA" on the back. Then Joe played guitar and I sang, and it was great. So great.

Perhaps in the next few days, more pictures will show up, and you'll get a better idea of just how much fun was had.

And finally, we have three more shows in California before we head off galavanting around the UK.

Friday 9/29 - Chain Reaction, Anaheim.
Friday 10/ 6 - Sol Art, Santa Ana.
Friday 10/ 20 - BON VOYAGE PARTY, The Knitting Factory, Hollywood.

(I can guarantee the Knitting Factory show will be tons of fun, and you all must come say goodbye. Stay tuned for details.)

See you in the Funny Papers! HA!

2006-09-17T12:25:00.000-07:00

Our friend, cartoonist Rick Stromoski, paid a little homage to Pop Noir last week in his syndicated comic strip Soup to Nutz.

Speaking of Art, Luke and I went to British Street Artist Banksy's art show in Los Angeles last night. Unfortunately, we missed the spray-painted Indian elephant, but it was interesting nonetheless. We were there, along with Macauly Culkin and "Brangelina", apparently..

And speaking of shows, we've got two coming up this weekend; one at the Hear Gallery, Los Angeles on Saturday the 23rd, and one at Plush Cafe, Fullerton on Sunday the 24th. The Plush show will be very special, because we're asking everyone to bring flashlights.. I think we've mentioned this before. Do it! It will be brilliant!

Love,
Joe

FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE!

2006-09-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

This is pretty spooky! We found this website that maps the 50 most recent visitors to your myspace profile, and one of ours appears to be coming from a grave at Rosedale Cemetary in Los Angeles!!! See for yourself!

PEPE JEANS

2006-09-11T17:48:00.000-07:00

A few months ago Pop Noir was asked by Pepe Jeans to participate in their FRESH AIR campaign, with spokeswoman Sienna Miller and a handful of very talented artists and musicians. Well now the fruits of everyone's labour have... come to fruition! Check it all out at www.pepejeans.com.
Apparently we are getting some free jeans out of this deal, which is brilliant! Haha.

Vocalize your love for Pop Noir!

2006-09-10T14:48:00.000-07:00

We've got one of those tricky-dicky voice comment gadgets now.. it's on our myspace or, as you can see, here on this blog. Feel free to whisper sweet nothings in our ear! Also, if you want us to leave you a voice message, simply say the word and your wish is our command!

Get Your Own Voice Player Manage

In The City There's a Thousand Things Pop Noir Wants to Say to You

2006-09-06T23:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, you heard correctly, we've been chosen as one of only fifty-four unsigned bands to play the In The City Festival in Manchester, England (you know, the biggest city-based music festival in Europe, founded by Tony Wilson.. the festival that launched the careers of Oasis, The Doves, Coldplay, Muse etc). Apparently there were thousands of bands jockeying for spots at ITC, so of course we're very excited.
Lots of signed bands are playing too, so we're looking forward to a few days of schmoozing, elbow-rubbing, and, er... things like that. I made this flyer to demonstrate the implications of such an excellent opportunity, see if you can spot the subtleties within:

By the way, I painted that!
What else is new? Luke and I joined our local library today. We have library cards now and everything. Brainy! Who knows, maybe we can make some book recommendations in the future.
Until next time,
Joe!

CHAIN REACTION.

2006-09-04T14:10:00.000-07:00

We've just added a show at Chain Reaction in Anaheim, opening for Mickey Avalon. You should probably get your tickets now, because there's a good chance this one will sell out! Go to www.ticketmaster.com.
And I MUST remind you all to bring flashlights to the Plush show on September 24th.
In other news, our U.K. trip is drawing closer every day. We have an inkling that a few more dates will be added soon, and we look forward to seeing all our British friends!

Other Languages!

2006-09-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hey, our website has had over 8,000 visits this week! Look at this amaaazing geographic breakdown:

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VIDEOS

2006-09-01T00:53:00.000-07:00

The SOUND + VISION section of popnoir.org is having a little bit of trouble with the NBTV clips. We're going to repost the in studio performances as soon as possible.

FAIS DO-DO!

2006-08-31T13:26:00.001-07:00

Last night we played NUDE's video release party at Club Fais Do-Do in LA. The inside of that place is like a big fancy pirate ship. Apparently it was a bank in the 1920's, and then at some point it became a theatre... and now it's a club. Here's a couple of pictures.
This is what we looked like:

And THIS is what we looked like if we were on fire, and you were drunk:

I also remembered this from a few months ago... It's a review of one of our Knitting Factory shows by the lovely Liz O, on www.MusicTruth.co.uk:
You might recall from a previous column that, 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.

You can read more Liz's stuff by going here, or to www.thepeoplesdanceparty.com

Quizzilla

2006-08-29T17:40:00.000-07:00

I think I want to make a Quizzilla quiz relating to Pop Noir. I actually have no idea how, but I'll find out. Hopefully you'll be able to take a "Which Pop Noir Member Are You?" questionaire in the not-so-distant future. Then everyone could put it on their Myspace! The results probably won't differ too much from person to person, as there are only two people in this band, and we're twins. But who knows? It could be highly amusing. Highly amazing, more like!!
I don't know what I'm talking about, to be completely honest.
Luke and I have been spending all day preparing for the show tomorrow. It should be good fun. I'm excited. Hey, you get excited, too!
We're planning some things out, some amazing things for the next time we headline a show. So, tomorrow's going to be good, but the next time we have top billing, I guarantee it's going to be the greatest show ever. It's a bit tough to write a blog about something so top-secret (a phrase I think I've been using a lot lately.. that's just because everything we do is going to be so mind-blowing, you'll just have to wait to find out about it), but you'll have to trust me on this one. We'll keep you updated on these things, as participation may be required. More on this later! Remember, though: you're excited.
I think that's it for right now.. I'll talk to you soon!

Pop Noir! Live Nude Show!

2006-08-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

We've just added a new show to our schedule. It's on Wednesday, so it's a bit short notice, but you, reader, should still go. Here's the flyer:

So, see you there? Yes.

MP3.com Artists Of The Day

2006-08-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, August 26, we were www.MP3.com Artists of the Day! Check out the link. Pop Noir on MP3.com
You can look at our profile... but I should have really mentioned this yesterday. It's my fault. I apologize.

Here's a picture of Joe, for the ladies.

Recently, in the world of Pop Noir: LAS VEGAS

2006-08-27T02:03:00.000-07:00

On June 22 Pop Noir opened for Every Move A Picture at the Beauty Bar in Las Vegas. If you've never been to Vegas, this video pretty much sums it up:

That's me outside the world famous Glitter Gulch strip club, on Fremont Street. The little movie screens they have are incredible! The words covering up the women are amazing. "Yikes" was actually one of the weaker ones, my favorite being "What!" or perhaps "Really!". Yes, it was a good trip. Luke and I didn't leave the Beauty Bar until 5 in the morning... seeing Fremont Street with nobody on it is particualrly eerie. If you know Fremont Street, you'll probably know what I mean... if you don't know it, well, here are some pictures that might demonstrate the type of place it is:

Actually.. I'm not sure those pictures demonstrate anything, really... it's just Luke and a neon cowboy. I'm sure you get the idea, though. It's a very loud, crowded, neon street.
It's very late now... almost 3 in the morning? I'll tell you more about Las Vegas and the rest of what we've been up to in the morning!

Recently, in the world of Pop Noir: The OC

2006-08-26T02:51:00.000-07:00

On June 4th, Pop Noir opened for Big City Rock and Big Japan at the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana. I think we may have rubbed Big Japan the wrong way by mentioning this in our promotional materials, but do you know who their drummer is? ADAM BRODY! He plays Seth Cohen on The OC! Of course, as nerdy as it may be, the rules clearly state that when you meet a celebrity, you have to have a picture taken.
.
From left to right that's Luke, our some-time merch girl Laura, Seth Cohen, and me.
Although, I must say that the photo is nowhere near as good as this, from Mad Magazine, June 2004:

Seeing as though Pop Noir grew up in Orange County, our cartoonist friend Tom Richmond was kind enough to immortalize us in their OC spoof.

Spectacular!
I've had a w-wild and crazy saturday. Do you remember the show "Wild And Crazy Kids"? I believe it was on Nickelodeon in the early 90's. Luke and I were on that show. Tune in tomorrow to find out whether that's true or not! I'll give you a hint.. it's not. But wouldn't it have been brilliant if that were true? Or what if we were on that other Nickelodeon show about the video games, where the kids stood in front of green-screens and looked as if they were actually riding a flying skateboard or fighting spacemen?
On that note, goodnight!

Top 5, August 2006

2006-08-24T00:36:00.000-07:00

1. It's Different For Girls - Joe Jackson
2. Green Tea Frappuccino (to a certain extent)
3. text messaging... i finally caught on.
4. taking showers... i did that anyway, but it's dead good.
5. Peep Show (BBC America)

definitive!

Changes and Chai Tea Things

2006-08-24T00:20:00.000-07:00

Things are going well.. Luke owes the band five dollars. Apparently he spent the money on a chai tea frappuccino at a certain well-known coffee franchise... He doesn't recommend it. However, he does like the green tea one. He wants to try them all, eventually. Wait a minute, I don't know why I'm writing about Luke's fancy-drink prefences, that's for luke to do!
Stay tuned for Luke's list of.. er.. top five favorite things this month, including fancy-drinks, I would imagine.

Lots of love,
Joe