Go! Team Go Over the Edge

In conjunction with Tuesday's release of their acclaimed, Mercury Prize-nominated debut album, Thunder, Lightning, Strike, the Go! Team will tour the States for fourteen dates, beginning October 15th in Dallas. With few American shows under their belt -- including their breakthrough at this year's South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas -- the U.K. dance/pop outfit's return to the States is sure to be buzzed about.

Guitarist, drummer and harmonica player Ian Parton formed the eccelectic six-piece -- Parton, drummer Chi Fukami Taylor, guitarist Sam Dook, bassist Jamie Bell, MC Ninja and keyboardist/guitarist/drummer Silke Steidinge -- with the idea of combining DJ club culture with live, rock-band performance.

"I'm interested in changing the source and making it something new," Parton says of the Go! Team's unique sound, which has garnered wide-ranging comparisons: to Belle and Sebastian, the Jackson Five and Sonic Youth. "There's never a message in the earnest singer-songwriter tradition," he continues. "It's more about ideas, production and experimental mixing: mixing Phil Spector-style lady vocals with old-school hip-hop; blowing car chase-style trumpets with distorted guitar; or recorders with electro-beat and a banjo in the chorus. Because I've never heard that done before. In a way, that's the point of the song."

The U.S. version of Thunder, which was originally released in the U.K. in 2004, includes the bonus tracks "We Just Won't be Defeated" and "Hold Yr Terror Close," as well as songs reworked for copyright reasons. "Since we were denied some samples, it was a rewriting scenario," explains Parton. "There's only one place where it gets to me, on 'Junior Kickstart' -- but there are other songs that are better."

As for their live sets, fans have come to expect the unexpected: Ninja freestyles vocals and lyrics during performances, and a crew of dancers joined the group for a recent show. "Someone from our label was walking through a park's community festival and saw four girls in a circle," says Parton. "They were going '5-6! 5-6-7-8!' and doing handstands in a circle -- and that's pure Go! Team." The girls were brought on board, in the kind of special guest appearance the band would like to see more of.

"Our live show [and our recordings] are two different entities," says Parton. "I love the idea of cramming so much in that you can hardly take it -- just pushing it over the edge!"

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

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