Recently signed to Columbia Records, The Ting Tings, lauded by the NME in the UK as "The most exciting new band in the country," will bring the duo's cutting edge electro-indie-pop sounds to the states with two performances at this year's South By Southwest (SxSW) music festival including the KCRW showcase on Wednesday, March 12 and a concert at Stub's on Friday, March 14. The Ting Tings will bookend their SxSW performances with a coast-to-coast mini-tour of select US art house and alternative music spaces (please see itinerary following).
3/9/08 Seattle, WA Vera Project
3/11/08 Echo Park, CA Reo Center Studio
3/12/08 Austin, TX KCRW Showcase
3/14/08 Austin, TX Stub's
3/18/08 Boston, MA Great Scott
3/20/08 Chicago, IL AV-aerie
3/21/08 Brooklyn, NY Le Royale
Hailing from Salford, Manchester, England, The Ting Tings are: Jules De Martino (drums, vocals) and Katie White (vocals, guitar, bass drum). The band formed in 2006 when Jules and Katie began performing their infectious lo-fi DIY high-spirited sounds at private parties at the Islington Mill, a disused cotton mill where the band lives with lots of other artists (painters, photographers, underground filmmakers, etc).
For the duo's recent limited edition UK single, "Great DJ," a Single of the Week in the NME, The Ting Tings recycled old 7" singles, inverted the covers and relabeled the sleeves with the band's name and song title using colored duct tape. Previous limited edition Ting Tings single campaigns have included a four city tour where the band invited the audience to decorate 100 blank 7" sleeves at each show. The lot decorated at each show were sold at the following gig.
A pop art video for "Great DJ" may be seen at the group's myspace page (www.myspace.com/thetingtings). Calvin Harris and 7th Heaven have created remixes of "Great DJ." "Great DJ" will be available as a limited edition 7" single, a limited edition CD and as a digital download on March 3.
The Ting Tings' performed a stunning rendition of the group's second single, "That's Not My Name" December 14, 2007 on "Later with Jules Holland." A new video for the song is slated to be lensed by legendary London director Sophie Muller (Beyonce, Dixie Chicks, Shakira, Radiohead, Coldplay, Bjork, Eurythmics, Annie Lennox). Taking a cue from the fashion-oriented Ting Tings (Katie designs and creates her own clothes), both Betsey Johnson and Dolce & Gabbana featured "That's Not My Name" during their runway shows during New York Fashion Week.
"We Started Nothing" is scheduled for a US physical release on June 3 on RED/Columbia Records. The album will be available digitally on May 19 (coinciding with its UK street date).
Following a show-stopping performance at the 2007 Glastonbury Festival, the Ting Tings embarked on a UK university tour in October 2007. The group has recently completed a series of shows in the coveted opening slot on the 2008 Shockwaves NME Awards Tour.
The Ting Tings were voted #3 on the BBC's "Top 10 To Watch In 2008," the much-watched list of emerging acts in the annual BBC 6 Music poll, Sound Of 2008. "The pair have now successfully reinvented themselves," observed the pollsters, "and become one of the most credible and critically-acclaimed groups on the indie scene."
