Alisa Xayalith with The Naked and the Famous at the Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, Oct 11 2011. Cameron Brown photo.
Photos – The Naked and Famous at the Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, Oct 11, 2011
– photos by Cameron Brown
The Naked and Famous on tour in Vancouver. The Aukland, New Zealand band is touring in support of their debut album, 2010’s Passive Me, Aggressive You, which features the song song “Young Blood”.
Singers Thom Powers and Alisa Xayalith formed the band in 2008, after working together on a couple of EPs, This Machine and No Light. At the time, Powers and Xayalith were students at Auckland’s MAINZ music college.
The EPs were subsequently released on local independent label Round Trip Mars. Powers and Xayalith began performing live with Ben Knapp and Jordan Clark on bass and drums respectively. Aaron Short, who had engineered the two EPs, became a performing member of the group. Knapp and Clark left the group in 2009 and were subsequently replaced with Jesse Wood and David Beadle. According to Wiki, the band took their name from Tricky‘s song “Tricky Kid”.
“Young Blood” debuted on the New Zealand chart at number one on 14 June 2010. It marked the first New Zealand artist to do so in three years.
The Naked and Famous released Passive Me, Aggressive You on their own label, Somewhat Damaged. Subsequently, the band was nominated for BBC’s Sound of 2011 poll and garnered six nominations at the New Zealand Music Awards. Categories included Album of the Year, Single of the Year, Best Group, Breakthrough Artist of the Year, Best Alternative Album and the People’s Choice Award.
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