Following a successful summer tour, Bombay Bicycle Club will continue their trek across the U.S. with dates in several Southern states (including the Austin City Limits Festival) and along the West Coast. The band is touring in support of their most recent release, A Different Kind of Fix, out now on A&M/Octone.

Check out an intimate performance of A Different Kind of Fix track “Shuffle” for The Bowery Presents Live here http://houselist.bowerypresents.com/2012/07/16/the-bowery-presents-features-bombay-bicycle-club.

2012 has already been a whirlwind year for Bombay Bicycle Club, who on top of participating in the Olympics closing ceremony, have sold out one of the biggest venues in London (Alexandra Palace, 10,000 fans) and their entire U.S. tour earlier this year. A Different Kind of Fix is Bombay Bicycle Club's third album and their third to go Gold in the UK. The album has won critical accolades from the likes of NPR, Paste, NYLON, Pitchfork, Filter and more.

North American Tour Dates
October 5 – Orlando FL @ The Social
October 6 – Atlanta GA@ The Masquerade
October 7 – Nashville TN @ Exit/In
October 8 – New Orleans LA @ House of Blues
October 10 – Dallas TX @ Granada Theater
October 11 – Houston TX @ Fitzgerald’s
October 12 – Austin TX @Stubb’s (supporting The Shins)
October 13 – Austin TX @ ACL
October 15 – Phoenix AZ @ The Crescent Ballroom
October 16 – San Diego CA@ House of Blues
October 17 – Los Angeles CA @ Henry Fonda Theater
October 19 – San Francisco CA @ The Fillmore
October 20 – Portland OR @ Wonder Ballroom
October 21 – SeattleWA @ Showbox at the Market
October 22 – Vancouver BC@ Vogue Theatre

For more information on Bombay Bicycle Club, please contact:
Kara Oliver * Jen Appel – 212 246 2640
kara@pressherepublicity.com // jen@pressherepublicity.com

Bombay Bicycle Club pedals to fame: The London-based band just wrapped up its European tour and have kicked off more dates in the USA. They've written four songs for a new album. "We might try one of them out today," said lead singer Jack Steadman. They played an energetic set to an even more energetic crowd, bouncing through Shuffle and Lights Out, Words Gone.

See article: http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/story/2012-07-19/firefly-music-festival-day-3/56428622/1 

» www.usatoday.com

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» www.fuse.tv

» phobos.apple.com

» www.nbc.com

Track #29 - Bombay Bicycle Club “Shuffle”

What a year BBC have had with the release of ‘A Different Kind of Fix’.  While packed with glorious moments, none quite match up to the wide-grinning joy of ‘Shuffle’, its piano-led intro opening up into a merry little dance.  It’s so good, every day we’re shuffling. JC

Album #16 - Bombay Bicycle Club  “Different Kind of Fix”

When Bombay Bicycle Club first broke into the public consciousness, way back on Channel 4’s ‘The Road To V’, surely no one would ever have imagined that they would end up here.  From the otherworldly coos that open ‘How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep’ to ‘Still’ – a Radiohead-recalling, piano-led slowie of entirely crushing beauty- ‘A Different Kind of Fix’ blew the quartet’s jauntily lovelorn indie into a whole different dimension, grouping cerebral introversions and spacious atmospherics with bonafide, festival-baiting hits.  All of sudden their unconventional electric/acoustic/electric route clicked into place as a band arrived at the peak of their powers. LW

» gallery.qthemusic.com

» www.nme.com

Alex Turner talks “bullshit”. Jane’s Addiction are “insecure”. Selling your soul to a big time can “fuck off”. Having made the album of their lives strictly on their own terms, Bombay Bicycle Club have shaken up guitar music and are finally reaping the rewards. Sam Wolfson spends the summer with the band of the people.

“Last night was the best show of my life. We’ve been telling everyone it was going to be good, but as it got near we were pretty nervous. So now, I’m just blown away.”

This stuttering wreck is Jack Steadman, and he’s having the weekend of his dreams. Just 20 hours ago, he played the biggest gig of his life; a Reading Festival set that saw crushes and crowd surfing in the back row and all-out hysteria down the front. Five hours ago he got a call fromReading’s promoters saying the tent was 5,000 over capacity. In four hours time he’ll be playing another mammoth show inLeeds, and in a further six hours his band will release their third (and best) album, ‘A Different Kind of Fix’.

It’s a record that has shaken up both perceptions of the band and British guitar music, and it should be firmly embedded in your brain now. While it’s sprinkled with the simple pop song structures of their debut and the delicate harmonies of 2010 acoustic album ‘Flaws’, its driving force is Jack’s obsession with sampling and dance music. It has ripped Bombay Bicycle Club away from the old guard of indie bands and put them in the forefront of newUKmusic.

We ask Jack what caused the swerve from riff-based rock to a decidedly more groovy sound. “Right now, the most interesting scenes in theUKaren’t guitar bands, it’s moving on to electronic music. I’m more interested in music like James Blake and all that post-dubstep stuff. It was a conscious decision to change styles. I’d rather be seen as part of that generation.”

Most of the album, though, was made on things made of wood and strings—they are still a guitar band. “But I don’t thinks it’s as much about what you’re playing as your outlook,” Jack argues. “I was watching Yuck and thinking, ‘I really like that type of music but what do you do after that?’ They’re part of that movement now where a lot of bands are rediscovering ‘90’s shoegazey stuff, but when you attach yourself it’s hard to break away.”

HaveBombayturned their back on indie altogether? Jack continues: “I’ve been sampling electronic drums and used a lot of hip-hop breaks, but I don’t want to come out and say, ‘I only like hip-hop and dance.’ That’s the classic ‘third album, lead singer’ fucking bullshit. I saw Alex Turner saying they released ‘Don’t Sit Down…’ as the first single (from Suck It And See) because it’s not the poppiest one on there, so they were doing a favour for other guitar bands. That’s bullshit. We don’t need his help to get on the radio, neither should anyone else. They should just be writing good songs. I’ve never thought about that, ‘Alright, come on lads, lets all relive 2007 together’ thing.”

It’s clear thatBombaywant nothing to do with the depressing sight of Colin Murray introducing The Pigeon Detectives over on the Main Stage. But they’ve got no problem leading the charge –alongside the likes of Blake and The xx –as alternative British music turns a new corner.

We go back to what was, until a few hours ago, Jane’s Addiction’s dressing room. The American Rockers had ring-fenced themselves in backstage with a few metres of steel barricade and directives to the other bands not to talk to them. WhenBombaystarted praying beer everywhere, they caused something of a commotion. “Their tour manager just flipped out at us,” says Ed Nash. “She was screaming, ‘This is OUR side of the fence, you stay on YOUR side!” But now Jane’s Addiction have buggered off and we’re spread out on their sofa. Bombayhave set about rearranging the fences into a prison—“For cage fights after the show,” whispers guitarist Jamie MacColl. We ask if they’re ready for the Jane’s Addiction rock’n’roll lifestyle and Jack looks at us, disgusted.

“You want us to be rock stars? Well, we’re not. I think one of the things that people like about us is that don’t have a meeting before interviews going, ‘Let’s be controversial guys, let’s be crazy.’ It’s like, if you read an interview with Brother it’s obvious they’ve discussed what they’re going to say. We really don’t give a fuck if people stop listening to us because they think our personalities aren’t right. There’s insecurity with bands who think they have to be rock stars. I think Jane’s Addiction are probably the most insecure band in the world.” Perhaps that’s true but just two months ago, when we first met up withBombay, we would have happily bestowed that honour on them instead.

The public’s perception ofBombayis that they’re shy and lacking confidence. That they’d rather run away than get involved in small talk, and shiver at the thought of Gallagher-style boasting. There’s some truth in that. “No matter how many people review the album and say they like it, we’ll constantly question whether we’re any good,” explains Jamie.

What’s frustrating about this is thatBombayare one of the most mischievous and exuberant bands we know. Over the past seven years we’ve seen Jamie seemingly harmless drinking games that leave everyone in the room butt-naked. We’ve watched bassist Ed Nash drink a bottle of Whisky and then give himself a prison tattoo using a rusty needle. Then there was that night on the NME tour. Care to explain, Jack?

“We wanted to have a foam party. So we all crept out our hotel room naked and looked for a fire extinguisher. We realized we’d left out key inside so we crammed in the lift, went down to the foyer and I said to this poor guy at the desk, ‘I’ really sorry, I need a key.’ He comes in the lift with us but it doesn’t fit four people so we all squeeze in with our naked bodies. The doors close and right on cue you hear this little squeak and our guitar tech Louis goes, ‘Sorry everyone, I farted.’ Our room was on the top floor and the lift was very slow.”

Sex, drugs and flatulence-they’ve got it all. But, as we stalk the band across theUKand Europe, we soon discover that one of the best ways to get to knowBombayis just to keep quiet and just let them argue amongst themselves. Back in July at Latitude Festival we overhear:

Jack: “Let’s ask them not to touch up the photos.”

Jamie: “I wouldn’t mind them taking out my spots.”

Jack: “But that’s so fake.”

Jamie: “No, it’s just the same as wearing make-up, which we do for most photoshoots.”

Jack: “No, make-up is like playing live. Touching up is playing along to the track.”

Jamie: “But we do play along to a track.”

Jack: “Only because you made us.”

Jack is obsessed with a DIY dynamic. He’s already rejected two full completed videos for single “shuffle” because the casting was “too Hoxton” and is now using tour footage, shot and directed by school friend with no previous experience.

Jamie is driven by success, and gets “incredibly frustrated by the slow pace at which this band performs”. He had a place atCambridgeUniversityon ice for three years, which he finally gave up last month “because this album turned out to be so good”. When the band was invited to record a song for the Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack, the rest of them recoiled in horror. Jamie insisted they do it.

Behind the bickering is a relationship of perfect symbiosis. Jack writes all the songs: every lyric, drum part and bass line. He brings the finished demos to the band to listen to and learn. Jamie makes stuff happen: he deals with their management, sorts out rehearsal space, makes sure people have showered and rolls his eyes when jack wants to record an album of Yorkshirefold songs with Scout Niblett in a solar-powered yurt.

So how did jack kick start the writing on the new album? “It was a quite desperate because I was sitting around with the label and the band being like, ‘Shit, we need to have an album out soon.’ I was desperately searching through my computer, old albums I had made when I was 16 on a recording thing my dad bought me from PC World. A lot of it was electronic stuff, samples and hip hop beats. I thought it’d be fun to try and make a band song out of that.”

So the band went, Jack’s hard drive in hand, to long-term collaborator Jim Abbiss (who produced Arctic Monkeys’ and Adele’s debuts.) They honed their newfound funk in his studio. “I was learning to play swing rhythms for the first time,” says Jamie excitedly before slipping back to that trademark self-depreciation, “it’s quite hard playing guitar in a band with someone [Jack] who is far ahead of you as a guitarist. But in these sessions I felt more confident, like I could try things out and not be embarrassed.”

If some encouragement in the studio gave Jamie a confidence kick, the next 90 minutes should be a rocket up his arse. By the timeBombaycome onstage at latitude, the tent is overflowing. ‘Shuffle’ has been out just a few weeks as they play the early summer event, but its bedlam. “I couldn’t believe it,” Jamie beams afterwards.

After the show, a bunch of Bombay’s old school friends convene backstage. They don’t seem to have regular festival wristbands, never mind dressing room passes, yet they’ve managed to break in and are trying to scam free booze. If feels more like a Year Nine house party than a backstage area.

We’re about to continue our interview when drummer Suren de Saram wanders over with a kebab, “WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GET THAT?” shouts Jamie. Suren gestures toward a neon doner sign in the distance and the band disappear. The next time we talk to them, we’re inSpain.

“I feel so distant from the other bands in these dressing rooms,” says jack with a combination of envy and disdain. “ It’s almost a generic look. He’s got a denim jacket and sunglasses on. His girlfriends blonde and hot and falling off his arm. They hang out and just pretend to be cool. I mean, what the hell is that?”

Jack’s happier in his comfort zone “I’d love to be a really confident and bubble person, but the truth is I’m happiest when I’m by myself. The pleasure most people our age get from going to a party, I get from sitting on the bus listening to my iPod.”

Perhaps this is how Bombay have stopped themselves falling into the ego trap. Their introversion stops them from being sucked into rock clichés. InIbiza, they were joined in a Jacuzzi by some Playboy Bunnies. “it was the most un-Bombay thing ever to happen. We’re not a band that can go ‘ Alright love, you’re looking nice’ e were like, ‘Er, hello, have you been a bunny for long?”

With that, they’re called to the stage. Last night’s Latitude set was impressive, but inSpain, home of the pill-swilling and big bass lines, it’s amazing to see a huge crowd sing along to four-year-old album tracks.

Afterwards the beer flows and things get messy. The band have smuggled a bunch of school friends backstage and are pouring shots into each others mouths on a fake beach. “ I wanna see Primowl Scweam” says a worse-for-wear jack at around 2am, before running off in the wrong direction. We find him in a tiny tent dancing to Blondie and persuade him that Primal Scream are more likely to be playing the main stage. When we get there, he charges to the front and hurls touring singer Lucy Rose onto his shoulders. We leave the two of them swaying precariously in the breeze.

Back at Latitude, Jack said he was concerned about how the new material would work live because of the heavy use of sampling. But, atLeeds, ‘Shuffle’, with its syncopated piano line- the one saved from the cobwebs of Jack’s hard drive- it screamed back at him by thousands of adoring fans.

After the set, we head to Trangressive’s festival closing party to see in the release of the new record. Fanciful notions of cage fights and dodgem parties evaporate, and in the end we simply clink cans at the stroke of midnight. We push jack for whatBombaystand for. It’s a question he’s struggled with, but tonight there’s a new purpose. It’s not that they’ve lost their insecurities, more that now they’re confident in their nervousness.

“we definitely stand for something. I want people to see us playing onstage in the same t-shirts we were wearing that morning. See us in interviews looking uncomfortable talking about ourselves, because that’s the natural thing for humans to do. That’s what we stand for. I want young bands to know all they have to do is write good music. They don’t need to sell their soul or suck some ones dick to make it big.”

But doesn’t spurning the rock persona require quite a lot of gusto? If you were really too shy to communicate, you would have ended up just doing whatever other people told you to.

“Oh yea,” admits Jack. “To tell everyone fuck off, that you’re going to do whatever you want to do, that needs balls.”

Don’t tell them, but Bombaymight just have gone rock’n’roll.

By Korina Lopez and Carly Mallenbaum

Virgin Mobile FreeFest, the music festival bookended by a crushing week of rain and the 10th anniversary of 9/11, marched merrily on at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Saturday.

The fest entered its sixth year (third as a free event) with all the fixings that only mogul Richard Branson could bring. About 50,000 fans enjoyed a diverse lineup that ranged from indie-pop band Bombay Bicycle Club and high-energy electronica artist Deadmau5 to rapper Big Sean, rocker Patti Smith and headliner Cee Lo Green.

"Virgin is always about what's new and upcoming — we want the next big thing," says Ron Faris, head of brand experiences at Virgin Mobile USA. "We don't book based on 'box office,' but buzz. The festival is very social this year, we monitored the chatter on Facebook and Twitter to find out what people were listening to. We have buzzworthy fans, so we honor buzzworthy bands."

Your host: Richard Branson stopped by the festivities on his way back from Jamaica, where he was setting up the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship. "I'm just back from Jamaica, and only just got here, so I feel like a bit of a rock star myself," he says. "I'm a little out of touch with the music that's popular now, but I make sure that I surround myself with great people who know more than I do." The Virgin empire began with just one artist in 1970, Mike Oldfield of Tubular Bells fame (the spooky music from 1973's The Exorcist).

"I always just picked artists that I liked. It's that simple," he says. "I signed Genesis, Rolling Stones, Peter Gabriel, just because I took a listen."

While he didn't have a hand in picking the artists performing this year, he did take in some tunes from one of the early acts, indie-rock outfit Okkervil River, which brought good old rock 'n' roll to the main stage with Our Life Is Not a Movie Or Maybe.

Words of wisdom: A note to future festgoers: Go early. Some of the best acts hit the stage in the first few hours of the day, and this year was no exception. Bombay Bicycle Club brought its infectious fusion of thoughtful indie-pop and folk to a small but enthusiastic group of fans on the main stage. With jangly, lighthearted songs like Lights Out, Words Gone and Ivy & Gold and the breathless pace of rolling, rollicking Evening/Morning, these British newcomers have made a promising start in the USA. "This is our first time in America," says frontman Jack Steadman.

Backstage, Steadman made an interesting observation of American audiences. "Americans don't care what people think," he says. "They dance in circles. It's really cute."

» m.usatoday.com

Bombay Bicycle Club’s career probably hasn’t quite described the ark most of us were expecting when ‘Always Like This’ started setting dance floors in motion, back towards the end of the last decade. No sooner had the dynamism of debut, ‘I Had the Blues but I Shook Them Loose’ announced the band as the flag bearers for intelligent, accessible guitar music, than they’d taken off into the woods, regaling yetis with the mournful, acoustic songs of ‘Flaws.’ What then are we to expect from ‘A Different Kind of Fix’?

A close look at lead single, ‘Shuffle’ gives a good insight into where this album is coming from musically. The song opens and is backed throughout, by a tightly clipped piano sample, lending it the inexorable, ceaseless danceability of acid house, with a Phillip Glass sheen. Whereas, on their debut each song came packed with ideas (even the opener Emergency Contraception Blues managed to make its meagre one and a half minutes feel like a journey) here the band are happy to base entire songs around a single central element, even if it is as simple as single bar of jaunty piano.

Through careful arrangement, the various possibilities inherent in these central ideas are brought out and patiently explored, until they bloom into a fully fledged song. Limitation is used to provide a sort of freedom.

A very similar approach is adopted on ‘Bad Timing’ and ‘What You Want’ but to a slightly less immediate end. Regardless, it certainly looks as if the lessons learned from ‘Flaws’, which may have sounded restricted at the time, have brought a new focus to the band’s craft. ‘Lights Out, Words Gone’ is a prime example of the benefits wrought by this development. The track takes a staccato, pseudo-funk riff out of The Foals playbook and builds on it gradually, creating the lush, almost tropical feel that Friendly Fires’ recent ‘Pala’ seemed to strive for.

However, the self assured light touch with which this is done elevates Bombay Bicycle Club’s effort to a much less aggressively ‘of the moment’ sphere than you feel their peers could manage.

Another major development in Bombay Bicycle Club’s progression, which has become even more evident with this record, is the continuing improvement in Jack Steadman’s vocals.

Gone is the hummingbird warble that caused some of his past vocals to sound as if they were being delivered from atop a washing machine on a dangerously fast cycle. Here the smoother, more sustained approach that started to come through on ‘Flaws’ is advanced. ‘Beggars’ even has a positively Fleet Foxes feel to it.

It seems as if the band is also conscious of Steadman’s improving voice, and it takes centre stage on many of the songs. On ‘Your Eyes’ the guitar follows the vocal line with such fidelity that when they eventually part ways it is enough, in of itself, to feel heartbreaking.

On the beautiful closer, ‘Still’ a lingering cry from the front man is captured and cut up to create an oddly effecting glitch accompaniment to a piano lead fugue, a move typical of the simple, understated invention evident throughout this fine album.

» www.gigwise.com

By: Kyle Huntington

Bombay Bicycle Club has, once again, managed to progress effortlessly and produce their best album by quite some distance. This time around we see lead singer/guitarist, Jack Steadman’s, solo electronic efforts thrown into the mixing pot, with looped samples, synthetic drums and various subtle effects throughout. These are combined with Ben Allen (Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion) and Jim Abbiss’ (I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose) production techniques to create a sweeping, diverse and fascinating landscape. The incredibly talented Suren De Saram drives the band with beats that are often hooks within themselves, whilst Ed Nash delivers some of the best bass lines I’ve heard in some time and guitarist, Jamie MacColl, weaves his brilliant melodies into each of the tracks. Another aspect worth mentioning is the inclusion of Lucy Rose, who featured on Flaws and compliments Steadman’s unique vocals incredibly well. On A Different Kind Of Fix, her presence is even more noticeable as she lends her vocals to various songs on this release.

The album opens with a newly tweaked version of the infectious and airy, “How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep”, a track which even on first hearing sounds great but on further listening displays superbly constructed layers and consequently ends up being something really special. “Bad Timing” then starts abruptly, showcasing a more aggressive side to the group combined with some subtle vocal effects, feeling like a track from their debut album on steroids and thusly, a personal highlight. “Your Eyes”, “Lights Out, Words Gone”, “Take The Right One” and “Leave It” are perfect examples of swoon-worthy summer songs which seem to pick you up and carry you in their wave of hooks and effects, whilst lead single, “Shuffle”, represents everything that A Different Kind Of Fix stands for with it’s wonky piano and enchanting climax.

Fans undoubtedly hold Flaws close to their hearts due to its intimacy, but this album doesn’t go without those moments either. “Beggars” and "Fracture" are extensions of that material and album closer, “Still”, sounds like a song that so many Radiohead fans still yearn for. It’s quite simply breath taking, heart breaking and incredibly fragile. Steadman delivers lines such as, “Did he fill the empty spaces? Was he everything I’m not? There’s no force behind my mouth but in just three words he brings you down. There’s a movement out the door, I swear. But no, your lips they stay perfectly still,” in such a haunting falsetto that it is hard to not be moved.

There are very few negatives to acknowledge on this record, but it does have a tendency to lose momentum every so often and therefore fail to hold your full attention. Certain tracks can almost lose their footing in various circumstances and feel like they have lost their direction for a moment. Luckily, this is a rare occurrence, which is easily forgiven and subsequently forgotten in the grand scheme of things.

In conclusion, Bombay Bicycle Club, has constructed their most coherent album to date, bettering themselves once again to produce a record that deserves the attention of so many. It is all-at-once beautiful, infectious, impressive and brilliant. This is a band that is able to constantly move forward in both their sound and ability without even a hint of tripping and this exceptional release is evidence of just that.

Recommended If You Like: The Maccabees, Animal Collective, Local Natives

Highlights: "How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep", "Bad Timing", "Your Eyes", "Shuffle", "Beggars", "Still"

DetailsTrack List:

01) How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep

02) Bad Timing

03) Your Eyes

04) Lights Out, Words Gone

05) Take The Right One

06) Shuffle

07) Beggars

08) Leave It

09) Fracture

10) What You Want

11) Favourite Day

12) Still

Jack Steadman - Vocals, Guitar, Production

Jamie MacColl - Guitars, Vocals

Ed Nash - Bass

Suren De Saram - Drums

Jim Abbis, Ben Allen, Jack Steadman - Producers

» www.absolutepunk.net

By: Gareth James

8/10

They were indie. Then they were folk. Now they’re, er, baggy, if album opener ‘How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep?’ is anything to go by. Not that it is, of course, although synthetic drum tracks and swooning indie vocals are very much the order of the day. Let’s hurdle over the predictable cliches about plugging in the guitars and turning on the electricity again and cut to the chase. With each album, BBC are leaping forward as songwriters and, while ‘Flaws’ had many beautiful moments, this is their strongest album to date by some distance.

The layered and looped sound on a number of these songs betrays the fact that Animal Collective collaborator Ben Allen had a part to play in what is a complex, diverse and actually quite moving soundscape. Lead single ‘Shuffle’ is a euphoric juggernaut, neatly propelled by a thin, wonky piano sample, while ‘Take The Right One’ jangles feyly like late-Eighties indie.

But those converted by the sparsely beguiling ‘Flaws’ needn’t be alarmed, as the quiet moments here are airily affecting. ‘Fracture’ slowly builds to a harmonic wash of sound whilst album closer ‘Still’ is like an even less energetic James Blake. When the treated vocal suddenly appears, it’s a subtle but magical touch as part of a breathtaking finale.

Occasionally the momentum wanes, but only the cold-hearted could fail to forgive the odd misstep from a band taking risks, shaping their sound and refusing to stand still.

» www.clashmusic.com

The bands third album have them moving in another direction.

By: Martin Sandhu

8/10

From there indie full debut album, Bombay Bicycle Club changed their sound for their second album to a more folk sound in last years Flaws album.

You’ll notice the stand out track on this album which is more indie-dance includes the song from the Twilight film ‘How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep’.

The album has a feel of 60′s psychedelic & 90′s Happy Mondays which produces a really credible album from one of the UK’s most inventive bands.

» www.meplusonemusic.co.uk