Javelin, a electronic duo from Brooklyn by way of Providence, Rhode Island, will be dropping their mad beats in the UK next month, touring with Yeasayer. I caught the duo and their engaging live show here in Washington at DC9 and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel, and you can catch them in a venue near you.

Tuesday 16th February 2010 - Birmingham Academy 2

Wednesday 17th February 2010 – Glasgow Oran Mor

Friday 19th February 2010 – Dublin Academy
Saturday 20th February 2010 – Belfast Speakeasy
Sunday 21st February 2010 – Manchester Academy 3
Monday 22nd February 2010 – Leeds The Faversham
Tuesday 23rd February 2010 – London Heaven (NME Shockwaves show)

Thursday 25th February 2010 – Bristol Thekla
Friday 26th February 2010 – Brighton Digital

I have mixed feelings about the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel. It doesn’t have anything to do with the talent they book: I’ve seen several amazing shows there – Jack Penate / Miike Snow in September for example. The crowds usually aren’t as big or vocal (therefore the vibe’s not as great) as with other D.C. clubs, primarily because of the RnR’s location. It’s a pain to get to without a car and even if you can find a place to park, it’s the kind of place you’re worried to walk around by yourself late at night. But with the auspicious date of 12/12, Saturday night came round with a headlining gig by New York’s Phenomenal Handclap Band and I just had to be there. Before the PHB were two opening acts – unsigned Washington D.C. act Bop Beetle and two cousins from New York-by way of- Providence, Rhode Island, Javelin. I always have a soft spot for local acts that are thrust into temporary limelight as an opener for an out of town band, and I felt this for Bop Beetle. Javelin I’d seen before, as the opener for the Very Best in November at another small club, DC9.

Considering they’re unsigned and I’m thinking most people had never heard of them before, Bop Beetle has nerve to develop hand gestures to a song of theirs, ‘Permanent Premonition’. The singer (who alternated between his guitar and a complicated synth set-up) thanked two women in the center of the crowd who “brought it” and were doing the hand gestures along with him. Both duos must be given props for putting on entertaining sets despite the low number of people who showed up before it was the Phenomenal Handclap Band’s turn. Both acts were similar in that they relied on programming to make up for the lack of band members, and they both had a charming vocalist. But the percussion was different: in Bop Beetle’s case, the drummer was playing an actual drum kit, whereas Javelin’s “drummer” plays on an electric drum pad.

Of the two, I preferred Javelin, because the two of them are standing right in front of you with a table full of electronics and you’re wondering what music will come out of it all, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. And their song lyrics are a lot funnier. I mean, who writes a song about a house cat (‘Oh Centra’) or one that’s titled ‘Lindsay Brohan’? ‘Vibrationz’ was introduced as a song about the innocence of young love and “middle school U.S.A. You know what I’m talking about.’ Yeah, I actually do. They ended with ‘Soda Popinski’, a video game-flavoured tune. I’m hoping for big things for this band and their album that will hopefully be released in March 2010 on Thrill Jockey. (And for those of you who like DIY, Pitchfork wrote an article about them recently offering to personalise a 12″ album jacket for you and will post it back to you with their next single, ‘Number Two’ inside – details here. The deadline for them to receive the jackets is 18 January, so if you want to take part, get cracking. Now just how neat is that?)

23.30 – time for the Phenomenal Handclap Band. Now I’ve written about this band loads because I really dig them. I’ve seen them several times and oddly, only one of those times was outside Washington (in New York with Friendly Fires). (I guess they must like us an awful lot!) A respectable crowd had finally assembled for the band’s last date in America this year, and the band arrived onstage to loud applause. ‘The Martyr’, with its Led Zeppelin-esque guitar work and Daniel Collás’s falsetto, was fabulous live, as was ‘Testimony’, with Joan Tick’s searing vocals. Even though we were in the middle of a D.C. winter, ‘15 to 20′, with its skipping rope-style rhymes, brought out the optimism and sunshine of summertime. The band’s encore, ‘Baby’, sung by the mysteriously/humourously named Bing Ji Ling (whose name means ‘ice cream’ in Chinese…er…huh?), is going to be their next single. The song’s lyrics of “baby / I could rule the world / with a beautiful girl / like you on my arm” is actually pretty spot on what I predict is going to happen with this band. If their star keeps rising, they could very well be ruling the world, the beautiful people in tow, this time next year. Watch this space.

After the jump: set list and photos.

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To my friends, I’m starting to sound like a broken record. When I said I was going to DC9 Monday night to see the Very Best, they all asked, “where did you hear about them?” And as usual the answer was, “BBC Radio, where else?” In the case of the Very Best, their ‘Warm Heart of Africa’ was added to the 6music playlist, making sure that I’d hear it enough times to have it imprinted on my brain. Mind you, I wasn’t dragged to this conclusion. I was happily led away to sunnier equatorial climes.

‘Warm Heart of Africa’ (specifically the song, not the album of the same name) features guest vocals from Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend alongside the Very Best’s singer Esau Mwamwaya, and you can’t make a song any brighter. As a Vampire Weekend fan, I wondered if Koenig would be coming along on this tour (he did, after all, cowrite the song). (Tour dates listed on VW’s MySpace confirmed this was impossible.) So how exactly would the song be recreated live? With the magic of samples and DJaying equipment plus the sweet voice of Mwamwaya…

But before I get carried away, let me tell you about the opening act, Javelin. The duo is comprised of two cousins from Providence, Rhode Island, that have been working on music together since their families spent their summers together by the New England seaside. If you only knew that about them, you would probably guess incorrectly what they sound like. They make enjoyable, danceable, electro noise pop/hip hop. The singer alternately pogo-ed up and down and would work his wide array of synths, while the “drummer” would beat his drum pad or grab maracas or a cowbell from under the table to add to the noise. Songs like ‘Twyce’; ‘Vibrationz’, and the set ender (and incidentally the first song they ever recorded) ‘Oh Centra’, an ode to a housecat, were just plain fun. Cool stuff.

So then it was time for London trio the Very Best. Well, I thought they were a trio. Somwhere on the way over to America they lost Etienne (DJ) Tron (I guess he stayed home) and then there were two – DJ/compere Johan Carlberg and singer Mwamwaya. Carlberg kicked things into high gear with his electronic gizmos as Mwamwaya grabbed his microphone and then brought everyone’s attention to two somewhat scantily clad dancers that had also been brought along with them from England.

Songs like ‘Wena’ (from the band’s 2008 free, downloadable mixtape that first put them on everyone’s radar late last year) and ‘Julia’ and ‘Warm Heart of Africa’ from their first official album-length offering turned the crowd at DC9 into one giant, lively mass that was moving and grooving to the engaging music. DC9 is rapidly becoming one of my favourite venues in town because of its size (about 200 capacity) and intimacy: Mwamwaya and their dancers were at times just inches away from me. The only disappointment: the only had 8 songs prepared, so that’s all we got. I hope they could tell from the raucous reception the Washington audience gave them that when they’ve got more songs put together for live performance, they are most certainly welcome back in our town.

After the jump: more photos.

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