Sorry for the low quality, these videos were taken on a friend’s cellphone. The sound is completely garbage… If anyone has higher quality video, let me know! We’d love to see it! This first video is from Urban Lounge on Oct 27th. [See pictures here]. The second video was Nov 1st? If anyone has pictures from The Trapp Door, let me know as well.
Polaroid Kiss’ First Performance
The audio is hard for people to make out which song it is.
Click here to listen to a sample of Love in Transition.
Here’s another video of me and Tim setting up for a show at The Trapp Door.
I think I was putting a 9-volt battery into a DI Box. lol.
This was Polaroid Kiss’ first gig. The crowd and performance went great! :) We opened for ex-Sneaker Pimps Chris Corner’s band IAMX. The bass was so strong near the end that we blew the fuse to the sound system, it didn’t affect the sound during the performance at all though. :) It did delay the IAMX performance though. My girlfriend Mandy Kemp took these pics.
Shake It: Polaroid Kiss win friends with synth-y bleeps and boops but, so far, no label-maker.
By Jenny Poplar
Posted 10/25/2007
In less than one year, Salt Lake City’s Polaroid Kiss has accomplished things that might cause musicians in more metropolitan cities to shake their fists in the air. How, they must be asking, does a band with no formal public-relations or marketing team and who’ve scarcely played out or even recorded a full-length album accumulate 26,000-plus MySpace friends? How do they receive international airplay and acclaim for their one single and receive requests to perform live with established European-based artists including Chris Corner, aka IAMX, formerly of Sneaker Pimps?
Polaroid Kiss guitarist Tim Burgess—the most recent addition to the quartet—shrugs and, with a slight smile, replies “I think people are getting sick of traditional guitar-driven bands. That’s been done so much in the past few years. They want something new.”
Or retro.
If the runaway success of Polaroid Kiss is any indication, synthesizer-driven bands are making a big comeback. Of course, that’s discounting those who never ever stopped loving electronic bands.
Producer, songwriter and jack-of-all-instruments Brandun Reed says that Polaroid Kiss has received a great deal of attention in Europe, especially in Manchester and Berlin.
“Germans love synth. The old joke is, when America had Lynyrd Skynyrd, Germany had Kraftwerk,” co-producer/multi-instrumentalist Earl Dixon says.
Reed and Georgia-born vocalist Tom Bennett founded Polaroid Kiss in December 2006 following a lively conversation about their divergent musical tastes at a local dance club. Reed and Bennett are both DJs who adore electronic music, but the bulk of Bennett’s vocal experience—true to his Southern roots—has been fronting folk, acoustic and indie acts including Salt Lake City trio O Discordia, a far cry from the abrasive post-punk music that Reed generally enjoys.
Reed and Bennett wanted to produce highly danceable music that begged for multiple rotations at the club. Intelligent, catchy lyrics were also a must. Reed eventually invited Dixon—who has been friends with Reed since the fifth grade—and Burgess to join Polaroid Kiss to ensure a fuller, more developed sound.
Reed and Bennett’s vision is finally starting to come together. Their first single, the moody-yet-infectious Faint, New Order and Nine Inch Nails-influenced “White Lines and White Lies,” has fared well online and in several local clubs where it’s often blasted on repeat. Reed notes that he has even witnessed several people singing along as they dance.
“We’ve really taken our time,” Reed says. “Although we had a lot of ideas from the beginning, we didn’t rush into the recording studio or start booking shows immediately. We made an effort to put a lot of thought into what we’re doing.”
Bennett says Polaroid Kiss is in the process of recording a full-length debut with (fingers crossed) Kelli Ali—another former member of Sneaker Pimps—as guest vocalist. “Her management contacted us because they liked our sound,” Reed says.
Word of mouth still hasn’t landed Polaroid Kiss a proper label, though, and they’re on the hunt for a home. “I’ve always been happy to work really hard and do things myself. I’ve always made my own merchandise, for instance,” says Bennett, who has fronted bands since age 15. “But it does get really exhausting, and it would be nice to eventually have someone to help us with that.”
Reed says Polaroid Kiss’ first major live performance will include a carefully choreographed light show and several other flourishes. “Even though our music is very danceable, I want to make sure we put on a really good performance. Sometimes electronic music isn’t the most exciting thing to see live. We want to make our shows very enjoyable for the audience.”
POLAROID KISS w/IAMX @ The Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East, Saturday Oct. 27, 10 p.m. 24Tix.com
Courtesy of Salt Lake City Weekly. View the article here.
Yesterday, Polaroid Kiss did an interview for City Weekly. The photographer couldn’t show up, so we should have a date scheduled sometime before the IAMX show. I wrote Brandun a huge ass email about how I felt pissed off at how he acted towards me during the interview. I felt I had been receiving these very condescending glares, but I think it may have been related to his anxiety issues, although I tend to think I’m one of the most anxious people I know. Me and him have talked about it and I think we understand each other. He had apologised and is glad I expressed myself, so tension doesn’t build up down the road. Anyway, the interview fun to do, done in a relaxed atmosphere, and I’m interested in reading how it turns out. I think I handled myself decent during the interview. I think it’s a bit harder for me to do, with a group, than a one on one interview is. It was sort of like going to a job interview with three other friends, all of us trying to answer the questions. It was a good learning experience.
I was headed out to see Mandy this morning and I had been on the freeway for a short time and my rear tire had a blowout. Suddenly there was this huge rumble and my car slightly slipped as if riding on a small patch of ice. I thought either my tire blew out or my engine exploded. haha. Something was wrong. So I pulled over and attempted to put on my 50mph miniature spare tire, but it turned out the wrench I had was the wrong size and it was slipping as I was trying to turn the bolts. I had to call my dad, as he was getting ready to head off to work to come out and help me out. He had the right tool and we got everything fixed and I got home.. Sort of scary, I always worried about having a blowout. I’m lucky that my car was very controllable and I didn’t lose control. Anyways, it looks like I’ll need to hitch a ride to practice for a few days, until I get my tire fixed.
Here are a few pictures from practice the other day. It was just me and Brandun going through White Lies and Love in Transition. I also helped put together the sounds Brandun will be playing on the second NI Kore rig. I think it’s going to be a nice setup. I’ll explain how I setup everything for the gigs when I have some time to get into the details. Here are just a few crappy photos, but it’s something. lol.
Tonight I have my rig over at Mandy’s and I’m preparing my patches and learning my parts for Stop Motion. For the last little while I’ve had a mobile studio that I’ve dragged around with me everywhere. We practice again tomorrow evening.