UPDATE: You Say Party! We Say Die!’s album XXXX dropped this week, available from iTunes or Amazon, so we’re re-posting their To Whom  It May Concern Q&A. There’s also a video for “Dark Days” and a new remix for “Laura Palmer’s Prom” below, as well as expanded tour dates coming up in March, so why not share it with you all…

Expanded tour dates, more songs and full Q&A after the Jump…

Remix of “Laura Palmer’s Prom” by Los Campesinos

Video for “Dark Days”

We caught You Say Party! We Say Die! in Montreal last year at the Montreal POP festival and they ended up being the best damn thing of the whole festival, hands down. It’s always weird when you end up stumbling across the best surprise on the first night, and the rest of the bands seem to be playing catch-up the rest of the week (and we saw some great acts in the City of Poutine too, including Sebastien Grainger, Silver Apples, Novillero and Boats to name a few).

Now they’ve just released their first US album, XXXX, and will tour all of March. Live the band blow most of their dance punk brethren out of the water, anchored by the taught interplay of drummer Devon Clifford and bassist Stephen O’Shea. But their substantial charm comes courtesy of singer Becky Ninkovic, who has the uncanny ability of making an entire theater feel like they’re kicking back in her living room. She has all the charm of your favorite little sister.

YSP! WSD! have already released two full lengths since 2005, with numerous tours and magazine covers to their credit, however American success has eluded them. Part of this is due to the fact that they were banned from American soil for years…why, exactly? Did they get caught building some sort of doomsday device, or donating to their favorite Al Queda-sponsored charity? Nope — nothing that exciting. Apparently all it takes nowadays is to mess up a VISA application and you could get screwed (just ask MIA). As Becky explains: “We attempted to cross at the border without the proper work permits and things got a little messy — we were very tired and between us and our team, some important steps were missed. We all grew up right on the border and are all very used to crossing without problems; after 9/11 security has really gone extreme. One little slip of the tongue and you can get banned for life…or 5 years!”

Free Download of “Dark Days” HERE

Allow me to introduce myself, I’m…
Becky Ninkovic. My real name is Rebecca but most people call me Becky, or Nink or sometimes The Mink.

You can find me…
In Abbotsford, British Columbia.

I’m usually posted up at…
The White Lodge. An old punk house where shows used to be held. Currently it is being fixed up and some of my dearest friends live there at the moment.

I pay my bills by…
Being a supportive care worker. I work at a home where six ladies live together. They are very awesome and I have a lot of fun with them. It can be the most challenging at times, but it is worth it.

You might’ve heard of me because…
I sing in this band called YOU SAY PARTY! WE SAY DIE!

But why you really should know me is…
We have a new album out called XXXX it is our third full-length album. It is full of the power of LOVE. LOVE is XXXX. I sing my heart out in XXXX more than I ever have before.

My next order of business is…
Planning and preparing for future tours. Trying to find some time to rest and recover from the cross-Canada tour we just finished. Mostly, working at the group home and trying to catch up with life, family and loved ones. There is so much happening right now, it feels chaotic and crazy but also positive and exciting. We have a short tour happening in January, playing British Columbia’s mountain resorts. Then we open for Phoenix at the Orpheum in Vancouver! In the spring, we are touring the States for the first time in years; we were banned from the States and have been working really hard to get back in. Finally, it is going to happen. After that we are going to Europe and the UK and then Asia. It is going to be a busy and fruitful 2010.

If it wasn’t for ________ I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Stephen is the bass player in our band and he pulled us all together to form YSP!WSD! Without him, we would not be a band. I xxxx Stephen.

The best part about my job is…
I get to live out what I wanted to do when I was a little girl. I get to sing, dance, make art and travel the world. I get to share in this with my loved ones. My other work supporting individuals with special needs is also so amazing. I always desired to care for others and make a real difference in their lives by supporting and loving them. Through this I feel a deep contentment inside. I am continually learning from all these experiences. I am surrounded by diamonds.

The worst part about my job is…
It can be very stressful. There is only so much you can do. Sometimes you find yourself so exhausted that your best effort still feels short of what you know you are capable of. That can be hard to overcome. I don’t believe this life is meant to be easy and all about finding happiness or being perfect. A lot of this life is about surrendering; letting go. Trusting in love and truth and the powers that be.

If you want to put a smile on my face, you probably want to…
Compliment me. After all, I am a Leo.

If you want to wipe that smile away, then you should…
Compliment me in an inappropriate way.

The last time I saw the sun come up I was…
Driving from Montréal to Toronto. We had to play a festival called m for Montréal at midnight and then drive to Toronto to be on CBC’s Q first thing in the morning. The earliest I have ever had to sing at. I was drinking tea and humming to myself while watching the sun rise.

The last time I lied was because…
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz?

If you hit shuffle on my iPod I’d be embarrassed if it landed on…
I don’t actually own an iPod.

When I get my next (first?) really big check, I’m gonna go score a…
A new wardrobe!

But it’ll never replace…
My ceramic owl collection.

Really? Ceramic owls? Why?
I visited a sanctuary for endangered owls when I was in elementary school, and in art class I made my first owl. I always loved how they looked, with their beautiful wise eyes and gorgeous feathers. Later on, I began to shop in thrift stores and began to find many ceramic owls there. Then, I got into Twin Peaks and it just furthered my love of owls. They hold a sentimental place in my heart — when I was healing from being sick, many messages of god’s love and wisdom came to me in the image of an owl. When you listen to certain songs on XXXX you will hear this. I also make stuffed animal owls; I used to sell mini ones on the merch table. I would sew them on the long drives. Now, I make bigger ones for my little nieces and nephews as well as my friends and their children.

I’d like to give a quick shout-out to…
My close friend Vanessa from Toronto band LIONESS

And lastly, If I was Lost In a Supermarket, you’d find me in the…
The health food aisle, all the supplements and herbs I could possibly need to stay health on tour.

YOU SAY PARTY! WE SAY DIE! TOUR DATES

15-Jan – Nelson, BC – Spirit Bar
21-Jan – Kamloops, BC – The Plaza
22-Jan – Vancouver, BC – The Orpheum w/ Phoenix
27-Jan   Surrey, BC – Olympic show w/ Tokyo Police Club, Wintersleep
09-Mar – Seattle, WA – Chop Suey
10-Mar – Portland, OR – Doug Fir
12-Mar – San Fran, CA – Bottom Of the Hill
13-Mar – Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex
15-Mar – Phoenix, AZ – Rhythm Room
17-Mar – Austin, TX – Canadian Blast Party @ SXSW
18-Mar – Austin, TX – Casablanca Publishing @ SXSW
18-Mar – Austin, TX – Paper Bag Records Party / Speakeasy @ SXSW
19-Mar – Austin, TX – Hype Machine Showcase @ SXSW
19-Mar – Austin, TX – Pure Volume Showcase @ SXSW
21-Mar – Memphis, TN – Hi Tone
22-Mar – Atlanta, GA – The Earl
23-Mar – Charlotte, NC – Snug Harbor
24-Mar – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar
26-Mar – New York, NY – Knitting Factory
27-Mar – Boston, MA – TT The Bears
29-Mar – New York, NY – Piano’s
30-Mar – Detroit, MI – Pike Room
31-Mar – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle

Words by Cristina Fisher / Photos by Robert Kieran

On a recent Saturday night at Mountain Bar in the tiled-roof heart of Chinatown, downtown LA, Optimo was billed to DJ. Ducking in between the pagodas, and walking up creaky steps to the 2nd floor, I was hit by a wall of fog in near complete darkness. The crowd was small, but a good mix of scruffy east side artist types, indie music heads, gay/straight, and a general splattering of random, unassuming people. Inside, everyone was wide-eyed and rocking to the infectious shouts of Rob English of the post-punk, electro group Panthère. Industrial, raw, minimal synths with pounding basslines, this live show felt more like the afterhour techno clubs of Berlin than a downtown LA soiree. It was a fresh respite from the heavy-handed, look-at-me Hollywood hipster scene.

Enter design collective Le Branché.

Le Branché is a multidisciplinary and collaborative crew of creative heads consisting of designers Jean Marc Virard, Rob English, Anthony Franco and fashion stylist Audrey Montgaillard, whose sphere of art also happens to include music. Their noise is so spot-on in fact that it’s hard to imagine that they are visual artists foremost. The sounds of De Signer easily rival some of the best electro/pop acts out there right now, where as Panthére channels a dark, post-punk, almost Factory Records sound. Both are modernizing their nod to a visionary era. And much like what was happening in downtown NYC in the early ‘80s, the Le Branché crew is questioning the parameter of what a band is…and could be.

“We reference LA a lot in the music, specifically downtown LA,” says English. “We felt like downtown was a metaphor for a new LA. When you think of LA for the most part you think of Hollywood, movies, Snoop Dog or heavy metal, and glam clubs. We took that as a metaphor for this emerging LA that has something kind of New York, Manhattan about it, something cultural. We really tried to rep that specifically so it connected to Downtown 81.”

The NY underground scene of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s was a time when genres collided, art birthed icons and fashion cemented its place on music’s alter. A time when the Clash got together with graffiti artist Futura 2000, when Keith Haring danced all night at the Paradise Garage and Jean-Michel Basquiat not only brought street art into the galleries, but played in a band, produced music and acted—check the aforementioned Downtown 81. The friction, the struggle, the daring fans—they all played a role in muddling the distinction between art and creator. It was a perfect balance of the unbalanced.

The group’s musical kinship with that legendary time becomes more poignant when you discover that their art is taken more serious than commerce and creativity always trumps formula. You hear it in JMV’s productions—how Audrey’s cold and seductive French manner rides effortlessly alongside English’s MCing. You see it in Ant’s videos that accompany their set. “This is why it’s interesting,” says JMV. “To go and mix things without really mixing them. Trying to respect each thing for what they are. When I first met Ant it was very interesting how he was into minimal music and minimal art. It was very avant-garde, very experimental. This is the area that we come from, from that ‘80s thing where there were no rules.”

De Signer “Francois Premier”

De Signer “1-2-3 Love”

De Signer “Virgin Air”

Panthére “Lets Dance”

“Looking at how the music industry isn’t doing so well, it seems like the ushering in of a new kind of musician, in that musicians are going to have to do a little bit more. It’s like what are you offering people outside of just music that’s going to help connect them to the music in an emotional way, and help them connect to you.”

- Rob English

Make the jump to read our interview…

top to bottom/left to right—like reading: Audrey Montgaillard,  Jean Marc Virard, Rob English & Anthony Franco

Is the LA scene, in general, becoming one meshed genre?
Anthony: There are still camps in LA. There are the Hollywood crews, the Silver Lake crews; everyone is sort of influenced by the same type of music now, listening to the same stuff.
Rob English: The culture is kinda light.
Jean Marc Virard: LA is so new, though, it’s a virgin spot. In every big city you’re gonna have tribes. Obviously you’re gonna find the same thing in LA. When Audrey and I arrived here six years ago we found LA pretty poor in terms of music. The best example, we’ve been doing this music for four years now and in the beginning people didn’t get rap with disco. We were doing the Italo disco thing while nobody was listening to disco. Disco for them was Earth Wind and Fire. They didn’t get there was another type of disco.

In Chicago, I’ve witnessed two disco revivals. In the early ‘90s loft scene, where the second wave of DJs, producers and record labels emerged, DJs played homage to disco classics and industry greats such as Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles, whose legendary sets at the Music Box and Warehouse spanned genres from disco to soul and new wave, and broke boundaries just a decade earlier. It wasn’t uncommon for them to drop a disco and classics set. Tracks like Machine’s “There But For the Grace of God Go I” easily erupted peak dancefloors and sounded just as exciting for a new generation. The filtered disco era of the mid- to late- ‘90s became massive and the French touch moment, ie Daft Punk, Cassius and Stardust’s “Music Sounds Better With You” took the sound to new global heights. Once again disco is the music of the moment. At a time when some throw the term disco around far too loosely, we continue to dig in order to find the quality and soul it once had. And like with any art, you must know its history before you can reinterpret it. Le Branché embraces this.

The crew came together organically, foremost as artists, with a shared art sensibility. JMV and Audrey hail from France. Audrey is petite and soft-spoken, but projects a sort of sharp modernity that is both inimitable and unforced. JMV, though always donned in super fashionable gear, comes across as unpretentious and genuine, greeting you with a warm embrace. Well-spoken and down to earth, English grew up on the south side of Chicago. He visited a friend in LA in the mid-Nineties and never returned (like yours truly). Ant is a Southern Cali native who gives off an artistic skater vibe. The group juggles Le Branché with coveted industry day jobs: JMV does marketing and consulting for Puma, Audrey styles and works at Fred Segal, English is an art director for a lifestyle ad agency and Ant designs for Stüssy. One might think having creative jobs would be enough, but Le Branché offers them an outlet to create exactly what they want on their own terms. Every artist’s ideal. The crew works on all projects on a collaborative scale, discussing concepts and story ideas as a team.

JMV: The way we conceptualize stuff we really think about 5th, 6th dimension. Marketing is actually like a form of art. We really respect each level of production of a song, a video, a graphic. Everybody thinks global, which is pretty common nowadays. This is the main idea when we start to come with the whole concept of bringing a new type of house; it is really like a creative bureau versus a record label or a video production company.
RE: There is a love of design and design culture coming from everybody. From architecture to fashion to books, style aesthetics. Everybody is getting influences and references from different genres of art. We’re pulling from our own personal resources. This is creative expression coming from me, whether it’s musical, or physical, or digital, or printed. Looking at how the music industry isn’t doing so well, it seems like the ushering in of a new kind of musician, in that musicians are going to have to do a little bit more. It’s like what are you offering people outside of just music that’s going to help connect them to the music in an emotional way, and help them connect to you.

At a time when peoples’ favorite track is simply a Genius Playlist slot on their iPod, this makes sense. They represent where music is headed, by means of social networking, and putting a face on their music. Through their website, their videos offer a feel for their brand, personality and style—a sort of abstract visual calling card, even though marketing can be tough, especially in a city of hustlers. Landing gigs has been challenging, partly because LA is “so clicky” and because they don’t fit neatly into one definitive box. “We never try to be exclusive, we hate that,” says JMV.

“If there is something exclusive about what we’re doing, it’s probably just because by nature everybody is kinda avant garde and a little bit weird,” English explains. “ It might be exclusive in the sense that you might not get it, but we’re always open. Feel comfortable doing you, because that’s gonna make us feel comfortable about doing us.”

Do you ever feel lumped in with the French invasion of electronic music, French Touch part deux, ie Ed Banger and Yelle?
Audrey: Yelle, she’s pretty big here. They play her at Fred Segal all day long. I’m like if she can make it, I can make it too. [But] I don’t compare myself to her…she’s a package to me. I don’t see myself as a package. But what she does is cool.
JMV: With Audrey it’s less planned out and more discreet. More mature, more sophisticated.
RE: JMV and Audrey, because they’re from France, it has always been a part of what we do, but it wasn’t like, OK, well let’s throw some French in it. It was more: so this is them expressing their side of the fence. I see it as less Yelle, more Visage. Because Audrey is a real, cultural fashion person from her background, with her parents growing up in a famous boutique in Paris, she comes to the mic like Donatella Versace coming to the mic, more so than Uffie. It’s not like let me pretend to be a rapper.

What’s next for the group is a physical release; they plan to spread their name on a larger scale. By following a DIY refrain, they have few demands and nothing to lose. “The powerful thing of doing the DIY shit is that you don’t have to explain anything. It’s such a luxury to have the capability to do whatever you want without any pressure from anybody, especially not numbers.”

This is not to say at some point they wouldn’t be open to signing on the dotted line. “The music industry is going through a forced evolution…fast. For someone like us our ideal partner would be someone like The Moca, Taschen, Comme Des Garçons…even Urban Outfitters,” English explains. “You need a company that understands merchandising, and how to build a  sustainable multi-faceted brand…with quality. Because music is free.”

If you told me to imagine what a million of anything looked like, chances are you’d be shit out of luck and I’d have a headache. This is where knowing Chris Jordan comes in handy. He takes the guesswork out of visually quantifying quantity with his latest installation, Running the Numbers, which is touring the country through 2011. His latest book of photos features the visualization of 1,000,000 trees cut down every year; 9,000,000 American children without health insurance; 2,000,000 plastic bottles used every five minutes; 2,300,000 adults incarcerated in U.S. prisons.

[View with PicLens]

It’s no secret that the gay club nights put on the best disco parties. And I’m just speaking music, though the DJs hold their own for both classics and nu-disco alike. It’s the whole theatrical package that makes these nights special and memorable, in places like LA where disco is the new catch all phrase for all things fashionable. NY, LA and SF are examples where these nights are garnering the attention of eras past and bringing the straight and gays together to dance. After all, disco came from the gay underground.

Honey Soundsystem is San Francisco’s answer to the disco re-emergence. This SF Sunday weekly was launched in 2006 by DJs Ken Vulsion, Pee Play, Robot Hustle, Jason Kendig, and Josh Cheon to further the disco decadence and rich dance music culture the Bay Area is known for. A collection of extravagant party themes, international music guests and underground warehouse events put them on the map. Past guests include Pilooski, Hercules & Love Affair, Cosmo Vitelli, Garth, Derek Plaslaiko, the list goes on. The crew has since toured Europe and is also working on production, with 12” releases and edits in the works, as well as the launch of Josh Cheon’s new label Dark Entries Records, and the release of their collaboration with Macro of Catholic, a never before heard album by Patrick Cowley.

The entire crew will in LA Friday for Shits & Giggles, which, btw, is the last summer soiree before the night goes monthly.

Ken Vulsion “SmAss”

Robot Hustle “Lost in the Nether Regions”

Kendig + PeePlay “Live at the DeYoung Museum”

Peep the Honey Soundsystem Beats in Space Summer promo mix here. Get your presale tickets.

You know that feeling you get in your chest when you’re super passionate about something. The rush, the sense of excitement that washes over you just from partaking in what ever it is that gets you off…it’s almost overwhelming sometimes.

For me, it’s flipping through bins of vinyl at the record store. My fingers move like crabs over the top of the jacket…just waiting to come across a familiar logo. Hoping, really. When something does catch your eye, you can feel your heartbeat quicken. Like it’s in sync with your level of excitement.

I don’t know James Robjant, but I know he knows what the hell I’m talking about. His video Now is pretty damn amazing. It’s what life looks and sounds like when it becomes poetry. He’s also a super talented photographer. Fine art style. That’s one of his pix above. Take a few and peep his work…well worth your time.

If you’re a New Yorker, you might have seen David Byrne cruising around the city on a bike. It’s been his primary mode of transportation since the ‘80s. Taking it one step further, after discovering folding bikes a few decades ago he’s since been traveling around the world with them on a regular basis. Awesome.

If you’ve spent any amount of time pedaling through a city no doubt the greatest thing about the whole experience is the change of perspective. There’s something about riding a bike that gets you in touch with the inner workings and rhythms of a city’s geography and population. There’s an intimate link between city and cycle. The buildings, the stores, the people, alleyways … Bikes have a way of making a familiar landscape and environment (too often ravaged and noxious) seem not-so-familiar.

The recently released Bicycle Diaries chronicles David’s observations and insights—what he is seeing, whom he is meeting, what he is thinking about—as he pedals through and engages with some of the world’s major cities. In places like Buenos Aires, Istanbul, San Francisco, and London, the focus is more on the musicians and artists he encounters. Politics comes to the fore in cities like Berlin and Manila, while chapters on New York City, and on the landscaped suburban industrial parks and contemporary ruins of such spots as Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Columbus are more concerned with history in the urban landscape. Along the way, DB has thoughts to share about fashion, architecture, cultural isolation, globalization, and the radical new ways that some cities, like his home town, are becoming more bike-friendly—all conveyed with a highly personal mix of humor, curiosity, and humanity.

Being a big bicycle advocate, civic leader, urban theorist and all that jazz, David Byrne will be speaking for about 10 minutes followed by a Q&A with audiences. This isn’t a book reading, though.

22 September @ 7pm, New York, NY Barnes & Noble, Union Square
27 September @ 7pm Austin, TX Paramount Theater
28 September @ 7:30pm Seattle, WA Town Hall
29 September @ 8pm San Francisco, CA Herbst Theater
30 September @ 7pm Portland, OR Bagdad Theater
2 October @ 8pm Los Angeles, CA Aratani Theater
23 October Ottawa, Canada The Ottawa Writers’ Festival
24 October Toronto, Canada International Festival of Authors

Here’s a video David Byrne made a few years back on his way to his “How New Yorkers Ride Bikes” event. From a bicycle seat perspective, of course.