emusic

Le Futur Pompiste, which released one marvelous album in 2004, Your Stories and Your Thoughts, before the vagaries of adult life scattered them far and wide; and Cats On Fire, whose debut long-player, 2007's The Province Complains, captivated all who were lucky enough to hear it (among them the writers at superlative U.K. magazine The Word). It was inevitable that this pair of bands, whose music shares a poise and sophistication rarely heard anywhere, never mind within the modest environs of Finland, would find each other.

Gift Of Gab (Tim Parker) and Chief Xcel (Xavier Mosley) met at John F. Kennedy High School in 1987 in Sacramento, California and formed the group in the early 1990s. They released their first recording, "Swan Lake", on solesides records. The Solesides Crew consisted of the duo, as well as other friends of theirs they had met at University of California - Davis, including DJ Shadow, Lyrics Born and Lateef The Truth Speaker. The single was an underground hit, but label trouble prevented the duo from immediately capitalizing on their fame.

Decoder Ring was formed in 2001, in Sydney, Australia. Original line-up consisted of Matt Fitzgerald ( keyboards, guitar) Geoff Towner (bass, El Mopa), Pete Kelly (guitar, Sea Life Park), Kenny Davis Jr (keyboards, piano, The Jackson Code, The Blackeyed Susans) & Thomas Schutzinger (drums). Original line-up recorded the EP "Spooky Action at a Distance" (2002) and album "Decoder Ring" (2002). Geoff Towner departed in 2003 and was replaced by Ben Ely (Regurgitator).

Band founders Patricia Day and Kim Nekroman first met when Day's now-defunct band, the punk rock group Peanut Pump Gun, opened for Nekroman's psychobilly band, Nekromantix, at a festival in Cologne, Germany in 1996. Despite both belonging to the subculture scene of Copenhagen, Denmark, the two had never met before, but they became friends over their mutual interest in alternative music. The two would eventually marry.