A six-piece from Brighton, England, The Go! Team and their brilliant, critically-lauded debut album, Thunder, Lightning, Strike, lit 2005 a-fire with a fast and furious mix of ‘60s girl groups, ‘70s car chase TV themes, ‘80s lady MCs, ‘90s guitar squalor, and an incendiary live show. Nominated for the UK’s prestigious Mercury Prize, Thunder, Lightning, Strike landed on 2005 year-end lists in Rolling Stone, Blender and Spin, with Time Magazine calling it one of “5 CDs You Should Not Miss” in early 2006. The Go! Team’s subsequent American tours included incredible performances at Coachella and Lollapalooza, and opening for the likes of The Flaming Lips and Sonic Youth. Whereas Thunder, Lightning, Strike was sample-heavy, Proof of Youth was recorded by all six Go! Team members, and produced by The Go! Team and Gareth Parton, resulting in a wider sound that is still unmistakably their own. The album is another treble-heavy adventure in audio, bombing melodies into the stone-age with its needle-in-the-red, anti-production approach and lurching from bubblegum pop to white noise in a heartbeat. And this time, it’s not just the band—they’ve invited some of their friends to the party, including hip-hop luminary Chuck D of Public Enemy, the original Double Dutch Divas, Maryland’s pint-sized Rapper’s Delight Club, Marina from Bonde Do Role, Amsterdam’s Solex, and Washington, DC’s Frederick Douglas All Star Cheer Team. Your 2007 and 2008 is about to be a whole lot more fun.

Watch the video for Grip Like a Vice here!

One note on the Proof of Youth LP: the vinyl of this release will NOT include a coupon for download of the album as mp3s. We were prohibited from doing so, and we’re sorry.

SP750

Release date: September 11, 2007

NPR review of Proof of Youth!