Tunes :: Alt-J

I am willing to bet that you have already heard an Alt-J song. If you've been listening to Top 40 radio stations within the past year, you have definitely heard Alt-J. But I am so in love with their new song that I literally can't not tell someone about it. So here we are. 

And while we're at it, we'll learn a little bit about an English alternative rock band called Alt-J. 

Originally, when the band was formed in 2007, it consisted of Gwil Sainsbury, Joe Newman, Gus Unger-Hamilton, and Thom Green. They met when they were attending a university in Leeds, three studying art, and one studying English. 

In their second year, Newman showed Sainsbury a couple of his songs, and the two started recording in their dorm rooms using Garageband. Their unique "sound" is apparently a byproduct of the fact that they could not use bass drums or guitars while recording in their dorms, since there were rules about noise.

After they all graduated, they recorded their debut album and spent two years rehearsing before they signed with Infectious Records. At this point, the quartet was going under the names "Daljit Dhaliwal" and "Films", but ended up changing to Alt-J when they learned of an American band with a similar name. The new name came from the band's symbol, a delta, "∆", which is made with the Alt-J keystroke on a Mac computer. 

Despite the amicable departure of Sainsbury earlier this year, Alt-J continues going strong as a trio, having announced a north American tour following the release of their second album in September.

One of the songs from the new album, "Left Hand Free" has already been released, and I am in love with it. So, in order to spread the Alt-J love, here are some of my favorites:

Fitzpleasure (x)
Left Hand Free (x)
Taro (x)
Something Good (x)
Breezeblocks (x)
Tessellate (x)

And I love Ellie Goulding's cover of Tessellate: (x)