New Kids Take on NY

16 October 2008 – Four New Zealand bands – The Naked and Famous, Bang! Bang! Eche!, Cut Off Your Hands and The Ruby Suns – “showcase an evening of up-tempo Kiwi-centric jams” at New York’s Delancey as part of the city’s week-long CMJ Music Marathon. New York music blog LimeWire writes: “If you think 7.30pm on a Tuesday is too early in the day/week to dance, you probably won’t have what it takes to throw down with electro-punk-stompers Bang! Bang! Eche! Their tunes sound like they’re about ready to burst at the seams, held barely together by the pulsing kick drum.” The Naked and Famous are a duo comprised of composer Thom Powers, 20, and singer/lyricist Alisa Xayalith, 21. Sunday Star-Times reviewer Grant Smithies describes them as “a young New Zealand band so brilliant, so thrilling, so daring and delicious that I want to write their name in big red letters on my pencil case.”