Though wholly deserved, it was a little surprising to find our favorite bedroom nerd-rockers Hot Chip on the cusp of huge fame last year. Their album The Warning went gold in the UK, a Mercury Music Prize nomination followed, and sold-out shows across the US and Europe became the norm. This from fellows who record in a London bedsit and look like they walked out of the Dell engineer's cafeteria. As a sold-out crowd at Antone's last May attested to, the group's unique mix of electronics, blue-eyed soul, club bangers, and indie-rock captivated many worldwide searching for a new voice. Hot Chip have always claimed that they loved lots of music, but that nobody made the exact music that they wanted to listen to. And their pastiche of their influences backed the statement up - critics weren't sure what to compare them to. But they sure loved them. more ›