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Electro-funk duo Chromeo formed in Montreal in the early 21st century, a project of former hip hop producers Dave One and Pee Thug (news flash: not their given names). Dave handled guitars and vocals; Pee was the talkbox-wielding synth specialist.
From the beginning, Chromeo made it clear that the name of their well-dressed game would be artful detachment, earnest songwriting, retro breakdowns, and gleaming plastic beats -- not serious intent or aggressive musical-regime change. The "Destination Overdrive" single appeared in late 2003, complete with the tingling B-side "Needy Girl" (a ringer for Yaz's "Situation") and a DFA remix; the She's in Control LP dropped from Vice in early February 2004. Chromeo issued two mixes, 2005's Un Joli Mix Pour Toi and 2006's Ce Soir, On Danse, while gigging and working on their second album. Fancy Footwork arrived in summer 2007, boasting a slicker sound and poppier songwriting (courtesy of Cassius' Philippe Zdar on mixing duties), plus an avalanche of remixes. As fans awaited another album, Chromeo released DJ-Kicks in 2009. They finally returned in August 2010 with Business Casual, released by Atlantic Records in the U.S.
from Wikipedia:
Chromeo is an electrofunk duo formed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 2004.
History
Chromeo is composed of P-Thugg (real name Patrick Gemayel, born in Lebanon b. July 31, 1979) on keyboards, synthesizers, and talk box, and Dave 1 (real name David Macklovitch, b. June 7, 1978) on guitar and lead vocals. The two childhood friends jokingly describe themselves as "the only successful Arab/Jewish partnership since the dawn of human culture." Patrick Gemayel was born in Lebanon and moved to Canada at the age of 8.
The duo met in the mid-1990s at Collège Stanislas in Montreal when Macklovitch joined Gemayel's band, around the time they were both 15. During this time, Macklovitch's younger brother A-Trak started winning the Disco Mix Club Championships, becoming World Champion in 1997.
After the band, Dave 1 and P-Thugg started to produce hip hop together. Also, at this time Tiga was working with Dave 1 at a record store and asked Dave 1 to work on a project for his label, Turbo. Dave 1 and P-Thugg signed as Chromeo in 2004, and started creating tracks in 2002.
The debut album, She's in Control, released in 2004, defined Chromeo and started their music career. Reviews were mostly favorable, comparing the sound to 80's groups like Hall & Oates, Klymaxx and Sylvester. "Needy Girl" became a world wide club hit. According to Dave 1, "She's in Control didn’t blow up. But we had “Needy Girl,” and “Needy Girl” was like a musical passport. That song went all around the world and DJs played it everywhere." In 2005, Chromeo released a mix CD of funky dance tracks on Eskimo Belgium records entitled Un Joli Mix Pour Toi (A Pretty Mix For You). During early 2007 Chromeo supported indie rock group Bloc Party on their British tour.
After a three year break, they released a second album, Fancy Footwork, which was also positively reviewed.
The album took them on a two-year world tour performing in festivals such as Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds in the UK, Fujirock in Japan, Iceland Airwaves in Iceland, Pemberton Music Festival in Canada and Coachella, Bonnaroo, Rothbury Festival and Lollapalooza in the US.
Chromeo contributed to K7's mixed series titled DJ-Kicks: Chromeo. In summer 2010 the track 'Fancy Footwork' was used as the sound track for a VO5 Extreme Hair Gel advertisement in the UK. The YouTube video of the original release in 2008 had over 666,000 hits by late July 2010.
Chromeo released their third studio album entitled Business Casual to critical acclaim on September 14, 2010. In the time since the release, the music video for "Night By Night" has received over 3 million views on YouTube , the band has appeared on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic , been on the cover of Future Magazine, and sold out The Forum in London.
Macklovitch is currently earning his Ph.D in French Literature from Columbia University.
Over the years Chromeo's music has featured in a number of video games starting with Space Colony in 2003, which used the group's "So Gangsta" single as its main theme song. The Yusek Remix of "Bonified Lovin" was then used in FIFA 09 and "Don't Turn The Lights On" was featured in FIFA 11, exposing the band to a new group of listeners. In 2011 "Don't Turn The Lights On" was again featured in Dirt3.
At the beginning of March 2011, Chromeo sent out notice that it had recorded the "world's smallest album," entitled Drive Time, which consists of 55 songs in only 183 seconds. About a week later, it was revealed that Drive Time is actually a free musical Nokia Own Voice satellite navigation pack for Ovi Maps, made for usage with Nokia's compatible cell phones. A red vinyl 5" single consisting of regular, instrumental and a cappella versions of "Turn Left" and "Follow" was released to promote it, with a sticker on the shrink wrap saying that it was a numbered limited edition of 40 copies.
