How does a band go from owner of a MySpace page to Internet obsession? A look back at the rise of everyone’s new favorite band Sleigh Bells — whose debut album, Treats, is out today — explains a lot.
October 22, 2009
Stereogum declares Sleigh Bells an official Band to Watch and provides the now familiar backstory: Derek Miller, former guitarist for Florida hard-core band Poison the Well, meets Alexis Krauss, former girl-group singer, to create unlikely duo. (It gets cuter: Krauss’s mom facilitated the connection when Miller, who was waiting on Krauss and her mother at a Brazilian restaurant in Greenpoint, mentioned he was looking for a female vocalist for a music project.) The site also posts the band’s demos, including “Crown on the Ground.â€
October 25, 2009
Sleigh Bells play Market Hotel, at 1:00 am, as part of the CMJ Music Festival. M.I.A. is in attendance. The performance is said to be one of the fest’s best. The band has now unofficially “broken out.â€
October 29, 2009
Pitchfork slaps “Crown on the Ground†with a Best New Music tag and follows it up with a loving interview.
November 15, 2009
The Times weighs in, mostly positively, on the “Internet nano-phenomenon.â€
November 30, 2009
ABC News hops on the bandwagon.
December 3, 2009
Sleigh Bells play a crazy-sounding show at Dame Dash’s secret basement venue. Mos Def is there.
December 2010
“Crown on the Ground†makes a bunch of year-end best-of lists.
February 2, 2010
The band books dates with Major Lazer and Yeasayer.
February 4, 2010
Diplo tweets: “All day finishin up these @_m_i_a tracks … Its official … This team is from the FUTURE!! — diplo rusko switch mia blaqstarr sleighbellz FTW.†Miller is later confirmed as a co-producer on M.I.A.’s album.
March 16, 2010
M.I.A. signs Sleigh Bells to her label, N.E.E.T., in partnership with Mom + Pop Music. Release date for debut album, Treats, is announced.
March 2010
SXSW show triggers another round of kudos.
March 21, 2010
Sleigh Bells plays Coachella. ArtsBeat lumps them into a post on the return of rap-rock, but says nice things — “Here, in front of thousands of people, the music was on the right scale: massive, blunt and calibrated with jolts and silences to move big crowds.â€
April 28, 2010
First official single, “Tell ‘Em,†is released. Vulture joins the rest of the Internet in a sycophant-off.
May 7, 2010
Joe Jonas tweets: “Check out Sleighbells the band they be rocking it.â€
May 7, 2010
Later that night, Sleigh Bells play Coco 66. M.I.A. shows up. Says Sound of the City: “Really, we could use a word for it, that New York area show in which a variety of factors combine — imminent album release, absurd amounts of press attention, fervent old guard musician co-signs, a sold-out room, a novel sound, maybe — to make one of the thousands of shows that take place every night in NYC into a kind of special event you can’t ever really duplicate, though everyone is always trying.â€
May 11, 2010
Treats is released. As of 4:15 p.m., the backlash has not yet begun.