After a climactic end to the NME radar tour, finishing with a packed show at KoKo we had five days to prepare ourselves for our first dalliance with America

From the Queensbridge projects, the coffee shops on Bleeker Street to the jazz clubs in Harlem there is an amazing musical history to every corner of this city and the feeling of excitement is palpable as we pull into our first show at BLVD on the bowery late on Tuesday night. Unfortunately this first show is something of a disappointment due to a bad sound system, bad timing and the annoying fact that some of our gear was lost in transition… not wanting to blame our tools we put that one down to experience and the rest of our stay proved much more fruitful.

On Wednesday morning we set of to do a photo shoot for Vogue USA. The shoot was shot and styled by Steven Meisel and Grace Coddington respectively who I have since learned are both very respected in the biz. It’s quite a surreal situation, but quite fun. After having our hair sculpted by a chiselled and tousled by French hair alchemist we stood in different positions for a couple of hours until they thought the shot was right. After the initial band shot I had to do another shot which involved me doing the twist with a model -not something to be complained about.

We headed straight from the shoot to our second show which was part of an IAMSOUND showcase at the Bowery Poetry Club. Luckily this one worked out miles better than our first. Our missing gear had turned up and we played a short set to a full and responsive house. Tthanks everyone who came, It really raised our spirits after a calamitous start. (You can see a video of true romance from this show here http://tinyurl.com/ykn9yw2 ) Fools Gold finished the live music for the night and after a drink at the arrow bar we headed back to our apartment.

On Thursday, we were off to Brooklyn for what was our biggest show of the week at the Williamsburgh Music Hall for Blue Flowers. The Show went well and it was nice to see fellow Londoners Mumford and Sons. We had to shoot off after their set to DJ at our record labels’ party at the Bowery Electric. A strange situation ensued.. After a play through of the new Vampire Weekend album we took to the wheels and Played The XX’s remix of You’ve got the Love followed by Joker’s Purple City and then Ludacris – What’s your fantasy. It seemed to be going down well with the people but the proprietor of the venue came steaming over and demanded that we stop playing “Hip hop and Techno” or she would throw everyone out. We relented and played Yoko Ono’s walking on thin ice only to swiftly be told that “Disco, Funk and House” were also outlawed. This didn’t leave us with many options so we packed up and left – thrown out for playing dance music in a DJ set!

Thursday was our only show out of NYC and Boston proved a welcome respite from the hectic CMJ.

Back in New York on Saturday for our last show of the week at the Bowery Electric (the same venue our DJ set had been rejected at two nights before!) it was nice to catch up with fellow Camden tropical punks Man Like Me who were playing the same bill. As it was our last show and the sound system was limited we decided to do an acoustic set which was pretty unrehearsed but seemed to go down pretty well. After a trip to China Town to find the fabled Joe Shanghai’s we headed back to the Bowery Electric to catch up with recent NME tour buddies Yes Giantess and Local Natives. Alexis got on stage with giantess and the  rest of the crowd followed! After this we headed on over to Santo’s party house to see Man Like Me in their full glory-  in their element in front of a packed club. Memory of the night seems to disperse at this point and we awoke in an Upper East Side apartment on the day we were leaving New York…  After a hefty breakfast and a walk around Greenwich Village it was time to go. New York, you were good to us; hopefully we’ll be back soon…

BronzeBox

Jay Z – Empire State Of Mind

Bob Dylan – Hard Times In New York Town

Nas – New York State Of Mind

Woody Guthrie -New York Town

Gian Carlo Menotti  - The Saint of Bleeker Street