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Alt-J

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Musicians

The Resume

    (2007- )
    Born in Leeds, England, United Kingdom
    Joe Newman, guitar and lead vocals
    Gus Unger-Hamilton, keyboards and vocals
    Thom Green, drums
    Gwil Sainsbury, guitar and bass (2007-14)
    Recorded the albums 'An Awesome Wave' (2012) and 'This Is All Yours' (2014)
    Songs include 'Breezeblocks,' 'Tessellate,' Something Good,' 'Fitzpleasure' and 'Left Hand Free'
    Won the Mercury Prize for best British album (2012)

Why they might be annoying:

    They called themselves 'Films' before discovering there was already an American band using the name.
    Their name is actually spelled 'alt-J,' but the lowercase letters screw up the AIA search engine.
    They also refer to themselves as '∆,' the symbol produced by typing Alt+J on an Apple computer.
    Their song 'Fitzpleasure' was used in ads for Nokia smartphones.
    They said winning the Mercury Prize was 'traumatic.'
    They have been described as the 'bland band' and as having a 'non-image.'

Why they might not be annoying:

    Green has Alport Syndrome, a genetic disease that caused him to lose 80% of his hearing and required him to undergo a kidney transplant.
    They developed their unusual sound from practicing in university dorms, where noise restrictions kept them from using bass guitars or bass drums.
    They were influenced by Radiohead.
    Green said about their image, 'I think we do make interesting music, and I'd rather have that than make average music and have to compensate by being ridiculous people.'
    They sampled Miley Cyrus on their second album and actually made it sound like something other than a gimmick.
    After they were slagged by Noel Gallagher ('Alt-J can fuck right off as far as I'm concerned'), they said it was a 'rite of passage' for new British bands.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying