Two Door Cinema Club

Since debuting with 2009’s joyous, jangly “Something Good Can Work”, Two Door Cinema Club have served as a high-energy antidote to, well, life with their bright electro-pop anthems. The trio had been honing that sound since they were teens, when singer/guitarist/programmer Alex Trimble, lead guitarist Sam Halliday and bassist Kevin Baird formed the band Life Without Rory in Bangor. In 2007, the Northern Irish group rebranded as Two Door Cinema Club (a name inspired by the local Tudor Cinema) and decided to skip university to polish up their fidgety dance-punk demos. Taking cues from indie-pop darlings like Phoenix and Foals, the band soon found their sweet spot, spiking playful melodies with punchy post-punk rhythms and sing-along choruses. Their 2010 debut album, Tourist History, bursts at the seams with pensive confessions disguised as infectious club anthems, including indie hit “What You Know” and the aforementioned “Something Good Can Work”. The trio then went into overdrive, bringing their tight, dynamic live shows across the world and quickly dropping second album Beacon in 2012. But all that motion was taking its toll: “We as a band were beginning to crumble,” they admitted to Apple Music. After taking time to recharge, they came back as furious as ever, with Trimble flashing his falsetto all over the glammed-up, funk-powered, Bee Gees-inspired boogies of 2016’s Gameshow. The 2019 follow-up False Alarm—infused with Bowie-esque bombast and featuring collaborations with Zimbabwean Afro-fusion group Mokoomba and rapper Open Mike Eagle—further supports their mission to ensure that disco-punk remains fresh and always in fashion.