Jonny Lives!

Emerging from New York's Lower East Side streets, Jonny Lives! arose amid the same milieu that spawned the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, and the Mooney Suzuki. The group fused garage rock with sonic signals drawn from Brit-pop and the '60s and '70s N.Y.C. punk era, forging an anthemic backdrop for metropolitan nightlife. Vocalist/guitarist Jonny Dubowsky, who earned honors at NYU in literature and philosophy and harbors deep admiration for the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the Who, also drew from literary figures including Walt Whitman and Marcel Proust. Having studied piano classically in childhood and begun guitar at age 12, Dubowsky started collaborating with fellow players across the expanding LES circuit in his early twenties, forging ties through work with Luscious Jackson, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Elwood before penning material destined for Jonny Lives!

After several roster shifts, the lineup stabilized in the mid-2000s as Dubowsky was joined by guitarist/vocalist Christian Langdon, drummer Jon Weber, and bassist Tommy USA, each bringing distinct prior affiliations. Langdon is the younger brother of Spacehog founder Royston Langdon; Weber performed in the original cast of Hedwig and the Angry Inch; Tommy USA belonged to White Light Motorcade and appeared on Liz Phair's whitechocolatespaceegg. Sharing the trajectory of many N.Y.C. peers, the quartet cultivated an initial audience in the U.K. while staying largely undiscovered stateside, aided by sustained NME endorsement and six U.K. tours that encompassed runs alongside Kaiser Chiefs and the Killers. Jonny Lives! issued the EP Get Steady in June 2005 via Long Live Crime, followed by their first full-length album in 2006.