Iglu & Hartly are an American band from California signed to Mercury Records in the UK. The band is composed of Jarvis Anderson (vocals, keys), Sam Martin (vocals, keys), Simon Katz (guitar), Luis Rosiles (drums), and Michael Bucher (bass).
Jarvis Anderson, Sam Martin, and Simon Katz met at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado (USA) Before long, the 3 of them quit school and moved to Echo Park, California to pursue their passion for music. Shortly after moving to Los Angeles, Luis Rosiles flew from Jarvis’ hometown of Chicago to join the band as their drummer, and LA local Michael Bucher joined as bassist.
The band soon started receiving strong interest from a number of major record labels in the UK, as well as getting airplay from Jim Gellatly on Xfm Scotland. The band finally decided to sign with Mercury Records, but not before releasing their debut UK single “Violent & Young” on indie label Another Music = Another Kitchen on 2 June 2008 to critical acclaim.
The band’s next single “In This City” was released in September and was identified as “an anthem in the making” by an NME blogger. The band played this song on an episode of Friday Night With Jonathan Ross on BBC1 in the UK, and it has since rose to number five in the UK charts, securing the band their first hit. Their album however was rated only 2/10 when reviewed by NME asking “Are Iglu & Hartly for real? Are they a pretend-gay, LA surf-rock in-joke?”, and later commenting that it was an “abomination of a debut album, informed by all the most disgusting musical faux pas of the past 20 years.”. Paradoxically, NME featured the Band in over 15 different pieces prior to and after their review of the album, including inviting the band to play their NME Awards Tour. In regards to other press outlets, the album was polarizing, receiving both accolades and insults. In general, the album and the band was well received by the press and the general public.
Source: http://www.last.fm/music/Iglu%2B%2526%2BHartly/+wiki
