The xx are an English indie pop band, formed in London in 2005.The band's members met while studying at Elliott School, the same school that produced Hot Chip, Burial and Four Tet. They became a trio when their second guitarist and keyboardist, Baria Qureshi, departed in late 2009. In September 2010 they won the Barclaycard Mercury Prize. They are currently working on their second album, which is to be released in 2012.
The group's debut album, xx, was met with universal acclaim, achieving a rating of "Universal acclaim" on Metacritic. The album also ranked well on "best of the year" lists, placing ninth on the Rolling Stone list and second for NME. In the 2009 NME The Future 50 list, The xx were positioned at number six, and in October 2009, they were named one of MTV Iggy's "Top 10 Bands with Buzz" (at the CMJ Music Marathon 2009).
Their debut album, xx, was released with the British independent record label Young Turks on 17 August 2009. Though the band had previously worked with producers including Diplo and Kwes, they produced xx themselves, while Jamie Smith and Rodaidh McDonald mixed it. The xx recorded their album in a small garage that was part of the XL Recordings studio, often at night, which contributed to the low, whispery nature of the album.
In August 2009, the band headlined their own concert tour. The xx have toured with artists including The Big Pink and Micachu. In a first taste of success, their single "Crystalised" was featured on iTunes (UK) as Single of the Week, starting from 18 August 2009.
Second guitarist and keyboardist Baria Qureshi left the group in 2009. Initial reports stated that this was due to exhaustion, but the band later said they made this decision due to "personal differences". The band claimed Baria was invited to join them at the Mercury Music Prize awards, but Baria stated on her Twitter account she had not been asked at all. According to Oliver Sim he invited Baria to join the band on stage at the awards but this did not occur, a situation that has been ignored by the wider press.
In January 2010, Matt Groening chose the band to headline two nights of his All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Minehead, England. In addition, the band played in five of North America's most popular music festivals, Coachella, Sasquatch, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits.
In September 2010, the band's eponymous debut album won the Barclaycard Mercury Prize, acquiring best British and Irish album of the year. After the live ceremony screening, the album jumped 16 to 3 on the September 12th U.K. albums chart, accompanying an amazing 269% sales increase.
XL's marketing campaign drastically expanded after this substantial win, with day-time TV advertisements and billboard campaigns on some of UK's highest-profile digital billboards. Thanks to the highlighted publicity, XL Recordings says it has shipped more than 40,000 CDs in the days following the Mercury Prize. XL Managing director Ben Beardsworth explained,"Thanks to the Mercury win...things are accelerating dramatically and the band will be reaching a bigger and bigger audience with their music." In another promotional initiative, the label sent out Saam Farahmand's audio/visual sculpture of the album when the band toured at Bestival 2010, a sculpture also appearing in an event at Seoul.
The band was nominated for 'Best British Album', 'Best British Breakthrough' and 'Best British Band' at the 2011 BRIT Awards held on 15 February 2011 at the O2 Arena in London; however, they did not win in any of the categories.
On December 8th, 2011, Jamie Smith revealed that he wants to release their second LP ahead of their festival appearances next year and that it is inspired by "club music". "The majority of stuff I'm working on now is the xx stuff. We're just about to start recording. Hopefully we'll get it done in time for most festivals next year, because that's the most fun. Discussing the sound of the album, he said: "We've all come back off tour and been parting a bit more. We left when we were 17 and we missed out on that chunk of our lives when everyone else was partying. Club music has definitely had an influence on the next record."
The xx's song "Intro" was extensively used on television: in the first episode of HBO/NHL series 24/7, "Road To The 2011 Winter Classic", the TV series, Person of Interest in the 5th episode of the 1st season, as well as in an AT&T commercial featuring Apolo Anton Ohno; often during NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games; during the series Cold Case; during the series Suits; for the Newsnight coverage of the 2010 general election; on Mercy ("The Last Thing I Said Was" episode) and also in Law & Order on the Dutch television network Net 5. It was also used as the opening theme in the Greek version of Next Top Model. 'Shelter' was used numerous times in Episode 5 of Series 1 of "Bedlam"
"VCR" was featured in a Lie to Me episode. In episode 7 of the online BBC EastEnders spin-off E20 their cover of "Teardrops" was used. "Heart Skipped a Beat" was featured in a 2009 episode of 90210, as well as being the feature song for the March 2010 E4 advert for 90210. "Islands" was used in an episode of Grey's Anatomy, and an episode of The Vampire Diaries. "Crystalised" was featured in an episode of Gossip Girl, and "Stars" was used in E4's youth drama Misfits in December 2009.
A track mix of "VCR", "Shelter", "Intro", and "Crystalised" was also used in the Karl Lagerfeld Fall/Winter 2011 fashion show. Their music is currently being frequently used on the school drama Waterloo Road. Also, their song "Shelter" appears in the film I Am Number Four.
