EL Ten Eleven

When:
three20south, 320 South Main

Where:
Friday, February 3.

EL Ten Eleven Show Date: 2012-02-03 El Ten Eleven is a Los Angeles-based instrumental indie rock duo consisting of Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty.They officially formed in 2003, but Dunn and Fogarty have been working together musically for years in bands such as The Softlightes (first American band signed to Australia's Modular label) and The Incredible Moses Leroy. The densely textured, atmospheric instrumental sounds of their first two full-length albums (the self-titled debut El Ten Eleven and their follow-up Every Direction Is North) have been praised alongside the work of such post-rock elite as Tortoise, Explosions in the Sky,Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai and Sigur Rós. With their third album, These Promises Are Being Videotaped, the duo took a leap in a new musical direction. "I just became obsessed with electro music," Dunn explains. "I'd been going to a lot of DJ events and listening to music by artists like Boys Noize, Justice, and Digitalism. A lot of that music is really digital and created on computers. It was challenging for us to try to create that style of music live with real instruments and looping pedals. There aren't many bands doing it." The end result, while in the vein of their aforementioned post-rock brethren, is more akin to the work of their contemporaries who are really pushing the dance-rock envelope such as Ratatat and Soulwax.But what really separates El Ten Eleven from their musical peers is that they are only two musicians on stage creating pounding landscapes of sound with no laptops or sequencers.Kristian Dunn switches off (sometimes mid-song) between a double-neck bass/guitar, and a fretless bass, while his feet dance on an extensive floorboard of looping devices and effects pedals. He plays everything live, loops himself and juggles all of the layers of tracks on top of each other. Drummer Tim Fogarty switches between traditional acoustic drums, roto toms and electronic drum-pads, usually within each song. To add to the insanity, Fogarty will occasionally loop himself as well. To date, the group has only performed shows within the United States and Canada, but their music has been heard loud and clear across the globe. "We have so many fans from all over the world," exclaims Fogarty. "We get emails from Moscow, Estonia, Australia, Malaysia,Japan…it's amazing!" This is due in part to the many placements of their music into the realms of television, film, and commercials. Of significant note are two PBS documentaries "Helvetica" and "Objectified" - which were both nominated for Independent Spirit Awards.These films, directed and produced by Gary Hustwit, were scored by Dunn and prominently feature El Ten Eleven's music.This is a duo of road-warriors who have built up their fan-base the old fashioned way: by getting out on the road and touring their asses off. They have looped around America more times than they can remember and at each show, new members of the El Ten Eleven faithful are conceived http://www.elteneleven.com/secret/ Doors at Nine,tickets $8 in advance and $10 at the door