Shiny Toys Guns releases new album

Ultra Records, the top dance label in the U.S., is pleased to release the new album by Shiny Toy Guns, the electro-rock outfit that pioneered the fusion of dance music and rock and roll with their first two albums We Are Pilots and Season of Poison (Universal Motown). Now, on their anticipated third release Girls Le Disko out December 15 (Ultra Records/Universal Motown), Shiny Toy Guns has collected remixes from some of today’s most exciting DJs, producers, and bands, many of which have never been available or even heard by fans.

A dance music-focused project – including remixes from top electronic, trance, club, house, drum and bass, and even new wave artists – is no surprise, especially to fans who have followed the band’s career from the beginning, and to new fans who have recently discovered their music via the many film, television, and commercial projects that have featured their music.

Shiny Toy Guns was formed in 2002 by keyboardist/bassist Jeremy Dawson and vocalist/guitarist Chad Petree, a couple of self-proclaimed indie rock kids living in LA who loved punk and decided to take dance music and rock music and “smash it all into one project,” Dawson explains. “We wanted to catapult from every angle and every genre.”

Mainstream audiences might recognize the sound of Shiny Toy Guns best by way of their cover of Peter Schilling’s 1980s new wave classic, “Major Tom (Coming Home),” a sequel to Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” The Shiny Toy Guns version of the song – featuring vocals by Sisely Treasure (formerly of Cooler Kids) – has been prominently featured in a national television ad campaign for the 2010 Lincoln MKZ car, and has never before been available on CD until Girls Le Disko.
Girls Le Disko – titled as a nod to the band’s hit single “Le Disko” from their debut album – also features the much-anticipated issue of the fan favorite “Rocketship,” which Shiny Toy Guns has been playing to live audiences’ delight for years. “Rocketship” will be released as a single and will be hitting radio in January.

The album – in addition to the two never-before-released original songs – is comprised of a collection of the band’s favorite remixes of tracks from their first two albums, most of which have, as Dawson says, “never made the light of day.” Some of the most notable tracks on the album include treatments of “Rainy Monday” by UK DJ/producer Hervé and UK dance music trio Bimbo Jones, new versions of “Ricochet” by electro DJ/producer Kissy Sell Out and American DJs/production duo Nadastrom, and remixes of “Le Disko” by Dutch superstar DJ Ferry Corsten and by Boys Noize (the stage name of German electro DJ/producer Alexander Ridha), whose fans will recognize as the sample from the Boys Noize track “& Down.”

“We have remixes of our songs deliberately. Dance music is such a vital part of Shiny Toy Guns,” Dawson says. “I mean, we’re half machines. It’s half of the sound of the band.”

Dawson, who has been a DJ himself for 15 years, is particularly excited to venture further into the dance music world with Girls Le Disko. He says, “It’s a big deal nostalgically and progressively for Shiny Toy Guns to put a record out with a company like Ultra, which has stood the test of time.”

Seven years later, Shiny Toy Guns is showing their own longevity, after having been “guinea pigs” for modern rock radio when dance/rock was just getting started, and having very much paved the way for many currently successful bands in the genre like MGMT and Metro Station. One of the first 300 MySpace bands in the Wild West days of social networking, Shiny Toy Guns have been on the forefront of technology and built their fanbase in the most grassroots way, and now – 17 countries and a Grammy® nomination later – are updating their Twitter status as they chase tornadoes through the Oklahoma flatlands.

Shiny Toy Guns sits among the pioneers of the dance/rock sound and has been one of the few acts to ever take something underground and successfully blend into modern rock radio and major commercial media. In addition to commercials for the Lincoln MKZ, their music can be heard in commercials for the Lincoln MKS, Honda Prelude, and Motorola Razr / Verizon, and has appeared in episodes of Gossip Girl and 90210 and in the film Sorority Row.

Girls Le Disko is available in stores and online on December 15. The band will tour in early 2010.

Tracklisting
Le Disko (Boys Noize Remix)
Major Tom (Coming Home) (Original Version)
Rainy Monday (Hervé Remix)
You are the One (Gabriel & Dresden Remix)
Ricochet! (Kissy Sell Out Remix)
Ghost Town (Evol Intent Remix)
Don't Cry Out (The Teenagers Remix)
Le Disko (Ferry Corsten Remix)
Rainy Monday (Bimbo Jones Remix)
You are the One (Adam Freeland Remix)
Ricochet! (Nadastrom Remix)
Ghost Town (Hi-Deaf Remix)
Starts With One (Classixx Remix)
Ricochet! (BT Remix)
Rocketship (Original Version)