Little Joy is a rock supergroup formed in 2007 by Los Hermanos singer-songwriter

Rodrigo Amarante Rodrigo Amarante de Castro Neves (born 6 September 1976) is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger. He is part of the bands Los Hermanos, Orquestra Imperial, and Little Joy, and released his first solo rec ...

The Strokes The Strokes are an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1998. The band is composed of lead singer and primary songwriter Julian Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond, Jr., Albert Hammond Jr., bassist Nikola ...

drummer Fabrizio Moretti, and Binki Shapiro. They released ''Little Joy'', their only album, in 2008.

History

Formation and beginnings (2006–2008)

Amarante and Moretti met in 2006, at a festival in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

where both their bands were performing, and the idea came up to start a new musical project unrelated to their respective bands. In 2007, with Los Hermanos on hiatus "for an undetermined amount of time", Amarante traveled to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

to collaborate with

Devendra Banhart Devendra Obi Banhart (born May 30, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter and visual artist. Banhart was born in Texas and raised in Venezuela and California. In 2000, he dropped out of the San Francisco Art Institute to pursue a musical career. ...

on his '' Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon'' album. He and Moretti met during recording breaks and talked about "anything but music." Through mutual acquaintances, they met multi-instrumentalist Jordana Shapiro, who goes by "Binki," and she encouraged the pair to work on a few songs Moretti had begun writing. The band then moved into a house in the

Echo Park Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake, Los Angeles, Silver Lake to the west and Chinato ...

area of Los Angeles to write more original music and record some demos. The band was christened "Little Joy" after a cocktail lounge not far from their house.

''Little Joy'' (2008–2010)

Their eponymous debut album was recorded with the help of producer

Noah Georgeson Noah Georgeson (born January 19, 1975), is an American musician, record producer, engineer, mixer, and solo recording artist. Georgeson's debut album ''Find Shelter'' was released through Plain Recordings on November 28, 2006. Early life and ...

and engineer Beau Raymond, whom Amarante met during his sessions with

. It was released by

Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England. It was formed in 1976 by Geoff Travis, who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. It is currently run by co-managing directors Travis and Jeannette Lee and ...

on November 4, 2008, and was hailed by

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

as "one of the sweetest, most listenable, consistently enjoyable records of the season." Their debut album was given four stars by Rolling Stone magazine and

Nick Hornby Nicholas Peter John Hornby (born 17 April 1957) is an English writer. He is best known for his memoir '' Fever Pitch'' (1992) and novels ''High Fidelity'' and '' About a Boy'', all of which were adapted into feature films. Hornby's work frequen ...

voted it his favorite album of 2008.

In popular culture

Binki Shapiro contributed, alongside Little Joy collaborator

, to

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi mus ...

's second Record Club covers album, '' Songs of Leonard Cohen'', as well as previously appearing in many of the music videos released from his album '' The Information'', released in October 2006. "The Next Time Around" was used in a television

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

for the

Volkswagen Passat The Volkswagen Passat is a nameplate of D-segment, large family cars (D-segment) manufactured and marketed by the German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen since 1973 and also marketed variously as the Dasher, Santana, Quantum, Magotan, Corsar ...

Band members

Little Joy

*Rodrigo Amarante –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

ukulele The ukulele ( ; ); also called a uke (informally), is a member of the lute (ancient guitar) family of instruments. The ukulele is of Portuguese origin and was popularized in Hawaii. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and con ...

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

(2007–present) *Binki Shapiro – guitar, vocals, bass, keyboards, glockenspiel, percussion (2007–present) *Fabrizio Moretti – tenor guitar, piano, bass, drums, guitar, percussion,

melodica The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usu ...

, vocals (2007–present)

Live band

Little Joy *Rodrigo Amarante –

(2007–2010) *Binki Shapiro – guitar, vocals, keyboards, percussion (2007–2010) *Fabrizio Moretti – tenor guitar, guitar, percussion, vocals, drums (2007–2009) * Jack Dishel – tenor guitar, guitar, percussion, vocals (2009–2010) Backing band *Todd Dahlhoff – bass, vocals (2008–2010) * Matt Romano – drums, percussion (2008–2010) *Matt Borg – guitar, vocals (2008–2010) *Michael Ian Cummings – guitar, vocals (2008–2010) *

– guitar, vocals (2008–2010)

Discography

*'' Little Joy'' (2008)

References

External links

Little Joy on Obscure Sound
{{Authority control Musical groups established in 2007 Rough Trade Records artists Rock music supergroups