Binki Shapiro

Little Joy
Origin	Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Alternative rock, indie rock, indie pop, soft rock, samba, MPB, bossa nova
Years active	2006–2010 (on hiatus)
Labels	Rough Trade Records
Associated acts	Los Hermanos, The Strokes, Devandra Banhart, Adam Green, The Moldy Peaches
Website	www.myspace.com/littlejoymusic
Members	Rodrigo Amarante Fabrizio Moretti Binki Shapiro

Little Joy is a Brazilian/American rock supergroup formed in 2007 by Los Hermanos singer/guitarist Rodrigo Amarante, the Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti, and Binki Shapiro.

Amarante and Moretti met in 2006, at a festival in Lisbon 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 to collaborate with Devendra Banhart 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 Binki Shapiro, who encouraged the pair to work on a few songs Moretti had begun writing. The band then moved into a house in the Echo Park 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.

Their eponymous debut album was recorded with the help of producer Noah Georgeson and engineer Beau Raymond, whom Amarante met during his sessions with Devendra Banhart. It was released by Rough Trade Records on November 4, 2008, and was hailed by Pitchfork Media 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 voted it his favourite album of 2008.

...
Wikipedia