#12 on the 2010 Musical Bacon Calendar

Treats by Sleigh Bells

Overnight success is a rarity. With social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, we’re getting closer and closer to achieving literal overnight success. It’ll be quite interesting when a nearly unknown band goes platinum in a single day due to the fast-spread word of mouth on the internet. It will happen some day in our lifetimes.

Today’s “overnight successes” still take a good week to reach fever pitch. But when it happens, there’s a specific divide that occurs in time — everything before and everything after. Such is the success of Sleigh Bells, a duo out of Brooklyn who had a meteoric explosion back in May.

Thanks to Twitter, I can pinpoint exactly when I first heard of Sleigh Bells. That tweet, from the day after their debut album, Treats, was released, displays the magnitude of their explosion: Treats is released, and they’re already being talked about on NPR. Three months later, and the NYTimes is doing a video feature on the band. The band had a little bit of help in the form of M.I.A., who discovered them early on and signed them to her fledgling label, N.E.E.T. Recordings. But even with that little push, what Sleigh Bells accomplished in such a short time is pretty damn amazing.

I actually had the pleasure of seeing Sleigh Bells before I’d heard of them, opening for Neumos back in April, a few weeks before their album came out. I remember thinking at the time: what the hell is this? Thrash guitars, heavy electronics, and cheers? I didn’t like it immediately. And unfortunately, I wasn’t given the time to enjoy it, as I had to leave after only two songs due to a medical emergency back at home (everything ended up being ok).

Three weeks later, I’d downloaded the album, and gave it only two songs before falling in love with it. So much so that I start telling everybody to download the album immediately. It’s a brash, in your face, hard-sounding record. It wakes you up like a car crash, and makes you want to punch something. It’s also the perfect album to listen to at the gym. As I said on Twitter that fateful day back in May:

And then once you’ve been blown away by Sleigh Bells, run over to iTunes and pick up the album for only [$7.99!] http://bit.ly/9tkndN

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13. Write About Love by Belle & Sebastian
14. Wild Smile by Suckers
15. Learning by Perfume Genius
16. Forgiveness Rock Record by Broken Social Scene
17. Expo 86 by Wolf Parade
18. One Life Stand by Hot Chip
19. Big Echo by The Morning Benders
20. Here’s To Taking It Easy by Phosphorescent
21. This is Happening by LCD Soundsystem
22. The Mistress by Yellow Ostrich
23. Halcyon Digest by Deerhunter
24. Been Listening by Johnny Flynn
25. The Wild Hunt by The Tallest Man on Earth
26. Lisbon by The Walkmen
27. Scratch My Back by Peter Gabriel
28. All Day by Girl Talk
29. A Storm – A Tree – My Mother’s Head by Bobby Bare Jr.
30. 03 to TEN by Knathan Ryan
31. In This Light On This Evening by Editors