# IRC Readers Pick Two Door Cinema Club as Best Break Through Band of 2010 Over Local Natives, Broken Bells and The Drums

- Link: https://indierockcafe.com/2011/01/irc-readers-pick-door-cinema-club-break-through-band-2010-local-natives-broken-bells-drums/
- Published: 2011-01-22T03:56:53-05:00
- Author: Max Hammer

IRC Readers' Choice for Best New Band of 2010: Ireland's Two Door Cinema Club

In the latest **IRC Readers’ Choice Awards** poll, **Ireland**‘s hot alternative
rock and electronic band **Two Door Cinema Club** edged out other top indie rock
bands for the title as the **Best Break-Through Band of 2010**.

The rising band took 21% of 1,761 votes cast by readers and visitors on IRC during
the past two-weeks that the poll has been running. Some people may dispute the validity
of Two Door Cinema Club as particularly suitable because their music is definitely
electro and dance pop oriented, and therefore, not the traditional four-piece bands
that came close, but not close enough, to beating TDCC for the No. 1 slot.

The band’s 2010 release,_ Tourist History_, is what really allowed them to break-
through to a much wider audience in 2010.  In 2008, TDCC released their self-titled
debut album, that got a lot play in Ireland and England. Even though the band were
popular overseas prior to 2010, they didn’t really hit critical mass – and penetrate
the American alternative music scene until recently.

[“This is the Life”](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/04%20This%20Is%20The%20Life3.mp3)–**
Two Door Cinema Club** from _Tourist History_

If you don’t have _Tourist History_, you can _click here_,   purchase it and download
it to your computer, phone or MP3 player for only $5 on Amazon. The $5 deal is a
limited time offer and worth four or five times as much in pure talent and ambition.

**The Beginnings of a Fascinating Band**

Two Door Cinema Club is an alternative/indie rock band from Northern Ireland. The
band members – **Alex Trimble,
 Kevin Baird, Sam Halliday
 – formed the band in 
2007, and soon after, signed to French record label Kitsuné Music.

Trimble and Halliday first met as kids at **Bangor Grammar School**, and later became
friends with Baird. But it wasn’t until just a few years ago that the friends began
to put together what would become Two Door Cinema Club. Interestingly, the band 
got their name after one of the members mispronounced the name of a local cinema,**
Tudor Cinema**. Throughout 2008 and 2009, the band’s profile steadily increased 
as the number of views and plays skyrocketed on the band’s MySpace page.

Related Post:  Album Review: Moron Police

Local Natives took the No. 2 spot in the final breakthrough band poll of 2010

“Hands Off My Cash, Monty” – **Two Door Cinema Club** for _Two Door Cinema Club_

Having decided to leave their college studies in pursuit of their dreams, the band
focused on getting into a studio and getting out a debut EP. In January of 2009,
the band released the EP, _Four Words To Stand On_, and from there on out, it was
a wild ride upwards as bloggers and music critics and fans got their hands on the
EP and shared with others. The buzz for Two Door Cinema Club was on, and during 
the ensuing 12 months  they toured, wowed fans and cynics with their well-honed 
live shows, began getting bigger billings, festival invites, growing record sales
and a serious following throughout Ireland, the UK and United States.

In July 2009, TDCC began recording their debut album with Eliot James (The Futureheads,
Bloc Party, The Kaiser Chiefs) at London’s Eastcote Studios; by September, the band
were mixing the record at Paris studio of **Cassius **member Phillipe Zdar (Phoenix,
Cut Copy, Chromeo). While anticipation built for the completion and release of the
band’s debut LP, some details were revealed in January of 2010 when the band provided
a track listing to the NME, a popular UK music mag that was obviously keeping tabs
on the Irish band.

On February 26, 2010, _Tourist History_ was officially released in the **Republic
of Ireland**; March 1st in the **U.K.**; and April 27th in the **U.S**..  Much of
the anticipation, and subsequent praise for the album was based on the fact that
many singles had been released months before, including alternative radio singles
like “Something Good Can Work”, “I Can Talk” and “Undercover Martyn.”  Additionally,
the tracks “Something Good Can Work” and “Undercover Martyn” were featured on television
advertisements for Vodafone and Meteor.

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The Age of Colored Lizards

“Undercover Martyn” – **Two Door Cinema Club** from _Tourist History_

View all five polls representing 50 bands that eventually, through the voting process,
were whittled down to the Top Ten, and then, of course, the winner. [Poll One](https://indierockcafe.com/2011/01/irc-readers-pick-door-cinema-club-break-through-band-2010-local-natives-broken-bells-drums/../2010/06/local-natives-voted-break-out-band-2010-so-far/),
[Poll Two](https://indierockcafe.com/2011/01/irc-readers-pick-door-cinema-club-break-through-band-2010-local-natives-broken-bells-drums/../2010/07/drums-best-new-band/),
[Poll Three](https://indierockcafe.com/2011/01/irc-readers-pick-door-cinema-club-break-through-band-2010-local-natives-broken-bells-drums/../2010/07/irc-readers-visitors-pick-broken-bells-door-cinema-club-latest-break-through-band-2010-poll/),
and [Poll Four](https://indierockcafe.com/2011/01/irc-readers-pick-door-cinema-club-break-through-band-2010-local-natives-broken-bells-drums/../2010/12/break-through-bands-2010-poll-4/),
and [Poll Five](https://indierockcafe.com/2011/01/irc-readers-pick-door-cinema-club-break-through-band-2010-local-natives-broken-bells-drums/../2011/01/coast-landslide-vote-takes-slot-best-break-through-band-poll-finalists-coming/).

[⌊breakoutbands2010⌉⌊breakoutbands2010⌉[

Following not too far behind the No. 1 Two Door Cinema Club was one of the most 
popular bands of 2010, **Local Natives**, who took 18% of the vote, followed by **
Broken Bells** (14%), **The Drums** (13%), and to round out the Top 5, **Freelance
Whales** (8%).

“Sunhands”_ _ – **Local Natives** from _Gorilla Manor_

“The Ghost Inside” – **Broken Bells **from _Broken Bells_

“Forever and Ever Amen” – **The Drums** from _The Drums_

[“Enzymes”_ __ _](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/01-Enzymes2.mp3) –**
The Freelance Whales from 7″

It does say volumes, we think, that Two Door Cinema Club beat out wildly popular,
and American, bands like Local Natives, Broken Bells, The Drums and Freelance Whales,
among others. But the poll results reflect who the poll takers picked. We even blocked
repeated votes by cookie and IP, so the polls that the margin of error would be 
as low as possible. Nevertheless, by the time the first 200 votes were in, TDCC 
was in the lead, and at that time, right ahead of Broken Bells. As the poll progressed
to over 1,500 votes, the only thing that remained a constant was TDCC’s lead over
the other nine bands.

  ⌊localnativesband⌉[/caption]In five separate polls, featuring a total of 50 bands,
readers whittled down the best break-through bands of the year to the Top Ten. Back
in June of 2010, we published the first [break-through bands of 2010 poll.](https://indierockcafe.com/2010/06/local-natives-voted-break-out-band-2010-so-far/)
In that poll, readers, and visitors, overwhelmingly picked **Local Natives** at 
23%, followed far behind by **Surfer Blood**, who garnered almost 14%. The dynamic
musical duo **Sleigh Bells** garnered 13.2%, and Canada’s **Crystal Castles – **
another duo** – **and **Brooklyn** electro-haze pop artist**, Neon Indian,** pretty
much tied (CC taking it by one vote) to round out the Top 5.

See more results, and [listen to and download MP3s](https://indierockcafe.com/2010/06/local-natives-voted-break-out-band-2010-so-far/)
from all 10 nominees, including the bottom half, which included big-time buzz bands
of 2010 like Philadelphia’s** Free Energy** and New Jersey’s **Real Estate**. It
was stunning to see Free Energy only grab 8.7% of the vote, and Real Estate only
taking 4%.

**The many wonders of polling**

We love polling for many different reasons, but the two biggest reasons are one,
the results are always fascinating, and often surprising, and two, it helps us tailor
our coverage of bands and music in some part to what the various polls indicate 
our readers and visitors want more or less of.  That’s an important element, as 
it has been since we started the [Top Ten Songs](https://indierockcafe.com/op-ten-songs)
page in late 2009.

This final poll comprised the No. 1 band, plus the runner-up, for each of the five
polls of this particular polling series, with a total of 50 breakout bands that 
we selected with some help from the trends of which indie bands were more popular
than the rest, based again, on the Top Ten Songs page, plus other metrics, such 
as number of page views for an artist profile, reTweets and Facebook ‘Likes’, hearted
favorites on our Hype Machine page, and so on.

To browse all 50 bands, visit the following poll result pages that include each 
individual poll result, band profiles and overviews, plus a free MP3 from each nominee:
[Poll One](https://indierockcafe.com/2011/01/irc-readers-pick-door-cinema-club-break-through-band-2010-local-natives-broken-bells-drums/../2010/06/local-natives-voted-break-out-band-2010-so-far/),
[Poll Two](https://indierockcafe.com/2011/01/irc-readers-pick-door-cinema-club-break-through-band-2010-local-natives-broken-bells-drums/../2010/07/drums-best-new-band/),
[Poll Three](https://indierockcafe.com/2011/01/irc-readers-pick-door-cinema-club-break-through-band-2010-local-natives-broken-bells-drums/../2010/07/irc-readers-visitors-pick-broken-bells-door-cinema-club-latest-break-through-band-2010-poll/),
and [Poll Four](https://indierockcafe.com/2011/01/irc-readers-pick-door-cinema-club-break-through-band-2010-local-natives-broken-bells-drums/../2010/12/break-through-bands-2010-poll-4/),
and [Poll Five](https://indierockcafe.com/2011/01/irc-readers-pick-door-cinema-club-break-through-band-2010-local-natives-broken-bells-drums/../2011/01/coast-landslide-vote-takes-slot-best-break-through-band-poll-finalists-coming/).

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