Little Joy: Strokes Drummer Gets Some Sun

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Autumn de Wilde

After a 2006 performance at a music festival in Lisbon, Portugal, Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti and Rio de Janeiro-based Los Hermanos singer-guitarist Rodrigo Amarante had a chance encounter. A year later, the two found themselves in L.A. to appear on Devendra Banhart's Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. With singer and multi-instrumentalist Binki Shapiro, Little Joy moved into the city's historic Echo Park and began work on its self-titled debut.

The band's self-titled debut playfully blends each musician's background, as bossa nova and rock meet California pop on the beach. It's an easygoing record, suitable for a brief escape from reality.