"People mention blog bands and it's like, how else do you get noticed?" Miller asks. "You're not getting on TV. The Internet's the reason we have a career, period."
So far, Sleigh Bells has crossed over into the mainstream (via promo ads for MTV's Skins, no less) without alienating its hipper-than-thou fan base. In March, Miller and Krauss performed at the MTV Woodie Awards alongside more established acts such as the Foo Fighters, Two Door Cinema Club, and Wiz Khalifa. "I've heard weird things about awards shows in general," Miller says. "But [MTV] let us perform with a drum line, which was cool. No one [else] would let us do anything different."
Sleigh Bells: Derek E. Miller and Alexis Krauss
Location Info
Details
Sleigh Bells, with Bosco Delrey and Dominique Young. 9 p.m. Saturday, April 29, at Grand Central, 697 N. Miami Ave., Miami; 305-377-2277;
grandcentralmiami.com. Tickets cost $15 plus fees via
fla.vor.us.
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Not that the group's every move is exemplary. In fact, a few of Miller's more regrettable compositions — such as "Meds and Feds," one of the shrillest tracks on M.I.A.'s lukewarm 2010 album, Maya — lend credence to the theory that Sleigh Bells songs are just generally obnoxious.
And while Miller acknowledges that his group is an acquired taste, he relishes the divisive reaction that its output tends to provoke. "It seems to be polarizing," Miller says of Sleigh Bells' deliberately aggressive music. "But indifference is [more] offensive to me."