Yes, Javelin hand-screens their record covers on thrifted vinyl. Yes, they cart a multi–boom box sound sculpture around to shows. And yes, they did start out in Providence before moving to New York. But no, Javelin’s George Langford and Tom Van Buskirk were not RISD students who decided to embark together on some art school mission to the far reaches of weirdness, as many people tend to assume. The Javelin story goes back a lot further than that.
Tom and George are family, cousins who grew up in the northeast and spent their early childhood performing magic shows, playing together with toy Casio’s and making random tapes together. According to George, “The most legendary tape we made, we performed as a Mexican band, and there was a comic book that went along with this whole narrative that we made up. We also made this one really disgusting tape.” Tom cuts him off before he can elaborate, but let’s just say that it is ninety minutes of relief.
After finishing school George moved down to Providence to make music with Tom (a Brown alum, for the record). “We both had samplers, and the first stuff we were bonding over was the sample source material that MF Doom was using,” says Tom. “We liked going to thrift stores, finding horrible music and turning it into something that is nice to listen to.” The results of the time spent digging in the dusty dollar bin are all over their music. Carefully crafted, sample-based beats are paired with vintage synthesizer melodies to produce infectious pop that forces you to up jumps the boogie every time it hits your ears. With their second 12-inch on Thrill Jockey coming out in February and a full-length due out on Luaka Bop this spring, it would be a good idea to keep your dance game tight for this fast-approaching world-party train.
It all comes full circle in their shows, where Javelin’s live performance becomes a free-form celebration of their recorded material. Eschewing the sad-guy-behind-the-laptop style so prevalent these days, Javelin instead takes a high-energy, improvisational approach to recreating their sample heavy tracks for the stage. (George says he got his “sea legs” while performing with the punk marching band What Cheer? Brigade.) With George’s live percussion and Tom’s freestyle karaoke, it’s pretty hard to stand still with your arms folded. “After a recent show in Manhattan,” says George, “Damon Dash came up to us and said, ‘This is real hip hop,’ which is hilarious because Tom was singing Frère Jacques, and I was playing cowbell wearing loafers.”

Related Links:
Javelin : http://www.myspace.com/hotjamzofjavelin