Maxïmo Park

Newcastle's Maxïmo Park, named after a park in Cuba, formed in 2000 but didn't release anything for four years due to the lack of a lead singer, which was rectified when the energetic Paul Smith joined the group. April 2004 saw the group's first release: a 300-only red 7" with the double-A side of Graffiti and Going Missing, which would both become separate singles after the group were signed by the usually electronically-minded Warp Records. Their first single on Warp was The Coast Is Always Changing in November, which was followed by the original issue of Apply Some Pressure in February 2005, and Graffiti, which hit #15 on the UK Charts came out 2 weeks before the album, A Certain Trigger, released on 16th May and nominated for the elusive 2005 Mercury Music Prize. Post-album singles Going Missing, the re-issue of Apply Some Pressure and I Want You To Stay helped carry the group to February 2006, after the b-side compilation Missing Songs was issued in January (hence why the IWYTS b-side La Quinta isn't included), with the CD/DVD set Found On Film coming after the final single of the album in June. March 2007 saw the release of the newest material from the group's second album Our Earthly Pleasures: Our Velocity, which is the group's highest charting single so far, hitting #9 on the charts. The album was released in April and hit #2 in the album charts, but follow-up singles Girls Who Play Guitars, Books From Boxes and Karaoke Plays did not succeed as well as Our Velocity had done. The group's third album, Quicken The Heart, was released on 11th May 2009, a week after the first single, The Kids Are Sick Again, was released. Despite a lot less promotion, the album still hit #6, although post-album single Questing, Not Coasting didn't chart at all. Apply Some Pressure's video is below, with the downloads.