What if I told you that Thomas and Guy-Man once released music using a name other than Daft Punk? Some of you may be thinking I’m talking about their first musical group “Darlin’” or one of their side projects “Together” or “Stardust” or “Le Knight Club” but I am not. I’m talking about “Indo Silver Club.” Yup that’s right...Indo Silver Club. If that sounds familiar then you must know about the track “Indo Silver Club” off of Daft Punk’s debut album Homework. Now what is this business about them releasing music under this name? Well it’s kind of complicated and not too much is known about it but I will tell you as much as I know along with some additional context to help fill in the gaps. The story starts with Daft Punk’s breakout success of their first EP “The New Wave” (1994) and their follow-up single “Da Funk” (1995). These two releases along with their DJ sets throughout 1995 got a lot of people talking about Daft Punk. Their label Soma Records was reportedly so swamped with calls about them that they just started answering their phone saying “Hello, Daft Punk.” By the end of 1995 Daft Punk were riding a wave of success and hype that they felt uncomfortable with. Below is an excerpt from a 1997 translated article that better explains their thoughts on their rapidly growing success and wanting to stay in control. By the end of 1995, Daft Punk wanted to calm things down. The object of all this attention, all these offers, the duo only accepted the concert at Transmusicales (December 2, 1995), just to end the year on a high note. “At some point, we had to say stop,” recalls Thomas. “We had to stop everything, we had to get a little bit of music, a little bit of material. We had been hyped up in the media for two years over two songs— that’s not ideal for working in complete tranquility. It’s also why today, we’re trying to protect ourselves. I think that there’s enough of our personality in our records for us not to show ourselves, for the public to take things into consideration. It was necessary to stop taking ourselves seriously, to stop believing that we were stars… That’s why we don’t want to appear in photos normally. I know that our position is ambiguous: we want our music to be widely distributed, to have the greatest success, but we want to stay as anonymous as possible.” Loquacious about the subject, he continues: “Lots of people pressured us by asking when our album would be coming out. But until now, we haven’t had time. We were touring for six months. Between July ‘95 and January ‘96, we hadn’t written a song and people were asking for an album!” So in January (1996), Thomas and Guy-Manuel decided to lock themselves in their studio until the album was recorded. “We already had offers from all directions but we preferred to record first and look over the offers afterwards. We were calling the shots, which allowed us to take our time.” However, at the beginning of the year, the duo released the maxi Indo Silver Club, still on Soma, but they asked their label not to put their name on the sleeve. No one was fooled. It was impossible not to recognize the touch of the two Frenchmen behind the two titles. excerpt via: https://one-additional-time.tumblr.com/post/95294323260/daft-punk-disco-inferno-translated
Soma Records released a compilation album in late 1996 including one of the two untitled tracks from the 12" single. It credits Daft Punk as the artist and the track title is “Indo Silver Club (Part 1).” This seems to be the first time it was revealed that Daft Punk were the artists behind the mysterious disk. I bought this compilation CD a few years ago thinking that I had finally found a digital master of the track which did not make it onto Daft Punk’s album which I thought was titled “Indo Silver Club (Part One).” I was disappointed to find that the audio was actually just the version that appears on the album which I thought was titled “Indo Silver Club (Part Two).” I thought they had mistitled the track because I was under the impression that Part Two was the track which made it to the album and Part One was only ever released on that 12” disk from 1996. In hindsight it seems Soma Records simply couldn’t find a better way to put the track onto the compilation album because it technically had no title and the artist was unclear to average consumers who didn’t have a press sheet when the single released. It is unknown whether or not Daft Punk gave Soma Records permission to credit them or if Soma simply jumped the gun on revealing the artist but either way it seems Daft Punk gave up on the Indo Silver Club alias. It should be noted that Daft Punk left Soma Records in September 1996 (2 months before the Soma compilation was released) so perhaps that had something to do with the death of the Indo Silver Club alias. Anyways, that’s the time Daft Punk released music under a different name and how hardly anybody noticed.
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As the title suggests, we may be getting some unseen footage from Daft Punk's legendary 2006 Coachella performance in the form of a documentary coming March 31st. The trailer dropped January 6th on Coachella's YouTube channel and has immediately caught the attention of several Daft Punk fans, myself included. The trailer features glimpses of Daft Punk's stage reveal as well as an audible "Daft Punk" chant coming from the crowd. The description also seems to confirm that the documentary will include some unseen Daft Punk content.
"A documentary feature two decades in the making, 'Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert' opens up the vault for the very first time to present the performances and behind-the-scenes stories that shaped the music festival. The film gives a rare look at Coachella’s colorful beginning, presents exclusive, never-before-seen footage, interviews, and features key performances from some of the biggest names in music, including Billie Eilish, Kanye West, Daft Punk, Travis Scott, BLACKPINK, LCD Soundsystem, Rage Against The Machine, Pixies, Swedish House Mafia, Jane’s Addiction, Björk, The White Stripes, Madonna, Moby, Beck, Radiohead and more."
Watch the trailer below.
Watch the trailer with subtitles below.
From Deadline.com: "Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert is produced and directed by Chris Perkel. Raymond Leon Roker and Paul Tollett serve as executive producers. The documentary is a Goldenvoice and Hamsterdam production, in association with AEG Studios."
There is no telling how much Daft Punk content there will be but the trailer and my Twitter interactions with the director, Chris Perkel, certainly have me excited for more. Daft Punk's 2006 Coachella performance is considered one of the best in the festival's history by many, including the festival's founder Paul Tollett who is also an executive producer of the documentary. Below is some professional footage of Daft Punk's 2006 Coachella performance. Below is a playlist containing over 200 crowd videos from Daft Punk's 2006 Coachella performance.
Daft Punk have been pretty quiet lately but here is everything they did in 2019.
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AuthorI am a massive Daft Punk fan and collector. I enjoy researching and writing about their career and I have a bachelor's degree in history. Professional inquiries email me here. Archives
August 2022
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