WTF

"Hear My Name" was written by Armand Van Helden and Spalding Rockwell in 2004. The single has been all over the charts in countless countries worldwide including Australia, England, Germany, USA, and Spain among others. Below is a list of all chart performance.
BUY THE SINGLE: www.HMV.com

AUSTRALIA

#32 Singles Chart Australia at entry June 14th, 2004

#1 Club Chart Australia for 9 consecutive weeks (March 22nd-May 24th)

#4 Club Chart Australia week ten (May 31st)

#2 Club Chart Australia Week eleven (June 7th)

Added to MTV Australia 4/15/04

UNITED KINGDOM

Hear My Name peaked/entered at #1 U.K. Dance Chart

#32 U.K. Singles Chart opening week

3 weeks #1 MTV Dance U.K. 4/23/04 opening week

UNITED STATES

#19 Hot Dance Singles (1st Week 06/19/04)

#28 U.S. Dance Singles Chart (1st Week)

#35 "A Mix Odyssey" Electronic Albums Chart

GERMANY

#3 MTV Dance Germany

#9 Dance Chart Germany

#5 MTV Dance Germany

BELGIUM

#1 Dance Chart Belgium

SWITZERLAND

#1 DJ Charts Switzerland

BRAZIL

#27 Dance Chart Brazil

FINLAND

#39 Finland Dance Chart 1st week

SWEDEN - BILLBOARD MAGAZINE

May 15, 2005

Spalding Rockwell

Interview by Liberation Iannillo


The name Spalding Rockwell might conjure up images of the fat, old, corporate men who should be on their way to a minimum security prison for the Enron debacle, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Fronted by larger than life Nicole Lombardi and Marie Louise Platt, Spalding Rockwell bring their fusion of breathy-sleazy lyrics, dirty guitars and electronic fused rock n’ roll to the New York music scene as the latest incarnation of the downtown bombshell.

After some success with their punk band, Daughter, Nikki and ML formed Spalding Rockwell. In 2002, they worked with Electroclash icon Larry Tee and released their song “White Cotton Panties.” The song was a hit with the Electroclash scene and Spalding Rockwell found a whole new legion of fans to worship them despite the fact they are not an Electroclash band.

Their album Kate, which was written, performed, and produced entirely by Nikki and ML, is a collection of fractured personalities set to music. With Traci Lords-esque, horse whispering vocal styling mixed with aggressive guitars and sultry drum loops, Spalding Rockwell play up to their hot-chicks-with-guitars image in a very tongue-in-cheek way. They’re in on the joke.

We wanted a record you could dance to, fuck to and smoke to...something that you didn’t have to examine but if you did, you’d fine something there.

Liberation: How do you describe your sound? I found myself describing you to a friend as moody, the kind of music you put on when you’re either getting ready to go out, when you want to do pounds of coke, or when you want to fuck.

ML: That’s it! We wanted a record you could dance to, fuck to and smoke to. We wanted something that you didn’t have to examine but if you did, you’d fine something there. We tried not to take ourselves so seriously and kind of make fun of ourselves. It’s interesting because some people take certain things that we say so serious. In our song ‘Karahi’ there’s a line, “You should give me everything that I want in this life because I’m that good looking.” Who says that? It’s so brazen! If you decide that we are two hot chicks that are full of shit, then that’s what you’re going to find!

Nikki: We’ve had a lot of success with the records we’ve made. We made this other record with our band Daughter called Skin and it really hit home in the punk world. We released it on this Indie label and people were flipping out over it, the reviews were sick.

ML: Not many people know we have a legit, punk rock background.

Liberation: There are female artists like Joan Jett, Debby Harry, and Courtney Love that push things forward, and then there are the jig-dancing Ashley Simpsons of the world making an ass out of themselves on national television. Do you think it’s getting any easier for females in the predominately male rock world?

Nikki: Those two worlds are so different, the major label world and the world that we are in.

ML: Listen, when we go into a club not many people know that we engineer our own material. I can hook up and wire an entire studio and do sound at a club. So we walk into a club with heels and tight jeans and we’re like, “There’s a problem with the mic,” and they look at us like, “Yeah, like they know what they’re talking about.” There is a 15-20 minutes of adjustment time, like with the fish in the bag in the water and you let the temperature assimilate…same shit! You have to talk with them and give yourself a couple of opportunities to say something like call a cable an XLR and talk about RC connections or decibels.

And then they’re like, “Oh! OK, cool!” and then they see that there’s knowledge and I don’t know if it’s sex as much as it is knowledge and competence, where that’s the equalizer, when you can look at someone and say, “You work hard, you’re smart. I may not like your music but I respect you.”

When you’re a chick it’s almost like a smart girl’s club. You’re like a horse, you’re pulling a lot of weight behind you. It’s a burden, confidence is a burden

Liberation: That must be a funny transformation to watch.

ML: And of course when you’re a chick it’s almost like a smart girl’s club. You’re like a horse, you’re pulling a lot of weight behind you. It’s a burden, confidence is a burden.

Liberation: You have gotten to where you are because you know what you do and it’s unfortunate that you have to whip it out on the table to prove it.

ML: Right! Definitely! It’s as you say, there are so many examples of people that haven’t had to necessarily work. I think that bitch can wail, I’m being honest, I’ve heard her voice (Ashley Simpson) and I think she has a gorgeous voice. It’s husky, it’s raw. Nikki doesn’t think so.

Nikki: She’s alright.

ML: But do I resent the fact she’s had it real easy and played her first show to a stadium? Fuck yeah! But it’s like growing up and seeing someone with more money than you, you’re like, “I wi - www.triggermagazine.com

Spalding Rockwell: Biography

Formed: 1999 in New York, NY
Genre: Electronica
Styles: Electro Techno, Rock, Punk Rock
Group Members: Nicole Lombardi, Mary Louise Platt
Biography
Mary Louise Platt and Nicole Lombardi, aka ML and Nikki, comprise the stylish electronic funk of Spalding Rockwell. Lombardi grew up in Washington, D.C., and religiously followed Fugazi. When she wasn't immersed in the city's local punk scene, Lombardi and her older sister were seeing national acts play shows at the 9:30 Club and Tracks. Platt, a New Yorker by birth, was into hip-hop throughout her teens, listening to Black Sheep, Cypress Hill, and Wu-Tang Clan during the early '90s. By 1994, Lombardi and Platt were best friends, and within five years' time, Spalding Rockwell was born. They perfected a red-hot formula of new wave, hip-hop, and electro while distinguishing themselves from the trendy electroclash crowd taking over the boroughs of the Big Apple. They lent their song "White Cotton Panties" to Larry Tee's Badd Inc. compilation in 2003. "Vicious" appeared on Tee's Electroclash, Vol. 2 collection a year later. Their popularity was on the up and up by mid-2004 with Armand Van Helden's club hit "Hear My Name?" Platt and Lombardi contributed lead vocals to this U.K. Top 30 smash, which is featured on Van Helden's New York: A Mix Odyssey album. Spalding Rockwell's proper full-length debut, Kate, followed in September. ~ MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide - music.msn.com

In-Stock: Ships within 24 hours

Just when electroclash had become passé, along came Spalding Rockwell and their debut album, Kate, one of the better, less gimmicky electroclash releases yet. The duo of ML and Nikki can easily be slotted between the likes of Peaches, Adult., and Le Tigre -- sassy electro-punk chicks with gritty beats, catchy songs, and the ability to turn a party out. Yet unlike the myriad other electroclash acts who likewise could be slotted alongside the aforementioned standard-bearers, Spalding Rockwell have more than one hot single going for them. Granted, up until the release of Kate that was indeed the case -- they had their long-lasting "White Cotton Panties" single (and also their vocal contribution to Armand Van Helden's "Hear My Name?" single, if that counts) and that was it. Here, though, they have a dozen more or less equally hot tracks with Kate, an album that masterfully straddles the line between electro and punk in each and every song. Plus, the album is mighty succinct, running through its cuts in a brisk and breathless 36 minutes, so the duo's shtick never totally feels like a shtick (if it even is one in the first place). Frankly, it's somewhat surprising that Kate is so consistently well done, because few of these sort of electroclash acts have proved themselves capable of recording strong albums. Even the best of the best electroclash acts -- Peaches and Adult., arguably -- have struggled with the album format. That's certainly not the case with Spalding Rockwell. Kate is a fine album, one that plays not like a collection of singles and filler but rather like a single work of art. If there aren't any particular standout tracks, that's to the album's credit because highlights are aplenty. Kate is one of those rare albums you can play from beginning to end without ever being tempted to reach for the skip button. Were there more Spalding Rockwells out there, the electroclash scene would have more lasting power. There's certainly artistic merit to what Spalding Rockwell have done here on Kate, and it's too bad more similarly styled acts can't produce solid albums like this rather than simply the one-shot hot singles that seem to be the norm. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide - mtv

Armand Van Helden - Hear My Name (SouthernFriedRecords)

A summer anthem this early in the year!?!?! Yes, I am able to confirm that after his success at the Miami winter music festival this track has now become one of the most played and therefore heard tracks. Although it has yet to have massive crossover chart success, the dance world have already accepted it as one of the tunes so far this year! Featuring the stunning vocals of Spalding Rockwell, its tough funky attitude makes this one hard to ignore! Released 19th April. 9/10

Nic Caesar - atomicduster

'Nympho' also sees Van Helden hooking up with a variety of unknown New York artists like Jessy Moss and Spalding Rockwell. The CD fuses his trademark housy beats with rock and dance, guaranteed to get party revellers on the dance floor. And this is exactly what the CD is — a party album filled with off the wall lyrics and killer guitar chords.
Title Track 'Nympho' is a funk-filled song which features Virgin Killer, sounding very much like the old-school rock route that so many of up-and-coming bands like Juliet And The Licks and The Hives are heading in.
'Look Into Your Eyes' has been receiving massive airplay right now. Unfortunately, this track is the most over-produced piece of music on the album. Just listening to it conjures up visions of scantily clad women using heavy machinery, displaying their ability to do manly tasks (like a certain dance video…).
'Jenny' with Spalding Rockwell on vocals has to be the best track on the CD. Its raw lyrics arranged over synthesized beats breaks away from the overtly house-rock theme, and definitely stands out as a dance floor classic.
'The Tear Drop' is exactly what it says. It's a track describing in extensive detail how the "amalgamation of holy headliners all together immersed in a holy embryo, bathing in the holy waters of amniotes surrounded by a holy halo, a cosmic concertina of holy co-operation between minds, bodies and spirits".
But wait, it gets weirder — vocalist Tim Holtom takes more than two minutes to name the teardrop in almost every language known to man. Tiring work, but someone has to do it.

Overall, Nympho is an upbeat album, and if I were a house music fan, it would probably go into my CD collection. But for now, it stays on the "when my friends come over to party" list. - http://entertainment.iafrica.com/music/archives/481412.htm

PAPER MAGAZINE

New York Dolls
New York City private schools are known for churning out S.A.T.-tutored, Aspen-Vacationing, Park Avenue princesses, but there are exceptions. Take the band Spalding Rockwell; Nicole Lombardi (pictured right), 26, attended the Professional Children's school before she was shipped to boarding school in Jersey. "My friends and I would have champagne parties, and I would wear my mother's couture," Nikki recalls. Her bandmate Mary Louise Platt (pictured left), also 26, attended Brearley, the exclusive all-girls school on the Upper East Side. "I was the pretty girl who the older kids put makeup on and took out to clubs," she says. The girls met in high school, but only after they reconnected at a party in 1998, did their friendship turn professional. ML had just dropped out of Johns Hopkins University, and Nikki was a jaded acting student at Tisch. So the two girls did what any self-respecting mis-guided soul would do -- they wrote songs. After moving from hip-hop to punk to rock n' roll, electroclash god Larry Tee took them under his wing in 2002. Their song "White Cotton Panties" was a hit at Tee's electroclash festivals, but Spalding Rockwell knew the scene wasn't really for them.They branched out collaborating with Armand van Helden on his chart-topping dance number "Hear My Name" and completeing "Kate" (Defend Music Records), a full-length album of their own. Explains Nikki, "It's derivative of nothing and derivative of everything at the same time." More important, ML stresses, "It's tight and it's ours." By Alexis Swerdloff. Photographs by Alex Thompson. Shot at Lit, NYC - PAPER MAGAZINE

Interview Magazine

SPALDING ROCKWELL
They are neither a law firm nor a corporation that manufactures heavy machinery, but tthe lissome twosome of nNicole Lombardi and Mary Louise Platt, known collectively as Spalding Rockwell, is simply one of the most grittily glamouorous duos to emmerge from New York City scuzz-rock-scene. Following a breif flirtation with electroclash, and a short lived dalliance with the pop music slip n slide under the tutlage of Jennifer Lopez's one-time manager, Benny Medina, Lombardi and Platt, a couple of former private school girls with a penchant for wearing short skirts, have broken out on their own with their debut, Kate (Defend), a genre-mashing electro-rock album, spiked with doses of punk-rock bravura and hip-hop bravado. Then, of course, there is the name. "It was the first thing that didn't sound stupid," says Lombardi. Adds Platt, "It sounds like a rich man's name. So, it's a nod to our past that's sort of ironic when you consider our present." Text: Steven Mooallem, Above (from left): Mary Louise Platt's suit by Dolce & Gabbana. Shoes by Bottega Veneta. Nicole Lombardi's sequined top by GF Ferre. Cosmetics by Pretty Pretty. Hair products by Kerastase. Styling: Karen Levitt. Hari: Albert Vasquez/Bumble and Bumble. Makeup: William Murphy; Pretty Pretty. Thanks to Deitch Projects. Photo by David Yellen - Interview Magazine

Spalding Rockwell: Kate

'Not since Vanity 6 has a band made me want to slip into my shortest mini, throw my hands in the air, and yell "Do you think I'm a nasty girl?" This duo whipped me into submission with their stealth mix of Sexy Lyrics and leering vocals over outrageous electronic overtures.' -- Carla
- JANE MAGAZINE