On Thursday afternoon I had the good fortune to see The Windish Agency post that there would be a launch party for the Ingrid music collective/label with Lykke Li, Miike Snow and Peter Björn and John, and quickly rallied bloggers and real life pals Tastes Like Caramel, Muumuse & NuWavePony to RSVP and check it out with me.

We headed down to The Bowery Hotel shortly after 7pm and upon our timely arrival discovered things were still being set up. On display was a handful of super cool Ingrid merchandise including t-shirts and most excitingly an Ingrd Volume One vinyl featuring new material from some of our favorites. As our group caught up over some drinks, our ears pricked up upon hearing a previously unheard Lykke Li track coming at us over the stereo, and that turned out to be not the only new music we were to hear during the evening!

As the crowd thickened we positioned ourselves at the very front of the ‘stage’ which was marked by a few amps and mics set up on the floor. Shortly afterwards Lykke Li appeared and jumped on decks with Miike Snow and Peter Björn and John members beside her, and threw down some excellent tunes getting the party started. Our group promptly turned into paparazzi, eagerly snapping pics of the talented Swedes, while their band members began tuning their instruments in preparation to play.

Much to our surprise they all took the stage together, starting off with a new track performed by Andrew Wyatt, while the others played behind him. We were then treated to an outstanding performance of Black Tin Box, a track featuring Lykke Li, taken from Miike Snow’s incredible latest album Happy To You. When I caught the band at Music Hall of Williamsburg a few weeks back I was dying for Lykke to come out and sing her part,  it turns out I didn’t have to wait too long to see them all perform it together! It was a stunning performance and I couldn’t believe that we had the best spots on the house to view it, we were so close it was almost uncomfortable, we were practically on the stage!
Just when I thought that performance couldn’t be topped, Lykke announced she would be performing a new song that she had written the day before here in NYC. My jaw hit the floor as she launched into a passionate performance, the song was so very catchy she had us all singing along by the end of it, if that’s not talent I don’t know what is!

That ended the set on a high, they thanked the crowd and headed back behind the DJ booth to spin some more tunes, at which point Brad of Muumuse and I made a beeline for the bathrooms. After meeting again we spotted Lykke coming towards us, at which point I grabbed the opportunity to do the fan girl thing and ask her for a picture, which she kindly agreed to and chatted briefly with us before darting back to the DJ booth. Mission Accomplished!

After a quick bar run we returned to join our friends still camped out at the front of the stage, after a few minutes one of the guys from Peter, Bjorn and John took the mic announcing “We played earlier this evening but since you’re all still standing here, we’ll play again in about 30 minutes”.. and that they did, returning to the stage to play the exact same set they did before which sounded even better the second time around!

You can support this excellent new collective and treat yourself to some killer new music by picking up the Ingrd Volym One vinyl on their website or grabbing it on iTunes.

Be sure to check out the live performance videos and let us know what you think of the new Lykke Li track!