!!! (pronounced as chk chk chk) is an American dance-punk band from Sacramento, California that formed in Autumn 1996 from the former band members of The Yah Mos, Black Liquorice and popesmashers.
After a tour together, members of local Sacramento, CA bands Black Liquorice and Popesmashers formed !!!. The band’s name was inspired by the subtitles of the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, in which the mouth-clicking sounds of the Bushmen were represented as “!”. However, as the band themselves say on their website: “!!! is pronounced by repeating thrice any monosyllabic sound. Chk Chk Chk is the most common pronunciation, but they could just as easily be called Pow Pow Pow, Bam Bam Bam, Uh Uh Uh, etc.”
Based in Sacramento, California; Portland, Oregon; and New York City, their debut full-length record came out in 2000 as a self-titled album on the Gold Standard Laboratories label. This was followed in 2003 by the single “Me and Giuliani Down By the School Yard”, a lengthy track combining house beats with sinewy basslines, psychedelic guitars, and simple lyrics which quote the title song of the musical Footloose.
They are commonly associated with the dance-punk movement. A second full-length, Louden Up Now, was released on Touch And Go in America and on Warp in Europe in June 2004. In June 2005, !!! released a new EP covering “Take Ecstasy With Me” by The Magnetic Fields, and “Get Up” by Nate Dogg. The following December, the original drummer for the band, Mikel Gius, was struck and killed by a car while riding his bike. !!! released their third album, Myth Takes in 2007.
