Washington, DC’s own The Kora Records recently wrote us in regard to their new signing, London’s Stricken City who personally ensnared me right away with name checks such as The Slits and Life Without Buildings. (I mean, THAT’S refreshing.)
The notoriously fickle UK press has been gushing one better:
“If this was the early 80s, Stricken City would be label-mates of Orange Juice, as this mini-album features eight of the the prettiest, shambling C86 style pop nuggets since the Postcard era. Intentionally angular and amateurish, Pull The House Down, Five Metres Apart and Killing Time offer skittish, playful guitar lines, fidgety bass and one finger keyboards, all deliciously cut with Rebekah Raa’s striking, spectral chirrup, which is more than a little reminiscent of Sugacubes-era Bjork. With gawky, naive charm in abundance, this will be an album to make many a student sigh dreamily as they lovingly scrawl ‘I HEART STRICKEN CITY’ onto their pencil cases in Tippex.”
—NME (8/10)
“In those innocent days before Pro Tools, click tracks and laptop recordings, the eighties produced a generation of studenty bands with a simple DIY ethic and only rudimentary musical skills who strummed away on effect-free jangly guitars and a simple hi-hat and snare rhythm. Stricken City are a splendid throwback to more innocent times where enthusiasm and the joy of being in a band counted for everything. Thankfully they also have some jolly tunes to back it up. Formed in the Midlands and now based in London, the quartet is fronted by the jittery, just-got-out-of-bed-haired goddess Rebekah Raa.”
—Q Magazine
The band’s collaborated on tales of their collective history for TVD:
“The SC have been through 3 drummers, 4 bassists and 2 keyboard players. It took us 3 years to get our act together and put our first record out and longer to actually settle on a band line up that worked. Now we are Rebekah, Iain, Mike and Kit and we’re pretty happy this way. It’s 13 months since someone left the band which I think is a record.
We’re finally getting round to be productive, we have our first long player out now and plan to put out a cassette at Christmas, another EP early next year and another album in the Spring. We have songs and plans.
When we first started people said we sounded a bit like The Slits and Life Without Buildings. We’d never properly listened to those bands so we did and they were good and we took it as a compliment. People also said we were like Siouxsie and The Banshees, we’ve still not really listened to them but I heard ‘Hong Kong Garden’ on the radio and it was pretty good.
‘Pull the House Down’ is the newest song on the new record and probably our favorite, we wrote it in one practice and recorded it a week later. ‘Five Metres Apart’ is the oldest song on the record, it’s over 4 years old. This goes back to the bit I wrote early about starting to be productive. It’s a big deal for us.Our newest song is called ‘Animal Festival’ and it might be our best, but all bands say there new song is the best so take that how you want to.”
Stricken City – Pull The House Down (Mp3)
Stricken City will be playing four shows in NYC at CMJ between October 20-24. Check the festival guide for venues and times.
