This City of Takers
Hillsboro, Missouri, United States
Music
Press
This City of Takers starts off its debut CD with a shuffle and a bang, as if the Replacements covered "Subterranean Homesick Blues." Opening track "A Beautiful House With a Two Car Garage" is the first of seven tracks to focus on suburban ennui and a resulting crisis of faith (it's also the first of several sentence-length song titles). Singer/guitarist Brandon Lee is Delusions' focal point, thanks to passionate, if often unhinged, vocal performances. Like a less bellicose Greg Dulli, Lee is learning how to corral righteous rage into a soulful shout.
The seven songs (including the instrumental, cello-heavy "Interlude") are occasionally abrasive, but the center always holds together despite the sonic melee. Credit John May's drums, which are scattershot in places but usually manage to push the tension in the right direction. The forceful rhythms, coupled with Lee's Guy Picciotto-like sneer, suggest a loose-limbed Fugazi. The band is now a quartet after the departure of guitarist David Wise (who did contribute to Delusions), but Andy Phipps' synthesizers add an interesting element; they can serve as noise-generating devices or melodic counterpoints. Of the latter, Phipps shines with on "The Sense of Being Controlled by Outside Forces," whose burbling, muted synth tones resemble the subtly shifting harmonics found on Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation. The disc, recorded and produced by RFT contributor Ryan Wasoba, is one of good proportions. The rhythm section provides melodic gunfire, the guitars and synths add alternately unsettling and ambient color, and Lee manages to strike a balance between the two forces.
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- Riverfront Times
Podcast, visit site to listen - Something Difference Network
Visit url listed to listen. - KDHX 88.1
Discography
"Going Along with the Delusions will not be Helpful" April 2010, Self Released. Available on ITunes, Amazon.com, CDBaby.com.
Photos
Bio
Formed in 2009, This City of Takers quickly became known on the scene with amazing speed. TCOT hit the studio later in 2009 with Ryan Wasoba (formerly of So Many Dynamos) to record their first EP “Going Along with the Delusions will not be Helpful” which was released in April of 2010, which has since charted as a top seller at St. Louis’ premiere record store Vintage Vinyl.
This City of Takers sound is not exactly an easy one to peg; they have been compared to artist as diverse as the Replacements, Sonic Youth, The Afghan Whigs, Spoon, and Fugazi. As said by The Riverfront Times, St. Louis largest Alternative News Paper, “The rhythm section provides melodic gunfire, the guitars and synths add alternately unsettling and ambient color, and Lee manages to strike a balance between the two forces.”
TCOT has hit the scene hard since their inception and has opened for national and international touring acts such as Holly Go Lightly and the Broke Off’s, I Was Totally Destroying It, and the Dollyrots.
TCOT has been featured prominently in the media since the release of “Delusions.” In April of 2010, TCOT was featured and interviewed for the Tongue and Axe Podcast on the Something Different Network (available on ITunes.) In May of 2010 TCOT was featured on the Local Artist Spotlight on 88.1 KDHX FM in St. Louis MO, playing a 3 minutes radio spot 3 times daily for 2 weeks. Later that month they were featured in the Homespun column of the River Front Times, a St. Louis newspaper with a weekly circulation of over 100,000 readers.
This City of Takers is:
Brandon Lee: Vocals/Guitar
Michelle Glaser: Bass
Andrew Phipps: Synths/Vocal
John May: Drums
Links
