Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
"Easily the hottest DIY husband/wife duo to hail from the Midwest since you-know-who burst outta Detroit ... Grade A electropunk ... In short, this is a novel, tilt-a-whirling ass-basher in what is normally a flaccid and repetitive genre. This is an action verb album." - Filter Magazine
"The Countdown ... smothers bouncy synth riffs on top of punk guitars to create its own '80s dance party ... a noise rock extravaganza, à la Sonic Youth. Maybe the most fun a band has ever packed into a ... EP." - Illinois Entertainer
"If this had been a battle of the bands, The Countdown would have leveled everyone else to rubble with the first 30 seconds of their set. Imagine The Stooges meet Sprockets meet The White Stripes in some really messed up alternate universe. Angular, jarring, stomping, loud, catchy, crazy, Crazy, CRAZED enough to make Kylie Minogue make out with Lemmy from Motorhead. More rock and roll than anything I can think of in recent experience. Dirty. Powerful. Exciting." - Wormtown
"Stiff and Roxie Starr ... fuse together tinny two-step beats, eerie synthpop action and a generally large heap of dirty, stomping rock'n'roll, kind of like Miss Kittin meets Yeah Yeah Yeahs with the fun guy out of the B52's throwing in his $2 worth every now and again. Enough lazy comparisons ... if this band don't become huge I'm gonna buy a hat, and then eat it." - Brainlove
"Stiff Starr and Roxy Starr [play] abrasive neo-new wave, at once sweaty and mechanical, trashy and
precise. They come off like a version of Missing Persons that listened to more punk rock and less Kraftwerk, more scary than spacey." - Chicago Reader
"The ... songs combine the sensibilty of Devo/B-52's with the musical ambition of more recent UK electronic bands like Lionrock or Goldfrapp. Imagine the best of the garage rock feel of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's and the electro grinds of Miss Kitten and the hacker or Winterbrief." - Intellectos
"The duo pull off a fun sounding affair that stands in a pool of dance heavy industrial beats while a pop-punk drive meanders through a retro new wave feel ... that harkens back to 80s-era Gary Numan if it were sped up and translated by The B-52's. A tasty teaser for a most anticipated full-length." - Outburn Magazine
Discography
Lipstick Heart Attack (Fall 2006)
Scratch 'n' Sniff (2004)
Human Resources (2003)
Communicator (2002)
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Sweaty, stomping, jarring, precise, angular, mechanical, brash and raucous - adjectives that all seem to fall short of sufficiently describing the crazed noise rock extravaganza that is The Countdown. Proclaimed by Filter Magazine as "Easily the hottest DIY husband/wife duo to hail from the Midwest since you-know-who burst outta Detroit", Stiff and Roxie Starr fuse together a unique brand of tinny beats, eerie synth-pop and dirty, thrashing rock 'n' roll.
In 2001 Roxie (Sweet Heat, Starball) pulled out demos she had written for an unfinished rock opera set in a deranged dystopian future. Unable and unwilling to simply let the songs collect dust in her closet any longer, she and Stiff (Entertainment, Red Eyed Legends) re-recorded them in their attic studio. The result was a 13 song self-released LP entitled Communicator that combined sinister noise solos and disco-industrial beats described as Night of the Living Dead meets Tommy - half horror flick soundtrack, half smiley face singalong.
Armed with their guitars and a sampler, The Countdown were ready to bring their rock-opera to the masses, and began playing out in support of such bands as The Locust, The Postal Service, The Unicorns, The Sneaker Pimps, I Am The World Trade Centre, Soviet, We Regazzi, Cex, and The Frogs. After attending one of their entirely insane performances, one critic left a converted fan who pronounced The Countdown, "CRAZED enough to make Kylie Minogue make out with Lemmy from Motorhead. More rock and roll than anything I can think of in recent experience."
Time, touring and experimentation led to the 2003 release of the Human Resources EP. Stiff and Roxie turned up the guitars and distortion creating their now signature dirty, throbbing electropunk sound. It wasn't long before Human Resources fell into the hands of the Chicago-based industrial/electronic label Invisible Records who put an end to fans wondering why the hell no one had signed The Countdown.
Stiff and Roxie headed into the studio again this past summer, but this time with Martin Atkins (PIL, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry) and Steven Siebold (Berlin, Hate Dept, Information Society) at the helm. The Scratch 'n' Sniff EP, featuring a Radio 4 remix as well as a cover of Big Black's "Bad Penny", was released October 12, 2004 and has been getting heavy spins on college radio. Stiff and Roxie are currently taking a few months off of touring to spend time with their newborn daughter. Invisible Records will release the next Countdown full length in Spring 2006 with plans of a North American tour.
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