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A transatlantic mix of Oklahoma’s Flaming Lips, Brooklyn’s MGMT and Grangemouth’s Cocteau Twins is one hell of a amalgamated comparison and more than enough to warrant imperious pride in any band, let alone in one as young as Citadels, a band with just two singles and 10309 MySpace friends to their name. Not so says Stef Ferguson flatly, as “some of the comparisons have been lazy.”
OK, so honesty is the best policy but journalistic exaggeration is part and parcel of the industry and at least they haven’t been likened to Joy Division… yet.
What isn’t lazy journalism is that intent on forming a band, frontman Stef and guitarist Jim left Brighton for London, “found Lucy on an online dating site for threesomes” and immediately set about creating multi-platform anthemics to “stand out in a bed of 80’s synth pop.”
Ambitious but achievable those who have chanced upon the limited edition releases ‘Golden Islands’ and ‘The Chemical Song’ or into one of their blistering live shows will testify as Stef so modestly puts, that Citadels are a band “different from what’s already out there and a powerful force to witness live.”
Favourite new bands might be two a penny in a crowded blogosphere, but with an ambitious brandishing of multi-instrumental confidence, 360 percussion and pied piper shared vocals due to support Two Door Cinema Club on an imminent UK tour allowing for an early ‘I was there when…’ opportunity ahead of a tentatively planned end of 2010 debut album, Citadels should be laughing.
If not, there’s always the hope that on the strength of six short paragraphs their MySpace friend count will increase to at least 10310 and failing that, Stef at least and honest to the last, will get the chance to realise another of life’s goals and “end up on a farm in Sweden somewhere.”
