“They look so fecking young”. That was the initial reaction from many who saw C!ties play at last month’s Hard Working Class Heroes fest in Dublin. “They’re bloody amazing,” was the second thought.
Hailing from Ennis, Co Clare, C!ties have been playing together and misplacing exclamation marks since completing their Leaving Cert in 2007. After a ton of gigs later that have taken them everywhere from Abbeyfeale to Belfast, Ian Malone, Sean Hurson and Eoghan McMahon are now putting shape to their sound.
A fascinating blur of electronics, buzzy punk, mad-for-it synths and Godzilla-sized hooks, C!ties tear up the alt.instrumental rock-and-rave handbook and start again from scratch.
The C!tiesEP – available as a free download via their MySpace – is where those ideas really flourish. If you hear a tune as magnificently pitched and finely honed as Satellitethis year, you should be very happy indeed.
While C!ties are currently on a gigging break, let’s hope they get that mooted debut album together sharpish and resume the good fight.
One to check in on again in 2010.
www.myspace.com/citiesmusic
