NEW YORK (Atlantic Records) - Necessary/Atlantic recording group
Hard-Fi hits No 1 in their native UK this week with their acclaimed debut album, "STARS OF CCTV," which is heading rapidly towards the double platinum mark. The band was also recently honored with a pair of prestigious BRIT Awards nominations. Praised by NME as "the album of the year," "STARS OF CCTV" - which follows last year's introductory "CASH MACHINE" EP - will make its long-anticipated U.S. premiere on March 14th.
Hard-Fi picked up BRIT nominations in the "British Rock Act" and "Best British Group" categories, placing the genre-blurring outfit alongside international superstars like Coldplay, Oasis, Gorillaz, and Franz Ferdinand, as well as such breakthrough artists as Kasabian and Kaiser Chiefs. The BRIT Awards 2006 will be presented on February 15th at London's Earls Court Arena.
Hard-Fi is heralding the forthcoming U.S. release of "STARS OF CCTV" with a North American headlining tour. The trek kicked off on January 16th at Cambridge, MA's famed Middle East Cafe, followed by a long-sold-out performance at New York City's Bowery Ballroom. The tour continues across the continent - with eagerly awaited stops in such cities as Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, and San Francisco - before its final destination on February 5th at Seattle's The Premier.
With their indefinable-but-irresistible sound and vision, Hard-Fi spurred a surprise commotion in their native England with the release last summer of "STARS OF CCTV." The collection made a stunning UK chart debut at No 6, a figure made all the more remarkable in that it occurred in the sales week followed by the hugely successful Live 8 concerts.
Songs such as "Cash Machine," "Tied Up Too Tight," and "Hard To Beat" - all of which were named "Single of the Week" by NME - see the band ingeniously melding urban rhythms with indelible rock 'n' roll hooks, underscoring frontman Richard Archer's frank and gritty tales of dead-end jobs, lost weekends, and disenfranchised suburban angst.
Along with its popular triumph, "STARS OF CCTV" received across-the-board enthusiasm from the notoriously hard-to-please UK critical establishment. The album received a 9-out-of-10 rave in NME - who hailed its "tirelessly inventive, genre-splicing genius" - while the UK's biggest music magazine, Q, dubbed Hard-Fi "the next major British band." "There have been some terrific debut albums by British bands this year," wrote The Times' Paul Connolly, "but this rough diamond by Staines' Hard-Fi is the best yet... As close to a five-star record as I've heard all year."
HARD-FI North American Tour - Winter 2006
JANUARY
16 Cambridge, MA Middle East Cafe
17 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
18 Albany, NY Skyline Nightclub
20 Toronto, ONT Horseshoe Tavern
21 Detroit, MI Magic Stick
22 Chicago, IL Metro
24 Kansas City, MO Grand Emporium
26 Austin, TX Stubb's BBQ
28 Phoenix, AZ Real Bar
29 San Diego, CA Brick By Brick
FEBRUARY
1 West Hollywood, CA The Troubadour
2 San Francisco, CA Popscene
3 Sacramento, CA The Boardwalk
4 Portland, OR Berbati's Pan
5 Seattle, WA The Premier
