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The Countdown

We enjoy walks on the beach

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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 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 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, Radio Vago, We Are Scientists, Interpol, Queens Of The Stone Age, 30 Seconds To Mars, Pigface 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 in 2004 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 reached the top 200 on CMJ college radio charts.

www.thecountdown.net www.myspace.com/thecountdown

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 11/7/2004
Band Website: thecountdown.net
Band Members:Human Resources by THE COUNTDOWN

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Influences: Gary Numan and the Tubeway Army, Missing Persons, Devo, Human League, The Faint, The Who, Paula Abdul, Big Black, The Jesus Lizard, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, the Locust, Kraftwerk, Thomas Dolby, Pussy Galore, Queen
Sounds Like: Devo, Missing Persons, Sonic Youth, Miss Kitten, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, B52s, The Ramones, The Sparks
Record Label: Invisible Records

Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

One of The Countdowns first songs on our playah....comment would you???

Check it out.It's called "Action"oh those were the good ole days.brings back all kinds of memories...our G4, Protools LE, our Juno and lots and lots of beer and cigarettes...comment on how retro it so...
Posted by The Countdown on Mon, 02 Jun 2008 01:18:00 PST

yes. album in September

there is communication between us and our label. an album will be released in September. we have somewhat of an idea of the songs but we haven't heard any new mixes...stay tuned for more soon. promise...
Posted by The Countdown on Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:40:00 PST

hello.

we are alive, trying to breathe, trying to exist. circumstances are difficult. we've been out of touch. buried. slowly dying. don't give up on us.
Posted by The Countdown on Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:46:00 PST

another classic berk and denekas performance Darkroom Dec 2006

...
Posted by The Countdown on Wed, 26 Sep 2007 02:20:00 PST

Someone filmed us...heres a 1 minute clip

Northalsted Market Days August 2008 ...
Posted by The Countdown on Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:08:00 PST

footage of THe Countdown circa 2004

From the depths of the archives comes The Countdown playing The Metro in 2004.Here is the strange and disturbing song "Configuration Manager" for you to enjoy. FYI- i was one month pregnant at this sh...
Posted by The Countdown on Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:20:00 PST

check out the first song

Our version of Baba O Riley. The classic song by The Who is now some sort of strange eerie synthy sad affair. Enjoy as only The Countdown fans can.xo
Posted by The Countdown on Tue, 21 Aug 2007 08:34:00 PST

Human Resources Remix posted and July 20th show update!

Check the remix we just posted. It's cool as shit !! we love it!to hear more from this guy go to djpsyopsYou all must attend the show next Friday. These fine folks are flying in to film us for this v...
Posted by The Countdown on Fri, 13 Jul 2007 08:15:00 PST

Double Door show posted on youtube...

Our last show at Double Door was a trainwreck which actually made for some interesting video. I actually had to cut stuff out because it was too painful to watch! We were really being mean to each oth...
Posted by The Countdown on Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:18:00 PST

Posted another classic demo "Much Better Me"

there you go. again, one of the original demo's that we ever put together. The Countdown wasn't even a band yet...it was just an experiment really.Remember we have our show on Friday at The Double Doo...
Posted by The Countdown on Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:53:00 PST