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Ciccone • Rebekah Delgado - Vocals,
Guitar • Buy |
Reviews - Eversholt Street A cheeky dose of new wave shenanigans. As indie-rock continues to wallow in a corporate swamp of its own making,
bands like Ciccone, with their fuck-it-we'll-do-it-ourselves exuberance
and patent disregard for trend chasing, are keeping the spirit of something
innocent and purely punk alive. Wry lyrics, jangling guitars and moments
of pop perfection are hardly the newest of ingredients, but this London-based
quartet have an unsettling charm and eccentric edge that belies the simplicity
of their approach. Like a sharp-attired mutant hybrid of The Velvet Underground,
Blondie and The Monochrome Set, Ciccone are a gentle subversive alternative
to piss-wet pop-punk and arseless college non-rock. KKKK Despite the New York-centric slant of their name (ciccone being Madonna's
real surname and a brief Sonic Youth side project), it's ironic that this
trio are in fact soooo Camden it hurts. Their specifically British guitar
pop bridges the gap between Lush and Elastica quite nicely thanks to Rebakah
Delgado's charming and occasionally alluring vocals. You can't help but
raise a curious eyebrow during the sprightly Libertines-with-a-girl rock
of Look At You Now when she cheekily declares: "Give me 50p and I'll
show you a good time," whilst the tales of casual encounters become
even more amusingly lurid during the self-expanitory Just Got Laid. It's
a shame that Ciccone weren't around during the first wave of Britpop.
Not only would they have been more revered but maybe, just maybe, the
world would have been spared the horror that was Sleeper. 6/10 Sometimes focus comes from unexpected quarters. Five years after forming
a band to keep their minds keen and their souls intact, Ciccone (Mickey
and Rebekah plus peripatetic extras) have finally blurted out and album,
and it's a weird revelation: Cheeky punk, poignant balladry, kitchen sink
(sur)realism and heart-warming whimsy wrapped in a rock 'n' roll cloak.
More bands need this much heart. 4/5 Debut album, Eversholt Street was recorded in "their" London bedroom. I'm taking it they aren't related from the inside cover photograph as they look quite intimate. Rebekah Delgado, Damo Waters (both on vocals/guitar) and Mikey Strickson (drums) make up Ciccone's candy-angst threesome. You can picture a comedic sketch of some numbskulls trying to dispose of a body in a Guy Ritchie production with openeer; Flagellate. "Give me 50p and I'll show you a good time" is the final message on Look At You Now. It might be cheap but it's rather funny, actually. A fast pace is set by punky FUUK and then wound down again by the time it gets to Last Breath - "so make it a good one"! Rebekah's attitude on Just Got Laid cuts a vocal melody that could have been sung by Wendy James of Transvision Vamp, had she not craved mainstream success. Rebekah's delivery is sexy in a cute ballsy way, especially for an anti-sexy song. When you hear Ciccone you might think, Pixies and Cardiacs with the tweeness of any good songs from a kiddy programme but then again you might not. They claim to be influenced by Blondie, The Smiths, Velvet Underground, The Clash and fifties rock 'n' roll. There are elements of these greats present but the sound is really their own. Their lyrics are direct, subversive and funny with good old fashioned
punk-pop riffs to boot. Ciccone are quirky and spiky in an utterly southern
British, lippy fashion. Definitely one for the kids with a crisp on their
shoulder. Get moshing, angry young cuties! This is the debut album by Ciccone. It follows on from their success with the singles "Forget Your False Mess'iahs", "All Stacked Up" and most recently "Look At You Now". Now they have created a full length extravaganza of new wave rock and roll meets the sound of the suburbs with an audacious and witty edge. There are a good number of high points in 'Eversholt Street'. 'Look At You Now', 'Just Got Laid', If I Could Prove You Wrong' and 'F.U.U.K' are all tracks with an immediacy, vibrancy and driving energy. There are more sedate tracks like 'Put Me To Bed' and 'Last Breath' that each have intimate and touchingly broken vocals that tug effortlessly on the heartstrings. Put all that together and you have an album of passionate songs, with
humour, pathos and attitude. The promo sheet bundle with this would make a foppish and yet edgy gentleman cry with anticipation. They claim to be influenced by The Smiths, The Clash, Blondie, The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed and Television. I got out my velvet suit and cried into it for a while before I put this CD on. Ciccone name themselves after Madonna, which sits rather uncomfortably with the aforementioned list of influences, and forces me to sit up with rather more alertness. There are both female and male vocalists and they do indeed sound 'unashamedly British' along with it, having recorded this in their bedroom whilst having a nice cuppa. Rebekah Delgado does indeed sound amazing, especially on 'Look At You Now', their first vocal track after the opening instrumental. She sounds even better when she intones, 'give me 50p/ I'll show you such a good time', which is name-checks everyone's favourite British coin. It has a 'high jinks in Camden after a sweaty night out' kind of vibe, with stop start guitars and a sound that Sleeper would admire, no doubt. It really does impress. The male vocalist, Micky Strickson, comes in on the third track, the amazingly titled 'You're Beautiful, You'll Get By'. It's another high energy, punky song with a slower verse. There's still no real trace of The Smiths or Television. I was hoping for a freaky combination that would set the world alight, but the album dutifully rolls along with 'Just Got Laid', another Sleeper-u-like. 'He bought her drinks to loosen her up/but she just got violent when she got drunk' sings Delgado, with a beautiful, girly and bright clean voice that sits well on top of this mayhem in Fop Shop. When the middle eight turns into an approximation of the Pulp Fiction opening theme, it raises a smile and then it raises the question - are they actually doing what they claim? Mixing it up just right? 'If Friday Falls Through' really hammers home why this band are such a breath of fresh air. All the elements that they claim in their press release are indeed there, but the lyrical brilliance displayed on the album is where they've evidently been paying attention to The Smiths. 'If friday falls through/ And you need someone to share your Tupperware/I've got the appetite of a horse' he sings, and, reassuringly, the guitars grind to a halt on the word 'horse'. Lou Reed and Tom Verlaine look on in silent approval, no doubt, whilst Morrissey would be glad that people still use the word 'horse' in their songs. The next two tracks, 'Boy Oh Boy (Por Favor Mi Amor') and 'Give Me One Good Reason To Carry On' are harder and edgier, with less of the vocal nuance and more of the giving their fret-boards a good rodgering. 'Oh Eversholt' returns to normal duty, with some crinkly, wobbly guitars and lazy syllables spread over a lamenting, lilting bass line. 'F. U. U. K' is something of a protest song, with the band ticking off the bit on their promo sheet that name-drops The Clash. 'The future's no what it used to be' they sing, which proves that even when the band are dragging their sound around the influence-shop, they still maintain a nicely arched eyebrow. They let themselves down when they start actually singing 'fuck you, UK' at the end, whereupon they aren't so much Lou Reed or Television as a weedy Sex Pistols cover band. Resolutely, the album clings onto its mainland identity. They are as British as Supergrass and keep their priorities fixed - young, indie people drinking and getting lots of bad sex, or no sex, or violent drunken sex from ill-looking people. What goes along with this, of course, is that there is no USA alt rock overblown shite at all. They are concerned with a place they grew up in ('Eversholt Street' no doubt) and the kind of people that they are growing up into, which a lot of people can relate to. 'Put Me To Bed' has Delgado singing again, and it's so mid-90s it does actually bring back a lovely raft of sonic memories - a generation sighs. Suffice to say, it's not far away from the Britpop-era. It changes to three-chord mayhem with 'If I Could Prove You Wrong' which, to give its due, braves against the current NYC dance-rock infusion and return the 80s dynamic. So far the penultimate quarter hasn't been too stunning - and then something lovely happens. I heard it said somewhere once that an emotional life should exist like a heartbeat, up and down, rather than generally going slowly forward with no gradient, no conflict or ecstasy. The last two songs 'Last Breath' and 'There Is Light' are both very, very beautiful and very sad, but with an uplifting kind of artistic hope. 'Last Breath' is a duet - it had to happen - which is piano-led and 'There Is A Light' is where Ciccone most obviously name-check The Smiths. The guitar riff is a little like a slowed down and unfuzzed '1979' but the focus is small-town problems not drugstore cowboys with 'these zipper blues'. 'I've had enough/ and you've had too much … There is a light/ and one day I'll find it/ but for now let's get drunk and cry'. I'd go along with that, I think. This isn't an earth-shattering debut, but this trio do promise much,
and on this CD have delivered a varied and edgy collection of songs that
have their hearts determinedly plugged into the mains. There are lots
of tears, futile rebellion, drinking and dancing in their world, as well
as little snippets of much of what they claim influence them. However,
rather like a jigsaw isn't a picture until completed, I think they'll
have to wait a while and discover exactly what they want to sound like.
In the meantime, we have this - pleasantly diverse and as homebrewed as
Dad's real ale experiment. Brit-punk-pop/guitar-rock about love, sex, alcohol, and lovely sadness.
Female and male vocals. Shining star of a debut LP by a quintessentially
DIY indie band - recorded in their bedroom, put out by a tiny label, publicized
largely by word of mouth. Killer songs delivered by front child/woman
Rebekah Delgado and songwriter Micky Strickson. The band is tight as an
ankle cuff. Some songs remind me of The Only Ones. Lyrics cover desire,
acceptance, fucked-up relationships, and politics. London-based four piece Ciccone's debut album pays homage to the balmy days of Britpop without borrowing too heavily from that time. That said the jagged guitar mostly-instrumental opener is reminiscent of C86ers Stump more than anything. Following that alternate tracks are sung by Rebekah and Micky, hers is a Louise Wener style moan, sassy and distant, his a tired and weary sigh. Overall it's a really nice little alternative pop album, not too challenging, but the good tunes see them through. 'If Friday Falls Through' is a chirpy sing along and 'You're Beautiful, You'll Get By' a choppy, pulsating guitar number. The highpoints are 'Just Got Laid' which features Rebekah's faraway voice accentuating the lyrical story to full affect and 'f.u.u.k', which in the verse at least, sound like the theme to the Goodies. Far from being a bad thing, this twangy epic is good enough to even get away with including the shocking line "the future's not what it used to be". So while it's not going to break any barriers, 'Eversholt Street' is
a decent enough way to spend an hour of your life. It's pretty rare that I get sent a CD that I can genuinely say I really love. Mostly, I think they're rubbish, and struggle to listen through the whole thing. Mostly I don't, and lie and pretend I did to stay on the good side of press agents. Sometimes, I hear a CD and think it's good, but ultimately not worth actually elevating into my CD rack of CDs I listen to regularly. That rack holds 96 CDs. Very occasionally, one makes it in there. This might not be musically the best CD, it might not be the most original (both of which I give respect to even if I don't actually like it), but one I'll listen to. And about three times a year, I get sent a CD which I think is awesome, that goes in the rack, that gets an MD copied, and gets forced on everyone who scabs a lift from me. It's weird, people should pay me: I drive them around and play them awesome music. I don't need to tell you where this CD has ended up, because I wouldn't have written that if it weren't in the last category.
'Eversholt St' has echoes of loads of bands, and certain bits of certain songs can almost be referenced exactly to another time and another place. In the grand scheme of things, it's not a work of outstanding originality. But in this time, and this place, it's everything I ever hope will come out the speakers when I get sent a CD. It's laden with hooks, laden with lyrics that make you laugh, and some that are better than any emo song at making you cry. It's so good it makes me sing at strangers on the street, and I really can't sing. I am seriously considering standing in HMV and forcing people to buy it before they leave. It's pop music, but it's the way you wish pop music would be: honest, affectionate, and damn good.
Recorded by themselves, for no money, in their bedroom, it's sickening
that no label with money has yet got their hands on it and forced them
to get it recorded properly. It's not at all badly produced- it has a
very personal quality to it, a feeling that sometimes the songs are written
just for you. They have that quality of Pixies songs, like they were written
in a moment, but a moment of pure perfection. They have that quality where
you feel they whole song's about to fall apart, but that it doesn't is
utterly exhilarating. Lead single 'Look at you Now' is like Pulp and The
Only Ones and The Libertines and Blondie all rounded up and forced to
get on. Rebekah Delgado's lyrics are sweet and innocent, but when she
sings 'give me 50p and I'll show you a good time', you're torn. Even priests
couldn't turn that down, even the gay ones who only like little boys.
On 'If Friday Falls Through', Micky Strickson sings 'if you need someone
to share your take-away, I have the appetite of a horse'. when did anyone
else write a love lyric as original, as witty, and as damn good as that?
There are sad songs which are touching as opposed to clichéd, such
as Rebekah's stunning (words can't come close to how good it is, seriously)
vocal in 'Last Breath', there are happy songs, there are angry songs.
It's like you've lived their lives with them, and that surely is the mark
of something truly exceptional, that transferral of emotion that so few
bands can do. And a band that does it so well, and so variously, is a
rare treat indeed A very British jangle from Ciccone, a bit like Sleeper at times but also
with a touch of the Strokes (only more Sarah-fied), particularly on ‘Look
At You Now’. This is an LP that pinches at the hips, the opener ‘Flagellate
(Cuida Lo Que Dices)’ coffee-addled in its wiryness. Certainly this
is lively excellently written pop music for the hair-clipped and Doc Martened,
but accessible across the board. Ciccone seem to have come on a great deal since I first heard them about two years ago. Sure, they're not world beaters or anything, but in the absence of any decent female-fronted indie bands, they'll do just nicely. 'Eversholt Street' is full of jerky pop moments, from the impressive
recent single, 'Look at You Now', with it's scarily alluring refrain of
'Give me fifty pee/and I'll show you a good time'. Blimey, matron. In search of something that wasn’t stale, I stumbled upon Ciccone.
With a great variance throughout, this Involving thought provoking debut
LP is defiantly worth a listen. Eversholt Street is a well-produced, crisp
and rounded record. Catchy bass lines and guitar rifts complement the
vocals well and the switch between the vocals of Rebekah Delgado and Micky
Boy keep you hooked. The diversity and inventiveness of the band is shown
with this album, influences the band lists are drawn upon to great effect
and this ultimately results in an impressive debut album. Early punk and 50’s rock and roll contribute to a wide array of influences Ciccone have incorporated into this recorded. The result is a well-crafted debut album. It’ imaginative, true to the cause, involving, dramatic at stages, and has a real caliber to it. In short this is a refreshing new London based band that hopefully will be subject to great acclaim in the near future. The first single “Look at you now” draws from all that is good
about this genre, it’s musically exciting and the vocals are meaningful
and cleverly written. It’s a real energetic burst of quality British
music that isn’t over produced or trying to conform to set rules
to please the mass market, it’s therefore far from parse. This single
is going to be the first material many members of Joe public will hear,
it’s a great introduction to the band and should invoke a large amount
of interest in Ciccone and the following album release. |
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