Who? Working For a Nuclear Free City began as a studioband in 1999 comprised of Phil Kay on production and keyboards and GaryMcLure on guitar. In 2004, the band became a live entity with theaddition of John Kay on drums and Ed Hulme on bass. Their U.S. debut, Businessmen & Ghosts, out now on Deaf Dumb and Blind Recordings, compiles their eponymous British debut with their Rocket EP and some odds and ends in to a sprawling double-disc set.
What’s the Deal?Working For a Nuclear Free City is, frankly, the British Isles, or atleast the last 40 odd years of its music. “Kingdom” drips and swirlslike My Bloody Valentine, “Troubled Son” layers processed beats likeKasabian, “Sarah Dreams of Summer” sounds like slightly muffled Belleand Sebastian,” and Eastern Beatles strings creep in to “Forever.”There are other discernible influences here, too — check out standouttrack “Fallout” if you want to know what the Beach Boys would havesounded like if they had been from a smoggy industrial city — whichisn’t surprising considering the fact that the band lists over twohundred artists as “influences” on their MySpace page.
Fun Fact:Working For a Nuclear Free City is not a band of peaceniks, they’llhave you know. To wit, a MySpace posting titled “ABOUT OUR NAME…”attempts to clear up any misconceptions about the Mancunian quartet’saffinity for patchouli, pointing out that they took their name from asign in their hometown.”What gets my goat is people think we’re peaceloving hippies, which we sincerely are not,” the post reads. “They readthe name completely wrong. It should be read as ‘In the Employment’ ofa Nuclear Free City, that city being Manchester. However, it’s usuallytaken as ‘Campaigning for a…’ , which someone even but [sic] on aposter once – but spelt campaigning wrong. Dickhead. So we’re not CND,hippy, lefty-types. I would be quite happy if they pushed the button.It would mean I wouldn’t have to pay my £ 300 gas bill.”
Now Hear This:
Working For a Nuclear Free City – “All American Taste” DOWNLOAD MP3
On the Web:
Working For a Nuclear Free City at MySpace
workingforanuclearfreecity.com
Talk: Is Working For a Nuclear Free City working for you?
