Katalina Kicks
London, England, United Kingdom | Established. Jan 01, 2015 | SELF | AFTRA
Music
Press
Katalina Kicks musical sense into the unimaginable. I listened to – C Bomb – and was impressed with the difference between the cocaine riddled vocals and the knowledgeable instruments; it felt like I was taking music lessons from Slash. Check out – C BOMB – here and stalk them in 2013 - Independent Music News
Who needs a record company these days when you’ve got the internet, a van and a Marshall stack’
This is what the boys say and they are definitely well on the way to proving this point, with a headline sell out NME CLub Show, #1 in New Yorks Indie Music Video Charts, UK, States and Canada Tours and a first album in the bag – 2013 looks set to be a HUGE year for these #LADS - The Mac Twins
Great Pop/Rock song! Better hit this up!
- Music XRay
Great Pop/Rock song! Better hit this up!
- Music XRay
‘Wow! These guys can write a hook!
Anthem style chorus!’ – TotalRock Radio - TotalRock Radio
‘Wow! These guys can write a hook!
Anthem style chorus!’ – TotalRock Radio - TotalRock Radio
I like this. Good melodies. - Rock Sound Magazine
‘It’s the kind of thing to play full volume at the end of a tedious day.’ - Financial Times ‘How to Spend It’ Magazine
‘It’s the kind of thing to play full volume at the end of a tedious day.’ - Financial Times ‘How to Spend It’ Magazine
‘Katalina Kicks are about ready to drop their first single, and I dare say you wont be disapointed. This is the kind of song that will get people jumping on the dancefloor at a tepid rock night in Bognor or in one of the many Camden shrines to music…and everywhere in between! When listening to this song, you can feel a certain level of intensity. The guitar is almost thrashy in the background as vocals are belted out at a laringitus causing level. The video suits the band. It’s no gimmicks, just about the music, the sound created. When I listen to music, I cant help but compare the artist to artists that came before them, and try to find influence. In the case of Katalina Kicks you can find a pot pourri of different motivation. Theres an element of Smashing Pumpkins, a timbleful of Bush and a fair deal of Placebo. I very much doubt these guys will be a secret very long. Here is their single ‘ 145.’ Rating: 8/10 - Dependant on Indie
‘Stompalong guitars and a singalong chorus after each verse that socks it with sneer and attitude, this single’s got the lot. The hooks are out in the first four bars, and there’s no let-up until the guitar break gives way to a screaming crescendo and a stop-dead ending. Katalina Kicks describe themselves as ‘alt-rock’ and suggest that their sound melds ‘Clash and the Kinks with The Hives, Smashing Pumpkins, QOTSA and Nirvana.’ I really can’t argue with that: there’s a poppy sensibility, but it’s delivered with both lyrical and musical eloquence (just check the lines ‘I don’t want a miracle, I just want an education / before you say anything, get away / I don’t want to know it, I just want your medication’ to get an idea of what they’re about), not to mention pure punk power. At once vintage classic and contemporary, it’s concise and energetic: everything you could want from a single, really. Our Rating: 8/10 - Whisperin and Hollerin'
'London's latest garage rockers fit neatly in with The Hives and Dogs with a confident first single.' - Stick News
'London's latest garage rockers fit neatly in with The Hives and Dogs with a confident first single.' - Stick News
'Katalina Kicks would certainly not be out of place kicking up a storm on the rock stage at any major UK festival with followers and fans head banging and singing to their hearts' content.' - UK Music Review
'Newcomers Katalina Kicks are really hitting home with their explosive single 145. With the over-saturation of indie bands who promise excitement they can’t deliver, it’s incredibly refreshing to listen to a decent rock band who can deliver energy in the form of a three minute single. Combine the low end meatiness of the Hives, the artistic side of Queens of the Stone Age, the unique vocals of Placebo and the wah wah solos of Kirk Hammet and you get the raw power of 145, the latest single from Katalina Kicks. The track successfully captures the energy of the band and leaves the listener with the desire for more.' 5/5 - Music News
'Newcomers Katalina Kicks are really hitting home with their explosive single 145. With the over-saturation of indie bands who promise excitement they can’t deliver, it’s incredibly refreshing to listen to a decent rock band who can deliver energy in the form of a three minute single. Combine the low end meatiness of the Hives, the artistic side of Queens of the Stone Age, the unique vocals of Placebo and the wah wah solos of Kirk Hammet and you get the raw power of 145, the latest single from Katalina Kicks. The track successfully captures the energy of the band and leaves the listener with the desire for more.' 5/5 - Music News
The first single from London alt-rockers Katalina Kicks is a hook-laden delight with a confidence and direction seldom found together in a debut. “145” has the attitude and swagger to make it in the testosterone fuelled world of garage-rock bands, but manages to stray from some of the more idiotic and bland tendencies of the genre. Lending from the The Hives, Jimmy Eat World, The Enemy and especially fellow London favourites, Dogs, the four-piece still manage to create an original song, with flashes of flair invention and personality. Propelled along by a tight bassline the boys from the capital lead from energetic punk verses to a much more poppy melodic chorus and back, all with a beating political heart; Katalina Kicks do well not to let their anti-establishment sentiment become the shallow charade that other bands have. The chorus ends with a startlingly relevant, but equally down to earth, line of “Don’t tell me what you want, tell me what you got” in these times of rampant electioneering. Also deserving of special mention is their reference to Harold Macmillan’s famous “You’ve [/ Britain has] never had it so good” speech. Not just full of substance and charisma, Katalina Kicks deliver one of the best guitar solos likely to be found on record this year. Clearly they have the intelligence and relevance to write a song with an actual purpose but the pop sensibility and rock capability to make a damn catchy song at that. A lethal and exciting combination, I can see them having more than one last.fm listener, very, very soon. - Room Thirteen
Track of the Day for Thursday comes from new West London band Katalina Kicks and '145'.
Their latest single, '145', was released on July 5th on Snappi Music and you can enjoy it here on ClashMusic.com today.
Currently recording their debut album for release later in the year, the band, made up of ex-members of Kyro, Fiction Plane and Remember, have picked up plaudits already with an exciting future ahead.
- Clash Magazine
'Tipping their hats to the likes of Smashing Pumpkins, Bush and Placebo they stand out on today's scene of predominantly indie-centric live scene. Catch them before they are no longer whispers on the live circuit.' - Subba Cultcha
'Tipping their hats to the likes of Smashing Pumpkins, Bush and Placebo they stand out on today's scene of predominantly indie-centric live scene. Catch them before they are no longer whispers on the live circuit.' - Subba Cultcha
'With real stage presence, the ability to put on a great live show and a front man who has something to say, this up and coming band is definitely one to watch out for in 2010. With thundering bass lines, pounding drums, gritty vocals and shredding guitars, the guys put on a great show which had most of the late teen early 20's crowd happily moshing away.' - - International Life Magazine
'With real stage presence, the ability to put on a great live show and a front man who has something to say, this up and coming band is definitely one to watch out for in 2010. With thundering bass lines, pounding drums, gritty vocals and shredding guitars, the guys put on a great show which had most of the late teen early 20's crowd happily moshing away.' - - International Life Magazine
'Currently recording their debut album in London’s Air Edel studios, Katalina Kicks create slick alt-rock with stadium rock guitar riffs and power chords aplenty. Katalina Kicks are clearly a hard-working bunch and it shows. The songs sound so polished even when listening to demo versions, demonstrating clean and clear song compositions and structure. ‘Killer’ is a searing The Killers’ ‘Hot Fuss’ style anthem that soars through the speakers with precision and prowess. ‘Supernatural’ is darker in tone but still maintains the aura of understated yet effective rock that make Katalina Kicks so impressive.' - Sailing Sound
'Currently recording their debut album in London’s Air Edel studios, Katalina Kicks create slick alt-rock with stadium rock guitar riffs and power chords aplenty. Katalina Kicks are clearly a hard-working bunch and it shows. The songs sound so polished even when listening to demo versions, demonstrating clean and clear song compositions and structure. ‘Killer’ is a searing The Killers’ ‘Hot Fuss’ style anthem that soars through the speakers with precision and prowess. ‘Supernatural’ is darker in tone but still maintains the aura of understated yet effective rock that make Katalina Kicks so impressive.' - Sailing Sound
Discography
Katalina Kicks:
Album 'Point Blank' - release date autumn 2013
Single 'The Limits We Set' - charity single for Teenage Cancer Trust through Specialized - release date 2nd June 2013. Song used as theme tune for Udderbelly Comedy Festival.
Single 'Forever Young' - release date May 3rd 2013
Single 'National Hero' - released 8th March 2013 - reached No. 1 in the UK Emerging Icons Student Radio Chart and No 1 on the Strummerville Mixtape Charts.
Debut album 'The Return of Montague Rotter' - UK/European release - January 2012.
Debut album 'The Return of Montague Rotter' - US release July 2011. Great CMJ coverage, charting on numerous College radio stations.
'Me' - single released 6th December 2010. Extensive radio and TV playlisting throughout UK.
'145' - single released July 2010. Extensive radio and TV playlisting throughout UK. Received critical acclaim from the British press, including 'Track of the Day' at Clash Magazine.
I Know Best (feat Remember) - Released in Europe March 2010. Playlisted on MTV Europe.
Ian George:
No 1 Creation - Released in Europe October 2008 - reached #30 in the MTV Europe charts
The Kyro EP - EP released 2006 - reached Napster Top 50 and featured as a recommended album
Day In - Album released 2005.
Photos
Bio
Developers and moneymen can change a city’s shape, but not its soul. There are ancient spirits that skyscrapers, shopping malls and “affordable” housing can never silence. Spirits that will always find their way through the ever-shifting concrete and clay; that once whistled up Goldhawk Road to the three chord stomp of The Who’s I Can’t Explain; that trembled between the traffic of the Westway to The Clash’s White Riot. The endemic sound of London, especially West London, will always find the crack in the masonry to slip out and shake free. In Katalina Kicks, it shakes yet again.
Katalina Kicks are a London band as only a London band can be, three nomads from different points of the compass – a Southern soul-searcher, a Northern agitator and a South American vixen – whose desire to make music lured them first to the metropolis, and eventually each other. And, by birth, a quintessentially West London band, first fashioned in the clatter and fume of Shepherds Bush. Even if they’ve changed postcodes since, their sound – urgent, questioning, loud and fierce – has never lost the urban beat of W12.
Singer and guitarist Ian George is the last man standing from Katalina Kicks Mk I, once a punkish quartet who released an album named after their cat, stray moggy “Montague Rotter”, and found themselves accidentally sound-tracking a straight-to-DVD horror Z-Movie directed by the son of James Bond. “I’ve never watched it!” grimaces Ian of Jason Connery’s 51. “When we started we had an American publishing deal and that was one of the weird things that came of it. We got all of £3.50 for having a song in a crap film. So it’s taken a long time, and a lot of changing line-ups to get to where Katalina Kicks are today. I’ve always believed in the band. It’s just been a waiting game to find the right people.”
One such right person finally surfaced in the beard and flexing tattoos of Jase Wilkinson. Not so much born as smelted in Manchester, as a kid he’d wait for his stepdad to leave the house so he could sneak a listen of his Led Zeppelin vinyl. “And getting a whopping for it when he came home and found out.” Between John Bonham and hip hop he fell in love with the drums, later moving to London, instinctively settling westwards off Ladbroke Grove, first blurring his limbs behind the kit of a ska band until a chance audition with Katalina Kicks. Which he failed. “Because he wore these dodgy heavy metal black leather fingerless gloves,” laughs Ian. “My first thought was, no way am I having THOSE in the band. But then a few weeks later I called him back. Before Jase our drummers had mostly been arseholes, mentally ill, drug addicts and glory-grabbers. He was none of those. He had the passion and the power I’d always needed… so long as he kept those bloody gloves off!”
In the meantime bassists continued to fall by the wayside until a mysterious Brazilian answered their situation vacant ad. Nadia Silverstone left her home city of Curitiba for London the day after her eighteenth birthday. Her one goal: to join a London rock band.
Katalina Kicks were the only one to ever give her an audition. Their first surprise was Nadia’s look: a slinky, silver-bobbed creature with exotic Italian/Japanese features, less Girl From Ipanema than Girl From Outer Space. The second was Nadia’s style: a bass that was both forceful and fluid, twisting in the lull between Jase’s rhythmic thunder. That plane ticket wasn’t spent in vain. Katalina Kicks have been a formidable core trio ever since, occasionally swelling their ranks to four with an extra guitarist for added live ferocity.
Together they play simple and direct heavy garage rock’n’roll: power chords and pummelling rhythms, fuzzy guitar and throbbing bass, big riffs and shouted choruses, pin-balling between grunge, punk and heavy blues. In Ian they’ve also a songwriter who can’t help but use his band as a platform to air his anxieties about the world around him. “I would never pigeonhole us as a ‘political band’,” he explains. “I just write about things I see and hear that upset me. We’re not preaching at anyone or trying to change the world. We’re just saying these are the things that affect and worry us. They’re too important not to talk about, whether in conversation or in rock’n’roll. That’s all we try to do.”
The new EP, Vices, presents Katalina Kicks at their loudest, scuzziest and most politically aggrieved yet. But then opening with a “cameo” from Donald Trump, how could it not be? The Seattle-sized quake of Guns was written after watching Obama’s tearful reaction to the Sandy Hook school shooting. “It’s a song of despair,” says Ian. “The most powerful....
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