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Takeover UK takes its turn on tour
Thursday, January 27, 2005
By Ed Masley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
They don't have a record out, but the members of Pittsburgh's misleadingly titled The Takeover UK are taking off on a six-week tour with local heavyweights The Juliana Theory and Zao.
"It's our first tour, and we're playing the Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia and House of Blues in L.A.," says Mark Solomich, who shares both writing and lead vocal duties with Nick Snyder. "You can't beat that, playing your first show to 500 people."
One of their earliest shows was an opening slot on a Juliana Theory bill, and luckily enough, that band's lead singer took a liking to them. It was another case of being in the right place at the right time.
Solomich was at school in Boston when the seeds were planted for The Takeover UK. A friend he'd known since high school, Josh Sickels, had started a band with Snyder, so Solomich checked it while he was visiting home.
"I could tell they had sat down and put a lot of time into their songs. It was just great rock songs, which you don't come across that often," Solomich says.
By the time the set was through, he knew they had to get a band together, which they did within a day of Solomich's return to Pittsburgh (armed with what would become the group's first demos).
The sound on those Solomich demos, which the other guys don't play on, is infectious, guitar-driven pop, with roots in everything from the British Invasion to Big Star, not the sort of thing you might expect from kids who'd cut their teeth in hardcore bands.
"There's a connection, I think, between our music and what I consider punk rock, like the Clash," Solomich says. "But on the other hand, we always loved the Beatles. A good pop song done the right way, it's unbeatable."
They've since recut "Damn Tryin'" from those demos with a special guest, Gil Snyder of the Mystic Knights, a local legend whose career was launched with a stint in the Iron City Houserockers.
After all, his kid is in the band.
"We practice at his house," says Solomich, "so he's heard us a million times."
- Pittsburgh Post Gazette
The Takeover uk
( The Takeover Uk )
Comme son nom ne l'indique pas The Takeover uk est américain from Pitsburgh. Leur album n'a pas de nom non plus, en fait il existent actuellement qu'un 3 titres promo distribué afin de faire connaître leur musique aux gens et démarcher les labels. Mais on a eu la chance de recevoir l'album dont sont extraits ces titres. The Takeover uk et un mélange de pop et de rock, plus clairement appeler pop-rock, on tenait juste à préciser cela car de nos jours beaucoup de choses sont appelées pop-rock sans en être. Donc The Takeover uk c'est un peu du Beatles, un peu du Oasis. Contrairement à la mode du moment, être émo vaille que vaille, les The Takeover uk ont des morceaux qui dégagent une énergie très positive, un côté pop joyeuse très Phantom Planet. Ecouter les 11 titres de cet album est un moment agréable. Enfin, on peut se détendre un peu, comme un bon bain chaud, plein de mousse et de senteurs parfumées où seule la sérénité fait des vagues. C'est si rare un bon pop-rock qu'il faut en profiter au maximum. Le plus surprenant c'est sûrement que ces petits gars ne sont pas anglais, pourtant on pourrait facilement se laisser prendre. Pour résumer, pour mettre un rayon de soleil dans votre tête, prendre le temps quelques minutes, The Takeover uk est la solution, alors faites vous plaisir.
Kronik O.S.
- Spiritribe.com
Fresh faces of music for 2009: Corneille, DM Smith, and
more
BY JIM FARBER
DAILY NEWS MUSIC CRITIC
Sunday, January 11th 2009, 4:00 AM
Every year the music scene begins with a pause. After the loud rush of albums that filled the fall with superstar
releases, all greedy for the holiday dollar, we come to an oasis of calm.
But the music biz hasn't stopped. On the contrary, the respite is a perfect opportunity for newer, edgier artists to get
a fair hearing without the Britneys and U2s of the world hogging all the ink and airwaves.
Here are some of the hottest new stars putting out good work in the cold weeks ahead:
Here We Go Magic
Where they come from: Brooklyn. While they take a group's name, Here We Go Magic largely represents the toil of
a single musician: Luke Temple. He debuted last year with "Hold a Match for a Gasoline World," a disk released
under his own moniker. But for Here We Go he went in a very different direction.
What they sound like: Unlike Temple's singer/songwriter-oriented solo CD, Here We Go Magic melds African
polyrhythms with '70s German sturm und drang art rock and Eno's ambient escapades. Magic may have something
in common with other cool, young, intellectual, neo-Afro-pop bands, like Vampire Weekend and Mah-jongg. But
Temple's ethereal vocals and dream-pop melodies give the sound his own sumptuous spin.
Title of album: "Here We Go Magic"
When it arrives: Feb. 17
DM Stith
Where he comes from: Though he grew up in Buffalo, Stith moved to Brooklyn several years ago and soon got in
tight with edgy stars like art diva Shara Worden (otherwise known as My Brightest Diamond) and the prime mover of
the freak-folk movement, Sufjan Stevens (who signed Stith to his Asthmatic Kitty label).
Though he grew up in Buffalo, Stith moved to Brooklyn several years ago and soon got in tight with edgy stars like
art diva Shara Worden (otherwise known as My Brightest Diamond) and the prime mover of the freak-folk
movement, Sufjan Stevens (who signed Stith to his Asthmatic Kitty label).
What he sounds like: A ghostly cascade of noise like no other, marked by eerie pianos and primitivist beats. Stith's
vocals sound like cries from a fallen angel (who would be an ideal conveyer for his lyrics and their tortured take on
religion). The result? Freak folk's answer to Tom Waits.
Title of album: "Heavy Ghost"
When it arrives: March 10Corneille
Where he comes from: Rwanda, by way of Montreal. The single-named singer/writer/producer scored hits in
Canada, France and even Japan, all with songs sung in French.
What he sounds like: On his English-language debut, Corneille sings in a sexy/smooth soul croon, landing
somewhere in the velvet air between Boy George and George Michael. Likewise, Corneille's music ladles out a light
brand of R&B pop. One cut - "Africain in New York" - provides a cool twist on Sting's song about an Englishman in
that same city.
Page 1 of 2 Fresh faces of music for 2009: Corneille, DM Smith, and more
1/13/2009 - NY Daily News
It’s a bit jarring to discover that quartet The Takeover UK don’t actually reside in some far-off, across-the-pond location. These
young fellas grew up right here in the U.S. of A. Pittsburgh to be exact.
The five tracks on their It’s All Happening EP (Ryko) pay homage to modern British Invasion groups and take more than a few
cues from former kings of New York, The Strokes. “Don’t Wait Up” rides on the coattails of “Last Nite,” while opening track
“Lean On It” melds Franz Ferdinand’s crisp delivery with a smattering of the Ramones’ trashy sneer.
Frontman Nic Snyder and guitarist Mark Solomich share songwriting duties. Like other musical writing partners of yore
(Jagger/Richards, Lennon/McCartney, Bon Jovi/Sambora) Snyder and Solomich craft winning, fervent melodies. While a
“Yesterday” or “Sympathy For The Devil” fails to appear on this small introductory collection, the ass-shaking sector of the
audience won’t notice the lack of depth in the lyrics.
The Von Bondies headline.
– Janine Schaults
Tags:Stage Buzz, The Takeover UK Weekly
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Page 4 of 4 Illinois Entertainer » Blog Archive » The Takeover UK preview
11/10/2008 - Illinois Entertainment Preview
THE TAKEOVER UK
Running With The Wasters
A sound as British as the name.
Pittsburgh-based rockers the Takeover UK don’t waste any time living up to the country they’ve tacked onto the end of their band name. They swagger in with horns and handclaps while frontman Nic Snyder slurs his way through, “My backseat was made for you, if only for tonight,” like he’s a direct descendant of an Arctic Monkey. The more rocking numbers—of which there are many—are filtered through echoes of glam-rock, Brit-pop and ’70s punk with Wall Of Sound production (score one for the U.S.!), infectious pop hooks and an unmistakable enthusiasm. The band slow down nicely, too, recalling the earliest days of the British Invasion on the pining “Evelyn” and the best of the Kinks on the wistful “Sleep It All Away.” (Rykodisc; rykodisc.com) Ed Masley - Alternative press
Discography
Running With The Wasters - Rykodisc (March 24, 2009)
It's All Happening (EP) - Rykodisc (May 20, 2008)
Photos
Bio
On Saturday nights, 21st Street, Manhattan’s notorious strip of clubs peddling fourhundred-
dollar bottles of vodka to Paris Hilton wannabes and nouveau riche hedge fund
managers, is a nightmare. “It’s like mardi gras. You’ve got a street filled with beautiful
girls in short skirts, but we ain’t offering what they want. I shovel horseshit for a living,”
shrugs Nic Snyder, guitar player, singer, and heartthrob of The Takeover UK. He has the
good looks of a mid-western serial killer — you could see him playing against Sissy
Spacek in a Hollywood epic.
The rest of the gang also carry the charisma and gravitas that comes with living in
Pittsburgh and getting the hell out. Besides Nic, among them are Mark and Adam, both
office drones, and Josh, an out of work pizza delivery boy. Together they have cemented
a bond as tough as anything that has come out of a town famous for forging steel.
The Takeover UK have been recording here on 21st Street, putting the finishing touches on
their debut, , a bold, brash pop masterpiece. They make no bones
about it, they are unabashedly pop — though their punk attitude comes shining through with
thick power chords and vocals that teeter between sugar and snarl. In a world of color-bynumbers
pop performed by painted faces and hand-picked record company doll babies,
The Takeover UK stand out in sharp relief — whatever territory they have “taken” they
have earned inch by inch, with sweat and raw talent. They are lucky to have two singersongwriters
working as one, blessed with an incredible depth of compositional tools – how
is it even possible to come up with so many good songs? And every one of them takes
unexpected twists and turns across an album brimming with angst, happiness, anger,
confusion, and humor. It does not hurt that they can play their asses off.
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