About Coin-Op

Coin-Op is a 4-player adventure, comprising of: Nick Hills (keys/synths/vocals), Craig Robbins (bass/vocals), Tom Windsor (guitar/vocals), and Ian Laws (drums/vocals). The Brighton based quartet have released a number of singles on Fierce Panda as well as the mini album 'Friendly Fire'. Their debut single 'Democracies' (no.19 in John Peel's Festive 50 2002) was the chosen theme for MTV Europes weekly music show, 'The Fridge' - on which the band also appeared live. Coin-Op have also recorded radio sessions for XFM, Virgin and Radio 1, which included a hectic day at Maida Vale recording sessions for both Steve Lamaq and the late great John Peel. In 2003 the band played the BPI's UK Showcase night at Austin's SXSW, sharing the bill with Kaito, British Sea Power and The Darkness - as well as a U.K. tour supporting The Inspiral Carpets, including a sellout show at Londons Brixton Academy. Other live forays have seen the 'Op' bag support slots with the likes of: The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, The Rapture, Trans Am, Death Cab for Cutie, and The Polyphonic Spree - whilst somehow still remembering their passports to play festivals in both Sweden and Spain. Their eccentric brand of art rock was once described by the N.M.E as "a retro futurism made by Devo-friendly dorks!" - Kerrang! also described the band as having, "arty leanings and a natural born obtuseness" - whereas Organ described the Coin-Op sound as, "The Fall and Clinic going mad in a fairground". Other comparisons have been to Pavement, The Pixies and The Cardiacs. The Stereoeffect went so far as describing Coin-op "as one of the best new bands in Britain" - whereas the Guardian proclaimed that "they have a lot to offer the big, wide world". However, some might argue The Fly were closer to the truth when saying they "admired the bands lack of commercial ambition", because despite apparent universal acclaim the band inexplicably imploded in early 2004 and have only recently emerged from a 2 year hibernation period. A little grizzly, but with a hungry new line-up. Musically the blueprint remains the same - the Coin-Op sound is still diverse and difficult to pigeonhole. Their blistering live set shimmies and stumbles between an off-kilter new wave clatter and casiocore postrock wigouts and lyrically the band still inhabit an eccentric world few choose to visit. 'Hey Uri', is among the bands first new material and is a playful attack on the primetime spoon-bending charlatan, and has already been endorsed by US tastemaker Fluxblog. The song is a tantalising glimpse into their world, a place where Taxidermists rub shoulders with Russian Tzars, heartbreak handclaps hedonism, and love lies symmetrically in the pet cemetery. It can be strange, but there are no strangers.