Hard-FI
 

One of my favourite bands, 4 piece band from west London. Their debut "Stars Of CCTV" was released 2005.
They are one of my favourite because they bring a different sound to the genre that i cant get enough of.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c2...460_CD_L_F.jpg
favourite tracks are "Cash Machine", "Tied Up Too Tight", "Hard To Beat", "Living For The Weekend".




www.myspace.com/hardfi

come on, doesnt anyone have something to say about them?

Well, just about to listen to them on MySpace, never heard of them, but that album cover/name is win.

yer, i really liked that. thought it was clever. i love the melodica in cash machine, sounds really good

i love hard fi there stuff is great apart from the remix album they did that was terrible

did they do remix album? you got a link?

I love that album......I once saw them supporting Green Day in Milton Keynes as well. To be honest they sucked that day really badly, but I´ve heard they´re usually awesome live.

Fav track is "Better Do Better". Great breakup song. Also "Living For The Weekend" and the title track "Stars Of CCTV".

Any news of a second album release coming soon?

well from what ive found, they are either working on it now or are going to soon :tramp: but i havent found any realease dates yet

I disagree with the original post, I don't think they are that original, but I do like them. It's music that does'nt require much attention and does what it says on the tin-makes you tap your feet. Sometimes I just want music for entertainment and not for analysing.

i didnt say original, i said different. reason i said that is because i cant think of another band that sounds similar to them

Found this on Gigwise.com;

Hard-Fi have announced their new album will be called 'Once Upon a Time in the West' and hit the shops in September.

The follow up to their cheap but massively successful debut album ‘Stars of CCTV’ will be released on the 3 September.

Single 'Suburban Knights' will whet appetites a couple of days before on 30 August.


Sweeeeet.

:tramp: hell yes!!!!! cant wait :yeah:

So, who has heard the new single?

Its called Suburban Knights. I really like it....no real departure from the first album, but thats no surprise.

Video - YouTube - Hard Fi - Suburban Knights (Video)

They suck... quite a fair bit.

i quite liked it, i disagree slighty from what your saying. i reckon they've gone a new direction but not so much that they have lost their unique sound. but we still got the album to come yet :yeah:





what a piece of well constructed criticism, well done

hard-fi make my blood boil, they really really do suck the proverbial arsehole. Their lyrics and music just remind me of how quotidian and bleak life can be, i want music to take me away as a form of escapism, and this band just do the opposite. horrible.

Hard-Fi were never my favourite band but I liked all of the singles from Stars Of CCTV and I liked the lead singer's accent coming through in the vocals.

Suburban Knights isn't a bad single at all but it sounds like it's missing something that was there on the first album. Perhaps it's just subtle progress. I don't know.

they have one good song
aaaaaand thats about it

Certainly one of the worst major pop bands in recent British history. Their first album was endowed with a few good songs here and there - the second album by contrast consists of 12 or so songs, none of which surpass the weaker moments of Stars Of CCTV. A load of bland, insipid rubbish, they already landed in ithe Oasis-trap of becoming entirely self-derivative, on this occasion no more than one album into their damned careers.

What's worst of all about this band though is not the music (which gets away with being just terrible), but the lyrics. Once Upon A Time In The West has lines that can be described by no word other than "abomination". Check out this, for example:

Tonight, tonight I'm gonna take what's mine,
Tonight, tonight under a bright neon light
And if I ever find a way right out of here,
Tonight, tonight I'm gonna disappear.

Tonight, tonight oh sweetheart you and I,
Tonight, tonight we've got to feel alive,
Cause if we ever find a way right out of here,
Tonight, tonight we've gotta disappear.

But it ain't easy, no it ain't easy
Darling darling please

I can't lose you,
So come with me
And we'll break free,
Tonight, tonight, we'll shine so bright

Tonight, tonight we've gotta make our move,
Tonight, tonight we ain't got nothing to lose.
Cause if we ever find a way right out of here,
Tonight, tonight we gotta disappear.

AND HERE is Hard-Fi being edgy~!:

Life means nothing, when no one knows your name,
I never had too much but I'd give it all for fame,
Baby, baby...

She's there on the TV, So beautiful on screen,
Selling me a life I've never known and never seen,
Baby, baby...

If I only had you, If I only had...

Television, New religion, Let everyone sing Hallelujah.
Politicians, Don't wanna listen, They only wanna make money out of you.
Hallelujah!

So yeah, worst pop band to come out of the UK in quite some time.

Also, not to make a genre argument or anything, but it's worth noting that Hard-Fi and particularly Richard Archer himself do not seem to see themselves as part of or affiliate with the indie movement at all. Many times Archer has been reported as saying that they have their influences in dance and soul, and don't even listen to indie music. Famously, he went as far as to say that the aim of the band is to compete with Eminem, not "small-time" and "parochial" indie bands.

I agree that the second album absolutely sucks balls. The first album was good at the juice bar for a while but sound's dated already and they are useless live judging by the performances I have seen on TV.

utter crap.

Hard Fi? Why?

they lack lyrical talent, they are a band punching above there weight.

This comes from a guy who thought Greenday's last album was great.

Quintessential useless MB post. Thanks for your contribution.

I was actually surprised to see the high praise for this act since I’d only heard one song and it was “cash machine” coming out in the wake of the white rapper/nu-metal hog wash and I foolishly concluded they were a cash in on a trashy movement.

Since they came up on Last.fm with a random pop up after I choose to listen to artists that sounded like “yeah yeah yeahs.”

I have to imagine their much bigger in the U.K. than here though given that I read something on them in Q and I don’t think RS or Spin know their alive.

They are pretty big in the UK. They chart well and I believe both their albums (definitely their second) went to number one. This is an example, though, of a band who are interested simply in being big and virtually nothing else. They aren't even abashed to admit to it. Richard Archer declares that he wants to make it in the USA: he's in "competition with Eminem". Praise to Archer for his grand ambitions and ability to make catchy (albeit in an extremely irritating sense) pop that pleases the shite out of the general public.

However, the fact is that he lacks the verbal dexterity of your Alex Turners and your Pete Dohertys and whatnot. It's clear to see from the lyrics. Jackhammer, who's also heard the album as rigorously as I have, will be only too pleased to confirm that Archer's lyricisms show less skill and depth than those of a late primary school kid with star aspirations (examples on previous page). Couple that with the excruciatingly bland redundancy of the music, particularly as exhibited on Album No.II, and essentially what you've got is band who've got themselves stuck in a niche pretty early on, with little sign of a light at the end of the tunnel.

Hard-Fi will continue making records, but even their mainstream popularity will dwindle. You have to have had as many big early hits as Oasis to reach the point of being able to do the same thing over and over again without the general masses deciding to dispense with you. Forget Eminem, Richard. You're gonna be havin' trouble keeping up with Lethal B.

I'll just repeat what I said in the 'worst support act' thread

I should also point out that they were bottom of the bill , the 'crowd' was 4 people and that the girl behind the bar I was sitting at was getting 10 times the attention they were.
Talking to people after the gig (which consisted of Hard Fi , Tom Vek , The Departure & Graham Coxon headlining) most people thought Tom Vek was the one who would go on to be the most popular band playing there that night. Hard Fi were the worst band of the night.

So you could say it was a bit of a shock seeing them on Saturday morning TV with a number one album about 8 months down the line.

But is it that the performance itself was so bloody uninspiring, or that people just did not relate to the music? Could they, like, not even play their songs properly?!

difference is that Green Day aren't a band punching above there there weight. Hard Fi will never come close to Green Day's achievements. And also you are petty *******.

Kaiser Chiefs are another example of bone numbingly averageness. Add The Kooks very very soon.

I think a combination of the songs & the performance being uninspiring.

The performance did nothing to grab your attention , the music was just your average bland white boy guitar pop that was nothing out of the ordinary. They may as well have turned the jukebox or had a pub covers band on rather than have them there.

I'd say that the Chiefs showed more promise than Hard-Fi with their initial release, which had a few strong-ish tunes. Their follow-up was a grave sonic offence. Would you not agree with point 1, tho?

The Kooks had one song that was kinda decent pop - "She Moves In Her Own Way". The other radio hits I've heard were poor attempts to match the good qualities of that song.

Alas. Arctic Monkeys stand alone as the most talented and consistent bunch of so-and-so's in the current England-based Britpop scene.

I hate the Kaiser Chiefs for duping me by making 2 really good singles & releasing them first therefore making me think all their stuff was that good.

Oh how I was wrong.

I accepted Kaiser Chiefs for what they were on the first album but as you say the second is awful tat. What was point one sorry? lol

These New Puritans show a lot of promise. The album is nothing like the singles and they have an experimental streak that is bursting to get out.

Add the Wombats to the shit list too.

On the topic of lamea$s follow-ups, did any of y'all hear Razorlight's second album btw? Wasn't it just simply teh suckage?

I hated the first album. I really cannot stand them.