After a slightly-shortened gestation period, Hard-Fi’s brilliant debut record, Stars Of CCTV, is now available in the US. Eight months after it was released in the UK, the Mercury Music Prize-nominated rock extravaganza prepares to take the US by storm. Born from the ashes of early 2000s fake Pulp act Contempo, Hard-Fi are the sounds of the streets of Staines (that’s near Heathrow, map nerds). Perhaps initially better known as the fictional home of Ali G, Hard-Fi have escaped the chav-ridden population of Staines to issue an album that stands alone in its field. Stars Of CCTV is The Clash backing Mike Skinner of The Streets; it’s Blur raised on the wrong side of the tracks in a knife-fight with The Specials. Initially recorded for £300 and released by the band themselves, the record hit the top of the charts in the UK, going double platinum on the strength of catchy singles like “Cash-Machine,” “Tied Up Too Tight,” and “Living For The Weekend.” For Hard-Fi, it’s all attitude and lyrics, their songs conveying anecdotes of the trials and tribulations of life on the streets in suburban England, all the while backing their yarns with jangling guitars and groovy underpinnings. Hard-Fi looks to have risen above the white trash undertow and is riding that wave to large-scale success in the UK; lookout America, that wave is just about to crash on to our shores.
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