booking: citygoats@gmail.com

citygoats onesheet PDF

press photos - high rez jpgs

Washington City Paper, April 2004
Citygoats, Citygoats, Citygoats. I had heard a little about this band before seeing them, but I still didn't know exactly what to expect aside from the most general info—a rock band with two basses. As it turned out, if you were to plot a set of axes, y'know, like you did in math class, one going from ugly to beautiful and the other going from loud to quiet, they'd fall pretty close to the origin. They're a roaring, kinda unhealthy little four-piece that give off a strong stink of AmRep, and who seem to be trying hard to find places to tuck more and more noise into their stuff, as much as possible without taking that final plunge and just becoming noise.

The two basses working together, and sometimes fighting with each other, make for a hella big pile of mud out front, but what's more disturbing, and I mean that in the best possible way, are the frightening specters of latent classic rock that seem to be hiding, ready to pounce, in all the darkened corners of their work. Just when you least expect it, some lurking leaden oldie reaches out of the shadows and taps you on the shoulder with its mottled, swollen, age-spotted claw—mebbe it's the cowbell from "Mississippi Queen," or Bun E. Carlos' drum rudiments, or tiny pieces broken off of Nugent's corpse that crop up in the guitar solos, or are stirred into a fine, powdery mixture with the blood of Joe Perry, and not Aerosmith Joe Perry, but 'Joe Perry Project' Joe Perry.

Hovering above all of this is what's left of the Swan Song Icarus, no longer a tragically youthful and lissome figure, having long since plunged Earthward and been made a mess of tangled broken parts, i.e., lots and lots of scrap-metal Led Zeppelin, not the berserker shrieks or the sloppy guitar solos, but again, just remnants—Bonzo's vodka-vomit covered drum fills and plenty of angular breaks and half-conceived segues. And with all of this going on, I detected not even a slight hint of irony; hell, their final song kicked off with a badass drum fill, a stick twirl, and then a giant unaccompanied bent note from the guitar, before all the hammers came down. Make no mistake about it; this is a fucking rock band, and for that they apologize to no one. Not that they should. If you can bring it like this, then bring it.

OnTap Magazine, August 2005
You’d never guess that two of the Black Cat’s most dapper bartenders make some of the loudest, dirtiest rock this side of the Mississippi. Blending the sludge of bands like Drive Like Jehu with the grandiose execution of the best ‘70s arena rock bands, Citygoats are injecting much-needed rock back into our indie city. All four members come from D.C.’s musical underground along with such previously noteworthy bands as Diastemata and The American Workplace. With Joe Halladay’s urgent vocals and Dean Dresser's murky guitar riffs, all held together by Patrick Mucklows’ notoriously relentless drumming, Citygoats’ sonic snarl couldn’t be ignored if you tried.

  
 
 



August 2005 Interview with DCPulse Magazine

What's your setup like? Who plays what gear?
Dean plays guitar and front man, Joe plays bass and singer, Matt Brown plays the other bass and Patrick handles the drums. Most of our gear walks the line between "broken in" and broken.
Do you all want a multi-million dollar contract?
Of course we do. Anyone who would say they don't is lying.
How did you form? Do you all get along? Why do you hate each other?
We were all friends before Citygoats and the band is an extension of that friendship.
Tell me a story about some roadtrips or fucked up experiences while gigging or something that flips you all out when you talk about it?
We usually take friends with us when we head out, we eat well and we rarely sleep on floors. We spend a lot of time discussing Elvis, listening to light rock and mocking other bands behind their backs.
Please describe your sound. Do you just evolve naturally? Or do you all practice very structurally? What's the process like?
Our sound evolved with countless hours of playing and drinking in Joe's basement -- we practiced for a full year before we even began playing shows. There's no defined vision or manifesto for Citygoats. We each have different approaches to playing and for the most part we write collectively, so it can take a long time to finish a song that we're all satisfied with.
What's a typical day at band practice like?
Start late, start drinking, talk, play, talk.
How do you gauge the DC music scene, "then" & now?
Better now that we're here. Our favorite "Nows" are Shortstack, Revival, Routineers, The Apes and Dawn of Man. Our favorite "Thens" include Canyon, Quixotic, Monorchid, Kingface, Bad Brains, Troublefunk and Link Wray.
Since you guys are so hot, how's the groupie situation?
Better for us than most DC bands.
What inspires or influences you guys?
Popular and critical opinion are typically lame. We tend to find our best inspiration in music and art that many would consider to be déclassé or "bad".
Thoughts on radio, video, and closing of WHFS in DC?
DC has always been one of the worst cities for radio and we stopped paying attention long ago. Viva El Zol.