:: news ::

We've posted some new MP3s to the test version of the new Omnibus
Records site, including songs by the brand new CITIZENS HERE AND
ABROAD & GARY YOUNG'S HOSPITAL albums, as well as the upcoming
ELECTRO GROUP E.P.
http://www.omnibusrecords.com/test_site/pages/page_04.html .

Fresh from their appearance at the 2004 SF Noise Pop Festival and a week
long S. California / SW tour, CITIZENS HERE AND ABROAD will be hitting the

road again in a week in support of their recent release "Ghosts Of Tables
And Chairs". Dates and reviews posted below.

CITIZENS HERE AND ABROAD
4/15 - Reno NV @ Zephyr Bar
4/16 - Salt Lake City UT @ Kilby Court
4/18 - Denver CO @ Larimer Lounge w/ Clemente
4/19 - Lawrence KS @ Eighth St. Tap Room
4/20 - Norman OK @ Opolis
4/21 - Chicago IL @ The Bottom Lounge
4/22 - Dayton OH @ Elbo's
4/23 - New York NY @ Piano's
4/24 - Brooklyn NY @ Boogaloo's w/ Casual Dots, Wikkid (part of Aerosol
Burns party)
4/25 - Philadelphia PA @ The Fire w/ The New Motels, Fooled By April
4/26 - Columbus OH @ Legion Of Doom (1579 Indianola Ave) w/ The Shande
(ex. Shove), Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
4/27 - Columbia MO @ Music Cafe
4/28 - Fayetteville AK @ JR's Lightbulb Club
4/29 - Denton TX @ Rubber Gloves
5/5 - San Francisco CA @ Makeout Room w/ The Shande (ex. Shove),
Goodbye Brian


CITIZENS HERE AND ABROAD
"Ghosts Of Chairs" CD (omni 044)

Spin.com
One might expect Bay Area indie rockers Citizens Here And Abroad to take a

cue from their peers and infuse their songs with bubblegum harmonies and
sunny guitars. But instead of Mamas and Papas-tinged psychedelia, the
Citizens take a moodier approach to their music. Murmuring guitars and
whispery lyrics shift to crescendos of redundant chords that are accented by

drummer Chris Wetherell's spare, crisp beats. On their ambitious debut
album, Ghosts of Tables And Chairs, the Citizens cull the back-catalogs of

quirky femme-rock predecessors such as Liz Phair and the Breeders: On
"The Voices," lead singer Adrienne Robillard channels Phair's monotone vocal

stylings circa Exile in Guyville—only without the sex—while "A Change of
Scene" finds Robillard & Co. laying down breathy Breeeders-esque
harmonies. Through such homages, the Citizens show brief flashes of
mischief, but Robillard's overly melodramatic delivery often overwhelms such

playful leanings. Lyrically speaking, Robillard's tendency to find the resonant

in the mundane offers a kind of Lost In Translation approach to the rock
song, hinting that unassuming packages often conceal larger, unanswerable
questions ("Should we change everything? / Rearrange the furniture / Start all

over?"). But her overwrought enunciation on tracks like "On Your Own Hand"

eventually proves tiresome. Despite Robillard's anxious intonation, Ghosts

does not lack for climactic and other feel-good moments: Dan Lowrie's
pensive strumming often builds to a fiery dénouement of cascading chords,
while brushes with bells and surf guitar hooks add a lighthearted veneer to

some songs (note the overture to "Enter The Elevator," which features
keyboardist Chris Groves fiddling with the opening bars of the 70's dance
anthem "If You Could Read My Mind.") But these glimpses of coyness all too

often don't mesh with the distressing vocals. Perhaps the Citizens should
throw some wicker chairs out the window—then their songs might fully
embrace the playfulness that is lurking just beneath the surface.

San Francisco Bay Guardian, January 2004
“Catchy guitar lines and dynamic shifts between slow, hushed beginnings and

orchestral crescendos give Ghosts plenty of drama, but the charm is often in

the vocals. “Microphone"'s emotional pressure comes in the wistful,
drawn-out delivery of a line like "I know it's somewhere out there if I could

only get there," in the tension between the verses' measured tones and the

chaotic counterpoint of the chorus. "In Flight Movie" slows its pace for a

gorgeously unhappy line in which the narrator's head fills with unwanted
ideas. Throughout, the album holds the pleasure of Robillard and Groves's
warm, slightly swoony harmonies, which have a romantically melancholic
quality befitting an album populated by ghosts ." Lynn Rapoport

The San Francisco Weekly, January 2004
"The ghastly, alarmlike guitar pattern that opens "The Voices," the first song

on San Francisco quartet Citizens Here and Abroad's Ghosts of Tables and
Chairs , is a good indication of the urgency that characterizes the record's

10 songs. It's an urgency that recalls overcast Sundays at home, fidgeting

and restless, hoping for something you can't place a finger on, a crush or an

obsession perhaps. Like its nine siblings, the song progresses through
thoughts and moods, refrainless; each musical and lyrical pattern is
purposeful and confident, birthing new parts that resemble their antecedents,

but certainly with agendas of their own... The group is as methodical in its

denial of the verse-chorus-verse aesthetic as it is diverse in its influences.

Singers Adrienne Robillard and Chris Groves' consistent boy/girl vocal
harmonies recall the California rock of the late '60s, while contemporary
bands, everyone from Sonic Youth to Stereolab, underpin the group's
instrumental phrasing and melodies, its upbeat rhythms and major- to
minor-key transitions.” Abigail Clouseau

West Coast Performer, September 2003
“Citizens Here and Abroad is amped up with vocal harmonies care of Groves,

underlining the tragic-soft tones of Robillard. The quartet also use xylophone

and the surf pop drumming of Wetherell, as well as the duo guitar
maneuverings of Lowrie and Robilliard to shoot a spark of adrenaline into
songs crafted with a nod towards shoegazer.” -Rose Tran

San Francisco Bay Guardian, May 2003
"Citizens Here and Abroad apply a Velvets-like drone to breathy, propulsive

pop with enough confidence to win over all aliens, outsiders, and
noncitizens." -Kimberly Chun

San Francisco Weekly,2003 Noisepop Crib Sheet
"Local reason to go: Citizens Here and Abroad, a foursome that…make[s] the

kind of perfect pop this fest was built upon."-Dan Strachota





:: info ::

omnibus records | www.omnibusrecords.com
citizens here and abroad | www.citizenshereandabroad.com
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