Intercontinental Duo LICKY

LICKY erupted on the Brooklyn music scene back in 2000, long before it was hip to be a so-called Brooklyn band. Members of LICKY have come and gone (mostly gone), since co-founders Lips and Sacky first decided to simultaneously please and piss-off the populace and make the world more lickable®.

The boys got started by playing live at NYC's and Brooklyn's rowdiest rat holes. LICKY got 'em roaring in places like the legendary punk rock clubs CBGB's, Continental and Siberia Bar, as well as many underground art events, like the infamous and long running Rubulad art parties. The crowds, but not the labels, were taking notice of the unpredictable and sometimes ridiculous nature of the live shows. So, in 2001, LICKY went ahead and recorded and produced their self-released debut: the Devo-esque Intellectual Smash EP.

Soon, hi-flying NYC hip-hop production company, MIC Media, came out to the party and signed LICKY to a development deal. What the hip-hoppers saw in a Wire/Devo/Sex Pistols ripp-off act like LICKY may never be known. But they put the boys in the studio with Stephen George (knob-twister for Ministry and Britney Spears among others). The result was the full-length album LICKY in 2002. Sonically, the album was a cross between the Sex Pistols and Devo, with lyrical satire that left no one safe. MIC Media and LICKY eventually went separate ways, partially because of LICKY's antics and partially because surprisingly, the hip-hop labels that MIC Media usually worked with didn't need a punk-rock party band.

LICKY went back to the lab and resurfaced in 2004 with the Mista Big Spenda EP on the UK indie label Something To Listen To. Label founder and producer extrordanaire, John Fryer (knob-twister for among others Nine Inch Nails, Yazoo, Depeche Mode, and Wire), was the only person deranged enough to want to produce and release the EP. He was also behind the boards for the first official full-length label release Press Fire To Continue in 2006. Fryer's handprints could be found all over the releases and the boys. The addition of the electronic beats and the keyboards found LICKY sounding more new-wave than their earlier material. But the boy's uncanny ability to simultaneously please and piss-off people was on full display. As usual, the EP and the album were either hated or loved by the critics and fans alike.

One might say that Lips and Sacky have laid low since their last release. Yes, it's true they stopped playing live shows. Yes, they have not released any new LICKY material in almost 4 years. However, harnessing the power of the World Wide Web, Lips (from his new homebase in Lund, Sweden) and Sacky (working from Illadephia in the U.S.) spent the last few years writing, recording and producing. During this time they have been working on their own material as well as having their production skills suprisingly sought after by a wide range of acts that for some reason were looking to be a bit more lickable ®. Musicians like the UK underground hip hop artist Akala (on Illastate Records), Swedish electronic pop outfit Biker Boy (on the Hybrism label), the Danger Global Warming Remix Project (feat. The Stranglers vocalist Hugh Cornwel), NYC noise rockers Heston Rifle (on the indie imprint Ernest Jenning Record Company), and LGBT house heroes Sappho (feat. NYC's legendary Phoebe Legere).

Look out for LICKY's latest full length album, Under the Gun, to be released on their new imprint Lickable Life Records in fall 2010.