A noble man from Detroit was once heard to say "Kick out jams, motherfuckers!" Perhaps these were the motherfuckers in question.
Nicole, Strategia's bed-headed vocalist and guitarist, is a nice study in contradictions. Her unique guitar style is as much a throwback to the 60's favorite Farfisa Five organ as it is to the hum of your old Datsun's engine warming up in the driveway. Add to that a voice that teeters back and forth from raspy-throated, smooth urbania to dramatic comedy theater to excited schoolgirl naivete. "Someone once said Barbie should be modeled after me," she muses while nursing her rum and Coke. "Quite funny, but I don't think Matell'd be up for that."
Elle, Strategia's avant style bassist, plays with an enthusiasm that is often hard to tether. Often times fast and wild-eyed but never lacking a groovy hook played somewhere in the higher region, her bass is 2 parts new wave and all sex. If you ask her what her musical method is she'll casually say "I'll slap my bass like I'll slap your ass". Add to this her half mod, half faux-hawk hairstyle and this is what makes Elle the quintessential rocker of the group and she's come a long way: "I started off in a Green Day cover band... as the singer, no good very bad. Quit."
In simple terms, Ricky plays the drums. He plays them like nobody's business, and everyone likes him lots. Especially the ladies--see their "I LOVE RICKY" pins. In typical shy indie rock boy style, all he'll say is, "Just write 'He is a man of few words.'"
And when you add up the contents of this particular MC3, what get you? The riff-laden post-Elastica punch of a song like "Trigger Happy," for one thing. The spastic, sexy pull of "The Art Of Politics And Kissing," for another. If Debbie Harry had a time machine handy, she'd likely grab these songs and go back and record 'em for "Parallel Lines." For a split second, they'll make you think Sahara Hotnights and The Hives opened up a rock 'n' roll band camp somewhere in the wilds of Michigan, personally grooming this trio for stardom. But this ain't no CBGB, this ain't no Sweden, and this most certainly ain't no foolin' around. This is Strategia, the band most likely to derail the futures of all those hipster bands with "The" in their names in one crushing rock 'n' roll swoop.