Room Full of Strangers

Room Full of Strangers, a band known for being irreverent, subversive and always happy to unleash a healthy dose of cognitive dissonance, was surprised when a current political candidate contacted them to discuss licensing their new song “Media Today.” The group has elected to postpone the release of the song and has taken it offline to ensure the song will not be used at this time.
It makes one wonder if it was an act of defiance when Room Full of Strangers squarely rejected several attempts and an offer of an undisclosed amount of money to give license for the use of their new single.
The song’s lyrical content focuses on media manipulation, so one can surmise that the campaign party may have intended to use the song for purposes such as railing against unfair treatment by the media, or appealing to a younger demographic.
Mick McIuan, Room Full of Strangers’ founder and front-man said that he was not at liberty to say which party requested the song, but stated, “It’s odd that any political party would approach us about using our song, especially being that they don’t typically ask for permission. It’s irritating that these politicians use people’s music without asking. With or without permission, no two-party system politician will be using our song.”
McIuan denounced any party affiliation and further stated, “Perhaps this can be a starting point for people to begin taking charge of their lives and not rely on these so called future leaders of our society.”
Room Full of Strangers would not confirm a future release date for the song, but stated that they may consider releasing “Media Today” after the primary election.
The Strangers do look forward to their upcoming performance at the inaugural Mondo.NYC Festival and Summit on September 14 - Concert Blogger Magazine

"Die Einflüsse sind breit gestreut, DEAD BOYS, TELEVISION, „Fun House“-Ära-STOOGES, FLESHTONES, GUN CLUB, Psychedelic Soul, wie etwa die CHAMBERS BROTHERS, oder auch hier und da ein wenig Westcoast Jinglejangle und auch Surf. All das wird effektiv verwurstet, klischeefrei zu einem durchweg originellen Sound gebacken, der zu jeder Zeit eine gute halbe Stunde Punkrock-Party garantieren kann. Wird in der Live-Präsentation wohl ein Heidenspaß, die Band kommt im Oktober nach Deutschland, wir sehen uns in der ersten Reihe oder an der Theke." - Ox Fanzine

"Room Full of Strangers sind so eine Band. Den Namen noch nie vorher gehört, dann ihr neues Album zum Besprechen bekommen und nach dem Hören völlig aus dem Häuschen... Nehmt das Beste der Sonics, der New York Dolls, Gun Club und den Dead Boys und ihr bekommt Room Full of Strangers. Dabei gehen die vier Jungs sowas von kreativ und vielfältig zu Werke... Ich bin wirklich schwer begeistert. Jedes der zehn Lieder auf “Bad Vacation” ist ein kleiner Hit, der in die Beine geht und dich tanzen lässt. “Bad Vacation” ist ein wirklich klasse Album, das sich in einem Rutsch durchhören und den FInger ganz schnell zur Repeattaste wandern lässt . Im Herbst kommt die Band auf Tour nach Europa. Wer kann, sollte sich das nicht entgehen lassen. Ich bin mir sicher, live sind die eine Granate. Geile Band!" - Trashrock Magazine

"Perfectly primed with enough percolating primo punk attitude to do you through, Room Full Of Strangers crank out the kind of dirty distorto rock ’n’ roll that Mother used to hate—and on their new album Bad Vacation they effortlessly exude enough verve and swerve to conjure up fond fun-filled fuzztone memories of Blue Cheer and The Amboy Dukes, all garnished with a snappy snooty side order of two tub Dictators via the sardonic Boy Howdy! satire of CREEM: America’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll Magazine."

- Jeffrey Morgan, authorized biographer of both Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop & The Stooges - (authorized biographer of Iggy Pop / Jeffrey Morgan's Media Blackout)

"Room Full of Strangers, have that very danceable, fuzzy, freak-beat energy, this kind of music can have a lot of teeth despite it's commercial potential & Room Full of Strangers make sure to keep their leather jackets, switchblades & attitude to the fore" - PORK MAGAZINE

"Room Full of Strangers have mastered that punk rock attitude with pop sensibility that would lead you to believe they’re from the same scene that produced The Jam or The Damned" - The Roosevelts

Can a band that might remind you of the local house band achieve success beyond its city limits? Room Full of Strangers is definitely going to find out.

With the release of their debut LP, Bad Vacation, in October and performances at CMJ and the eastern US, the Orlando quartet have established a growing following with their catchy, proto-punk-infused, garage rock. Another way to think about Room Full of Strangers – imagine if Jonathan Richman and Richard Swift co-produced an album by the Arctic Monkeys. And like the Arctic Monkeys’ award-winning Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, Bad Vacation is 30 minutes of intense music that will make you want to dance.

Besides the high-energy of their music, the band has a knack for writing witty songs about mundane events and, well, not your typical music topics. With tracks like “Guest Bath”, “Bad Vacation”, “Summers in Space”, and “You’re PC”, Room Full of Strangers have a light-hearted approach to songwriting much like Mac DeMarco and HOMESHAKE. Should there be another National Lampoon’s movie, maybe they could write the soundtrack. - The Revue (Mundo Musique')

Hadn’t really heard of this band until the CMJ line-up came out, but if you check them out on the CMJ artist’s page, you’d be interested too... - Secret Sound Shop

"I went to see " Room Full of Strangers" the other night at Cedars in Youngstown OH. Best band I have seen in ages. Great players and great stage show, energetic and highly entertaining. They even did a rousing cover of the Deadbeat Poets "The Stiv Bators Ghost Tour" that just blew me away. Highly recommended and a splendid time guaranteed for all".
~ Frank Secich - Former guitar & bass for The Dead Boys & The Stiv Bators Band - 1979-81, Deadbeat Poets - current -

“Orlando, FL's Room Full of Strangers do a soulful take on '60s garage, that's not a million miles away from The Fleshtones. And their songs on Bandcamp are not bad at all”. - Brooklyn Vegan

Orlando’s Room Full of Strangers are a band best experienced live, and dammit, they know it. For last year’s five-track album Ten Thousand, they chose to exclusively sell the album at shows, which meant you needed to come out for them to put out. (Digital downloads were priced at the in-your-face rate of $10,000, which iTunes and Amazon rejected for sale in their stores.) Yet it was the band’s recorded songs that caught the ear of recording legend Kramer, who discovered the Strangers on MySpace in 2009 and has served as their producer since. Kramer may be better known as live sound producer for Sonic Youth, but he’s also considered the “fifth Stranger” and was much more involved in this year’s release for the local band. The show this week is a tour kickoff party, as the acid rock band will be meandering the southeast U.S. for the next two weeks, so send ’em off right. – Ashley Belanger - Orlando Weekly

The last time Orlando-based Room Full of Strangers raided this side of the Sunshine State, they weirded us out with their unique brand of surfy psych-pop. Tonight, some three months, later frontman Mick Dagger & co. return to The ‘Burg where they’ll celebrate the release of a new EP – Ten Thousand.
As our good friends at TBT* Soundcheck have pointed out, the band is selling copies of the five-track effort for a mere $10,000.
According to a press release, the absurd price tag is a direct reaction to the “trend of giving music away arbitrarily coupled with the immediate gratification of the internet [which] reinforces attitudes and behavior that has partially led to soft record sales and concert attendance.” That’s pretty bold.
Still, the band has made Ten Thousand’s opening track available to stream in its entirety along with 45-second samples from the extended-player’s other four songs. Have a listen to the whole shebang below, and get more information on the band’s CD release show at Local 662 here. - Suburban Apologist

Their entrance to the show was at first both puzzling and theatrical and I soon was intrigued by their presence and surprisingly strong sound. Their hard rock sound, with fast-paced bluesy guitars and punk-influenced wandering vocal verses hit the spot. - Bushwick Daily

Anarchic Orlando garage punks Room Full of Strangers have always been an odd group of souls — see the photo above, for example, or the fact that they perform almost every show in ski masks — but this might be their strangest move yet.

The group is selling its new five-song EP online for $10,000. (That sounds like a lot, but if you think about it, that’s only $2,000 per song. It’s a steal!)

The goal, said singer Mick “Dagger” Mcluan, is to make a statement about the value of music to the artists who create it. He no longer believes artists should give their music away for free — “It’s not helping out the artists, it’s not helping out the fans,” he said — because he believes it doesn’t encourage fans to come to live shows, which is where more and more artists make the bulk of their income. Besides, at the end of the day, what difference does it make whether you give away music or sell it for $10,000? Odds are you won’t see any money either way.

Instead, he said, Room Full of Strangers will sell the album, titled 10,000, for a reasonable price at their live shows, which are strong enough to have earned them slots at the CMJ Music Marathon and CBGB Festival in New York. “What it really comes down to is a sense of community and people enjoying something,” he said. “It’s not about extracting money from someone. It’s about people gladly experiencing something.”

For what it’s worth, Mcluan said 10,000 cost the band $10,000 to make. So if you do buy a copy, you’ll be covering their entire recording budget.

The group will hold a CD release show on Friday at the Local 662 in St. Petersburg alongside Alias Punch. Tickets are $7, so if you’re on a budget, that might be the best way to hear the band’s new music. - Tampa Bay Times

Room Full of Strangers, a band that embodies Rock and Roll in one of it’s coolest forms, Psyche Pop, Garage Punk. Go fucking see these guys when they return from their tour, they may concur the world while they’re out there. - Analog-Void - Marc Hernandez

There is something to be said about sensations that feel weird and good at the very same time, and while Room Full of Strangers‘ brand of surfy psych-pop is pretty straight forward (unless we’re the weird ones), their sonic offerings — which they brought to Fubar in St. Petersburg FL on May 19, 2012 — feel nothing but good. - Suburban Apologist

Ski-mask-wearing, borderline anarchistic Orlando five-piece Room Full of Strangers have cultivated a following not only through their fist-pumping (and vaguely retro) punk rock, but through their rowdy stage shows.

Here's how singer Mick "Dagger" Mcluan described their performances in an e-mail: "After a few physical confrontations and the flogging of a nude whip cream-covered person in the audience, the word was out: Go to a Room Full of Strangers show and you will be entertained."

And then there are the ski masks. "In the beginning, it was a goof," Mcluan said, "but now it's a symbol." The band views the disguises as symbols of human darkness that take on a whole new meaning when juxtaposed with their fun-loving live sets. "With this little black beauty on, we're all the same, and we're all in this together."

The band recently returned from Nashville, where they worked with musician and producer Mark Kramer (Galaxie 500, Daniel Johnston, Urge Overkill's Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon) on new material.

"Hearing the stories of shows with Sonic Youth and The Butthole Surfers to producing a song for the Pulp Fiction soundtrack was worth the trip," said McIuan. - Tampa Bay Times

“To comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” This is what the five piece Florida based band Room Full of Strangers has set out to do through their music and performance. As visceral writers and performers Room Full of Strangers tend to motivate their audience to imagine or consider ideas, or to experience certain moods and imagery as opposed to focusing on music as a sub genre. Room Full of Strangers envelopes you with it’s dark style of sardonic comedy and ability to generate morbid curiosity. The trademark ski mask they wear, is a symbol or iconic image that represents the ugly and dark side of humankind that they often mock and create musical parodies of. Room Full of Strangers doe’s not take life too seriously, this is in order to not be controlled by fear, however they rail against tyranny and oppressive behavior. Their new single “My American Dream” metaphorically defines corporate greed as a womanizer that deceives and lies to it’s date, The United States! - Polygraph Radio

“My American Dream” comes forth with Room Full of Strangers taking on Glenn Danzig-era Misfits to craft something that will play well on any hard rock radio station. The act is not that straightforward, as it becomes obvious after a few listens that Room Full of Strangers calls forth the spirit of a scintillating blend of rock and heavier acts. “The Night That Could Never End” continues this trend, with Room Full of Strangers marrying perfectly a more retro rock style with a more contemporary rock set of digs. The production on “We’re All Living The American Dream” is simply fantastic, while the guitars and drums continually push each other to higher and higher quality.

Where it seems as if most bands from an earlier period have started to show their age (both in terms of their faces and of their music from the original era), Room Full of Strangers create music that is vibrant, hard-rocking, and will be so ten or fifteen years after the band calls it a day. “Part of Me” continues building up the band’s mythos, showcasing the fact that the act can approach a track in a slower fashion and still be as compelling as they have ever been. The brooding guitar line that starts the track alongside the vocals stands against a harder, chunkier sound brought the track by the band (think The Cult meets solo Danzig).

“FTLO” is the final track on the EP, and it may just be the hardest that Room Full of Strangers gets. There is a little bit of psychedelic metal and goth influence playing at the guitar and vocal levels (Bauhaus, Swans) even as the act continues to craft their own unique sound. Where most acts slack off on the ends of their tracks, Room Full of Strangers are fighting and kicking until the end. Check out this CD, see them live, and prepare to be rocked in a way that one hasn’t since record stores stopped stocking vinyl.

Top Tracks: My American Dream, The Night That Could Never End

Rating: 8.5/10

Room Full of Strangers – We’re All Living The American Dream / 2010 Self / 5 Tracks / www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.aspx?epk_id=246117 / www.myspace.com/roomofstrangersband - James McQuiston - NeuFutur Magazine - 2/18/10

Tampa, FL August 15, 2009

The next band of the night had also traveled from Orlando. Punk/rock band Room Full of Strangers carried out their performance with a somewhat spooky vibe. Not only was their music loud, aggressive and seething with creepiness, but they all performed clad in black ski masks. This concept does much to sell their angle of being legitimate ‘strangers’. Their first song was titled ‘My American dream”. It started off with the chanting of the song’s title into a microphone with an unnerving amount of echo. Then the band kicked in with a large blast of artificial fog. The bass guitar thumped steadily along with the rumbling of tom tom drums. When the mood was firmly established, singer Mick “Dagger” McIuan did well to personify his take on the American dream. “Hello my name is the American dream,” he sang “I’m here to sell you the corporate machine.” Strangers’ lead guitarist, wearing a red snake skin jacket and captain’s hat, played a set full of good solos and inventive riffs. He even employed the use of a slide, a tool that is seen less and less among guitar players in the local music scene. They asked for a volunteer for their song ‘Part of me”. One Night Stan bassist Dave “Dood” Washburn donned a ski mask while the rest of his band mates gathered in front of the stage to sing along. The only lyric that was discernable at this point was “oh oh oh” sung in a catchy, harmony rich melody. The crowd all very much enjoyed it. They were delighted to sing, scream and dance along to the music. The band ended the show strongly with a song titled F.T.L.O. (F*** the love out). This song, featuring Black Sabbath style guitar riffs, put a powerful finishing touch on an overall good show. - Orlando Live Music Examiner, Jason VanDeMaat

Room Full of Strangers, We’re All Living The American Dream
February 26, 2010 | by Skope Staff
What you get from this five-man crew from Orlando is complete and utter pandemonium. The five-song EP comes fully equipped with a DVD, so you can hear & see the craziness for yourself. What makes this group so eccentric is the fact that they perform their music in black ski masks. That’s right…BLACK SKI MASKS!!! The scary get-ups actually symbolize a sense that we are all strangers, but for this reason we all stand tall. Attempting to bring unity amongst listeners through unconventional measures is quite an interesting concept here. Their message is simply that we’re all the same in this sheltered society, so grab your mask and let’s go! The ironic twist is that Room Full of Strangers is emphasizing this stranger-related idea by deciding to hide their own identities.

Whether you find yourself running scared in the other direction or if you surrender to the highly original sound that makes up a Room Full of Strangers is your choice. The title, We’re All Living The American Dream is a direct & sarcastic jab at the rich, greedy and corrupt Corporate America we live in today. RFOS is made up of: Mick “Dagger” Mcluan as the voice, Baby Stranger on bass, B.E. Stranger on drums, Stranger # 2 on guitar and B.B. on guitar. Kiss puts on their make-up and gives you one hell of a rock ‘n’ roll show and now Room Full of Strangers put on their black ski masks to stir up some reactions and freak some people out in the process.

This Orlando-based band in fact does want to weird out individuals through their music, presence and shows. They want the room full of strangers to definitely have a good time mind you, but this group is not fully satisfied until the audience is feeling a bit uneasy. Room Full of Strangers is all about taking people of out their safe zone as they stand true by their motto: “to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” This is both intriguing and twisted all at the same time.

The EP is full of angst, defiance and rebellion that matches well with its punk influences. Room Full of Strangers is kickin’ up some dirt to bring you fun, in-your-face aggressive rock jams. The songs are very fast & energetic with some kick-ass guitar parts I might add. The overall sound is hard-hitting and adrenaline-rushed. Mick “Dagger” has a very unique vocal style that for one is wildly different, but one that seems to work on this disc. On the track, “Part of Me”, what a yell Dagger belts out that pierces right through you. He appears to be literally coming unglued right before your ears with pieces of Mick falling everywhere.

Their philosophy of wanting to make one feel uncomfortable carries right over into their awkward display of music. One thing is for certain and that is that the whole band came to play hard and came to rock the f’ing joint. Play hard or go home and Room Full of Strangers definitely did just that but in a bizarre fashion. I haven’t caught on yet to the ways of the ski mask bandits, but this could be an insane craze that catches on fire. Lock your doors and listen up as these bank-robber-lookalikes break into the music scene. For more on Room Full of Strangers and their new release, We’re All Living The American Dream, SKOPE out www.myspace.com/roomfullofstrangersband.

By Jimmy Rae - SKOPE Magazine

Florida's version of a Turbo Negro? that never takes it's masks off and delivers their anarchic message with a grin; Room Full of Strangers? make excellent propaganda videos and reportedly put on one hell of a live show, even attracting the attention of FOX news due to their refusal to ever remove their Ski Masks. Musically you get close to what you might expect, part 80's punk, part glammy horror circa the Cramps?, and lyrics that make a person want to use flat black spray paint on an old ElCamino. With more than one sonic nod to 90's non-grunge bands such as Urge Overkill? their recording of We're All Living the American Dream was produced by Mark Kramer in Nashville and rocks in a fun and sleazy way. And we here at Reax are down with the fun and sleazy from time to time, as long as they keep the masks on.

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Nach dem unerwarteten Protopunk-Gewitter des Single-Debüts „Guest Bath“ schlagen die vier Garagerocker aus Florida mit dem ersten Album tüchtig zurück. Eine Produktion der New Yorker Legende Kramer, der bereits SONIC YOUTH, die BUTTHOLE SURFERS oder nahezu den gesamten Shimmy Disc-Irrsinn auf Band festhielt, lässt an Entschlossenheit und Direktheit nichts vermissen.

Die Einflüsse sind breit gestreut, DEAD BOYS, TELEVISION, „Fun House“-Ära-STOOGES, FLESHTONES, GUN CLUB, Psychedelic Soul, wie etwa die CHAMBERS BROTHERS, oder auch hier und da ein wenig Westcoast Jinglejangle und auch Surf.

All das wird effektiv verwurstet, klischeefrei zu einem durchweg originellen Sound gebacken, der zu jeder Zeit eine gute halbe Stunde Punkrock-Party garantieren kann. Wird in der Live-Präsentation wohl ein Heidenspaß, die Band kommt im Oktober nach Deutschland, wir sehen uns in der ersten Reihe oder an der Theke! - Ox Fanzine