Sweaty, stomping, jarring, precise, angular, mechanical, brash and raucous – adjectives that all seem to fall short of sufficiently describing the crazed noise rock extravaganza that is The Countdown. Proclaimed by Filter Magazine as "Easily the hottest DIY husband/wife duo to hail from the Midwest since you-know-who burst outta Detroit", Stiff and Roxie Starr fuse together a unique brand of tinny beats, eerie synth-pop and dirty, thrashing rock 'n' roll.

In 2001 Roxie pulled out demos she had written for an unfinished rock opera set in a deranged dystopian future. Unable and unwilling to simply let the songs collect dust in her closet any longer, she and Stiff re-recorded them in their attic studio. The result was a 13 song self-released LP entitled Communicator that combined sinister noise solos and disco-industrial beats described as Night of the Living Dead meets Tommy – half horror flick soundtrack, half smiley face singalong.

Armed with their guitars and a sampler, The Countdown were ready to bring their rock-opera to the masses, and began playing out in support of such bands as The Locust, The Postal Service, The Unicorns, The Sneaker Pimps, Radio Vago, We Are Scientists, Interpol, Queens Of The Stone Age, 30 Seconds To Mars, Pigface and The Frogs. After attending one of their entirely insane performances, one critic left a converted fan who pronounced The Countdown, "CRAZED enough to make Kylie Minogue make out with Lemmy from Motorhead. More rock and roll than anything I can think of in recent experience."

Time, touring and experimentation led to the 2003 release of the Human Resources EP. Stiff and Roxie turned up the guitars and distortion creating their now signature dirty, throbbing electropunk sound. It wasn't long before Human Resources fell into the hands of the Chicago-based industrial/electronic label Invisible Records who put an end to fans wondering why the hell no one had signed The Countdown.

Stiff and Roxie headed into the studio in 2004 but this time with Martin Atkins (PIL, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry) and Steven Siebold (Berlin, Hate Dept, Information Society) at the helm. The Scratch 'n' Sniff EP, featuring a Radio 4 remix as well as a cover of Big Black's "Bad Penny", was released October 12, 2004 and reached the top 200 on CMJ college radio charts.