Kill It Kid
Friends and family of this band are going to want to slap me for this review. Mind you, Kill It Kid are signed to one of the best indie labels in the UK – One Little Indian – and the label got in touch asking for a review, so here goes. They can take it!
This music is furious, revivalist, bluesy Americana. It’s got loads of potential, so I’ll get the criticisms out of the way first because there’s no need to end this review on a bum note. Occasionally they are too close, to my ears, to mimicking a style rather than necessarily interpreting it. Also, I find myself loving lead singer Chris Turpin’s voice on the quieter numbers and finding it a little bit too much from time to time on the louder ones – caricatured, almost.
Every review they’ve had so far has mentioned his voice, and fair enough, because it has character and will divide opinion. I would always prefer to listen to a voice with a life of its own, however, rather than another identikit music school warbler. If you have a distinctive voice like this you just have to accept that some people will never like it, but that doesn’t matter, because they will never be your audience anyway. Better to think about how much the other people are going to love it.
The music is phenomenal enough, and this is one of the most energetic studio recordings I’ve heard. Either these guys virtually play a live gig in their recording studio, or their engineer is a very talented individual, because there’s no evident artifice to this at all. I does actually sound like they are there in front of you playing, and I would be absolutely amazed if they don’t prove to be a complete fucking tornado of a live band.
So I may have some reservations about this, and I would like to see them develop their genre a little more, but there’s bags of potential here and I would love to see them on stage. Basically, I am thoroughly enjoying this, bring on some more please.
Kill It Kid – Private Idaho (Had to change the song, sorry, because apparently Send Me an Angel Down is going to be a single, so it would have been a bit cheeky to leave that up here for free.)
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my advice to this band would be get a new singer…..really liked the music tho….the singer sounds like some weird bastard child of John Martyn and Vic Reeves…..very strange
I fall entirely on the other side, i think it is brilliant and wouldn’t sound half as good with a guy with a more “normal” voice.
i really like this and although the voice did make me literally pee my pants at first its getting bearable. I will definately be getting the album.
the voice overtakes the music and detracts from a really nice song…..character is one thing….but this is like character overload that takes it kinda close to being a parody.
aye, it made me smile at first and initially i pictured the singer strangely as a louis armstrong impersonator in a dress.
i just had this horrible image of antony (of antony and the johnsons fame) in a pair of skinny jeans with a waist coat and cravat. really like this band though well done toad.
“the voice overtakes the music and detracts from a really nice song”
That’s what I mean about not worrying about having a distinctive voice. Some people will react with instant dislike, but there’s no point worrying, because a lot of other will have an equally strong reaction the other way. It’s an inherent part of the music, so no point trying to mute it or hide from it. It should be embraced (by the band, I mean), they just have to be prepared for some people to hate it..
Incidentally, according to the live reviews I’ve read, the fiddler is something to watch as well. Edinburgh gig, anyone?
i would go….just don’t tell the singer who i am
Sorry, I’m not having it!
You “literally” peed your pants? That’s a good reason to consult a doctor, or more likely a dictionary.
Well, it did take me by surprise at first listen, I’ll say that. The voice I mean,… but to say, “Occasionally they are too close, to my ears, to mimicking a style rather than necessarily interpreting it,” well that is a whole other matter.
I was struck by that in the other thread on The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, the discussion on derivative work. Same thing here? Or am I tying two thing together hamfistedly.
I think it’s odd that we allow old men like Tom Waits or Van Morrison to have those weird-ass voices but when it comes to young men like this one (I’m guessing he’s young?) or Adam Duritz of Counting Crows, we suspect they are putting it on for effect and it’s “distracting to the music.”
yeah, just me being contentious, xoxo
Tart
Sorry, this is great. I don’t see what’s wrong with singing with an accent or putting it on. For a start – all those Scottish bands we love because they sing in their Scottish accent – well do they fuck sing with a Scottish accent normally. It’s put on and it adds something to the music. I like this voice. And it definitely adds to the style of the music.
I <3 you Euan.
Unless you two are responding to someone else, you’ve both got very much the wrong end of the stick here.
I have no issue with the guy’s accent whatsoever, and I don’t for a second think that he’s ‘putting his voice on’, although I suppose it’s always possible.
I also didn’t say that it was distracting to the music – I said that it sounds nice in the slower songs and I find it less enjoyable at full pelt, that’s all. Rob St. John’s voice is a bit idiosyncratic, and I love that. Marcus Mumford’s is also very throaty indeed and I love his voice too. You’re talking arse, Tart.
Where we are on the same page is that in terms of being too derivative, I think the same thing applies to these guys as it does to Pains. Both bands are very, very close to pastiche, just of two totally different styles. I’m talking about the music here, though – the style, the sound, the song structure, all that stuff – not the vocals per se.
Personally, though, I prefer these guys to Pains because I think they have more character of their own, rather than one culled wholesale from a C86 tape.
I was replying to Mr. Chutney on the “voice distracts from the music”, Matthew.
And pastiche, well that’s where I’ll make a fight with ya. We, as critics, put a lot of thinking into all this. Musicians really often just play what’s in their hearts and heads and yes it’s always derivative and always pastiche and of course they reflect on what’s out there, trying to not simply copy. But I really encourage us to not over think all this. All our blathering on about genres and types and style removes us from the feeling of a song or a band. And I’m as guilty as the rest of ya. And I’m not pointing the finger at you, Matthew, any more than back at myself, luv. It makes for very interesting commentary and arguments. But let’s also include the other. I just wanted to poke into this argument and that one on Pains, that I think there’s not enough talk about how those songs make us feel, what they encourage us to express, etc… That’s what fandom is all about sometimes. (and perhaps part of why musicians do what they do)
xoxo,
Tart
I like it very much. This one tune, anyway. But it really doesn’t sound “derivative” to me at all. I can’t think of anything in particular that it reminds me of.
Well Pains, apart from a couple of songs, make me feel bored. There are a couple of exceptions, but that’s about it, and other than that all I hear is a faithfully-reproduced style, so I am not all that impressed.
I definitely think these guys have a lot more about them, and the song I posted has real character, but some of the more upbeat songs sound a bit more, erm, already familiar I suppose – as if I were tasting something I was already entirely familiar with. That’s really all I meant. I wasn’t really suggesting that they were deliberately copying anything, that’s for sure.
But in terms of how they make you feel, I’d say that these fellas engender way more natural excitement and curiosity in me than Pains, by some distance.
Ah! That’s encouraging, and what I suspected when people say a band has “potential.” I love being curious about what they will do next.
That’s exactly how I feel about these guys. They may not kick on from this, but I definitely think they have the potential to become very good indeed.
I was also not responding to you toad boy. I love odd voices and don’t feel that people should be criticised for putting on a voice. That said, you either like a voice or you don’t whether it’s natural or accented. So I totally understand why people wouldn’t like this guys voice. I just happen to think it’s interesting and adds to the overall sound.
You started off the review in a funny way did you not? I was expecting a diatribe.
I quite like it despite being bored by bluesy music. To me the blues is the most derivative music going (that’s kind of the point of it though isn’t it – I don’t get that).
I think he sounds a bit like Antony Hegarty as well.
All I meant was that there is nothing so annoying as reading a nit-picky critical review when it’s one of your first.
Imagine finding it and saying ‘Oooh, we’ve been reviewed’ and then finding some smug bastard who doesn’t even play an instrument picking holes in something you’ve slaved over for so long. No matter how nice some of it is, comments like ‘too close to mimicking a style’ would make you want to punch the reviewer in the chops.
So I was perhaps being overly aware of the fact that, at this stage, the critique might seem ungenerous. Shortly, I would imagine, they won’t have to give a fuck what twits like me think.
but its twits like you that matter most because without twits like you twits like us would not be aware of them at this early stage.
i kinda like this also…..but the voice is going to take getting some use to…….the woman’s voice on the myspace song is way better…..anyway fuck the lot of you
Yes please. The woman’s been away and it’s been ages, so frankly Chutters, you’ll do.
i don’t understand?
matthew wants to fuck you, tom.
or at least, you to fuck him.
im not sure which.
matthew?
thats just scary and wrong.
i think he needs help…..
chat reaches unexpected low at 9.30 in the morning.
It’s going to be a long day….
the sooner the friday 5 are up the better
so we can hit all new levels of low?
hell yeah!!!!
How the hell did you all get in this mess without me?!
i think Toad just flipped
I saw you walking along George Street last night.
I was on a number 10 bus that drove along next to you pretty much at walking-pace for the length of the street.
were you watching my sexy little ass all the while?
It was like watching a cross between the opening sequence to Saturday Night Fever and the video to The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony.
Hmm… How disappointing. I’ve only just got round to actually listening to this track.
Unfortunately, this is going to have to be one of those ‘compliment sandwiches’ where you start off by saying something nice, then make your criticism, then finish with another slice of something nice.
Well, the musicianship is quite lovely.
That is a remarkeably odd voice, and I found it offputting. I mean, is everyone else in the band a bit deaf? Or is the singer just bigger than the rest of them? Why hasn’t one of them taken him to one side and just quietly said “Dude, about your singing…”
And this particular song goes nowhere after about 1:40. Great start, then the bloke starts singing, then the band start daydreaming and phone the rest of the song in.
A slice of something nice after the criticism?..
Erm, the cover art’s quite nice.
Well unlike most people on this thread I didn’t take to it immediately either, but I have pretty much come around by now. It may just take some getting used to.
Nah, I can’t see me getting used to this.
I’m not going to wake up one morning and suddenly decide the singer doesn’t sound like a hoover with a plastic bag stuck up the hose.
And the rest of band, while perfectly pleasant, just aren’t disctinctive enough to carry that.
My turn.
I love it. Right up my street. Fucking ballsy & vulnerable all at the same time. Excellent stuff indeed. Proper passion, that.
The way the excellent musical compositions + the clear/crystal female bk vox + the leaden/congested male vocals all knit together, without sounding like a 5th form school choral orchestra falling down a spiral staircase, is testament to this very clever bunch of people — they clearly know what they are doing as this could have sounded overcrowded & claustrophobic.
The ’single’ is fucking excellent, too. An absoluter gem.
cannot stop listening to this band!
There is some interesting banter here!
I heard this band very early on at a live show. And my god!!! they are one of the best bands i have seen in recent years. The point that becomes apparent very quickly despite the lead singers stature (small and baby faced) he oouzes talent! For 20- 21 year olds there musicianship is far beyond there years! from a fiddle player that is incredible to the drummer who would rival steve gadd! GO SEE THIS BAND LIVE!!! there new singles “kill it” too (mind the pun)
This band kick some serious ass, Chris’ voice does take some getting used to but listen to the songs on their myspace a few times and his voice becomes totally engrossing. I also saw them live and was struck by the energy and talent of the drummer.
Go see them live and I promise you will fall head over heels for this band.