Saturday, June 16, 2012

Kid/Astro - Disaster Sounds on Seagreen Records



Kid/Astro is an up and coming CT band featuring Jordan of High Pop, and 3 other like-mindeds with a penchant for high energy, fuzzed out rock and roll! Their new record "Disaster Sounds" is out on Seagreen Records (100 tapes are coming in August).





"Three Years" is crunchy tonal glory, creeping through solid steady beats. It starts and stops with expert timing and confidence. This one gave me a real late-era Sebadoh feel.

"Cherokee #1" kicks in the door, with a blast of fuzzy, reverby guitar and blasting drums. My first impression is like a slightly more urgent Built to Spill. The guitars play off one another throughout, sort of in a Death Cab For Cutie style without sounding anything like them. Self proclaimed "chiller-punk", this is definitely more chill than punk music.

"Give It To Ya" is very anthemic, in the same vein as punk can be. The lead is so awkward that it seems to reference music from another culture, or perhaps even a Pixies-esque anti-melody. Still a foot stomper and another fantastically abrupt ending.

"Snowing" is the longest song on this record by nearly a minute, and is more of a traditional pop song in composition compared to the previous songs. In a different recorded context it could easily be a radio hit from the mid 90's, but obviously its a million times better through this finely focused lens.

"Cyclicism" is faster and has a sort of California vibe to it, and the vocals cut right through. The verse riff is like an awesome Dead Wive's style riff. This is a classy pop song by all standards and the unique recording qualities  bleed the song dry of all its tonal goodness!


"Don't" starts out slow but quickly picks up to dancing speed. I think I am starting to understand what "chiller-punk" is now, it follows some of the songwriting rules of punk music, and presents them in a much more stark fashion than punk itself ever had the capacity to explore. Punk songs through the lens of at least one total weirdo. "Don't" is exemplary of this notion to me.


"Wreck It" is a lightning-fest in this hurricane of a record. Like a Ty Segall song from 3-4 years ago, but sped up slightly and filled with the fury of a band blasting their way out of their last songs in a collection of similarly beefy and manic songs. Like so many before this song, "Wreck It" kicks you in your face until the very last word.

"Deck It" throws some intriguing time changes your way and still keeps the smooth high focus energy of the record so far. This is easily translatable into a high energy and amazing live show.
All in all Kid/Astro are ready to prove to you just how much fun music can be!

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