Rock has been killed more times than all the hatchet victims in Rob
Zombie's movies put together. Even more than jazz and hip hop. And the
pretenders (not Chrissie Hynde's awesome group), poseurs and emo-indie-
post-whatever bands have staggered around for more than a quarter
century like the corpses in Shaun of the Dead. So you can't help but
be surprised that burning, ass-kicking hard rock keeps rising out of
the muck that the music is mired in. The latest group to rock this the
listener's world comes from the working class band known as Kill Van
Kull.
When you hear musical veterans, no matter what the style, you can tell
right away there is a depth of feeling and confidence in their
playing. There's no way around experience but to have experience. One
of the worst aspects of the music business today is that most bands
don't have the years of dues paying -- driving around the backwaters
of North Dakota and East Texas playing clubs in tiny college towns --
necessary to get a band identity and some skills. Kill Van Kull,
however, have rocked clubs and halls in New York, New Jersey, and, Los
Angeles, CA, since the 80's, with time out here and there for health
and personal crises and the intrusions of everyday life. Members came
and went, but the core of the band -- Bill Cardinale on bass, Vinnie
Raschella on drums, and vocalist Rick Cabrera -- stayed in touch even
when they were in different places and playing in different bands.
Eventually they came out of their hiatus in 2005, with a band
consisting of the above original members and new members Al Anzalone
on lead and rhythm guitars and Alex Mahoney on the saxophone and
rhythm guitar. Their new CD 'Edge of Sunrise' is a hard rock record
from the old school, with what hard core hard rock fans would expect
from veteran pros, and some twists and turns in arrangements and
songwriting.
The opening song, "Hot Date," let's you know what up - they're here to
rock which rhymes with sex. From the blazing, unison bass and guitar
licks to the caterwauling of Cabrera, Kill Van Kull kicks out the jams
from the first note to the last. Though this song is a rock and roll
sex fantasy that captures the dream of a magical moment, Kill Van Kull
shows a wittiness not typical of the style of music: "I see you on the
TV screen, in the middle of my magazine / Slide my fingers across your
lips, softly kiss your fingertips / Infatuated, drenched in sweat ...
Just say you want me and let me crawl inside / Wrap yourself around me
honey / Watch me come alive."
This band's forte is raw hard rock, but on the next cut, "Then You
Were Gone," they flip the script. It starts out as a power ballad
that, typically, sounds like a song that laments lost love, one that
is meant to, as Bevis and Butthead used to say, "get the band some
chicks, hehe, hehe." In fact, it is a song about the unrequited lost
love of a boy - for his dad: "I never had a chance to go hunting with
you / And what about the planes, and all the baseball games / All the
things a son was supposed to do with you." The ballad parts, played by
acoustic guitars, are interrupted by contrasting blasts of hard rock
power chords. This keeps the song moving forward and creates a sound
that is intensely mellow.
"Through the Night" starts out like a hard rock "met-a-chick-had-a-
freak-scene and split" kind of song, a f--k 'em and back on the tour
bus number. But this ain't the '80's and even rock chicks have come a
long way. Instead of my man keeping in control, he finds himself
rocked and his heart, mind, and body taken: "She started pushin', I
started shakin' / My hands were tied, I was hers for the taking." The
next morning he finds himself, not the player, but the played, as she
shows him the door leaving him begging: "She said 'Baby, you know
we're better off this way / Yesterday is gone now boy and tomorrow's
another day.' / I said don't you want me to feel you Don't you want me
to touch you?" And using the less-is-more approach to lyrics, Van Kull
shuts up and lets the guitar do the talking with a burning solo that
has all the emotion of the moment. Mr. Anzalone shreds to the end,
spraying sheets of pure rock guitar sound.
"Kick 'Em and Smile" remind us why Van Halen was so goddamn cool back
in the day. Van Halen wasn't afraid to get a little silly. This cut,
like great rock records past and present, goes up to the edgy
intersection where anger, teen age rebellion, and ridiculousness
meets. And how can you beat lyrics like "I go to work, and you're
bustin' my balls / I've kept my cool, now I'm ready to brawl / F--k
this, f--k that, f--k everyone I'll kick your ass." You can't.
Kill Van Kull puts the first of the CD's sophisticated twists next on
the song "Sweet Summertime." A normal rock song about summer love -
rather, getting with a hot chick - is elevated, like a classic record
from the '70s, by a bluesy horn section, featuring Mahoney, and sweet
and soulful backup vocals. Like the band says, Kill Van Kull's music
is "Hard rock with an infusion of blues and jazz." This approach crops
up on the cuts that serve as contrast to the ballast of the rock and
roll style found on most of the tracks: "Rock It Steady" and "The
Bottom" have the slinky funk horns, rock funk beat, and, on the
former, the growling vocals of vintage Tower of Power; "Summer Rose"
starts as a soulful, jazzy ballad with a sax intro by Mr. Mahoney and
continues as a trippy psychedelic affair and ends ala "Stairway to
Heaven" with Mr. Anzalone playing, as he does throughout the record,
incendiary blues-based guitar leads.
So many young groups and artists get caught up in the idea of making
CD's and videos and getting on stage while forgetting to develop their
music. That's why it's good to hear some old school kick ass rock and
roll played by a working class band that is tight, inspired and
clearly having a damn good time doing it. 'Edge of Sunrise' is a
flavorful and fun smorgasbord of rock that ki-ki-ki-kicks out the
jams!
http://www.killvankull.com
http://www.myspace.com/killvankull
Article by Mark Kirby, MusicDish e-Journal
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