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Fun iKiLLCaRS EP easy to get ‘At Ease With’
iKiLLCaRS
At Ease With Your Haste
What? Records
I was privileged to catch one of the last shows at Liberty D’s last February, shortly before its too-briefly-reopened doors closed forever (and mysteriously vanished). The bill that night was the always-entertaining local band Drives Like a Dream (sadly now also of similar status to Liberty D’s) and Austin-based garage-punkers iKiLLCaRS.
Around that time I also reviewed the then-trio’s first EP “Becky” after it was generously given to me by a member of DLAD.
Down to two members, Johnny Law on vocals and guitar and Lanyo Bourgeois on bass (plus drums by whichever kind/talented soul from the Austin scene can help out here and there), iKiLLCaRS’ new EP release, “At Ease With Your Haste” preserves the energy of “Becky,” and packs in a few more minutes of music (21 as opposed to 18 minutes) to boot.
Opening track “Hartsfield-Jackson” gets things rolling nicely with jangly rough guitar-centric post-punk. And it just gets better from there.
“San Jose, 1972” is a cover of sorts, doing a skillful job of setting the off-kilter rage of the late iconoclastic Beat poet Allen Ginsberg to music and evoked some of the early-punk feel of their first effort’s “Donuts (Make Great Girlfriends).”
“The Teeners” is apparently an unabashed shout-out to the band’s younger fans and has some catchy-as-all-get-out guitar grooves that doubtless make it a fave at their live shows down South.
“Butcher’s Block” gets a little heavy and reminded me of what a lost “B” side from the earliest days of Alice in Chains might sound like; it’s echo-y fun and somehow captures the spirit of a blackout-preceded hangover of uncertain origin at 5 p.m. on a cold, cloudy Sunday on an unfamiliar floor. It’s a long one at right about seven minutes, but I found it to be a good break from the otherwise forceful energy of the rest of “At Ease With Your Haste.”
It’s a part of the album’s definite build that culminates with energetic closing track “Radio Roche.”
With such lyrics as “You can live the vision/On this one condition/When you feel the friction/Blow ’em all away,” iKiLLCaRS reminds us why the Lone Star State’s special zeitgeist yields great music even as it terrifies those unfortunate or stupid enough to get on the bad side of its well-armed citizenry.
Yes, it’s an EP, but between this and the likewise-affordable “Becky,” iKiLLCaRS makes the equivalent of a caliber of get-up-and-skank album to which this music reviewer is seldom treated.
Be on the lookout for “At Ease with Your Haste” and be blown away too; the CD is dropping at an as-yet-unnamed date this spring.
— Adam Scott
