Kinetic Stereokids are from Flint, which kind of makes them our geographical cousins; for the people on the edges of the map, the folks in the middle kind of blend together; the lady who skinned the bunnies in Roger & Me could have just as easily been from Collinwood.  I’d argue that midwesterners in general have a bit of the magpie in them; we’ll collect things more readily than snobby easterners or laid back west-coasters.  Kinetic Stereokids typify that approach, grabbing ideas and sounds from all over the aural map and jamming them together to create a unique and cacophonous sound.  The result is a quality record, which offers frequent surprises and a heap of diversity.

There’s a lot happening on the new Kinetic Stereokids album Kid Moves. This is probably most apparent on the tenth track, “Twisted Thoughts.”  The song opens with, essentially, the same voice from The Beastie Boys’ “Body Movin’”(and The Smiths’ “Rubber Ring” and The White Stripes’ “Little Acorns” and…).  You know the one, the creepy, semi-monotone older white person saying something like “one to the left” or “you are sleeping” or “when problems overwhelm us.”  Here, it’s “Relax your mouth and jaw (jaw), arms (arms)…”  That dude cuts out as an acoustic guitar stats laying down chords in front of a soloing electric, before a break beat kicks in and some half-rapping/half singing keys the beginning of the song proper.  It’s a song that’s draws from a wide array of influences, from Beck (this might be a bit lazy, in that Beck hasn’t really half-rapped in a while, but I’m going for the Beck of my youth, the crazy one that rhymed “cocaine nose job” and “folksinger slob”) to the high-gods of 70s rock (I refuse to invoke Pink Floyd here, but it did cross my mind) to Sebadoh (low-fi fuzz, folks).  On the first listen, it’s distracting: the creepy dude takes away from the electric guitar which doesn’t mesh with the beat, which overpowers the vocals and so on.  I felt like there was a great song under there, but it was buried beneath pile of bells, whistles, and other assorted sonic bric-a-brac.  The second time through (and the third) the song made much more sense.  You’ve got to shut off some of those regulatory functions and just soak it in.  Creepy dude heightens the vibe of the vocals.  The guitar solo shreds in the mellowest way possible.  The vocals are perfectly situated.  This encapsulates Kid Moves; there’s a lot going on and it doesn’t always make sense, but if you give it a second to settle in, it works.  If you get analytical on it, it’s tough to sort out why it works, but it does.

Within the chaos, Kinetic Stereokids seem to have two broad gears.  There’s a freaky, experimental side and a side yearning for widespread affection.  The two tracks below typify this dichotomous approach; “Free Money” is raucous and distracted, pushing that fuzzed out drum loop to the fore, playing up the gap between the two guitar sounds and, in general, pushing a lot of different buttons.  This side of the album is, for the most part, where the gems are.  It’s a band doing something new with old parts.  “Planes With Teeth” is the song where this approach is most fully realized; it’s a brooding, meandering seven-minute epic with all sorts of strange flourishes and temporal and tonal shifts.  It kicks ass.  The second track below, “Have a Nice Day” shows the more restrained side of Kinetic Stereokids.  The harsher among us would argue that it’s a play for some sort of mainstream success, but I’m more inclined to see it as simply the obverse of the weirder material; it’s kind of impressive that the band can pull off the more idiosyncratic stuff next to the more traditional guitar driven indie rock stuff.  The album’s closer, “Strategic Manuevers” is the zenith of the laid-back half of the record; it’s quality mellow balladry.

One of the other nice touches on the album is Kinetic Stereokids complete lack of self-seriousness.  “Strategic Manuevers” opens with one of the band members saying, “Are we rolling?  We are in fact rolling.”  This is on a song with the repeated (and incredibly mopey) lyric “abort mission,” so it’s good to have that balanced out with some audible studio banter.  This happens a lot on the album; listen to the last three seconds of  “Have a Nice Day” for another clear example of goofing around.  It’s unclear how much of this easy-going attitude is affected, but it serves to ground Kid Moves a bit, reminding the listener that the often complex, collage like arrangements are the product of human hands.  It gives an organic feel to some of the highly proficient instrumental work, the twin high points of which are the guitar solos on “Cancer” and “Proper Ettiquette.”  They absolutely shred and are better for the laid back vibe the album pushes.

This is an album that you’re going to need to sit with for a minute.  Let it all soak in.  Hit replay on “Convalescent Feelings” a couple of times (that one is a doozy).  Kinetic Stereokids are tapping into the right references and emerging, for the most part, with something gleaming and new.  For my fellow midwestereners, it’s like a bird feeder made out of beer cans hanging from the porch of a dilapidated duplex.  You know the one.

“Free Money” – Kinetic Stereokids

“Have a Nice Day” – Kinetic Stereokids

Get Kinetic Stereokids at insound.