Local review: Kick Kick - Powerplay
Suburban Kansas boys concoct minor pop masterpiece
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Johnson County. You’ve been there. Maybe you live there. Life in JOCO is idyllic. But Johnson County is also an arid, soulless stretch of asphalt that connects every little nasty chain store known to man, dropped onto the landscape like so much capitalist cow plop. If you were a rock band from Johnson County, you’d have escape fantasies, wouldn’t you?
Audio clip
"I'm Artsy" by Kick Kick
Kick Kick do. Their promotional materials and lyrics are dotted with references to “ballin” and “the boss life.” On their debut album, Powerplay, they’ve created a sort of empowerment language, vaguely derived from hip-hop culture, perhaps necessary to sustaining rock dreams along I-35. Their lyrics also make much of a mythical L.A. — Los Angeles to you; although their poetic L.A. is a dreamscape whose escapist, mythic potential far exceeds the real Los Angeles. Oddball mythology aside, Powerplay is the most engaging pure pop record in recent memory from a Kansas City band.
The guys in Kick Kick all use pseudonyms, although their real names pop up in the songwriting credits. At the band’s core are songwriters Star Boss and J.B. Kick. Star Boss initiates most of the group’s material while J.B. Kick, like some suburban Phil Spector, contributes most of the arrangements and the lion’s share of Powerplay’s varied, impressive instrumental performances (save for a few harmonica/guitar parts by Brody Buster and the odd guitar lead from Richard Gumbel).
Star Boss sings lead on most of these tunes. He’s a pop savant. Just as influenced by Lou Reed as Steve Miller, and by Outkast as Michael Jackson, he’s at home in a naïve pluralist pop idiom, unshackled by the constraints of either Top 40 orthodoxy or indie elitism. Handsome Horse drums expertly, and Flashy Thundercat, like Joel from the Brian Jonestown Massacre, sings a bit, contributes percussion and plays the role of a self-described “stage monkey.”
Kick Kick’s expansive pop palette derives inspiration from Sixties pop, classic Seventies rock, New Wave and Hip-Hop. As PowerPlay accelerates toward the band’s mythic L.A., it becomes a journey from innocence to experience. A Beach Boys vibe prevails on songs like “What’s Your L.A.?” and “Bumper Car.” Phase one of Powerplay culminates with “King Me,” an infectious descendant of the English Beat and "Get Happy"-era Elvis Costello.
The closer the band gets to their destination the more things darken. “I’m Artsy” at first sounds like a declaration, but it descends into isolation and chaos. “American Party” sounds like a good time initially, but winds up a claustrophobic grandchild of Randy Newman’s “Mama Told Me Not to Come.” By the time “This is L.A” rolls around you can’t help but feel like Kick Kick’s arrival may have been at the price of their souls.
Reverberating: 8.4
Steve Wilson is the manager of Kief's Downtown Music and a lifelong musician and music writer. His weekly bundle of music reviews, Reverberations, will be appearing in KCFreePress each Tuesday.
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