Killradio
Raised On Whipped Cream
Columbia
Killradio are a post-punk band with pop melodies, just like ten million other bands out there today. The album cover turns me off right away, because of the bright colors and the goofy image of a baby sucking on a Whip-It canister. Without expectation, I pop the disc in and am immediately surprised by the Tim Armstrong voice that screams out of the speakers. Ok, they like Rancid, so has almost every other pop-punk band after 1994.
But then I start catching lyrics like, “The informed citizen became un-American for reading a book instead of watching the television/supporting peace and not the president, rather die on the cross than for a fucking Republican.” Well, now… words like that are more Rage Against the Machine than Good Charlotte. I’m intrigued.
Very quickly I find myself loving this record. Politics set to catchy punk rock with a slight ska influence that’s subtle, not overwhelming. “Penis Envy,” a song about America’s need to piss mark their territory, has got a chorus that will stick in your head for hours with its repetitive, fast sung “a little bit more.” As in, “Let me kill, a little bit more/Let me steal, a little bit more/Let me rape, a little bit more.”
I won’t go so far as to compare vocalist/guitarist Brandon Jordan’s writing ability to Jello Biafra, but I will say this: he writes with the intellect and honesty of Jello. As he matures, and keeps reading his Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky and Emma Goldman, he could well be on his way to becoming a very important lyricist in the punk canon.
Killradio are revitalizing the credibility of the SoCal punk band.
Killradio: http://www.killradiorevolution.com
