Good Kids Sprouting Horns

I went to the store to get libations and on my return I found them in my house, coming down the stairs.

We introduced ourselves, [dog] and [pony] and Good Kids Sprouting Horns. The band went out to their truck, grabbed their gear and began hauling it up to the attic.

It's about 130 miles of highway driving from Bangor to Portland. Good Kids Sprouting Horns made the drive in a little under two hours. They drove fast and straight to make it here in that amount of time. Direct.

Fitting, I suppose, that the state motto is "Dirigo."

Comprised of Anthony on the Axe and Vox, Jessamy hitting keys and singing and Ryan beating up the drum kit (with the occasional backing vocals), GKSH cranks out DIY-post-punk from the banks of the Queen City.

Lyrically, songs like 'Tight White Lines' dwell in a sort of existential angst. Anthony sings with expressive energy, pleading for answers and finally working himself up to a desperate, screaming finale. There's no hiding the pain. It's there for you to see. Direct.

Ryan's drumming is hard, varied and loud. He occasionally helps Anthony with background screams on tracks like 'Popcorn Ceiling.' He also won't hesitate to say something when Anthony's guitar drops tune a bit... which, judging by the duct tape, is probably not a rare occurrence.

While we're filming, Anthony is very clearly in control of his band. He demands excellence from Ryan and Jessamy, pointing out mistakes with no cushioning. In this way he is as direct as his music, as the drive.

Jessamy handles key duties, alternating between a hulking Casio and a kid's piano. The tones kicked out of an aging solid state amp. She backs Anthony's vocals and helps fill out a sound that otherwise might be thin.

GKSH dwells in that DIY-lo-fi aesthetic. The music that just has to be made, comes bubbling out of Anthony like a science experiment. Listening to the songs, the raw need to make music comes through crystal clear.

Anthony does all the recording himself. For the latest album he recorded two tracks at a time with a cheap mixer and decent mics. He says he prefers to use an old Layla to interface, but it doesn't fit in his current home.

Good Kids is in for a little change in sound. Up through this album, Anthony has been the dominating force. But it sounds like his band is going to get more voice soon:

"Well for this record I wrote everything. I came up with bare-bones guitar, and built keyboards on top of it. Then got rid of the guitar and rewrote it. Then added percussion. As of late songs have been more of a team effort. I give Jessamy a basic idea and she adds her flare to it, and Ryan just plays whatever comes natural for drums."

Thanks to the Modern Age, such a need to create can have an immediate and powerful impact. Recording at home, one can externalize their inner anguish and share it. There's now a straight line from wherever-it-is-that-songs-are-born to instrument to recording to your ears. Direct.

It's a shame that lo-fi recordings tend to lose dynamic range first. Good Kids frolic in the shift from loud to quiet, from simple to complex, from a trickle of music to a full on wall of sound. Hearing them live is a Sea Change on their recordings.

The live experience sheds the detritus of ones and zeros picked up in the recording practice. Seeing them live adds a jangling energy to the music. It increases that dynamic range... dragging you through the valleys and over the hills and swells of their music with all the energy of an erupting volcano.

It makes the experience of the meaning of the song yours to experience with no one but the band.

It's direct.