Customer Reviews

New Ruins

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album by Santa Fe NM's own the Kidcrash is undoubtedly one of the best rock albums released this year, and is deserving of as much attention that it could possibly receive. Recorded and produced by Ed Rose (Get up Kids/Coalesce fame) in Kansas, "New Ruins" is a very tight and technically driven guitar based emo album. It reminds me of a cross between American Football and Braid, lots of arpeggio guitars and interplayed riffs, and math-rock time changes. There are nine songs that make up for just over 36 minutes, and I love every song on this cd. Most have an uptempo pace to them, "The Afterburn of Being Born" slows things down a bit, and it works. My favorite song has to be "The Drowning Swan's Song". The production is very clean and confident, but it doesn't kill the feeling of the album. The guitar work is some of the best of this genre I have ever heard, this stuff has to be ridiculously difficult to keep time while singing. The bass flows neatly over the guitars, which almost always function as lead instruments, occasionally providing octave chords as rhythm. The drumwork is superb, the fills are accurate and busy with precision, although the drum sound is very very slick. I recommend this album for fans of the two aforementioned bands, along with fans of Minus the Bear, Moneen, older Get Up Kids, Mineral, and Texas is the Reason.

All I can say about this album, and this band is that they made me want to search for good music to listen to. They actually write themes reminiscent of classical music pieces into their music, creating fluid compositions throughout the album. The guitar work blows my mind, and the drums and bass never drop the rhythm. The music strikes me as some of the most innovative song writing I have heard in a long time. Everyone should give this band a listen.

Wow. Who'd have thought that 4 years ago when I saw my first kidcrash show I'd see them on amazon.com. From Jakob's room, to warehouse21, to a printed and pressed cd, finally! I've grown to know and love this band, and their music all through high school. I look now at all the flyers and posters on my bedroom wall and remember how many shows we've had over the years, a lot of them kidcrash ones, and how my life wouldn't have been the same without them. This is music at its best. This is music that gives you that feeling in your stomache like your feet are about to leave the ground. The brilliant melodies and inspiring lyrics of the Kidcrash are unmatched. Its about time the rest of the world gets a glance at the prized possession that Santa Fe, NM has had to itself for all these years. This album is a culmination of all of those shows, and the past years of kidcrash music, and its worth a hell of a lot more than 12 bucks. For anyone who sees this and thinks, "just another cd", think again. If I could pick just one cd to take with me for the rest of my life, this would be it, hands down. You can expect more great things from these fellas later on, I guarantee it.

I too know these guys- they're from my town and I used to see them play regularly, before they moved. I've been waiting for this CD for a while and I am certainly not disappointed. The recording quality is excellent without being overproduced, and I as a live-concert fan was excited to get to hear the guitar work sans distortion, because it is truly high-quality.

Every song on the record is excellent, particularly lyrically. Anyone who belives that indie-rock is all whining about girls should be forced to listen to Alex's words. One song, "Eyes That Never Hit The Sky" is about being "born in a plastic casket"; another is about the the proposed destruction of the teen arts center where they always played.

As I said, all the songs are great- some of my favorites are "Your Valley Is Our Volcano", "New Ruins", "Talking Underwater" and "The Drowning Swan's Song". I highly recommend these guys and hope that they'll enjoy the success their talent deserves.

I wonder if its because i know these guys or if its because they are actually incredible that i adore this record. After many listens (from myself and those around me) i think its safe to say these four guys are one of the most incredible rock bands around today. The lyrical depth is epic. The melodies pierce themselves into your ears and drag you around, wanting more. The music is essentially guitar driven, with the bass and percussion keeping the tone of the song. Overall an amazing release that i would recommend to anyone. Buy it.

Better than The Adultcrash, I suppose... unless the name has something to do with goats...

Ahem. More to the point, this band is not so terrible as they're being made out to be. Truthfully, their sound has been previously homogenized by a drove of likeminded groups so gratuitously that the ratty crunch of distorted barre chords against lilting clean arpeggios seems almost as routine as morning birdsong, but fairly complex and harmonized pop melodies emerge via the subconscious that will stick inside your skull. Kind of like realizing that there's a bird out there that chirps a popular American folk song.

The opening cut is the best, but the formula stays the same for all nine tracks of "New Ruins." Sinewy, shimmering clean, stop-start verses laden with intertwining harmony, interrupted at various points by Shaolin kick distortion crunch and the occassional breakdown.

If that's your cup, take a sip.

Rating: 3.6/10

Take the catchiness, energy, and fun out of Taking Back Sunday or Saves the Day, and what have you got? The Kidcrash, a by-the-numbers emo-punk band out of Santa Fe that describes itself as "indie/guitar driven/mathy/emotive/rock." That description is as overblown as the pretentious lyrics on "New Ruins."

"My insides are congested/ and you are the wrecked car/ the one that caused the traffic/ a standstill that stilled the movement of my heart." Those lyrics are heard on the dreadfully self-aware closer, "The Drowning Swan's Song," which finds lead Alex Gaziano admitting: "I recall swearing on/ every mother's grave I wouldn't write this song." More of the same can be found on the rest of the album. They spin out mid-tempo rocker after mid-tempo rocker until it all blends together into one senseless mash.

For a band that calls itself indie, the sound of "New Ruins" is absurdly commercial. They play their instruments in the correct style, they strike the right chords, they sing the right notes, but there's not much here to differentiate the Kidcrash from the plethora of emo-punk-pop bands that are being played on rock radio right now. That's not a good thing, with rock radio being in its current sad state.

It seems the boys that make up the band are aware of the emo stereotype, and attempt to spoof it by shamelessly proclaiming on their website that "(they) spit in the face of danger, and then cry to (their) moms about it because that is what an emo kid does." Sure, that's all very humorous, but it's also accurate. They are what they're making fun of.

Your average, casual emo fan will probably eat up "New Ruins", but more discerning listeners will be left cold.

i saw these promising kids in santa fe a couple of years ago, i thought they really had something going for them; wow was i wrong. the melodies are jaded and the riffs are crap, mabye live shows is where they shine. i hear the gazz uses pro-tools, well good luck guys, i hope you go for it all.

This band is like a musical second coming of christ. I heard about them through a friend of a friend of a friend and boy am I ever super psyched. They rock! From the opening riffs right through to the eargasmic endind these boys now how to tear it up - at the same time they sound like pro's in their post emo indie style. I would compare their early music to such legendary bands as David Bowie (early years), Cream, and the Stones - not in musical style per say but in heart. These guys have mad heart.
Bow, because you are in the presence of the new Rock gods!