Album Rating: 4.5

It's either this or The Pax Cecilia for my album of the year right now. I need to listen to Colors more but I doubt it will be album of the year worthy.

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

See Splat, Iai, and Jom; I have created an army and nothing can stop us now.

Album Rating: 4.5

Lol I actually owe a lot to the resident sputnik emo club for helping me change my musical opinions and interests for IMO the better.

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

Or I was being facetious haha.

Album Rating: 4.5

This would probably be a 3.5 for me if the drumming wasn't so ace.

Album Rating: 4.5

My comments on this review are entirely serious.



Everyone should think this is the best release of the year.



I was just in a back handed sort of way actually asking Iai what he thinks is better than this because I would be interested in checking it out.



goop

See Splat, Iai, and Jom; I have created an army and nothing can stop us now.

i wrote this post for so long, i cant proof read it, im just gonna post it, sorry,

hey, this is buster, i play drums in kidcrash. i come read the feedback sometimes when i've given up looking for any reviews of jokes, seeing as there is only 1 or 2 that have been written since the album came out months ago.
i just figured if anyone was still talking about the album here that i might make a few comments...

everyone in our band, and it's the same for members going into our 8th year together this month(the only other person who was in our band ever was Zack(now better known as 'Beirut' - he played keyboard and sang a little for part of a year...and its clear he's much more well suited writing all the Beirut music)), always really enjoy hearing what people think about the music we are making. its nice to know people like it. but its also always nice to hear feedback on the internet, because the customary compliments at shows are never very constructive, whereas without the factor of being face to face with musicians you are critiquing its easy to not hold back when giving an opinion. its bizarre how many musicians want approval and validation for their music, even need it. its always seemed pretty clear that if you are ever really happy with the music you make, if you aren't extremely critical of your performances and recordings then you are playing for all the wrong reasons. not that it doesnt feel great to play those sets where everything is perfect and we are all able to really relax and enjoy the set when it comes so naturally. But the whole point is too push ourselves further and further knowing clearly that there is no end and we should never feel content with the music we write. obviously there are plenty of times we really enjoy playing shows and think we played well, or like a recording and think it came out great, but i think we all kind of feel if you are relentless in being critical of your music you never have to stop improving, and you never have to keep playing the same songs when you have reached a point where there are newer songs that challenge you far more than old favorites.

about half of the songs on jokes were written more than 2 years ago. shortly after that we recorded them ourselves in a 10x10 moldy storage space in olympia wa. we originally recorded all of the songs straight through without ever stopping, because we had written the music basically as one song that just continued to grow with no breaks and no parts ever repeated. a week later we recorded again and broke up the music into 5 sections to be able to rest and get the best recordings we could. we recorded all of the instruments at once in the same 10x10 room. we released it eventually as a demo.

from the fall to the spring we weren't able to practice or play because we were split across the country from each other. We reassembled in the beginning of summer and wrote the song ron ghousley's fucked up dream and parrots just don't understand. we toured with the 5 songs from the demo and those 2 new songs. after tour before recording jokes in my moms living room we wrote turtelephant. while there are about 5 cds worth of other recordings of tons of different songs from old "developmental" albums, we never have played older songs when we have had enough new material that we like more than the old to take up a set. when people ask us to play songs a lot of the time we aren't really prepared to play the songs. living apart for 8 months at a time these last few years has made it hard to remember so many songs with so many parts, and when the time for tour arrives we generally decided to pick our favorite songs, usually the newest, and focus completely on getting those songs as tight as possible for tour. we only sell records at shows that have songs we are still playing on them in general, we definitely give away copies of old stuff if people ask about buying it. so...

when some people upon their first listens find that they like a few songs on the album, its might have something to do with the fact that the song writing spans way over a year with long breaks in writing, when in the past we have never really played any songs for more than a year, let a lone released an album with songs that were already that old. but after touring the demo, all of the songs had a new energy, and re approaching them after the time we spent apart we were able to breathe a little new life into them. With the 500 handmade copies of the demo sold after tour we received so much positive feedback about the songs that we all agreed that the newer versions and new tempos re-recorded with a better quality recording could fit in with our newer songs on a full length. So maybe some people just like tend like to the songs more that are the songs we wrote later, as we continued to get more and more comfortable wriing as time passed over the years.

this summer we toured playing 3 all new songs, ron's, parrots, and turtlelephant for most sets, and occasionally played: a conduit, and life/bum guts.
people who only dig a little bit of the album might like our newest recordings.
they are unique in the sense that we wrote and recorded them piece by piece in two different states. we never played the songs together as a whole band until about 6 months after we began the process of recording during breaks from school. as always we really got to work on the songs over our 60 day tour this summer and the recordings reflect the songs in an interesting way before we really glued them together with each other. so if you saw them this summer you might want to play them a little fast on your record player, as the more and more we get comfortable with the songs the more we tend to push the tempo and add subtle changes.

pig hands - is on the split 5" mispellings with arse moreira
that my label clemontine records released

waterweed - is on the split 10" 30505 with coffin dancer
on denovali records, cassette version also available through coriander cassettes

huge ass beers to go - is ready to be put on a split 7" with l'antietam this fall.

live footage of some of the songs is on youtube, and there will be a ton more including video of a lot of the bands we played with this summer. and within a few weeks the kidcrash website being designed will have really high quality video posted.

sorry if its uncool to take the time out to write so much, but we really do appreciate all of you giving our new album a chance, and especially a board like this where people are helpful in posting and sharing albums that can be hard to find. its a great feeling having people trying to find our music, but its even greater knowing there are people who like it enough to take the time to post it so that others can have it.

after the bands we played with this summer, most of which had new albums, we think its crazy for us to be considered for best album of 2007. just seeing how many people feel that way is surreal enough, we don't need to be the best to keep loving making music and pouring every resource, drop of blood, and waking moment into trying to share our music with anyone who will listen. so please dont bother listening to our album asking yourself if its really good enough to be the best of the year, listen to it like you just found out about these younger guys who've been friends and in the same band for over 7 years, who really didnt learn how to play their instruments until they started playing together, half of whom have never had a lesson and didnt pick up their instrument until the week before our first practice. think of 4 dudes spending weeks in one of their mom's house with a computer and some microphones. think of one of them spending countless days and remixes in his bedroom mixing the tracks from that living room. think of those dudes checking their email in astonishment to find out that their favorite record labels have asked to put out their album. and all agreed to co-release it. think of four dudes looking on the internet and seeing how much some people have put into trying to help spread their music without even knowing the dudes.

thank you to everyone for checking out our record. if you almost like it, or really do, check out all of the bands that are on our top friends on our myspace.com/thekidcrash

ONLY BUSTER WROTE THIS. THE REST OF THE BAND SPEAKS FOR THEMSELVES, THIS IS JUST HOW I FEEL. ALTHOUGH IM SURE WE ARE ALL PRETTY MUCH IN TOTAL AGREEMENT.

Album Rating: 4.5

That was really cool of you to write that and to express your gratitude.

Album Rating: 4.5

Can't wait to get the 5" and 10" now. Ordered them around the same time as I got this and really looking forward to them.

Album Rating: 4.0

That was a really interesting read. I'm always intrigued about the creative process. Thanks a lot Buster.

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

Yo Buster, I've emailed you. Let's get this interview going. I've drafted all the questions dude.

Do you know if any Australian distros will be getting any of those new releases Buster? I know Hey Presto! have Jokes so maybe them?

br3ad_man.
email me and ill send you the 5", thats the best i can do at the moment.

dfelon,
email me the questions @ busterross@gmail.com
since getting an iphone its the only account i really check night and day.

do it as soon as you can and ill get back to you that day.

pixies...if you ordered the 5" from my label, im sorry, all the orders are shipping so late, but if you ordered it direct from our band it should already be in the mail.

music and all arts/communication are about opening up to how people respond to you. listening isnt just half, all of the creative process of music is so wonderful because it forces you to do the one thing the busy self oriented world distracts us all from doing, really deeply listening. its not to say i give a shit about what anyone says about music that we first and foremost play because we like the way it sounds, if we didnt like it we wouldnt release it. hearing people say anything like eh, or, it sounds like this or that is just the biggest wasted of time when anyone with have a fucking brain and an understanding of music theory is reading it. comparisons are unimportant unless you are looking for a way to get someone excited about something enough to really devote some time to listening to it. simply, bands are bound to sound like eachother if they are hunting for a certain universal sound/harmony/sense of rock. we dont sound like other bands because we want to, its simply a matter of what happens with 12 guitar strings, 4 bass strings, and 2 ride cymbals, some hi hats, a deep deep snare, and a 2 tom/kick set up.

we never wanted to sound like other bands that we do in fact love. its just unavoidable, unless you want to spend all your energy on trying to find ways to be extremely different, instead of just using instruments that no band has the fucking copyright too.

we shout some times, yeah, it builds and it doesnt, it changes all the time.

we are not screamo, emo, post punk, progressive-y, math rock, or any of the like. our songs are best summed up by live performance, and if not then by a recording. but i dont think anyone in the band thinks that we try to stay within any genre confines and as a result we dont really need to be put up against othef bands who's music has common themes.

project pat/3-6 mafia/slim thug/chamillionaire/boys II men all have 1000x as much influence on the drum parts i write then anyother emo/screamo/punk band.

tupac/mariah carey/ginuwine/aaliyah all have more influence on one of our guitarists then any noodley band could.

our lyrics are not really up for discussion, and have no genre ties. in fact you might notice that they only appear in very loud parts, they dont attempt to be the centerpiece of the songs.


anway word.