Kill The Camera

On a recent drive from New York to Delaware for an out-of-town show, KILL THE CAMERA discovered the joys of Sirius satellite radio. Despite the staggering array of listening choices, they spent the entire 8-hour round trip flipping between two channels: 23 (Hair Nation) and 29 (Punk), competing to name that artist first – Dokken! Social D! Scorps! Misfits!

That about sums up the band – mix equal parts '80s rock and '90s pop-punk and make it arena-ready for 2007. Think of Green Day paying homage to Def Leppard, or Skid Row filtered through the Foo Fighters. It's the sound of optimistic post-millennial angst: frustration with an exit strategy, chorus after chorus, in repeated catharsis.

Brandishing killer melodic hooks, catchy riffs and a thrilling live show, KILL THE CAMERA challenges all for the title of “most entertaining new rock band on the New York scene”. Fittingly, they made their debut in February 2007 at Snitch (the NYC hotspot opened by rockers Scott Weiland, Duff McKagan and Brett Scallions).

There's a lyrical thread of loss and recapture throughout much of KTC's material. At times the pace is frenetic ("Detonation", about blowing up, natch); at others, mournful ("Waiting for You"). Mostly, though, it's big and loud and anthemic and you want to sing along, fist in the air. They jump around on stage …and sometimes they fall down.

Singer Ryan Link is no stranger to jumping around. After singing and drumming in a few Seattle and Boston bands, including Boston Herald Y2K Hotlistees Miss Fortune, he took up acting, quickly landing a national tour with Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida. He shot straight onto Broadway as Roger in RENT in 2003, only to catch acute laryngitis two months later.

Link pushed on, appearing in short-run regional shows like Jesus Christ Superstar and HAIR. But he soon came to his senses, realizing that what he needed was to return to his rock 'n' roll roots. And off he went in search of a new band, meeting guitarist KC Evers through a Craigslist ad in late 2006.

The two hit it off and immediately started writing songs together. Evers had cut his teeth in Richmond, VA’s pop-punk sensation Fun Size, touring exhaustively for seven years, with releases on Fueled by Ramen and BOB Records. He also fronted DC power-poppers One Day Forever, with an EP on Red Leader, before moving to New York and recovering Kill The Camera’s rhythm section from the ashes of the short-lived Sundae Crush.

Enter bassist Jeff Rinehard and drummer Rob "Robbeez" Endemann, both hailing from upstate New York. A former goth kid, Jeff works with metal and wood in more ways than one – he's also a skilled carpenter and welder.

Class clown Robbeez, meanwhile, is still trying to shake his sordid past as a costume character on the Sesame Street Live tour. Hey, he was the Cookie Monster before Fred Durst got on the radio.

Kill The Camera is 100% biodegradable, easy on the eyes, and suitable for framing. Their self-titled debut EP is available at CDBaby, iTunes, and your favorite online retailer.