iKiLLCaRS

G]ood mix of Velvet Underground, Television, Minutemen, and the best of the 1980’s SST bands. It’s really a very unique and refreshing sound all their own. It’s catchy, hard, weird, and just really fucking good. This is what the Velvet Underground would have sounded like if Lou Reed were growing up in 1980’s Southern California. You get 5 songs that sound nothing like the previous track before it. Very solid release. -- Matt Coppens
- Terminal Boredom (CHI/NYC)

At Ease With Your Haste is replete with distorted guitar riffs, grubby vocals borrowing verse from Allen Ginsberg and steady, medium-paced beats... It has a jangly grit to it, and the scratchy vocals and unpolished production give the track a great rock and roll sound that’s hard not to enjoy. -- William Mills
- The Austinist (TX)

Most punk rock bands are known for their sometimes-overzealous guitars and garage-sound orientations, and it would be a lie to say that iKiLLCaRs doesn't fit that description. However, they also pride themselves on going a little deeper. The band, born on Christmas Day 2004, is comprised of three members: Johnny Law on vocals and guitar, Lanyo Bourgeois on bass and The Gigi on the drums. The band's sound is that of a garage punk rock band with somewhat predictable and repetitive chord progressions, and sometimes-unmoving melodic lines, but they are able to renew interest when you think you might as well change the channel. Their music, like that of many other bands, is a collection of what bands they have heard and like themselves. “We all listen to a ton of different music and maybe subconsciously take from those bands,” said vocalist and guitarist Johnny Law. “But in the creative process, we really strive to keep it original — find a riff here, match with something else there — and build the songs that way.” The name iKiLLCaRs, random capitalization aside, is a name that is very much like their music: loud, crazy and fun, but it goes a little deeper when you don't expect it. Yes, they have actually “killed” cars, but the band also stands for other things. “Between us, we've killed over a dozen cars,” Law said. “[I] probably take the cake with eight of those ‘deaths.’ ... Yeah, but it’s also a revolt against responsibility and materialism or consumerism in a larger degree.” Though, of course, that same consumerism would be desired in order to sell albums. He calls their songwriting “a smash” of philosophy. “Cars are just a thing,” Law said. “Without real upkeep, they can go all to hell, and so can relationships and everything else in life.” They have not put out an album yet, but have put out two extended plays. by GARRETT SCOTT - thesunflower.com

“[T]o these ears their mix of snarling guitars and drawling vocals sounds more like Velvet Underground parading around in skinny ties and drainpipes covering the The Minutemen's early eps while Mark E Smith looks on admiringly. iKiLLCaRS have the look, sound and feel of a band destined for a cult following and it’s a cult that this Devil will be proud to be a part - The Devil Has The Best Tuna (UK)

Opening track "Gemini Dancer" started off with kind of a weird bouquet of guitar distortion, but I stuck it out -- and I’m glad I did. I was rewarded with a tight, post-punk tune that conjured visions of the band jumping around the stage as they belted it out.... MTV had an awesome, energetic, New Wave-type feel to it... "Donuts (Make Great Girlfriends)" was a driving, entertaining listen too; it reminded me of a lot of the stuff by the Stooges, as did the last track, "OK," which had me singing "Doin’ all right, I’m better than you," before it was through. -- Adam Scott
- Norman Transcript (OK)

The Austin three-piece punk confection band known as IKillCars is the newest in a resurgence of the ever dying, ever-buried, ever-dug up (again) punk scene... [T]hese guys are flat-out fun to listen too. -- Brandon Whitehead
- eKC Soundbites (MO)

iKiLLCaRS gigs have become throwdowns that seem to digress into all the raucous energy and antics of a house party....
- Austin Sounds (TX)

Grimy garage punk from Austin, TX
- Fiddle While You Burn (NYC)

I was privileged to catch one of the last shows at Liberty D’s last February, shortly before its too-briefly-reopened doors closed forever (and mysteriously vanished). The bill that night was the always-entertaining local band Drives Like a Dream (sadly now also of similar status to Liberty D’s) and Austin-based garage-punkers iKiLLCaRS.

Around that time I also reviewed the then-trio’s first EP “Becky” after it was generously given to me by a member of DLAD.

Down to two members, Johnny Law on vocals and guitar and Lanyo Bourgeois on bass (plus drums by whichever kind/talented soul from the Austin scene can help out here and there), iKiLLCaRS’ new EP release, “At Ease With Your Haste” preserves the energy of “Becky,” and packs in a few more minutes of music (21 as opposed to 18 minutes) to boot.

Opening track “Hartsfield-Jackson” gets things rolling nicely with jangly rough guitar-centric post-punk. And it just gets better from there.

“San Jose, 1972” is a cover of sorts, doing a skillful job of setting the off-kilter rage of the late iconoclastic Beat poet Allen Ginsberg to music and evoked some of the early-punk feel of their first effort’s “Donuts (Make Great Girlfriends).”

“The Teeners” is apparently an unabashed shout-out to the band’s younger fans and has some catchy-as-all-get-out guitar grooves that doubtless make it a fave at their live shows down South.

“Butcher’s Block” gets a little heavy and reminded me of what a lost “B” side from the earliest days of Alice in Chains might sound like; it’s echo-y fun and somehow captures the spirit of a blackout-preceded hangover of uncertain origin at 5 p.m. on a cold, cloudy Sunday on an unfamiliar floor. It’s a long one at right about seven minutes, but I found it to be a good break from the otherwise forceful energy of the rest of “At Ease With Your Haste.”

It’s a part of the album’s definite build that culminates with energetic closing track “Radio Roche.”

With such lyrics as “You can live the vision/On this one condition/When you feel the friction/Blow ’em all away,” iKiLLCaRS reminds us why the Lone Star State’s special zeitgeist yields great music even as it terrifies those unfortunate or stupid enough to get on the bad side of its well-armed citizenry.

Yes, it’s an EP, but between this and the likewise-affordable “Becky,” iKiLLCaRS makes the equivalent of a caliber of get-up-and-skank album to which this music reviewer is seldom treated.

Be on the lookout for “At Ease with Your Haste” and be blown away too; the CD is dropping at an as-yet-unnamed date this spring.

- The Norman Transcript (OK)