It is difficult for me to write about No Kids. Writing about one of your favorite bands is very distinct from recommending a band you know everyone will enjoy. A lot of my favorite bands I would never tell anyone about because I feel like I am giving someone a burden. If a band is a party I will tell someone. If a band is a fully realized concept I will tell someone. But No Kids are personal.
No Kids are experimental R&B. They bring the anticon ethic to the Usher set, using the popular conventions of the genre to subvert expectations. Instead of tales of lover man prowess, they create stories of striking out and being alone. And the melancholy isn’t melodramatic or delivered in florid prose; it’s grounded in I-am-eating-cereal-for-dinner-again realism.
Singer/mastermind Nick Krgovich croons, “people folding up their programs after the show/ there’s still the night to get up but I’ve no place to go now/ how I wish I could be running round with you.” I’ve been there man.
Plus Krgovich has one of the most exciting voices in pop (and looks just like Rick Moranis). His range allows him to jump octaves, marrying the Dirty Projectors’ melodic sensibility with the passionate longing of Marvin Gaye. There is a real vulnerability, a real human voice admitting his humanity and seizing the reins back from the remarkably inhuman misogyny currently in control of the genre (T-Pain).
Basically, saying “I love you and I miss you” is a very difficult thing to do right. No Kids get it. They know it’s sometimes pathetic, sometimes elating and even if you thought you’ve said everything there’s always more to say.
No Kids will perform with Parenthetical Girls (!) tonight at the Sunset Tavern
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/nokidsband
