Why Johnny Kills

BECAUSE HE CAN Why Johnny Kills, a four-piece art-rock band, is polarizing, if nothing else. When I first heard the band live ? it had a female co-lead singer then ? I was annoyed and mystified. What was the objective? I'm beginning to understand ? and enjoy immensely ? the band's meandering, yet thoughtful, music after listening to its studio debut, ?Sex.? ?Sex? sounds natural, and it's a fun listen, as the recording translates well from the band's live set of strangled notes (that's chords, beats and lyrics).

Why Johnny Kills, a four-piece art-rock band, is polarizing, if nothing else.

When I first heard the band live ? it had a female co-lead singer then ? I was annoyed and mystified. What was the objective?

I'm beginning to understand ? and enjoy immensely ? the band's meandering, yet thoughtful, music after listening to its studio debut, ?Sex.?

?Sex? sounds natural, and it's a fun listen, as the recording translates well from the band's live set of strangled notes (that's chords, beats and lyrics).

Jeremy Carter, Timothy Simmons, Nicholas Krapels and Glenn Dickson, the principals on this CD, have created well-orchestrated songs with experimental and improvisational tendencies as titanium crutches.

The words and stories, sometimes inaudible (which might be the point), come through as another instrument on songs such as ?Easterners,? a beautifully overwrought 10-minute track. Once I lose concentration, a new sound or idea brings me back to a new luster.

The tools at use on the disc ? bass, saxophone, drums, vocals, ambient noise, to name but a few ? are tossed and weathered.

?Easterners? typifies Why Johnny Kills, a band not settled on a particular direction or musical nuance, a band with nomadic principles, a band whose rock music is uncompromised art.

And this art is very much appreciated.

- Otis Taylor, The State 05/09/2008j