The painstakingly adorable artwork scrolled across their banner, the references to comic book series and anime in the band name and song titles (the song Appa referencing the hybrid buffalo-manatee from Avatar: The Last Airbender); what was I getting into? I expected the music to go straight over my head when I first visited the Bandcamp of I Kill Giants. Instead, what I got was a catchy fast-paced EP that rocks and entertains like Trees, Houses, and Swallows, by Maps & Atlases, and lyrically cuts to the core like their prevalent influence of the experimental spoken-word styling’s of La Dispute.
The four-piece math-y jazz-rock band reigns from Boston. All members are students of Berklee College of Music and under twenty years of age. The band blends genres seamlessly, but at the core of it, one can’t help but rock out to the captivating hooks and bellowing chants. The changing time signatures, sporadic hits, and rhythms made me think critically about what I was listening to and did so with flying colors. It was the most fun I’ve had listening to an EP in a long time.
Covaleski may be the strongest track on the EP and certainly makes for a great intro with an instrumental blend math-pop guitar doodling, a few jazzy breaks, and a punk breakdown as the band chants the title of the EP, “Let it out!” Covaleski is then followed by the most exciting and accessible song, I Believe in Technology, A single-worthy song that I can see blowing up (if only they believed in singles), with a chorus that has been stuck in my head for weeks: “She holds the gun to my head/ And then she asks me/What do I do next?"/ But darling, I don’t know./ She pulls the trigger back / "You’d better tell me"/ I sigh and take a breath,/ "Darling please go home."
The album ends with the powerful track Balance, and right back where the EP started, with the band chanting, “Let it out,” as the raw sound of the tapping guitar riff slowly dies. With the band’s best work yet to come, one can only marvel at the sound I Kill Giants were able to
achieve with limited resources and funds. For now everyone should go download their album on Bandcamp. It’s free, but of course gives you the option to give them some cash to help support their music so they won’t have to “get through the week on twenty bucks.” Make sure to catch their show this Sunday, Oct. 23 at the Audio Jungle at 18 Pratt St. Allson, MA with the band Deadhorse starting at 6pm.
–Mike Giordano