Bazooka-Joe
Reno, NV, United States

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iTunes I'm Diggin On Today:

• "Photograph" by Weezer
• "Dani California" by Red Hot Chili Peppers
• "Seven Spanish Angels" by Ray Charles
• "Always Love" by Nada Surf
• "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" by Death Cab For Cutie
• "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers

My Links:

• My Monthly Songwriter's Column
• My Myspace Site
• My Bass Gear
• The Official Shotgun Rules
• Coming Soon - Some Christian Music Reviews I Do
• So funny they shouldn't even be allowed to update it weekly

My Friends:

• Go Off the Main Road with Dan
• Come Ride the C-Train
• You Drank What? - Pecadillo's Brainchild
• Michael Sorensen, A Watercolor Genius
• Challies Blog
• The Doulogos, for some real "deep thoughts" and Biblical Perspective

Kainos’ message for ‘Generation Next’ is blatant, uncompromising and very in-your-face. But you’d never guess it from their music. Kainos is a hard-hitting rock duo and they appear to pull no punches for the Christian, churched youth of America. Kainos (“kay-nohs”) calls for the Christian youth to rise up, wake up, step away from the pews and “into the fire,” follow the examples of Christ and be proactive about their faith. That’s the message this reviewer received from the promotional material, etc anyway. Everything about this album screams distinct and unique. Uniqueness taken to a dramatic degree often feels fringe or alternative and this album camps right there on border of “underground” and “mainstream”. But in this day and age that line is becoming increasingly blurred, particularly for today’s youth. It’s pretty uncommon these days to see a rock duo, much less a female vocal fronting hard alternative rock. Even more uncommon is a husband/wife team.

Frequently the lyrics on Alive, such as the first hard-rocking track, “Selfish Me,” are lost between a breathy slurred vocal style, thick vocal effects, and the very busy musical mix. You could almost call it grunge were it not saturated with electronic processing. What is heard towards the end is a very repetitive “selfish me, selfish me” and one can really only guess at the message within the song without reading along with the CD liner. The tracks on the album are all musically dynamic and there’s an obvious talent displayed from the 23 year old guitarist and principle writer Ben Stacy for catchy melodies, complex arrangements and stellar guitar work. Musically, Kainos makes a successful stab at the teenage demographic rock scene giving a positive alternative to the likes of Evanescence and No Doubt.

The album overall has an animated, raw musical feel but when the lyrics can be clearly heard, on tunes such as “Alive,” “You and I,” the words appear to be redundant, cliché, and often lacking in substance. Despite the very focused and determined statements made on their website, in their bio, and found within their publicity material the message in their music appears to be rather vague and their music mediocre at best for much of the album with a few very shining moments that speak more of the production than the writing per se. While Hannah Stacy is clearly a very talented and capable singer, her words are often inundated with too much nuance, verbal freestyle, and superfluous emotion. Their message is hidden within ambiguous poetry and sabotaged by production overkill.

While Kainos’ debut album leaves something to be desired in substance and musical direction, the dynamic duo seem to have a lot of talent, and in their mid-twenties, show quite a bit of potential. I look forward to hearing what comes next from this group as they mature and grow in their relationship with each other, in the Lord and with their music. From their debut release, “Alive” there’s nowhere to go but ‘up’.

Bazooka-Joe made it so at 9:42 AM