I was completely unfamiliar with KILL YOUR IDOLS when I put this CD on. All I knew was it was a compilation, or a “best of”, or maybe one of those albums that has rare hard to find tracks. Maybe it’s bit of both. The majority of material though (from what I can gather) is mostly long lost tracks from other comps/samplers, rare tracks, and a few covers.
KILL YOUR IDOLS plays VERY punky hardcore from the old-school. The chords can sound a bit upbeat at times, but the words are spouted off from vocalist Andy West in rapid fire fashion with a gritty snarl, and since day one! Beyond that, since punk is a genre I’m not familiar with, I’ll admit that I have some difficulty pointing to other bands or places for comparisons.
From the punk that I am familiar with, KILL YOUR IDOLS seems to have many of the same trappings, to the simple song titles with lyrics that really get straight to the point, to typically short length of the songs. In fact, the majority of songs are so short that when I was looking for the longest songs, there was only one that went past three minutes, which was “I Still Fell The Same”.
The “Something Started Here” compilation spans the bands beginning from 1995 al the way to 2007, because the boys in KILL YOUR IDOLS decided to call it a day. The beginnings of the band sounds very raw, very underground, and of course like all good punks (even though these boys hang towards a bit more of a hardcore side) they want to stick-it-to-the-man. Progressing through the years, they up the production quality and crank up the heavy on the guitars. The latest songs even seem to have a sense of relaxing while still being pissed off about something. They stick a few more guitar solos in those later songs, but put more focus on staying in key rather the doing the short-as-possible punk solos.
One of the best things I think a band can do with a CD is give people a reason to have the physical CD. You can copy songs, or buy them online, and pretty often people re-print lyrics, but this compilation is full of stories from the road, along with stories to go along with the songs.
In the end though, I find it difficult to recommend this KILL YOUR IDOLS compilation to anyone who isn’t a big KILL YOUR IDOLS fan, that’s one of the reasons why they put these rarities collections together. Well, that and it basically ties up all the loose ends when people want to put a band to rest that hopefully won’t keep doing “final” reunion shows over and over again.
6/10
The Official Kill Your Idols Website (or at least something close to it)
Kill Your Idols at MySpace
Lifeline Records
