Sounds on the Ground #12: Kasms
By: Dan Monsell
What's the deal: This country is getting ANGRY. It's pissed off, aggressive and just wants to roll around on the floor and have a good time. Drink some booze, rock the f*ck out, forget about everything. Those synth-carrying girls everyone seems to be talking about are supposedly pioneering a recession friendly pop escapism, but alongside them we're starting to detect a new wave of rock music also helping us block out the gloom-laden news too. Who knows it might even help us change the world too... Introducing (in case you don't know them already) one of the front-leading weapons to this fine new assault: Kasms.
Over the last few weeks Rockfeedback's been subjected to a real winning-over by said new-rock weapon. First we saw them at what an NME review called 'Chicken Shack Gallery', a house party show in what looked like a Tribeca New York City loft apartment underneath Stoke Newington High Street. We couldn't actually really see them then (no stage, lots of people), and it wasn't exactly the best sound rig for getting to know a new band. However we still left feeling like we'd seen a band who could at least play noisy and jump about good. First defences were broken down.
A couple of weeks later we caught them at what has now become The Flowerpot, then The Bullet bar, for Durr's stage at the 2009 Camden Crawl. During their allotted time this fine new rock beast fronted by future femme-rock titan Rachel Mary Callaghan (who took it upon herself to jump into some unsuspecting girls in the crowd, march along the venue's bar, jump into her drum kit and mostly get nice and cosy with the venue's floor) made us swoon and our jaws drop proper. Won over we most certainly were.
Musically, Kasms' quite melodic take on hardcore-tinged punk rock is accomplished, refreshing and a sh*t load of fun. They could perhaps benefit from a little more dynamic over time, as their grab-bag of songs remain a strong high on the intensity scale, with the impressive siren-like vocal of Callaghan hitting quite squarely across the face throughout, with little to no respite.
So let's just be clear, Kasms are a bleeding great new band. They know their Melvins from their Melt Bananas (guitarist/drummer Rory also having done his own time in bands like Test Icicles previously, while the others have been involved in other projects too), and they recently released their self-recorded debut album straight-up straight-away - little fuss, slap-dash of sorts but focused, powerful punk-rock for sure. Now there are many bands that, like this, don't spend long making an album, and believe that no-fi, lo-fi or DIY is a sub-word for relatively talentless and bad quality. As a result many, if not most, are not very good. But Kasms are good. They are very good. And given some time could be f*cking great.
What can I listen to? The band's debut LP Sprayed on London indie Trouble Records is out now and can be purchased on iTunes and on the band's MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/kasms .On said space you can also purchase a slew of singles including the impressively titled 'Bone You', and listen to a whole six tracks on the player.
When can I see them live? Recent tours have been in support of Die! Die! Die! and The Gossip, but here's some of the future scheduled dates they've got coming up, with probably more to be added imminently:
5 Jun Unconvention at Sacred Trinity Church Salford, Manchester
9 Jun Supersweet Magazine Party, The Macbeth Hoxton, London
21 Jun w/ Televised Crimewave @ The Legion Old Street
15 Jul 100 Club Supporting 80's Matchbox B-line Disaster London
2 Aug Kendal Calling Kendal, Northwest
We all know music peaked in 1994, so give me a sound-bite about we could compare them to some kind of obscure band from the Britpop era: Think a combination of Elastica and Echobelly, but take all the members and make them spend some serious time in Eastern European rock clubs. From there make each front-woman maybe work as a burlesque dancer for a bit just to learn how to put a real show onstage, and have them all drink Jaegermesiter instead of water. Smash 'em together. Then you're sorta close.